Our Goals
Four complementary, evidence-driven goals
AGRRI will pursue four complementary, evidence-driven goals: Research & Measurement; Legal & Policy Reform; Innovation & Education; and Impact Litigation.
Goal One
Research and Measurement
Reform must start with understanding the problem. AGRRI will conduct empirical research to document the scope, structure, and outcomes of adult guardianship systems across states, with attention to family-initiated guardianships, health-system initiated guardianships; and professional- or public initiated guardianships. The emphasis will be on describing how guardianship systems operate in practice across institutional contexts, as a basis for understanding successes and failures, and thus for reform efforts. An initial focus is assessing the availability, accessibility, and completeness of guardianship related data across states.
Goal Two
Legal and Policy Reform
Guardianship law is primarily state based, with important intersections with federal disability and civil rights law. AGRRI will support policy-oriented research to identify legal structures that better balance protection of vulnerable adults, the autonomy of these adults, and guardian accountability across varying institutional and individual conditions. This includes examining due process protections, standards for appointment, oversight mechanisms, and pathways to restore rights. Reform efforts will be informed by case studies, but where possible will be grounded in empirical findings.
Transparency, including public access to court records, is a central reform lever, both for its effects on accountability and for its role in enabling empirical evaluation of guardianship systems. States can be seen as reform laboratories; AGRRI will investigate and learn from variation in approaches and outcomes across states, including both successes and unintended consequences.
AGRRI will work with guardianship and disability advocacy groups as well as judicial, clinical, and professional stakeholders to develop concrete reform proposals. Rather than presuming uniform solutions are best, AGRRI will assess which reforms appear central under which conditions.
Goal Three
Innovation and Education
Reducing the likelihood of overly restrictive or inappropriate guardianships requires legal reform but also earlier family planning, to put in place alternatives, including family trusts and durable financial and medical powers of attorney, advance healthcare directives, and appointment of a representative payee for government benefits, that can avoid later need for guardianship. AGRRI will explore strategies to improve education for adults and families about these alternatives and, if guardianship becomes necessary, the pros and cons of family versus professional guardians under different circumstances. These efforts can include pilot projects in particular states or areas, which can then be rigorously evaluated.
Goal Four
Impact Litigation
We will seek our own funding to support impact litigation in selected states, and support litigation initiated by others, including providing expert witness testimony and amicus briefs.
This work will build on efforts by the Center for Estate Administration Reform to support the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against the State of Colorado in 2023, which led to a detailed consent decree signed in early 2025; support for RICO lawsuits filed against guardianship professional groups in individual states; and support for state and federal prosecutors in bringing criminal cases against guardianship professionals.