Guardianships in Pennsylvania

Overview

A person with a physical disability normally does not need a Guardian appointed. In the legal sense, the term "disability" has been almost entirely replaced with the term "incapacity," and refers to a person's mental ability to understand and manage their affairs. If a person is unable to sign a document for physical reasons, there are a variety of options available to them including using a Power of Attorney. If you are presented with this situation and are unsure how to accommodate the signer, please contact Underwriting.

When a person is incapacitated, they are unable to enter into any legally binding contract so things like Powers of Attorney, Deeds, or Mortgages signed by an incapacitated person are void and have no effect. In this circumstance, a Court can appoint a Guardian to handle the person's affairs for them.

Custodians of Minors' Property

Parents as "natural guardians"

Parents do not have inherent authority over their children's property:

"The guardian of the minor's person is the person having primary physical responsibility for the care and custody of the minor child. However, natural guardianship confers no inherent right to intermeddle with the property of the minor child, and the natural guardian has no inherent authority to demand or power to receive, hold or manage the minor's property unless the natural guardian has also been appointed as guardian of the minor's estate.". Rock v. Pyle, 720 A.2d 137, 141 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1998) (citations omitted).

"Legal title to all real and personal property of a minor shall remain in him, subject, however, to all the powers granted to his guardian by this title and lawfully by a governing instrument and to all orders of the court." 20 Pa.C.S. § 303.

"In our view, the court involvement in a parent's litigation of a minor child's claims has the significant effect of transforming the parent's role from that of a natural guardian into, in essence, a court-approved guardian who has authority to make decisions about the minor's estate, not merely the child's person. An agreement executed by natural guardian purportedly on the minor's behalf without any court involvement, however, has none of the legal safeguards attendant to the appointment of a guardian of the minor's estate. Consequently, the parents in their pre-litigation state of natural guardianship lacked any authority to manage the estate of their minor children." 'Santiago v. Philly Trampoline Park, LLC', 2023 PA Super 47, 291 A.3d 1213, 1229, appeal granted, 304 A.3d 330 (Pa. 2023), and appeal granted sub nom. Shultz v. Sky Zone, LLC,, 304 A.3d 331 (Pa. 2023) (citations and references omitted). [Per docket, argued in PA Supreme Court 3/5/25; decision pending]

20 Pa.C.S. 5101. When guardian unnecessary.

When the entire real and personal estate, wherever located of a resident or nonresident minor has a net value of $25,000 or less, all or any part of it may be received and held or disposed of by the minor, or by the parent or other person maintaining the minor, without the appointment of a guardian or the entry of security, in any of the following circumstances:

(1) Award from decedent's estate or trust.--When the court having jurisdiction of a decedent's estate or of a trust in awarding the interest of the minor shall so direct.

(2) Interest in real estate.--When the court having jurisdiction to direct the sale or mortgage of real estate in which the minor has an interest shall so direct as to the minor's interest in the real estate.

(3) Other circumstances.--In all other circumstances, when the court which would have had jurisdiction to appoint a guardian of the estate of the minor shall so direct.

§ 5102. Power of natural guardian.

The court may authorize or direct the parent, person, or institution maintaining the minor to execute as natural guardian, any receipt, deed, mortgage, or other appropriate instrument necessary to carry out a decree entered under section 5101 (relating to when guardian unnecessary) and, in such event, may require the deposit of money in a savings account or the care of securities in any manner considered by the court to be for the best interests of the minor. The decree so made, except as the court shall expressly provide otherwise, shall constitute sufficient authority to all transfer agents, registrars and others dealing with property of the minor to recognize the persons named therein as entitled to receive the property, and shall in all respects have the same force and effect as an instrument executed by a duly appointed guardian under court decree.