Why Guardianship Isn’t a Magic Wand: What Guardians Can and Can’t Actually Do
Families come to guardianship with a hope that’s easy to understand. Someone they love is struggling, the situation feels urgent, and guardianship sounds like the answer that will finally let someone step in and fix things.
The trouble is, it doesn’t quite work that way.
Guardianship grants real and significant authority. It also has real and significant limits. Understanding those limits before petitioning the court can save a family from disappointment, and it can help everyone involved get clearer about what problem they’re actually trying to solve.
What a guardian is, and how the role is created
A guardian is a person or entity appointed by a Minnesota court to make decisions on behalf of an adult who has been determined to need that support. The person receiving guardianship is referred to in current Minnesota statute as the “person subject to guardianship.” Older terminology you may still hear includes “ward.”
Guardianship is distinct from conservatorship. A conservator manages a person’s finances. A guardian manages other categories of decisions. A person can have one, the other, both, or neither, depending on their specific needs.
A guardianship doesn’t happen by phone call or by signing a form. It requires a petition to the court, a hearing, and a judge’s order. Since 2020, Minnesota courts have also required petitioners to demonstrate that less restrictive alternatives were tried first and weren’t enough.
The ten powers of guardianship
Minnesota statute identifies up to ten specific powers a guardian may be granted. When a guardian receives all ten, it’s called full guardianship. When a guardian receives nine or fewer, it’s called limited guardianship.
The ten powers cover decisions about where the person lives, supervision and care, training and education, contracts, medical decisions, property, personal effects, ability to give certain consents, the right to receive notices on the person’s behalf, and ability to bring or defend against legal actions.
A judge looks at the specific needs of the person and decides which powers are necessary. A person who manages their own home well but struggles with medical decision-making, for example, might have a guardian with only the power to consent to medical care. Everything else stays with the person.
Where the limits live
The misconception that guardianship gives someone unlimited authority over another person’s life is one of the most common in Minnesota elder law. In practice, every one of the ten powers comes with limits, and many of those limits are practical rather than legal.
A few examples make the point.
A guardian with the power to establish where someone lives can choose a placement, but the piece of paper from the court doesn’t give the guardian the ability to physically remove someone from a home they don’t want to leave. If a person living in unsafe conditions refuses to leave, and the situation hasn’t risen to the level where adult protection or law enforcement can intervene, the guardian’s authority on paper doesn’t translate into action in the real world.
A guardian with the power to consent to medical care can sign off on procedures, but cannot consent to anything that violates the known religious, moral, or conscientious beliefs of the person. A guardian also can’t force the person to take medication, attend appointments, or accept treatment they refuse. Real-world solutions sometimes look more like incentives and creative problem-solving than legal authority. A guardian working with someone who hadn’t been to the dentist in fifteen years made progress not through orders, but by tying the visit to a hobby the person cared about deeply.
A guardian with the power over property can take reasonable care of the person’s belongings, but cannot force them to clean their room. The guardian can talk through the natural consequences of an unkempt living space, including the possibility of a lease violation, but the cleaning itself remains the person’s choice.
A guardian managing finances through a rep payee or conservatorship can structure the cash flow, but cannot force someone to spend their money on what the guardian thinks is best. Where a person chooses to spend their discretionary funds, even unwisely, often remains within their control.
What this means for families
If a family is hoping that guardianship will solve a specific behavioral problem, an addiction, a refusal of care, an unsafe living situation, or a conflict with a service provider, it’s worth pausing to ask whether guardianship can actually solve that problem.
Sometimes it can. A medical guardianship for someone who freezes during health care decisions can genuinely change outcomes. An emergency guardianship in a true crisis can save a life.
But sometimes the answer is that the problem isn’t legal in nature. It’s a service problem, a relationship problem, or a problem that needs the support of a county case manager, a mental health professional, or a treatment team. In those cases, taking someone’s rights away through guardianship adds complexity without solving the underlying issue.
The question worth sitting with is the simple one Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota suggests in its training. What is the problem we’re trying to solve, and can guardianship actually solve it?
If the answer is yes, guardianship may well be the right tool. If the answer is no, or even maybe, it’s worth exploring the smaller, more targeted tools first.
Where to go from here
Every Minnesota family’s situation is different, and the right path forward depends on the specific person, the specific concerns, and the specific options that have already been tried.
If you’re considering guardianship for a loved one, or if you’re already serving as a guardian and wondering whether the role still fits, the team at Everbright Legacy Law can help you think through the options. Call us at (952) 925-4147 or email hello@everbrightlegacy.com.
You can also watch our recent free webinar on supported decision-making, co-hosted with Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota.
