Public Guardian and Trustee BC: Committeeship, Costs, and How to Avoid Them

The Public Guardian and Trustee of British Columbia is not an agency most people plan to deal with. It shows up when planning failed: an adult who can no longer manage their affairs, no valid documents appointing anyone to help, and a family suddenly facing the Supreme Court. Understanding what the PGT does — and what it charges — is the best argument for never needing it.

What the PGT Does

The Public Guardian and Trustee is a provincial corporation with several mandates. The ones families collide with:

• Committee of last resort — when an adult is incapable, has assets that need managing, and no one else can or will act, the PGT can be appointed to run their finances (committee of estate) or personal and medical decisions (committee of person)
• Reviewing private committeeship applications — every family application to the BC Supreme Court for a committeeship order gets scrutinized by the PGT before a judge sees it
• Protecting vulnerable adults — investigating reports of financial abuse or neglect of incapable adults
• Estate roles — administering estates where there's no one else, and reviewing matters involving minor beneficiaries

The Committeeship Path

If your parent loses capacity without an Enduring Power of Attorney or a Section 7 representation agreement, there is no default family authority over finances — not even for a spouse. The only option is applying to the Supreme Court of BC to be appointed committee.

The realistic cost of a private committeeship application:

• Legal fees from about $7,500 for a straightforward, uncontested application (contested ones go much higher)
• Two physician affidavits certifying incapacity — doctors charge $300 to $2,000 each
• A $525 PGT review fee — the PGT examines the application, the proposed committee's fitness, and the adult's circumstances
• Months of delay while accounts stay frozen, bills pile up, and care decisions wait

And it doesn't end at the order. A committee of estate has ongoing duties: annual accounts, potential PGT reporting requirements, and personal liability for mismanagement.

What It Costs When the PGT Takes Over Directly

If no family member is willing or suitable, the court can appoint the PGT itself as committee. The statutory fee schedule is not gentle:

• 4% capital commission on the gross value of assets coming under management
• 4% income commission on income received
• 0.7% per year asset management fee on managed capital
• $120 monthly estate liaison administration fee after death

On a modest $500,000 estate, the capital commission alone is $20,000 — before a single annual or monthly fee.

The Health Care Side: No PGT Needed, but No Family Either

For medical decisions without planning documents, BC doesn't go straight to the PGT — clinicians use the Temporary Substitute Decision Maker hierarchy, working down from spouse to adult children to parents (details in our Health Care Consent Act guide). That keeps the PGT out of the hospital, but it hands authority to a ranked list of relatives, with gridlock rules when equal-rank family members disagree. Unresolved disputes can escalate to the PGT or the courts.

So the "default system" is either a statutory queue of relatives or a five-figure court process. Neither is a plan.

How Families Avoid All of This

Every dollar and month above traces back to one missing step: documents signed while the adult still had capacity. The avoidance toolkit is unglamorous and cheap by comparison:

1. Enduring Power of Attorney — covers finances, eliminates the committeeship risk entirely
2. Section 9 Representation Agreement — covers health and personal care decisions for capable adults planning ahead
3. Section 7 Representation Agreement — BC's low-capacity-threshold option when decline has already started; still vastly cheaper than court
4. Advance Directive — written treatment instructions providers must follow directly

Timing is the whole game. An EPOA or RA9 signed a year before a dementia diagnosis is routine paperwork. The same need discovered a year after the diagnosis is a $10,000+ court file. Even when capacity is already in question, a Section 7 agreement often remains available — families routinely assume it's "too late" when it isn't.

When the PGT Is the Right Answer

To be fair: committeeship and the PGT exist for real reasons — adults with no trustworthy family, financial abuse situations, estates with nobody to administer them. If you're in that position, the PGT is a legitimate safeguard, not a villain.

But for everyone with even one trustworthy person in their life, the PGT is an expensive fallback for a problem that cost an afternoon to prevent. The British Columbia Advance Directive & Living Will Kit walks through the full set of documents — EPOA, RA7/RA9, advance directive — with forms, witnessing checklists, and a storage log, so the Public Guardian and Trustee stays an agency you read about rather than one you write cheques to.

See more British Columbia guides →