Estate planning rules in Hawaii
Key takeaway
Hawaii estate planning rules address wills, intestate inheritance, probate, trusts, powers of attorney and guardianship. For owners of businesses, real estate and private investments, the topics include document signing, inheritance shares for surviving family members, a trustee's power to select beneficiaries and the appointment of a guardian for an incapacitated person.
Hawaii wills and separate writings
Hawaii's ordinary will route includes a writing and two witnesses who sign within a reasonable time after witnessing the signing or acknowledgment. A Hawaii holographic will may qualify without witnesses if the signature and material portions are handwritten.
Hawaii's Uniform Probate Code permits a will to be executed, attested and made self-proved in one step. Hawaii self-proof includes the testator's acknowledgment and witness affidavits before an officer authorized to administer oaths.
Hawaii's separate-writing statute addresses a writing concerning the intended disposition of items. Admissibility of the Hawaii writing depends on the testator's signature and descriptions of the items and devisees with reasonable certainty.
Hawaii intestate inheritance
Hawaii intestacy law gives a surviving spouse or reciprocal beneficiary the entire intestate estate if no descendant or parent survives. Hawaii gives the survivor the entire intestate estate if all surviving descendants are shared and the survivor has no other surviving descendants.
Hawaii gives a surviving spouse or reciprocal beneficiary the first $220,000 plus half the balance when the decedent has descendants who are not also descendants of the survivor.
Hawaii gives a surviving spouse or reciprocal beneficiary the first $400,000 plus three-fourths of the balance when no descendant survives but a parent does.
Hawaii distributes any intestate estate not passing to the surviving spouse or reciprocal beneficiary to the decedent's surviving descendants by representation if the decedent leaves descendants.
Hawaii estate transfers and trust beneficiaries
Hawaii's estate-transfer provision applies where the gross value of the decedent's Hawaii estate does not exceed $100,000. Hawaii permits motor vehicles registered in the decedent's name to be transferred regardless of value.
Hawaii's trust code permits a trustee or another person to hold a valid power to select beneficiaries from an indefinite class. A Hawaii beneficiary-selection power fails if unexercised within a reasonable time, and the property passes to those who would have taken without the power.
Hawaii powers of attorney and guardianship
Hawaii power-of-attorney signing provisions permit signature by the principal or another person acting at the principal's direction and in the principal's conscious presence. Hawaii presumes the signature genuine if the principal acknowledges the signature before a notary.
Hawaii determines the meaning and effect of a power of attorney through the law of the jurisdiction named in the document. Hawaii applies the law of the place of execution if the document names no jurisdiction.
Hawaii recognizes appointment by a parent, spouse, reciprocal beneficiary or court as establishing guardianship of an incapacitated person. Hawaii guardianship continues until terminated regardless of the guardian's or ward's location.
Thresholds and rates change. Check the state's own current figures.
Common questions
Does Hawaii permit changes to a separate writing?
Hawaii permits the testator to alter a separate writing after preparing the writing. Hawaii permits preparation before or after execution of the will, and the writing may be referred to as already existing at death.