Who may commence a proceeding
§ 81.06 Who may commence a proceeding.
(a) A proceeding under this article shall be commenced by the filing of the petition with the court by:
1. the person alleged to be incapacitated;
2. a presumptive distributee of the person alleged to be incapacitated, as that term is defined in subdivision forty-two of section one hundred three of the surrogate's court procedure act;
3. an executor or administrator of an estate when the alleged incapacitated person is or may be the beneficiary of that estate;
4. a trustee of a trust when the alleged incapacitated person is or may be the grantor or a beneficiary of that trust;
5. the person with whom the person alleged to be incapacitated resides;
6. a person otherwise concerned with the welfare of the person alleged to be incapacitated. For purposes of this section a person otherwise concerned with the welfare of the person alleged to be incapacitated may include a corporation, or a public agency, including the department of social services in the county where the person alleged to be incapacitated resides regardless of whether the person alleged to be incapacitated is a recipient of public assistance;
7. the chief executive officer, or the designee of the chief executive officer, of a facility in which the person alleged to be incapacitated is a patient or resident.
A proceeding starts by filing a petition. Who can file:
1. the AIP themselves;
2. a presumptive distributee (heir, per SCPA § 103(42));
3. an executor/administrator of an estate the AIP may benefit from;
4. a trustee of a trust the AIP is grantor/beneficiary of;
5. the person the AIP lives with;
6. a person otherwise concerned with the AIP's welfare (can include a corporation or public agency, incl. DSS, regardless of public-assistance status);
7. the chief executive officer of a facility where the AIP is a patient/resident.
★ The AIP can petition for their own guardian; a creditor is notably absent from this list.
Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.
This provision appears in Volume 6 — The JG-22 Uniform Rules and Everything Else and in Volume 1 — The JG-22 in Plain English.