The guardian must also exercise those other rights that have been removed from the ward and delegated to the guardian, such as providing medical, psychological, and personal care services and determining the most appropriate residential setting for the ward. The guardian must present a detailed plan for the ward's care to the court annually. If the ward recovers some or all abilities to make decisions, the court can have the ward reexamined and, through a hearing, restore some or all of the person's rights. Guardianships can be quite expensive. Since it is a legal procedure in a court of law, lawyers must be involved.
Private guardianships are available for persons who can pay for their services.
In some states, public guardianships exist to serve low-income incapacitated persons. There are several ways to avoid guardianships. Most of these procedures cost much less, both financially and psychologically, than going through a guardianship procedure, but must be put in place before incapacity occurs. The Trust makes the determination as to disability, not the court. For example, if a husband and wife have a living trust, and the husband is incapacitated because of Alzheimer's disease or a debilitating stroke, the Trust would name his wife as his Trustee and assets held by the Trust would be managed by her, rather than going through a court proceeding for a guardianship.