Bond, Background Checks, and Training: What a Florida Guardian Must Clear

Vince's worry: does a record rule him out

Vince is 51, lives in Clearwater, and is the sibling everyone in the family agrees should be looking after their mother. She has begun to need help with medical decisions and money management, and the family is considering guardianship because no power of attorney was ever signed. Vince is a composite example, not a Truestead client, but his situation reflects a question we hear often: he has an old DUI from his twenties and a bankruptcy from a rough stretch a decade ago, and he assumed either one might disqualify him from being appointed.

Florida guardianship is a court process under Chapter 744 of the Florida Statutes, used when a judge finds a person incapacitated and no less restrictive option, like a power of attorney or a trust, will adequately protect them. The qualifications question, who can and cannot serve, is where Vince's story picks up.

Who is actually disqualified under Florida law

Florida Statute 744.309 sets out who cannot serve as a guardian, and the disqualifications that matter most are specific, not general impressions of someone's past. A person cannot be appointed guardian if they:

• Have been convicted of a felony, in Florida or elsewhere, regardless of how long ago it occurred or whether adjudication was withheld in some cases
• Have been judicially determined to have committed abuse, abandonment, or neglect of a child
• Have been found guilty of, or entered a plea of guilty or no contest to, certain disqualifying offenses under the background screening statute, F.S. 435.04, or a similar law in another state
• Are incapable of discharging a guardian's duties because of their own incapacity or illness
• Are otherwise found by the court to be unsuitable

Notice what is not on that list. A misdemeanor DUI conviction, standing alone, is not one of the automatic disqualifiers in the statute. Neither is a personal bankruptcy. Those facts do not vanish from the court's view, but they are weighed as part of the judge's broader suitability determination rather than treated as an automatic bar the way a felony conviction is.

The background check and credit check process

Every proposed family guardian in Florida must undergo a state and national criminal history check using fingerprints, submitted through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. This is a real screening, not a formality, and it is how the court and the clerk's office confirm whether any of the F.S. 744.309 disqualifiers apply.

Credit checks work differently. Professional guardians, people who do this as a business and are registered with the Office of Public and Professional Guardians, must submit a credit check with their initial application and periodically afterward. Family members serving as guardian for a loved one are not typically required to undergo that same routine credit screening as a condition of initial appointment, though the court retains discretion to ask questions about financial history, particularly when the guardianship will involve managing the ward's property and assets.

For Vince, this distinction was significant. His fingerprint-based criminal check came back clean of any disqualifying felony or the specific offenses referenced in F.S. 435.04. His bankruptcy, being financial history rather than a criminal record, was not something a standard background screening would flag as a bar to service, though the family and the court still discussed it openly when deciding how to structure his role.

Bond requirements, and when a court can waive them

A guardian bond is a financial safeguard, essentially an insurance-like protection that reimburses the ward's estate if a guardian mismanages assets. Florida law sets the bond amount based on the value of the cash, securities, and other liquid property the guardian will control, and the court fixes that figure on a case-by-case basis.

What surprises many families is how much discretion the court has here. When the petitioner or the proposed guardian shows compelling reasons, a judge may waive the bond altogether or instead require that the ward's funds be held at a designated financial institution with restrictions on withdrawal. Courts can also increase, reduce, or otherwise adjust a bond for good cause as circumstances change during the guardianship.

This flexibility is exactly what made a difference for Vince's family. Given his bankruptcy history, everyone, including Vince, felt more comfortable if he were not the one solely responsible for managing their mother's accounts and investments. That is a completely legitimate use of Florida's guardianship structure, and it did not require disqualifying him from the parts of his mother's care he was best suited for.

Guardianship of the person, guardianship of property, and splitting the roles

Florida law allows a guardianship to be plenary (covering essentially all decision-making) or limited (covering only specific areas), and it separately distinguishes guardianship of the person (health care, residence, and personal decisions) from guardianship of the property (finances and assets). A single guardian can hold both roles, or the court can appoint different people, or co-guardians, for each.

In Vince's case, this is exactly how it resolved. The court appointed Vince as guardian of the person, responsible for his mother's medical care, living arrangements, and day-to-day well-being, the role the whole family agreed he was naturally suited for. A sibling with a background in finance was appointed as co-guardian of the property, managing the accounts and required to carry the bond the court set for that role. Each guardian still had to complete the state's eight-hour court-approved training course covering a guardian's duties, reporting obligations, and the rights retained by the ward, and each had to file the initial guardianship plan, an inventory of the ward's assets, and the annual reports Chapter 744 requires going forward.

One more residency point worth knowing: Florida generally restricts guardianship to state residents, but a nonresident may still serve if related to the ward within degrees the statute specifies, such as a parent, child, sibling, or certain other close relatives. Vince, as the ward's son living in Florida, did not run into this issue, but out-of-state siblings in similar families sometimes need to check whether their relationship qualifies.

Sources

• The Florida Senate, Chapter 744, Florida Statutes (Guardianship)
• The Florida Senate, Section 744.3135, Florida Statutes
• The Florida Senate, Section 744.351, Florida Statutes (2022)
• The Florida Bar, "What is Guardianship?" Consumer Pamphlet, January 5, 2026
• OPPAGA, Report 24-07, "Florida Professional Guardianship Information 2024," October 7, 2024

This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice, nor does reading it create an attorney-client relationship. Florida estate, elder, probate, and real estate law are fact-specific and change over time. Consult a licensed Florida attorney about your individual circumstances. Arthur Simpson, Esq. is licensed to practice law in the State of Florida. Attorney advertising.