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ALERT! In observance of the holiday: County of Berks offices and buildings will close to the public from 12 PM, December 24, 2024, through December 25, 2024 (reopening 8 AM, December 26, 2024) and 12 PM, December 31, 2024, through January 1, 2025 (reopening 8 AM, January 2, 2025).

Please note – 24/7 operations at the county courthouse and services center will remain operational.

Guardianship Tracking System

Guardianship Tracking System

About Pennsylvania's Guardianship Tracking System:

  1. The Guardianship Tracking System (GTS) is essentially an e-filing system that incorporates statewide guardianship information and simplifies the guardian filing process of mandated reports.
  2. The GTS is to be used by professional and family guardians, judges, court staff, Orphans' Court clerks and other involved in the guardianship process.
  3. The GTS will better protect adults of all ages under guardianship by allowing courts to identify red flags and respond to potential problems immediately.
  4. The GTS will benefit guardians by:
    1. Allowing them to file annual reports and inventory forms online at their convenience
    2. Sending them automatic reminders about important upcoming filing dates and overdue notices
    3. Eliminating the potential for mathematical errors in their filings
  5. The GTS integrate guardian information into a statewide database rather than separate, individual county databases which will:
    1. Provide statewide statistical reporting that will generate information about guardianship trends that will help decision makers draft laws and establish procedures to better protect our most vulnerable citizens
    2. Eliminate the potential for an unsuitable guardian to relocate to another county that has no record of their previous misconduct
  6. All counties in Pennsylvania will be using the system by the end of 2018.
  7. The GTS is a product of the recommendations made by the Elder Law Task Force and was developed by the Office of Elder Justice in the Courts and the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts / IT under direction from the Advisory Council on Elder Justice in the Courts.

System Benefits

10 Benefits Of Pennsylvania's New Guardianship Tracking System

Pennsylvania ranks 4th in the nation for the highest population percentage of elders over age 65.

Recognizing this issue, the state's Supreme Court formed the Elder Law Task Force in 2014, which was tasked with recommending ways to better protect the Commonwealth's rapidly growing population of elders.

The Advisory Council on Elder Justice in the Courts was established to oversee the implementation of the task force's many recommendations -- one of which was to the development of the Guardianship Tracking System (GTS) to monitor guardian activity at a statewide level.

On an even broader scale, GTS will help better protect adults of all ages under guardianship while effectively streamlining the process of filing guardianship annual reports and the inventory.  In fact, the GTS was developed by the judiciary to be equally beneficial to all parties involved in the guardianship process -- incapacitated persons, guardians and the courts.

Among its many benefits, the GTS will:

  1. Allow guardians to file inventories and annual reports of the person and the estate online
  2. Send automatic reminders and overdue notices to guardians
  3. Reduce the potential for filing errors
  4. Alert courts statewide about concerning guardian activity
  5. Pre-populate annual reports
  6. Automatically identify red flags and allow courts to respond to potential problems quickly
  7. Offer online help text to help familiarize guardians with the new system
  8. Establish statewide consistency for monitoring guardianships
  9. Eliminate potential for an unsuitable guardian to relocate to another county
  10. Provide statewide data about guardianships

Berks County is scheduled to go live on GTS December 5, 2018.  GTS will be fully operational statewide by the end of 2018.