Idaho Guardianship and Conservatorship

Conservatorship (Protective Proceeding)

A separate court proceeding over money and property. The court may appoint a conservator, or make another protective order, when a person cannot manage property and affairs effectively for reasons such as mental illness, disability, physical illness, chronic drug use or intoxication, confinement or disappearance, and the property will be wasted without management or funds are needed for support. The conservator holds title to the property as trustee. An order that vests only part of the property creates a limited conservatorship. A protective order does not by itself remove the person's legal capacity.

Idaho Code 15-5-401(b); 15-5-420(a); 15-5-408(b)(5)

Guardianship of an Incapacitated Adult (Limited or General)

The court appoints a guardian to make personal decisions for an adult it finds incapacitated. Idaho measures incapacity by function, not diagnosis: the person must have suffered, be suffering, or be likely to suffer substantial harm because they cannot provide for food, clothing, shelter, health care or safety, or cannot manage property. The evidence has to come from acts, occurrences or statements within the 12 months before the petition, and isolated negligence or a choice made with informed judgment does not count. The petition may ask for a limited or a general guardianship, and the court may limit a guardian's powers at appointment or later, with the limits endorsed on the letters.

Idaho Code 15-5-101(a); 15-5-303(a); 15-5-304(d)

Co-Guardians

Instead of one guardian, the court may appoint no more than two co-guardians if that best serves the person and the two will work together. Parents of an incapacitated person are preferred as co-guardians unless they are unwilling or cannot serve the person's best interests. The order and the letters must say whether the co-guardians may act alone, must act together on named matters, or must always act jointly.

Idaho Code 15-5-304(c)

Durable Financial Power of Attorney

An Idaho power of attorney made under the Uniform Power of Attorney Act is durable unless it says it ends on incapacity. It must be signed by the principal, or by another person in the principal's conscious presence at the principal's direction, and acknowledging it before a notary makes the signature presumed genuine. It can also nominate a conservator, and that nominee ranks second for appointment if a conservatorship is ever needed. A court appointment of a conservator ends the power of attorney unless the court orders otherwise, so the document avoids a conservatorship only while it is working.

Idaho Code 15-12-104; 15-12-105; 15-12-108

Advance Care Planning Document Naming a Health Care Agent

Any competent adult may sign an advance care planning document. It needs only the person's name, date of birth, phone number and mailing address, their signature or that of an authorized agent, and the date. Naming one or more health care agents, witnesses and notarization are all optional. Under Idaho's consent statute a health care agent named in such a document may consent to care for a person who cannot consent, ranking just after a court-appointed guardian, which can make a guardianship for medical decisions unnecessary.

Idaho Code 39-4510; 39-4504(1)

Health Care Consent by Family Without a Guardian

When an adult cannot consent to care and has no guardian or health care agent, Idaho lets a spouse, then an adult child, then a parent, then a person named in a parent's delegation of authority under Section 15-5-104, then another relative, and finally any other competent person who takes responsibility for the person's care, consent in that order, so long as they do not go against the person's own advance care planning document or earlier wishes. Many families never need a guardian for medical decisions for this reason.

Idaho Code 39-4504(1)

Protective Arrangement or Single Transaction Without a Conservator

Where the grounds for a conservatorship exist, the court may skip appointing a conservator and instead authorize, direct or ratify a single transaction or arrangement, such as paying or holding funds, selling or leasing property, buying an annuity or a life care contract, or setting up or adding to a suitable trust, including a special needs trust under Title 68, Chapter 14. The court weighs creditors' and dependents' interests and whether ongoing protection is really needed, and it may appoint a special conservator only to carry the arrangement out.

Idaho Code 15-5-409

Temporary Delegation of a Parent's or Guardian's Powers

A parent, or the guardian of a minor or incapacitated person, may delegate powers over care, custody or property, including medical and educational decisions, by a power of attorney for up to six months, or up to twelve months for military personnel serving outside the United States. The power to consent to marriage or adoption cannot be delegated. A delegation to a grandparent, a sibling of the minor, or a sibling of either parent lasts as long as the document says, or three years if it says nothing. The document does not need to be notarized or recorded.

Idaho Code 15-5-104

Payment of a Minor's Money Without a Conservator

Someone who owes money or personal property to a minor may pay up to $10,000 a year to the minor if 18 or married, to the person with care and custody who lives with the minor, to the minor's guardian, or into a federally insured savings account in the minor's name alone. Whoever receives it must use it for the minor's support and education and turn any balance over at majority. The route closes once the payer knows a conservator has been appointed or a petition is pending.

Idaho Code 15-5-103

Limited Guardianship Instead of a General One

Where some protection is needed, the court may limit a guardian's powers at appointment or later, on its own motion or at the request of the person or anyone interested, and the limits appear on the letters of guardianship. The guardian ad litem is directed to recommend a suitably limited guardianship where that is enough.

Idaho Code 15-5-304(d); 15-5-315(8)

Representative Payee for Benefit Income

When the only money at stake is a government benefit, the paying agency can appoint someone to receive and manage it without any court case. Apply to the agency that pays the benefit, such as the Social Security Administration or the Department of Veterans Affairs.