Guardianship in Franklin County: What Central Ohio Families Face When a Parent Can No Longer Decide

Guardianship is the option families end up in when nobody signed a power of attorney in time. Here is how it actually works in Franklin County and the six probate courts around it.

By Ray Kessler, Certified Senior Advisor & Family Consultant · Published August 31, 2026

The Sentence That Sends Families to Probate Court

It usually arrives from a social worker, and it is delivered kindly. We can't take direction from you on this — do you have authority? A father is in a hospital bed on the east side, medically ready to move to a rehab facility, and he is refusing to go. Or a mother in Grove City has stopped paying the water bill and will not let anyone see the mail. Or a facility in Reynoldsburg needs a signature on an admission agreement and the person whose signature it needs cannot follow the conversation about what she is signing. The adult child on the phone says, reasonably, that she is the daughter and has been handling everything for two years. And the social worker explains, also reasonably, that being the daughter is not legal authority.

That gap — between the person doing the caregiving and the person with the legal right to decide — is what guardianship exists to close. It is not a common step and it should not be a first step, but a meaningful number of central Ohio families end up there, almost always because the paperwork that would have prevented it was never signed while it still could be. What follows is a plain description of what the process involves here, so families can tell early whether they are heading toward it and what the alternatives look like.

What Guardianship Is Under Ohio Law

In Ohio, guardianship of an adult is governed by Chapter 2111 of the Ohio Revised Code, and it runs through the probate court of the county where the person lives. There is no statewide guardianship office and no way to do this administratively. A judge has to find, on evidence, that an adult is incompetent to manage their own person or property, and then appoint someone to act on their behalf.

Ohio distinguishes between guardianship of the person — authority over living arrangements, medical decisions, and daily care — and guardianship of the estate, meaning authority over money and property. A court can grant one, the other, or both, and it can grant a limited guardianship covering only specific decisions rather than all of them. That distinction matters more than families expect. A parent who manages her own finances competently but cannot safely decide where to live may not need anyone controlling her bank account, and asking the court for less authority than the maximum is often both faster and more respectful of what the person can still do.

The guardian is answerable to the court, not to the family. That is the part people underestimate. Once appointed, a guardian is a fiduciary under continuing court supervision, filing reports and, for guardians of the estate, accountings that the court reviews.

The First Question the Court Will Ask: What Did You Try Instead?

Ohio courts are directed to consider whether something less restrictive would meet the person's needs before stripping an adult of decision-making authority. In practice that means the most useful thing a family can do is check whether an alternative already exists or is still possible.

A valid Ohio durable financial power of attorney and health care power of attorney, signed while the person still had capacity, do most of what a guardianship does without a courtroom. A Social Security representative payee arrangement can handle benefit income without touching anything else. Joint account arrangements, trusts, and supported decision-making agreements each cover part of the ground. Families who arrive at probate court frequently discover that documents were signed a decade ago and forgotten in a drawer — it is genuinely worth searching the house and calling the parent's attorney before filing anything.

The hard truth underneath all of it is that these alternatives require capacity to create. Once a parent no longer understands what they are signing, the window has closed, and guardianship is what remains.

Ohio's Conservatorship — the Option Almost Nobody Knows About

Ohio has a middle path that gets very little attention, and the word attached to it causes confusion because it means something different here than in states families may have read about. Under Ohio Revised Code 2111.021, a mentally competent adult who is physically infirm may petition the probate court to place their person, their property, or both under a conservatorship — voluntarily, by their own choice.

This is the opposite of the involuntary proceeding most people picture. The petitioner files it themselves, specifies exactly what property is covered and what powers the conservator has, names the person they want, and remains legally competent throughout. They can end it by filing a written termination with the court. For an older adult in central Ohio who is sharp but physically failing — someone who can no longer get to the bank or manage the property but wants help on their own terms rather than a court declaring them incompetent — it is a real option worth raising with an attorney before anyone starts talking about guardianship.

What Filing Actually Looks Like in Franklin County

The mechanics are more involved than a form. An application for appointment of guardian is filed in the probate court of the county of residence, and it comes with several moving parts.

The centerpiece is the Statement of Expert Evaluation, Ohio probate Form 17.1. Under Ohio Revised Code 2111.49, it must be completed by a licensed physician, licensed clinical psychologist, licensed independent social worker, or a developmental disabilities team, and the examination has to have occurred within three months of the report. The form does not declare anyone incompetent — that decision belongs to the judge — but it is the evidence the case turns on. Families routinely hit a snag here: a parent's longtime primary care physician may decline to complete it, may want a separate appointment for the evaluation, or may not be the right specialist for a cognitive assessment. Ask early.

Ohio law also requires that the proposed ward be personally served with notice and visited by a probate court investigator at least seven days before the hearing. The person at the center of the case has the right to be there, the right to counsel, and the right to contest it. That visit is not a formality, and it is often the moment a family realizes the process is genuinely about the parent's rights rather than about the family's convenience.

Then there is a hearing. Filing fees, form packets, and scheduling are set locally, so the Franklin County Probate Court's own guardianship department is the right first call — it can be reached at (614) 525-3894 — rather than a general Ohio guide or a form downloaded from another county's website.

The Training Requirement That Surprises Family Guardians

Here is the part that catches nearly every adult child off guard. Ohio does not treat family guardians as a special exempt category. Under the Supreme Court of Ohio's Rules of Superintendence, guardians of adults must complete a one-time six-hour fundamentals course — generally before appointment or within six months after — and then three hours of continuing education every calendar year for as long as the guardianship lasts. The Supreme Court of Ohio provides the courses at no cost.

This is not window dressing. Guardians who fall behind on the annual requirement can be ineligible for new appointments and may be subject to removal from cases they already hold. An adult child in Dublin serving as guardian for a mother with dementia is signing up for an ongoing obligation, not a one-time filing — and honestly, the fundamentals course is worth taking seriously, because most families arrive knowing very little about what a fiduciary is actually required to do.

Living With It Afterward

Appointment is the beginning of the work, not the end. A guardian of the person files an annual report on the ward's condition, typically accompanied by an updated expert evaluation, and needs court involvement for certain significant decisions rather than acting unilaterally. A guardian of the estate files inventories and periodic accountings, keeps the ward's money strictly separate from their own, and can be surcharged for mismanagement. Selling the ward's house, changing the residence, or making major financial moves generally requires going back to the court.

Guardianship also intersects with paying for care. A guardian of the estate is often the person who files a Medicaid application, gathers five years of financial records for the look-back, and manages the spend-down — a demanding job that many families underestimate when they volunteer for it.

When There Is No One: Franklin County's Public Answer

Not every older adult has a suitable family member willing and able to serve, and central Ohio has a specific institution for that gap. The Franklin County Guardianship Service Board was authorized by the Ohio General Assembly in 2014 and established in July 2016 — the first agency of its kind in the state. It can be appointed guardian of the person for Franklin County adults with substantial mental impairment or a developmental disability who have been found incompetent by the probate court and who have no other appropriate person or entity available to serve. It is based downtown on South High Street and can be reached at (614) 525-2233.

The Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging also operates a Volunteer Guardian Program, recruiting and training community members to serve as guardians for older adults who would otherwise have no one. Neither program is instant and both have real capacity limits, but they mean an unbefriended older adult in Franklin County is not automatically left without a decision-maker. Cases that reach these programs often come through an Adult Protective Services referral rather than a family filing.

If Your Parent Doesn't Live in Franklin County

The statute is statewide; the courthouse is not. A parent in Delaware, Powell, or Sunbury files in Delaware County Probate Court. Newark and Granville go through Licking County. Lancaster and the Fairfield County portion of Pickerington go through Fairfield County. Circleville goes through Pickaway County, London through Madison County, and Marysville through Union County. Each court publishes its own forms, local rules, filing fees, and hearing practices, and the smaller courts often move faster than Franklin County simply because of volume. Residence, not where the adult child lives or where the hospital is, determines the court — a point that trips up families whose parent was admitted to a Columbus hospital from a home in Licking County.

Where to Start This Week

Search for existing documents first — powers of attorney, a trust, an old estate-planning file — because finding one ends the question. If nothing exists and your parent still has capacity, call an Ohio elder law attorney this week rather than next month; the window closes quietly and without warning. If capacity is already gone, call the probate court in your parent's county of residence and ask for the guardianship department's application packet, then ask your parent's physician whether they will complete a Form 17.1 and how soon. And if there is genuinely no one available to serve, contact the Franklin County Guardianship Service Board or the Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging rather than assuming nothing can be done.

None of this is fast, and none of it is free of friction. But families who understand the sequence tend to move through it with far less damage than families who discover each requirement one surprise at a time.

Frequently Asked Questions