What is legal guardianship for adults?
On January 1, 1992, legal guardianship replaced the previous guardianship and infirmity guardianship for adults.
The incapacitation of adults was abolished.
Legal guardianship means that a guardian is appointed for an adult to support them in legal matters to a specified extent and, if necessary, to act on their behalf. The prerequisite is a need for assistance that has arisen due to illness or disability. A guardian is only appointed if no other means of assistance exist or are sufficient.
An existing health care proxy, for example, can make legal guardianship unnecessary.
The spouse representation law introduced on 01.01.2023 (limited in terms of time and content) can also help to (temporarily) avoid legal guardianship. The guardian is appointed by the guardianship court (local court). The guardianship proceedings can be initiated by the person concerned, family members or third parties at the guardianship court.
What alternatives are there to legal guardianship?
If you want to avoid having a court-appointed guardian later on due to severe mental or physical impairment or other events (accident, illness, etc.) and no longer being able to influence this, you should take precautions today!
You can already authorize a trusted person to act on your behalf in a legally binding manner by appointing a power of attorney. The appointment of a legal guardian is therefore generally not necessary.
In general, you should record your power of attorney in writing. Whether you write it informally or use a template is up to you.
Although a written power of attorney is a valid power of attorney even without notarization or certification, it is only accepted to a limited extent in legal transactions. We therefore recommend having a power of attorney notarized or publicly certified.
You can obtain further information on this from the care authority or a notary of your choice.
What are the tasks of the guardianship authority?
- We provide information and advice on general care law issues, powers of attorney and other assistance where no guardian is appointed.
- We support guardians and authorized representatives in the performance of their duties.
- We certify signatures on care directives and powers of attorney (public certification). An appointment is required.
- We provide those affected with an offer of advice and support. In suitable cases, so-called "extended support" can also be offered.
- As part of the guardianship procedure, we prepare a social report and propose a guardian to the guardianship court.
- Further tasks can be found in the BtOG (Betreuungsorganisations-Gesetz) and FamFG (Verfahrensgesetz).
Care associations in the district of Ludwigsburg
The guardianship authority and the guardianship associations in the district of Ludwigsburg work closely together.
One of the tasks of the guardianship associations is to train and support people who want to take on voluntary guardianship and offer lectures on the subject of health care proxies.
Further information can be obtained directly from the associations:
Further information
- Brochure on guardianship law and health care proxies
Federal Ministry of Justice - Information on spouse representation law
Federal Ministry of Justice - Brochure on guardianship law - practical tips for guardians
Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Justice - General information, brochures and flyers (multilingual) on guardianship law and lasting power of attorney
Service page of the state of Baden-Württemberg - Online lexicon on guardianship law
- Knowledge portal for volunteer caregivers
Baden-Württemberg Municipal Association for Youth and Social Affairs
