Guardianship Summits

History

1988 Wingspread Conference

In 1988, following the release of the historic 1987 Associated Press report on Guardianship of the Elderly: An Ailing System, the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging and Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law sponsored a landmark multidisciplinary guardianship symposium at the Wingspread conference facility in Wisconsin.  The Conference assembled 38 multidisciplinary experts from across the country, who agreed on 31 sweeping recommendations. The Wingspread recommendations became a fundamental element in reform of the system to better preserve the rights while providing for the needs of society’s most vulnerable at-risk adults. 

2001 Wingspan Conference

Over a decade after the Wingspread Conference, a second national conference entitled “Wingspan” assessed progress in the interim and offered recommendations for the future.  Over 80 national experts gathered at the Stetson College of Law in Florida to take a hard look at the adult guardianship system.

Primary sponsors of the Wingspan Conference were the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys; Stetson University College of Law, host of the conference; and the Borchard Center on Law and Aging, a program of the Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation.  Co-sponsors included the ABA Commission on Legal Problems of the Elderly, the National College of Probate Judges, the Supervisory Council of the ABA Section on Real Property, Probate and Trusts, the National Guardianship Association, the Center for Medicare Advocacy, the Arc of the United States, and the Center for Social Gerontology.

The Wingspan Conference produced 68 key recommendations in law, practice, education and research.

The recommendations, an introduction, seven key law review articles prepared for the conference, and two additional comments are included in Wingspan – the Second National Guardianship Conference, at 31 Stetson Law Review, No. 3, Spring 2002. 

2004 Wingspan Implementation Session

In 2004, the National College of Probate Judges, the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and the National Guardianship Association held a joint meeting in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on implementation of the Wingspan recommendations, which resulted in a set of Action Steps.

2011 Third National Guardianship Summit

The National Guardianship Network convened the Third National Guardianship Summit: Standards of Excellence at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2011.

With 92 delegates, observers, authors, funders, and facilitators participating, the Summit was a consensus conference on post-appointment guardian performance and decision-making for adults.

The Summit delegates adopted a far-reaching set of recommendations for guardian standards, as well as additional recommendations for action by courts, legislatures, and other entitles. These documents from the Summit offered the groundwork for nationally recognized standards for guardians of adults, and formed a foundation for changes in the Uniform Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Act. View the recommendations here.

Utah Law Review Articles

The Third National Guardianship Summit also resulted in a set of articles published in the Utah Law Review in 2012.

2021 Summit-Autonomy and Accountability

The latest Summit was convened in May 2021 and was conducted virtually. 125 stakeholders met virtually for four days to discussion reform to the guardianship court system. Much of the discussion focused on improving autonomy and greater accountability within the court system. The latest Summit had several working groups that discussed recommendations, including supported decision making, limited guardianships, and greater monitoring across courts. 

At the end of the Summit, stakeholders worked to draft and approve 22 final recommendations.