Bureau spells out licensing steps, fees, processing times and common renewal errors

At the advisory committee meeting in June 2025, Program Analyst Angela Quadra walked committee members through the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau's application intake, examination, initial licensing, and renewal processes, and presented current licensing and enforcement statistics.

Quadra said the application process begins when the bureau receives a mailed application (the bureau does not accept online applications) with a completed live-scan fingerprint form and the $600 application-processing fee. The bureau reviews applications and may take up to 90 days to approve or to notify an applicant of deficiencies. After bureau approval, applicants register with the Center for Guardianship Certification (CGC) for the exam; CGC's initial exam processing fee is $420 and PSI, the test vendor, charges a testing fee (listed in the presentation as $36.91). If an applicant fails, CGC charges a retake fee (currently $295) and PSI charges the vendor retake fee for subsequent attempts; candidates are allowed four additional attempts within one year of approval, with at least 30 days between attempts.

Quadra also summarized renewal and reporting rules: licensees must submit an annual renewal with 15 hours of continuing education (two hours in ethics or cultural competency), and licensees must file an initial annual statement within 60 days of license issuance and a subsequent annual statement 60 days before expiration. The bureau emphasized many common errors that slow processing: use of outdated forms, failure to provide physical business or home addresses (a PO box is not acceptable for those fields), incomplete case numbers or dates on case lists, and omitted aggregate values of assets.

Quadra presented licensing-and-enforcement statistics for the fiscal year through March 31, 2025: 1,509 total licenses issued since bureau inception; 861 active licenses as of 03/31/2025; 87 initial exam applications received and 74 new licenses issued; processing time to approve completed applications reported at 25 days and six days to issue a license after passing the exam; 619 renewals processed this fiscal year with average renewal processing time of 18 days. On enforcement, the bureau reported 124 complaints received this fiscal year, 75 closed, average days to close 156, 148 complaints pending, six citations issued and two referrals to the Attorney General's office.

Quadra recommended using the current May 2025 versions of forms and urged licensees to include complete, exact dates and full case numbers to avoid returns. The committee did not take formal action on licensing procedures but thanked staff for the detailed presentation.