People come in convinced they’re going to win the fight over who should serve as guardian. Sometimes they do. More often, the court resolves the fight by appointing someone none of them wanted.
Jill on how that plays out in practice:
Florida has a statutory preference for who should serve as guardian — §744.312 lists it. Spouse, adult child, family member, then any person qualified to serve. The statute also says the court considers the wishes of the AIP if they expressed any while they had capacity, and the court considers what’s in the best interest of the AIP.
That last factor is where the analysis usually lands. When a family is fighting, the court has to evaluate whether any of the family members can actually serve in a way that puts the AIP first, or whether the conflict itself is the problem. If two siblings hate each other, and one is appointed guardian, the other is going to litigate everything that guardian does for the rest of the case. The AIP becomes the battlefield.
The court’s solution is often to appoint a professional guardian. Florida professional guardians are registered and regulated under §744.2002 — they have to be qualified, bonded, and insured, and they have to take continuing education. They charge for their time. They report to the court. They have no relationship with the family beyond the case.
Families hate this outcome because they correctly perceive that a stranger making decisions for their parent is a worse outcome than one of them making decisions. They’re not wrong. Professional guardians are competent, but they don’t know the AIP’s history, preferences, religious practices, or family dynamics in the way a child does.
But the alternative — a guardianship that’s litigated for years because two siblings can’t agree on whether the parent should stay in the house or move to assisted living — is also bad for the AIP. The court is trying to pick the least bad option, not the best one.
What this means practically: if you’re walking into a contested case where the family disagrees about who should serve, recognize that “winning” the fight may not mean either of you gets appointed. The way to actually serve as guardian for your parent is to come to the table with consensus, or as close to it as you can get. Showing the court that the family can’t function together is the surest way to ensure none of the family functions in the role.