The sourcing rules behind every guide on this site, how each figure is checked before it is published, and what to do when we get something wrong.
fidubond publishes reference guides for people who keep fiduciary records: U.S. guardians and conservators, agents acting under a power of attorney, trustees of special needs trusts, representative payees, and attorneys acting under a lasting power of attorney in England and Wales.
They are general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Guardianship, conservatorship, and POA rules are set state by state (and, in the U.K., by the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the OPG). Deadlines, forms, and fee rules differ between courts. Every guide tells you what the general rule is and where to confirm it for your own case.
We cite primary sources only. In practice that means:
| Kind of rule | What we cite |
|---|---|
| Statute | The state code itself — Va. Code Title 64.2, RCW Title 11.130, Cal. Prob. Code, Fla. Stat. ch. 744, MCL 700, Ohio Rev. Code, Tex. Estates Code, N.C.G.S. ch. 35A |
| Agency practice | SSA POMS sections and the eCFR for SSI and special needs trusts; IRS publications for fiduciary returns; gov.uk and OPG guidance for deputies and LPA attorneys |
| Court procedure | The court rule or form itself — Pa. O.C. Rules, Washington GDN R 204, Michigan MCR 5.409, and state judicial council forms |
| Model acts | The Uniform Law Commission's official act texts (UPOAA, Uniform Trust Code, Uniform Guardianship Act) |
Examples, so you can see the shape of the sources we cite:
We do not build guides out of other people's summaries, forum posts, or AI-generated overviews. If a guide states a figure — an SSI resource limit, a filing deadline, a percentage fee, a penalty amount — that figure is traceable to one of the sources listed at the bottom of the page under Sources.
We do not treat "the link loads" as verification. Before a source goes on a page it has to pass two tests:
Because several official sites block automated retrieval, each source is fetched through a real browser session rather than assumed reachable. A source that cannot be retrieved and read is not cited.
Every guide carries a Last reviewed date at the top, and the same date is published in the page's structured data as dateModified. A date only moves when the page's substance was actually re-checked against its sources — not when styles or wording are touched. Guides covering figures that change annually (SSI, ABLE, OPG fees, tribunal fees) are re-checked when those figures are updated.
fidubond is a small operation and its guides are drafted with AI assistance. We would rather say that than imply an author who does not exist, so there is no invented byline on this site: the attribution is to the fidubond editorial team, and the accountability behind it is this page.
What that changes, and what it does not:
If you find a figure that is out of date, a citation that does not support the sentence it sits under, or a rule that has changed, email [email protected] with the page URL and the source you relied on. Corrections are made in the guide itself, and the review date moves with them. We do not quietly edit pages.
These guides carry no sponsorships, no advertising, no referral fees, and no law-firm or fiduciary affiliations. The only product links point to fidubond's own record-keeping tools, on pages where the tool is genuinely relevant to the task described. No source is included or excluded because of a commercial relationship — there are none.
This page describes our own editorial process. It is general information, not legal advice, and it does not create any professional relationship.