Application for the appointment of a guardian
You can apply for a guardian if you have reached the age of 18 and are unable to manage your financial affairs due to an illness, deteriorated health or other similar reason. The prerequisite for this is that your affairs cannot be managed in any other way.
A guardian may be appointed to manage your property and financial affairs, or a guardian may be appointed to perform an individual task, such as the sale of a property or the distribution of inheritance. A guardian may be appointed to manage financial matters for a fixed period (e.g. two years) or the appointment may remain in force until further notice.
A private person may be appointed to the task of guardian if they give their consent to taking on the task and are suitable for the task. A public guardian may also be appointed to act as a guardian of several persons. A public guardian’s full-time job is to is manage the financial affairs of several different people.
The guardian is accountable to the supervisory authority for the performance of their duties. The guardian has the right to receive a reasonable fee for the performance of their duties and compensation for necessary expenses. The guardian has an obligation to observe professional secrecy.
The duties of the guardian can be terminated, if you no longer need guardianship. The duties of the guardian and the period of validity of the appointment can also be changed.
If the guardian is disqualified from performing their duties or unable to perform their duties due to illness/other absence, a substitute can be assigned for the guardian. A guardian may be disqualified to represent you, for example, in a property transaction, because the guardian themselves or their child is the other party to the transaction.
Do the following
- Fill in an application for the appointment of a guardian (in Finnish).
- Send the application to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.
- The necessary attachments include a medical opinion on your state of health and the consent of a private person to take on a guardian’s duties
Price
The appointment of a guardian costs 113 euros/decision. The fee will not be charged if the net annual income of the applicant, including their social benefits provided in cash, is less than EUR 8,147.
Processing period
The estimated processing time is 6 months.
As a rule, cases are processed in their order of arrival. In individual cases, the processing time may be shorter or longer than expected depending on the number of cases pending at the moment and the complexity of the matter in question. The processing time will be prolonged if the authority has to wait for the relevant information from the applicant or other parties (e.g. a medical opinion).
Links to laws related to the matter
Guardianship Services Act (442/1999), Unofficial translation in English (pdf)
Guardianship Services contact information
When sending an email, please use the Digital and Population Data Services Agency’s secure email to ensure that your information is sent securely. Select [email protected] as the recipient in the secure mail
Send the email as a secure email
Postal address
Property inventories, annual statements and final statements must be sent to the postal address of the service location.
All other post to the Guardianship Service must be sent to the address:
Digital and Population Data Services Agency / Guardianship, PO Box 1001, FI-02151 Espoo
Telephone number
The telephone service is open 9.00-12.00 on weekdays
Service number +358 295 536 256
Chat service
You can also contact us via chat at our web pages. Chat service is open Mon-Fri from 9.00 to 15.00. Please do not give sensitive information, such as your personal ID number on the chat.
Service locations
Addresses of the Digital and Population Data Services Agency’s service location
- Individuals
- Marriage
- Examination of impediments to marriage
- Marriage ceremony
- Prenuptial agreement
- Notification of a marriage concluded abroad
- Divorce granted abroad
- Registration of the act applicable to the matrimonial property regime
- Registration of a deed of division of property
- Dissolution of cohabitation
- Removal of marital rights to property
- Extracts issued of the register on the right to officiate at weddings
- Having or adopting a child
- Names
- Moving
- Elections and Right to vote
- Suomi.fi Web Service
- Citizen Certificate and electronic identity
- Guardianship
- Continuing power of attorney
- Appointment of a guardian
- Duties of the guardian
- Guardianship for a minor
- Who can act as a guardian?
- Actions that require the permission of the guardianship authority
- Appointing a substitute guardian
- Termination of guardianship
- Giving up the guardian’s task
- Guardianship authority's means of supervision
- Looking after the interests of an absent person or the future owner of the property
- Restrictions to competency and declaration of incompetence
- Extracts from the Register of Guardianship Affairs
- Certificates from the Population Information System
- Population information in the Population Information System
- Registration of a gift notification
- Services of notary public
- Certification of purchase
- Citizens’ initiative
- Death and estate inventory
- Living abroad
- Moving
- Registration of citizenship
- Divorce granted abroad
- Death abroad
- Registration of a child born abroad
- Registration of a name change performed abroad
- Notification of a marriage concluded abroad
- Registration of the act applicable to the matrimonial property regime
- Legalisation of foreign documents
- Notification of retaining Finnish citizenship
- Submitting foreign documents
- Moving to Finland
- Public Service Info
- Address service
- Forms
- Marriage
- Organisations
- Certificates
- Updating customer registers
- Sampling services
- Search services of the Population Information System
- Local Register Office Register search services
- Extracts from registers
- Maintaining the Population Information System
- Suomi.fi services
- Services to promote digitalisation
- Digital security services
- Services of notary public
- Certification of purchase
- Right to officiate weddings
- E-services
- About the agency