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North Dakota Guardianship Planning
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North Dakota Guardianship Planning

How North Dakota guardianship and conservatorship work under NDCC 30.1-28 and 30.1-29, and the documents that can avoid a case.

By Settled Editorial

A North Dakota guardianship is a district court case that moves decisions about an adult's life to someone else, and the court may grant one only on clear and convincing evidence that nothing less restrictive would work (NDCC 30.1-28-04(2)(c)). A guardian handles personal decisions. A conservator handles money and property. You can name your own choice for both ahead of time in a durable power of attorney, and the court follows your most recent nomination unless it finds good cause or a disqualification (NDCC 30.1-30-03(2)).

North Dakota rewrote much of its guardianship and conservatorship law in 2025. Senate Bill 2291 (2025 Session Laws chapter 318) amended most of chapters 30.1-28 and 30.1-29, and the Legislative Council's online Century Code reflects those changes. Guidance written before August 2025 may describe sections that no longer read the same way, so this page cites the current text.

One boundary sets the scope of this page. Guardianship and conservatorship deal with a living person. They are not probate. When someone dies, a separate case opens for the estate, and the North Dakota probate guide covers that side.

Adult cases go to the district court in the county where the proposed ward lives or is present and expected to remain (NDCC 30.1-28-02). North Dakota has no separate probate court. Find your county's clerk of district court through the North Dakota courts directory.

Read this page as a planning map, not a filing kit. It gives general information about North Dakota law, not advice about your family. A guardianship case takes rights away from an adult, so ask a licensed North Dakota attorney to look at any plan or petition before you rely on it.

Guardian and Conservator Are Two Different Jobs

North Dakota follows the Uniform Probate Code's split between the person and the property.

  • A guardian makes decisions about the person. The court's order must say whether the guardian has no authority, general authority or limited authority in each of six areas: residential, educational, medical, legal, vocational and financial decisions (NDCC 30.1-28-04(5)). The adult under a guardianship is the ward.
  • A conservator manages money and property. The adult or minor a conservator serves is the protected person.

The money side has its own test. Under NDCC 30.1-29-01(2), the court may appoint a conservator for an adult on clear and convincing evidence that the person cannot manage property and affairs effectively because of mental illness, mental deficiency, physical illness or disability, chronic drug use or chronic intoxication, or because of confinement, detention by a foreign power or disappearance. It may also act when the person has property that will be wasted without management, or needs funds for support and care.

Here is why the split matters. A family whose real problem is paying bills may need only a conservator, or a single court-approved transaction, and not a guardian at all. The court can authorize, direct or ratify a single protective arrangement, such as selling property, buying an annuity or funding a trust, without appointing a conservator (NDCC 30.1-29-09).

What the Court Must Find First

NDCC 30.1-28-04(1) tells the court to act consistent with the person's "maximum self-reliance and independence" and to make orders only as far as the person's actual limitations require.

At the hearing, the court may appoint a guardian only after finding in the record, by clear and convincing evidence, all four of these (NDCC 30.1-28-04(2)(c)):

  1. The proposed ward is an incapacitated person.
  2. No alternative resource plan could safeguard the person's health, safety or habilitation instead of a guardianship.
  3. Guardianship is the best means of providing care, supervision or habilitation.
  4. The powers granted are the least restrictive form of intervention consistent with the person's ability to care for themselves.

Two more rules protect the person. Age, eccentricity, poverty or a medical diagnosis alone is not enough to find incapacity (NDCC 30.1-28-04(2)(a)). And the court must hear evidence about any existing durable powers of attorney and consider those agents when it weighs the alternatives (NDCC 30.1-28-04(2)(b)).

A ward keeps the right to vote, to seek to change marital status and to obtain or keep a driver's license unless the court makes specific findings to take them away (NDCC 30.1-28-04(3)). The petition itself must say whether it seeks to restrict any of those rights or the right to possess a firearm (NDCC 30.1-28-03(2)(o)).

Naming Your Own Guardian and Conservator Ahead of Time

The most direct planning tool the North Dakota statute names is a nomination in a durable power of attorney. NDCC 30.1-30-03(2) lets a principal nominate a conservator, guardian of the estate or guardian of the person, and says the court "shall make its appointment in accordance with the principal's most recent nomination in a durable power of attorney except for good cause or disqualification."

A power of attorney only survives incapacity if it says so. Under NDCC 30.1-30-01, the document must contain words such as "This power of attorney is not affected by subsequent disability or incapacity of the principal or by lapse of time," or other words showing the same intent. Read more about a power of attorney instead.

Without a durable power of attorney nomination, the court works down a priority list. For a guardian, NDCC 30.1-28-11(3) ranks candidates who are not disqualified in this order:

  1. A person the incapacitated person nominated some other way before the incapacity finding, if the person was 14 or older and had enough capacity to make an intelligent choice.
  2. The spouse.
  3. An adult child.
  4. A parent, including a person a deceased parent named by will or other signed writing.
  5. A relative the person lived with for more than six months before the petition.
  6. A relative or friend who has kept up close contact with the person, or a designated person from a volunteer agency.
  7. A nonprofit corporation formed to offer guardianship services that gives no direct care.
  8. An appropriate government agency, including a human service zone.
  9. A person nominated by whoever is caring for the person or paying the person's benefits.

The list is a starting point, not a command. Among people with equal priority, the court picks the best qualified, and acting in the person's best interest it may pass over a higher priority for a lower one (NDCC 30.1-28-11(4)).

A care provider cannot serve as guardian of the person it cares for. NDCC 30.1-28-11(1) bars an agency or nonprofit group home that provides the person's care and custody from appointment. If no one else can be found, one of its employees may serve only if the employee gives the person no direct care and the court finds the appointment "presents no substantial risk of a conflict of interest."

Conservators follow their own list in NDCC 30.1-29-10. The durable power of attorney nomination comes first. Then a conservator or similar fiduciary appointed where the person lives, then the person's own nominee (if 14 or older with enough capacity), then the spouse, an adult child, a parent or a deceased parent's will nominee, a relative the person lived with for more than six months, and last a nominee of the person's caregiver or benefits payer. Several of those people may nominate a substitute in writing, and the court may pass over priority for good cause (NDCC 30.1-29-10(4)).

The Documents That Keep a Case From Starting

A petition must state that less intrusive alternatives to guardianship have been considered, and must name any agent under a power of attorney or health care directive and any representative payee (NDCC 30.1-28-03(2)(k)-(m)). These are the tools the court looks for:

  • A durable power of attorney. It covers financial decisions and can name your future conservator or guardian (NDCC 30.1-30-01; 30.1-30-03).
  • A health care directive. A health care agent appointed under chapter 23-06.5 takes precedence over a guardian's authority to make medical decisions unless a court decides otherwise (NDCC 30.1-28-04(6)). See a health care directive instead for the signing rules.
  • A supported decisionmaking agreement. Chapter 30.1-36 lets a person pick a trusted adult to help gather information, understand documents, weigh choices and communicate decisions about health care, residence, finances, education, legal affairs or vocation (NDCC 30.1-36-01). The person keeps the decision.
  • An alternative resource plan. North Dakota counts support services such as visiting nurses, home health aides, adult day care, home and community-based care, human service zones, developmental disability services and representative payees as alternatives the court must rule out first (NDCC 30.1-01-06(2); 30.1-28-04(2)(c)).

Supported decisionmaking has three rules worth knowing before one is signed. The person is presumed to have capacity to enter the agreement, and only clear and convincing evidence rebuts that (NDCC 30.1-36-04(1)). The agreement cannot be used as evidence of incapacity, and it does not let the supporter sign documents or make decisions for the person (NDCC 30.1-36-04(6), (7)). A notary or two qualified witnesses must verify the signatures, and a witness must be at least 18, competent, not a party, not a supporter's employee or agent, and not the person's creditor (NDCC 30.1-36-07).

Each of these covers a different piece of what a court order would otherwise control. Which ones fit a given family, and in what mix, is a question for a North Dakota attorney. For how they fit with a will and a trust, see the rest of the plan.

How a North Dakota Adult Guardianship Case Runs

Anyone interested in the person's welfare may petition (NDCC 30.1-28-03(1)). Once the petition is filed, the court promptly sets a hearing and appoints three people (NDCC 30.1-28-03(3)):

  • An attorney as guardian ad litem, who interviews the proposed ward, explains the case in terms the person can understand, advocates for the person's best interests and files a written report. This attorney may not act as the person's own lawyer, and the person keeps the right to hire one (NDCC 30.1-28-03(4)).
  • An expert examiner, who examines the person and reports on the nature, severity and expected duration of any incapacity (NDCC 30.1-28-03(5)).
  • A visitor, who interviews the proposed ward and the proposed guardian, visits the home, discusses alternatives, and recommends whether the proposed guardian should serve (NDCC 30.1-28-03(6)).

The proposed ward must attend in person or by remote means unless good cause is shown, and physical difficulty alone is not good cause. The person may present evidence and cross-examine witnesses, including the expert examiner and the visitor (NDCC 30.1-28-03(8)). The hearing is closed to the public unless the proposed ward, the attorney or the guardian ad litem asks for it to be open (NDCC 30.1-28-03(9)).

North Dakota sets no deadline for the first hearing beyond "promptly." Timing depends on the district court's calendar and on how quickly the three reports come in.

If the court appoints a guardian, the order must require a beginning inventory of the ward's assets within 90 days, and it may require a bond (NDCC 30.1-28-04(5), (7)). An order lasts up to five years. At least 90 days before it expires, the court gathers information and holds a hearing, then may reappoint for up to five more years, let the order expire, or appoint a new guardian (NDCC 30.1-28-04(5)).

Emergency Guardians

North Dakota has no "temporary guardian." It uses an emergency guardian under NDCC 30.1-28-10.1:

  • When: a person interested in the individual's welfare petitions, and the court finds that the ordinary procedure "likely will result in substantial harm" to the person's health, safety or welfare, and that no one else appears to have authority and willingness to act.
  • How long: a specified period of no more than 90 days. The petitioner may ask once for up to 90 more days on good cause, filed at least 14 days before the order expires. No further extension is allowed.
  • Safeguards: the court appoints a guardian ad litem immediately and holds a hearing within 10 days of the petition. If the court acts without notice, the person, the person's spouse and anyone the court directs must be notified within 48 hours, and a hearing follows within 10 days.
  • Effect: the appointment is not a finding of incapacity, and the court may remove an emergency guardian at any time.

The money side has a matching tool. An emergency conservator may serve up to 90 days when the ordinary procedure "likely will result in substantial harm" to the person's estate (NDCC 30.1-29-20.1).

What a Guardian and a Conservator Must Do

A guardian has only the powers the court grants and owes the ward a fiduciary duty (NDCC 30.1-28-12(1), (11)). The statute adds these duties and limits:

  • Meet with the ward after the hearing, unless the ward has an attorney, explain the order, and involve the ward as fully as practicable in decisions about living arrangements and care (NDCC 30.1-28-12(5)).
  • Get a court order before consenting to psychosurgery, abortion, sterilization or experimental treatment (NDCC 30.1-28-12(4)).
  • Do not voluntarily admit the ward to a mental health facility or a state-run care facility for more than 45 days without a commitment proceeding or other court order (NDCC 30.1-28-12(2)).
  • With financial authority and no conservator, get a court order before selling or encumbering the ward's real property or personal property worth more than $2,500 (NDCC 30.1-28-12(6)(c)).
  • File an annual report with the clerk of district court on the ward's condition, residence changes, medical treatment, income and spending, with an accounting of the ward's estate and a statement of whether guardianship is still needed (NDCC 30.1-28-12(8)).

If a guardian does not file a required report or accounting, the court may order the guardian to show cause why it should not be filed at once or be held in contempt (NDCC 30.1-28-12.1).

A conservator files a complete inventory under oath within 90 days after appointment (NDCC 30.1-29-18) and a report and account at least once a year (NDCC 30.1-29-19(1)). The court must require a conservator's bond unless it reduces or waives it for good cause. The bond equals the estate's capital value in the conservator's control plus one year's estimated income, less securities and land the conservator cannot touch without a court order (NDCC 30.1-29-11).

A guardian or conservator may be paid reasonable compensation from the estate, but the court must approve it before payment (NDCC 30.1-28-03(12), (14)).

Naming a Guardian for a Minor Child

A child's guardianship runs on a different track. Under NDCC 27-20.1-02, the juvenile court has exclusive original jurisdiction to grant, change or end a guardianship of a child. Two exceptions stay with the district court: a guardian a parent named by will, and a guardianship for a child about to become an incapacitated adult.

A parent can name a guardian for an unmarried minor in a will (NDCC 30.1-27-02). The appointment takes effect when the guardian files an acceptance in the court where the will is probated, and stays effective once the court approves it, if both parents have died or the surviving parent's rights were ended by court order. If both parents have died, the appointment by the parent who died later wins. Within 45 days of accepting, the guardian must file a criminal history record check.

When no will appointment works, the juvenile court may appoint a guardian of a child on clear and convincing evidence that the appointment is in the child's best interest and a statutory ground exists, such as both parents having died or the parents consenting in writing by affidavit (NDCC 27-20.1-11(1)). It may give heavy weight to the preference of a child 14 or older (NDCC 27-20.1-11(2)). An order lasts up to one year unless the court sets another period, and never more than three years before a review (NDCC 27-20.1-17(1)).

Short of a guardianship, a parent may delegate powers over a child's care, custody or property by power of attorney for up to six months, except the power to consent to marriage or adoption (NDCC 30.1-26-04).

For a child with a disability who will need help as an adult, NDCC 30.1-28-03.3 lets anyone interested file once the child reaches 17 years and 6 months. The order may take effect on the 18th birthday, and the court appoints whoever held legal decisionmaking responsibility for the child at that age unless that is contrary to the adult's best interests.

What It Costs to Open a Case

The clerk of district court charges $160 for "filing a case for decision" under NDCC 27-05.2-03(1)(a), the figure since the 2025 Legislature raised it from $80. The statute does not name guardianship, so confirm the exact charge with your county's clerk before you file.

No filing fee may be charged when a member of the person's treatment plan team, or a state employee acting in official duties, files the guardianship petition (NDCC 30.1-28-03(1)).

Plan for other costs too. The guardian ad litem, visitor and expert examiner may be paid reasonable compensation from the ward's estate (NDCC 30.1-28-03(11)), and a conservator's bond carries a premium. North Dakota publishes no statewide figure for either.

Ending or Changing a Guardianship

The ward or anyone interested in the ward's welfare may ask the court to end or change a guardianship, and the request can be an informal letter to the court or judge (NDCC 30.1-28-07(1)). Anyone who knowingly interferes with sending that letter may be held in contempt.

A hearing must be held within 60 days of the petition or letter unless good cause is shown. The court then decides by a preponderance of the evidence whether the ward is no longer incapacitated, or not to the same extent, or whether changing the guardian's powers is in the ward's best interest (NDCC 30.1-28-07(3)). At the end, the guardian files a final report and accounting (NDCC 30.1-28-07(5)).

A court that removes a guardian for good cause may order the guardian placed on a registry kept by the state court administrator, which disqualifies that person from serving as a guardian again (NDCC 30.1-28-07(6)).

Planning Ahead Compared With a Court Case

QuestionWith planning documentsWithout them
Who picks the decision-makerYou, in a durable power of attorney (NDCC 30.1-30-03(2))The court, working down the NDCC 30.1-28-11 priority list
Who decides medical careYour health care agent, ahead of any guardian (NDCC 30.1-28-04(6))A court-appointed guardian with medical authority
Court involvementNone, unless someone petitionsPetition, three court appointees, a hearing and annual reports
How long it lastsUntil you revoke it or it ends by its termsUp to five years per order, then a review hearing (NDCC 30.1-28-04(5))
Help without giving up controlA supported decisionmaking agreement (chapter 30.1-36)The guardian decides, to the extent the court order grants authority (NDCC 30.1-28-12(1))

Families commonly start by gathering any powers of attorney and health care directives that already exist and checking each for the durability words. Whether those documents cover a given situation is a question for a licensed North Dakota attorney, ideally before any petition is filed. When a court case cannot be avoided, the North Dakota guardianship and conservatorship page covers the court process itself.

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Information current as of September 28, 2026

Settled Estate is not a law firm, and this content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Probate laws and procedures in North Dakota can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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