---
type: "Bill"
title: "Guardianship"
description: "Guardianship; Expanding factors for a court to consider when appointing a guardian; revising requirements for a petition for the appointment of a guardian; prohibiting professional guardians from petitioning for their own appointment except under certain circumstances; prohibiting guardians from taking certain actions on behalf of an alleged incapacitated person or minor, etc."
jurisdiction: "us/states/fl"
legislature: "Florida Legislature"
session: "2020"
identifier: "SB 994"
citation: "Florida SB 994 (2020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["domestic relations"]
status: "enacted"
chapter_law: "2020-35"
primary_sponsors: ["Passidomo"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 35
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2019-11-19"
last_action: "2020-06-19"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/181d2919-3a67-4440-a6f5-57a210724feb"
source_url: "http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2020/994/ByCategory"
source_hash: "b724659a03c86d530746ae4ae227f462d06da781a6ff160aa54788f171ee48ba"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-fl"]
---

# Florida SB 994 (2020) — Guardianship

Guardianship; Expanding factors for a court to consider when appointing a guardian; revising requirements for a petition for the appointment of a guardian; prohibiting professional guardians from petitioning for their own appointment except under certain circumstances; prohibiting guardians from taking certain actions on behalf of an alleged incapacitated person or minor, etc.

**Enacted** — Laws of Florida, Chapter 2020-35.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **S 994 Filed** (filed) — [source](http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2020/994/BillText/Filed/HTML)
2. **S 994 c1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2020/994/BillText/c1/HTML)
3. **S 994 c2** (committee substitute) — [source](http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2020/994/BillText/c2/HTML)
4. **S 994 e1** (engrossed) — [source](http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2020/994/BillText/e1/HTML)
5. **S 994 er** (enrolled) — [source](http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2020/994/BillText/er/HTML)

## Votes

- Favorable with Committee Substitute — **16–0** (pass) · upper
- Third Reading — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Passage, Third Reading — **117–0** (pass) · lower
- Favorable — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Favorable with Committee Substitute — **6–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Passidomo — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-11-19** Filed `filing`
- **2019-12-13** Referred to Children, Families, and Elder Affairs; Judiciary; Rules `referral-committee`
- **2020-01-10** On Committee agenda-- Children, Families, and Elder Affairs, 01/15/20, 10:30 am, 301 Senate Building
- **2020-01-14** Introduced `introduction`
- **2020-01-15** Favorable by Children, Families, and Elder Affairs; YEAS 7 NAYS 0 `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2020-01-15** Now in Judiciary
- **2020-01-23** On Committee agenda-- Judiciary, 01/28/20, 4:00 pm, 110 Senate Building
- **2020-01-28** CS by Judiciary; YEAS 6 NAYS 0
- **2020-01-30** Pending reference review under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)
- **2020-01-31** Now in Rules
- **2020-02-04** CS by Judiciary read 1st time
- **2020-02-07** On Committee agenda-- Rules, 02/12/20, 4:00 pm, 110 Senate Building
- **2020-02-12** CS/CS by- Rules; YEAS 16 NAYS 0
- **2020-02-13** Pending reference review -under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)
- **2020-02-13** Placed on Calendar, on 2nd reading
- **2020-02-13** CS/CS by Rules read 1st time
- **2020-03-02** Placed on Special Order Calendar, 03/04/20
- **2020-03-04** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2020-03-04** Amendment(s) adopted (839922)
- **2020-03-04** Ordered engrossed
- **2020-03-04** Placed on 3rd reading
- **2020-03-05** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2020-03-05** CS passed as amended; YEAS 39 NAYS 0 -SJ 425, 426 `passage`
- **2020-03-05** In Messages
- **2020-03-09** Referred to Calendar `referral-committee`
- **2020-03-09** Received
- **2020-03-10** Placed on Special Order Calendar, 03/10/20
- **2020-03-10** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2020-03-10** Placed on 3rd reading
- **2020-03-11** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2020-03-11** CS passed; YEAS 117 NAYS 0 `passage`
- **2020-03-11** Ordered enrolled
- **2020-06-03** Signed by Officers and presented to Governor
- **2020-06-18** Approved by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2020-06-19** Chapter No. 2020-35

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/181d2919-3a67-4440-a6f5-57a210724feb`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Florida legislature records).