From

What is a Public Administrator?

In the State of Missouri Revised Statutes 2000 (RSMo 473.730)- states every county in this state, and the City of St. Louis, shall elect a public administrator at the general election in the year 1880, and every four years thereafter, who shall be ex officio public guardian and conservator in and for the public administrator's county. 

What is a Guardian? 

A person appointed by the court to be responsible for the care, treatment, habilitation, support and maintenance of an incapacitated person.

What is a Conservator?   

A person appointed by the court designated for the care and custody of a disabled person or minor that person's estate.

What is incapacitated?  

One who is unable by reason of any physical or mental condition to receive and evaluate information or to communicate decisions to such an extent that he/she lacks the capacity to meet essential requirements for food, clothing, shelter, safety or other care such that serious physical injury, illness, or disease is likely to occur.

Missouri County Public Administrators, in the performance of the duties required by chapters 473, 474, RSMo, and 475, RSMo. Duties  specified by section 475.120, RSMo, are discretionary.

Not all states have elected Public Administrators for their counties.  There are private individuals, companies and state agencies that excel in he guardianship/conservatorship field. There is a National Guardianship Foundation that certifies individuals to be identified to the public as a Registered or Master Guardian.

Missouri County Public Administrators are usually the last resort for a Guardian/Conservator.  Unfortunately in this day and age some individuals are living longer than their children and therefore there is no family member to care for their parents.  Even in some cases the best individual for the incapacitated/disabled person is not a family member but a person who is a disinterested party to the estate.  The Public Administrators duties are to care for those individuals that unfortunately no one else will. Their actions are reviewed by Associate Courts and their Judges but yet there are state laws (Medicaid/State Statutes, State Auditors office), federal laws (Social Security, Medicare), and various other agencies that are there to maintain a presence in the welfare of the incapacitated individual.