Consider the following common example involving an elderly parent and her adult child: Due to advanced age, the parent has difficulty with common tasks, and has lost thousands of dollars of savings to con artists. Nevertheless, the parent refuses to admit that she needs help. The child petitions a court to declare the parent incompetent, and appoint the child as the parent's guardian. If the court agrees, the parent becomes the child's ward.
Ward
Courts may appoint guardians to care for people who cannot properly take care of themselves, due to age or legal incompetence. These protected people are the wards of their guardians.
Definition from Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary
1) A person (usually a minor) who has a guardian appointed by the court to care for and take responsibility for that person. Such a person is a "ward of the court" (if the custody is court-ordered) or a "ward of the state." 2) A political division of a city. (See also: guardian)
Definition provided by Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary.
August 19, 2010, 5:26 pm
"While there is a fiduciary relationship between a guardian and his ward, a guardianship is not a trust. There are numerous differences. While a trustee has title to trust property, a guardian has ordinarily only powers and duties respecting property to which the ward holds title. A ward has normally a legal interest while the beneficiary of a trust has [only] an equitable interest in the corpus of the trust."
La Fortune v. Comm'r of Internal Revenue, 263 F.2d 186, 191 (10th Cir. 1958).
