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HB-4727, As Passed House, June 23, 2026
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HOUSE BILL NO. 4727
A bill to amend 1998 PA 386, entitled
"Estates and protected individuals code,"
by amending sections 5106, 5313, and 5409 (MCL 700.5106, 700.5313,
and 700.5409), section 5106 as amended by 2017 PA 136, section 5313
as amended by 2024 PA 1, and section 5409 as amended by 2000 PA
463.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 5106. (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), the court 1
may appoint or approve a professional guardian or professional 2
conservator, as appropriate, as a guardian or conservator under 3
July 15, 2025, Introduced by Reps. Wilson, Pavlov, Green, Schmaltz, Thompson, Conlin, Hope,
McKinney, Roth, St. Germaine, Aragona, Neyer, Prestin, Bohnak, Alexander, Markkanen,
Bierlein, Kuhn, Tisdel, Outman, Rigas, MacDonell and VanderWall and referred to Committee
on Families and Veterans.
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this act, or as a plenary guardian or partial guardian as those 1
terms are defined in section 600 of the mental health code, 1974 PA 2
258, MCL 330.1600. 3
(2) The court shall only appoint a professional guardian or 4
professional conservator as authorized under subsection (1) if the 5
court finds on the record all of the following: 6
(a) The appointment of the professional guardian or 7
professional conservator is in the ward's, developmentally disabled 8
individual's, incapacitated individual's, or protected individual's 9
best interests. 10
(b) There is no other person that is competent, suitable, and 11
willing to serve in that fiduciary capacity in accordance with 12
section 5212, 5313, or 5409. 13
(3) The court shall not appoint a professional guardian or 14
professional conservator as authorized under subsection (1) unless 15
the professional guardian or professional conservator files a bond 16
in an amount and with the conditions as determined by the court. 17
For a professional conservator, the sureties and liabilities of the 18
bond are subject to sections 5410 and 5411. 19
(4) Beginning 2 years after the effective date of the 20
amendatory act that added this sentence, except as otherwise 21
provided in section 5313 or 5409, as applicable, the court shall 22
not appoint a person as a professional guardian or professional 23
conservator unless the person is or employs an individual licensed 24
under article 14A of the occupational code, 1980 PA 299, MCL 25
339.1410 to 339.1413. 26
(5) (4) A professional guardian or professional conservator 27
appointed under this section shall not receive as a result of that 28
appointment a benefit beyond compensation specifically authorized 29
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for that type of fiduciary by this act or the mental health code, 1
1974 PA 258, MCL 330.1001 to 330.2106. This subsection does not 2
prevent a person from providing compensation or other benefits, 3
from a source other than the estate of the ward, developmentally 4
disabled individual, incapacitated individual, or protected 5
individual, to a professional guardian or professional conservator 6
appointed or approved under this section. If a professional 7
guardian or professional conservator appointed or approved under 8
this section receives or is to receive compensation or other 9
benefits as a result of that appointment from a person other than 10
this state, a political subdivision of this state, or a trust 11
created under section 5407(2), the professional guardian or 12
professional conservator shall file with the appointing or 13
approving court a written statement of the compensation or other 14
benefit received or to be received, including the source of the 15
compensation or other benefit, in a form and in a manner prescribed 16
by the Michigan court rules. The professional guardian or 17
professional conservator shall serve a copy of the form described 18
in this subsection to the ward, developmentally disabled 19
individual, incapacitated individual, or protected individual and 20
to interested persons. 21
(6) (5) A professional guardian appointed under this section 22
shall establish and maintain a schedule of visitation so that an 23
individual associated with the professional guardian who is 24
responsible for the ward's care visits the ward within 3 months 25
after the professional guardian's appointment and not less than 26
once within 3 months after each previous visit. 27
(7) (6) A Subject to subsection (8), a professional guardian 28
appointed under this section shall ensure that there are a 29
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sufficient number of employees assigned to the care of wards for 1
the purpose of performing the necessary duties associated with 2
ensuring that proper and appropriate care is provided. 3
(8) Beginning 2 years after the effective date of the 4
amendatory act that added this sentence, an employee of a 5
professional guardian described in section 5313(3)(f) or an 6
employee of a professional conservator described in section 7
5409(1)(h) shall not independently make medical, psychological, 8
financial, legal, or housing decisions on behalf of a ward or 9
protected individual, as applicable, unless the employee is 10
licensed under article 14A of the occupational code, 1980 PA 299, 11
MCL 339.1410 to 339.1413. 12
(9) (7) For the purposes of the statutory authorization 13
required by section 1105(2)(e) of the banking code of 1999, 1999 PA 14
276, MCL 487.11105, to act as a fiduciary in this state, if the 15
court appoints a for-profit or nonprofit, nonbanking corporation 16
organized under the laws of this state to serve in a fiduciary 17
capacity that is listed in subsection (1), the nonbanking 18
corporation is authorized to act in that fiduciary capacity. The 19
authorization under this subsection confers the fiduciary capacity 20
only to the extent necessary in the particular matter of each 21
appointment and is not a general grant of fiduciary authority. A 22
nonbanking corporation is not authorized to act in any other 23
fiduciary capacity. 24
Sec. 5313. (1) The court may appoint a competent person as 25
guardian of a legally incapacitated individual. The court shall not 26
appoint as a guardian an agency, public or private, that 27
financially benefits from directly providing housing, medical, 28
mental health, or social services to the legally incapacitated 29
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individual. If the court determines that the ward's property needs 1
protection, the court shall order the guardian to furnish a bond or 2
shall include restrictions in the letters of guardianship as 3
necessary to protect the property. 4
(2) In appointing a guardian under this section, the court 5
shall appoint a person, if suitable and willing to serve, in the 6
following order of priority: 7
(a) A person previously appointed, qualified, and serving in 8
good standing as guardian for the legally incapacitated individual 9
in this state or another state. 10
(b) A person the individual subject to the petition chooses to 11
serve as guardian. 12
(c) A person nominated as guardian in a durable power of 13
attorney or other writing by the individual subject to the 14
petition. 15
(d) A person named by the individual as a patient advocate or 16
attorney in fact in a durable power of attorney. 17
(e) A person appointed by a parent or spouse of a legally 18
incapacitated individual by will or other writing under section 19
5301. 20
(3) If there is no person chosen, nominated, or named under 21
subsection (2), or if none of the persons listed in subsection (2) 22
are suitable or willing to serve, the court may appoint as a 23
guardian an individual who is related to the individual who is the 24
subject of the petition in the following order of preference: 25
(a) The legally incapacitated individual's spouse. This 26
subdivision is considered to include a person nominated by will or 27
other writing signed by a deceased spouse. 28
(b) An adult child of the legally incapacitated individual. 29
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(c) A parent of the legally incapacitated individual. This 1
subdivision is considered to include a person nominated by will or 2
other writing signed by a deceased parent. 3
(d) A relative of the legally incapacitated individual with 4
whom the individual has resided for more than 6 months before the 5
filing of the petition. 6
(e) A person nominated by a person who is caring for the 7
legally incapacitated individual or paying benefits to the legally 8
incapacitated individual. 9
(f) A person, other than an individual, that is a professional 10
guardian or an individual professional guardian who is licensed 11
under article 14A of the occupational code, 1980 PA 299, MCL 12
339.1410 to 339.1413. 13
(4) If none of the persons as designated or listed in 14
subsection (2) or (3) are suitable or willing to serve, the court 15
may appoint any competent person who is suitable and willing to 16
serve, including a professional guardian as provided in section 17
5106. 18
Sec. 5409. (1) The court may appoint an individual, a 19
corporation authorized to exercise fiduciary powers, or a 20
professional conservator described in section 5106 to serve as 21
conservator of a protected individual's estate. The following are 22
entitled to consideration for appointment in the following order of 23
priority: 24
(a) A conservator, guardian of property, or similar fiduciary 25
appointed or recognized by the appropriate court of another 26
jurisdiction in which the protected individual resides. 27
(b) An individual or corporation nominated by the protected 28
individual if he or she is 14 years of age or older and of 29
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sufficient mental capacity to make an intelligent choice, including 1
a nomination made in a durable power of attorney. 2
(c) The protected individual's spouse. 3
(d) An adult child of the protected individual. 4
(e) A parent of the protected individual or a person nominated 5
by the will of a deceased parent. 6
(f) A relative of the protected individual with whom he or she 7
has resided for more than 6 months before the petition is filed. 8
(g) A person nominated by the person who is caring for or 9
paying benefits to the protected individual. 10
(h) A person, other than an individual, that is a professional 11
conservator or an individual professional conservator who is 12
licensed under article 14A of the occupational code, 1980 PA 299, 13
MCL 339.1410 to 339.1413. 14
(i) (h) If none of the persons listed in subdivisions (a) to 15
(g) (h) are suitable and willing to serve, any person that the 16
court determines is suitable and willing to serve. 17
(2) A person named in subsection (1)(a), (c), (d), (e), or (f) 18
may designate in writing a substitute to serve instead, and that 19
designation transfers the priority to the substitute. If persons 20
have equal priority, the court shall select the person the court 21
considers best qualified to serve. Acting in the protected 22
individual's best interest, the court may pass over a person having 23
priority and appoint a person having a lower priority or no 24
priority. 25
Enacting section 1. This amendatory act does not take effect 26
unless House Bill No. 4728 (request no. H01902'25) of the 103rd 27
Legislature is enacted into law. 28