Muscatine County board approves higher guardianship, conservatorship fees; will charge 4% fiduciary fee for some veterans

Muscatine County supervisors on Monday approved changes to Community Services fee schedules that raise the annual court fee for guardianship and conservatorship from $100 to $300, begin charging a 4% fiduciary fee for some veterans for whom the county serves as VA fiduciary, and increase monthly trust-management fees to $55.

The change, presented by Community Services Director Jessica Bose, is intended to better cover the county’s costs for managing guardianships, conservatorships and trust/payee services. "We think $300 would be reasonable for guardianship, and then if we're conservator or guardian, $300 as well," Bose said. She added the office will waive fees for clients who cannot afford them.

The board heard that the county has not raised these fees in many years and that trust fees previously were set in 2013. Bose told supervisors the county has been charging a flat $100 annually for three to four years after an in-office income-based calculation lapsed, and that the proposed changes should help stabilize costs after the county lost regional funding. Bose said the county could expect roughly $60,000 in additional revenue based on her calculations previously provided to the board.

The revisions also include starting to collect the 4% fiduciary fee that Social Security allows for VA fiduciaries in appropriate cases. Bose said assessment and waiver decisions will be made case by case: "If they can't [afford it], we would waive those." She said Social Security rules prevent charging the county’s rep-payee fees for clients in nursing homes: "We can't per Social Security rules, we cannot charge anybody in a nursing home. So they're all waived. We can charge for conservator. We can charge for guardian, but we cannot charge for rep payee through Social Security rules."

County Attorney Jim (as identified in the meeting) and other supervisors asked whether the county could later seek recovery of its costs from clients’ estates. "Medicaid...recoup[s] some of their costs through the court system against assets, and I don't think we've ever filed anything for our costs," the county attorney said. He recommended prospective collection going forward and said the office could assist in assessing clients' financials to reduce future waivers.

The board discussed the limits of county authority versus state responsibility for these services during the state's ASO (administrative services organization) rollout. One supervisor said the work ideally belongs to the state, but acknowledged the county has provided services for decades and that tracking expenditures now provides material to raise the issue with legislators.

A motion to approve the fee revisions carried; the board voted in favor during the meeting.

The board instructed staff to apply the county's waiver formula when assessing ability to pay and to continue coordinating with the county attorney on potential future recovery of costs and with legislators on how the ASO transition will affect county obligations.

The changes will be implemented administratively; supervisors and staff said they will continue to refine waiver thresholds and coordinate with state partners during the ASO transition scheduled later this year.