Self-Help Probate Guardianship

There are two kinds of Probate Guardianship: Guardianship of the Person and Guardianship of the Estate. Read about the differences, and more general guardianship info.

This page answers questions such as: Do you want legal responsibility for the child? How will the guardianship affect you? Your finances? Will there be problems with the child's relatives?

This page has a lot of information about what you need to do to become a child's guardian in California if the child does not have a parent who can act as parent to the child.

Establishing a Guardianship is complicated. The basic steps are listed on this page, along with suggestions for getting help.

After you become guardian, you have most of the same legal duties and responsibilities as a parent. What happens after the hearing?

To establish a Guardianship of the Person or the Estate, you need the forms are are linked and can be downloaded from this page.

Read about some important differences between guardianship and adoption.

Find out when a guardianship ends, if you can resign, and what the Court's role is in ending a guardianship.

More things to consider, including whether you can act as a child’s caretaker without being the guardian.