Do I have to go through probate in Hawaii?

In Hawaii, estates worth $100,000 or less may qualify for a simplified small-estate procedure (personal property only). Estates above that generally require probate through the Circuit Court (Probate Division).

How long do creditors have to make a claim in Hawaii?

The creditor claim period in Hawaii is generally 4 months. What starts that clock varies, so confirm which date applies before relying on it.

How long does probate take in Hawaii?

A typical Hawaii estate takes 6–18 months. Complications — a contested will, an unsold house, a late-surfacing creditor — extend it.

EstateMate › Probate by state › Hawaii

Settling an estate in Hawaii

An executor in Hawaii has to work through the Circuit Court (Probate Division) and a long list of tasks that have nothing to do with the court. This page sets out what Hawaii law actually requires at each step, with the section it comes from and the date we last read it.

Probate court: Circuit Court (Probate Division)
Small-estate shortcut: Estates of $100,000 or less may qualify for a simplified small-estate procedure (personal property only — it will not transfer real estate).
Creditor claim period: 4 months
Typical timeline: 6–18 months
State death tax: a state estate tax

Immediate

Obtain certified death certificates

Hawaii asks for a direct and tangible interest and defines it more widely than most. Under HRS § 338-18(a) it is unlawful to permit inspection of, or to disclose information contained in, vital statistics records except as the part authorizes, and subsection (b) requires the department of health to be satisfied of that interest before issuing a certified copy. The list of who has it reaches well beyond the household: the registrant, a spouse, a parent, a descendant, a common ancestor, a legal guardian, an authorized representative, and a representative of an estate or trust. It also covers a person acting under a court order, a person verifying the death of a co-owner of property, and adoptive parents establishing the death of a prospective child’s parents. Hawaii may also issue a verification instead of a certified copy where the applicant only needs the fact confirmed. Two practical notes. The funeral director usually orders the first batch as part of their service, so ask them how many they have already requested before you order more — families routinely pay twice. And order more than you think: banks, insurers and transfer agents often keep the copy you give them rather than returning it. Confirm the current fee on the state’s own page at the moment you order, because fees change without notice.

HRS § 338-18·last read 2026-08-25

Locate the will (or confirm there is none)

Hawaii is the only state in this area that lets a court multiply the damages. Under HRS § 560:2-516 the duty is request-triggered: after the death, and on request of an interested person, the custodian must either deliver the will with reasonable promptness to a person able to secure its probate or, if none is known, deposit it with an appropriate court. A person who knowingly and wilfully fails to deliver or deposit it is liable to any person aggrieved for the damages sustained — and the court may award treble damages. That is unique among the states we have read, and it is worth saying plainly to a custodian who is stalling. Wilful refusal to deliver after a court order brought to compel delivery is a penalty for contempt of court. One procedural point that saves a wasted filing: the section says proceedings under it are brought in the probate proceeding relating to the will, not as a separate lawsuit. Until an interested person asks, nothing is late. Put the request in writing and keep a dated copy — it is what turns a delay into a breach of duty.

HRS § 560:2-516·last read 2026-08-25

Short-term

Claim the family allowances you are entitled to

Hawaii is among the more generous states, and it covers reciprocal beneficiaries alongside spouses throughout. Under HRS § 560:2-402 a surviving spouse or reciprocal beneficiary is entitled to a homestead allowance of $30,000; where there is neither, the minor and dependent children divide that figure between them. It is in addition to any share passing by the will unless the will provides otherwise, by intestate succession or by way of elective share, and it is exempt from and has priority over all claims against the estate. Section 560:2-403 adds exempt property worth up to $20,000 over and above any security interests, in household furniture, automobiles, furnishings, appliances and personal effects, again expressly in addition to any share. And § 560:2-404 adds a reasonable maintenance allowance during administration with no dollar cap, which may not run beyond a year if the estate is inadequate to discharge allowed claims. It is not chargeable against a share, and it has priority over every claim except the homestead allowance. That is $50,000 plus maintenance, standing ahead of creditors.

HRS §§ 560:2-402, 560:2-403, 560:2-404·last read 2026-08-21

Notify beneficiaries and keep them informed

Hawaii follows the uniform text without variation, so the checklist below is the whole of the duty. Under HRS § 560:3-705 every personal representative except a special administrator must give information of the appointment not later than thirty days after appointment. It goes by delivery or ordinary mail to the heirs and devisees whose addresses are reasonably available. That includes the devisees under any will mentioned in the application, where you were appointed assuming intestacy. The notice must give your name and address, say that it goes to people who have or may have an interest in the estate, state whether bond has been filed, and describe the court where the papers are on file. It must also say that the estate is being administered without court supervision, while recipients may ask you for information and petition the court. Failing to send it is a breach of duty, but it does not invalidate your appointment or your powers. Getting this wrong rarely costs money directly — it stalls the case. An estate that cannot show notice was properly given can be held open, and the appointment itself can be reopened, so keep proof of what you sent, to whom, and on what date.

HRS § 560:3-705·last read 2026-08-25

Determine if probate is required

Hawaii is a trap for the same reason New Mexico is: NMSA § 45-3-1201 measures the entire estate wherever located, and subsection C says in terms that the affidavit may not be used to perfect title to real estate. The $100,000 test measures the gross value of the estate in Hawaii — not the personal property alone — so a house counts toward the $100,000. But the affidavit itself only compels delivery of personal property: money owed, tangible property, stock and other intangibles. It will not transfer title to land. So a house works against a family twice: it pushes them toward the ceiling, and even under it the affidavit cannot move the property. Two further points. The test is gross, not net of liens, so a heavily mortgaged house counts at full value. That is where the New Mexico parallel stops — § 45-3-1201(A)(1) measures the entire estate LESS liens and encumbrances, so the same mortgaged house counts for far less there. And vehicles transfer regardless of value.

HRS § 560:3-1201·last read 2026-09-09

Legal Process

File a petition with the probate court

Hawaii sets the waiting period by who is applying, which no other state we have read does. Under HRS § 560:3-302 the registrar issues the written statement of informal probate on making the required findings — but when depends on the applicant. Where the application comes from a corporate fiduciary, a parent, a spouse, a reciprocal beneficiary, or a descendant of the deceased’s parents, it may issue once at least one hundred and twenty hours have elapsed since the death. For any other applicant, at least fourteen days must have passed after the last mailing or other delivery of the advance notice. So a close relative waits five days and a more distant applicant waits a fortnight from notice. The usual two protections apply: informal probate is conclusive as to all persons until superseded by an order in a formal testacy proceeding, and no defect in the application or the procedure leading to it renders the probate void. One practical point: the word your state uses for this office is not decoration — asking for the wrong one wastes a trip and a phone call. And where a registrar or clerk can grant it, no judge is involved and no hearing is set, so nothing in the system will prompt you: the case moves only when you file.

HRS § 560:3-302·last read 2026-08-25

Inventory all assets and debts

Hawaii follows the uniform text without variation, and filing is your choice rather than a requirement. Under HRS § 560:3-706 a personal representative who is not a special administrator, and not a successor to someone who has already discharged the duty, must within three months after appointment prepare and either file or mail an inventory of property owned by the deceased at death. Each item is listed in reasonable detail with its fair market value as at the date of death and the type and amount of any encumbrance. A copy must go to interested persons who request it, and the original may be filed with the court but need not be. A beneficiary in Hawaii who wants to see the inventory should therefore ask for it in writing rather than looking for it in the court file. Two things that apply everywhere. Values are as of the date of death, not today — a house that has risen since is still listed at what it was worth then. And the inventory is the document everything else is measured against: fees, bond, and every later distribution. It is also what beneficiaries most often challenge, so take the time to get it right rather than filing a rough figure you intend to fix later.

HRS § 560:3-706·last read 2026-08-25

Publish notice to creditors

Hawaii tells you to go looking for the creditors, not merely to notice the ones you happen to know. Under HRS § 560:3-801(a) the personal representative may publish a notice to creditors, giving them four months from the date of first publication or they are forever barred. Subsection (b) then requires written notice by mail or other delivery to each known creditor, and gives that creditor four months from the published notice or sixty days after the mailing, whichever is later. Subsection (c) is the unusual one: the representative must undertake a reasonable review of the deceased person’s records to ascertain the creditors. That is an affirmative duty to search, not just a duty to write to the names you already have — and it is the step that decides whether a later claim was one you should have found. Two things to hold on to. Publication is what starts the clock in most states, so an estate where nobody published can stay exposed to claims far longer than the family expects. And a known creditor usually has to be told directly — publication alone does not bind someone whose name and address you could reasonably have found.

HRS § 560:3-801·last read 2026-08-25

Administration

Identify and close digital accounts

Hawaii keeps this in its own chapter, and it takes the small-estate affidavit. The Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act is HRS chapter 556A — note the A, because chapter 556 is the unrelated Uniform Fiduciaries Act about bank checks, and searching for the wrong one wastes an afternoon. Under § 556A-7 the content of electronic communications is disclosed where the deceased person consented or a court directs it. The personal representative gives the custodian a written request, a certified copy of the death certificate, and a certified copy of the letter of appointment — or a small estate affidavit or court order. Unless the person used the provider’s online tool you must also produce the will, trust or power of attorney evidencing consent. The rule to hold on to everywhere: without consent you generally get only the catalogue — who was contacted, when, and at what address — not what was actually said. “The executor can get into the accounts” is not what these laws do. And if you are advising someone still living, the provider’s own online tool is where this should be set, because it beats the will.

HRS § 556A-7·last read 2026-08-25

Financial Settlement

Pay valid debts and expenses

Hawaii follows the uniform seven-class order and adds two Hawaii-specific hooks. Under HRS § 560:3-805, where the applicable assets are insufficient to pay all claims in full, the personal representative pays in this order. First, the costs and expenses of administration. Then reasonable funeral expenses, which here expressly take in a Department of Human Services claim under HRS § 346-15. Then debts and taxes with preference under federal law. Then the reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last illness, which likewise take in a Department of Human Services claim under HRS § 346-37 for those expenses. Then debts and taxes with preference under other Hawaii laws. Then any other claim under HRS § 346-37. And then all other claims. The three § 346 references are the ones to look up if public assistance was involved, because they place a state recovery claim higher than a family expects. Within a class the rule is flat: no preference is given to any claim over another of the same class. Paying a lower-ranked debt before a higher-ranked one can leave you personally liable for the difference. So where the estate may not cover everything, stop before paying anything beyond the funeral and administration costs, and take advice.

HRS § 560:3-805·last read 2026-08-27

File required tax returns

Hawaii’s threshold is frozen at a 2017 figure, and knowing why makes it easy to check. Under HRS § 236E-6(a)(3) the applicable exclusion is the exemption equivalent of the unified credit on the federal return, as set out in chapter 11 of the Internal Revenue Code as amended as of 21 December 2017, and as if the decedent had died on 31 December 2017. That is the pre-2018 federal figure, $5,490,000. Because the reference date is written into the statute, Hawaii’s exclusion does not follow the federal one upward and is not indexed — so unlike most states here, this number does not move from year to year. The rates are steep once you are over it. Section 236E-8(b) taxes the Hawaii net taxable estate — what is left after the exclusion — at 10 per cent on the first $1,000,000, then 11, 12, 13 and 14 per cent in million-dollar bands up to $5,000,000, 15.7 per cent from there to $10,000,000, and 20 per cent above that. A resident gets the full exclusion; § 236E-6(b) prorates it for a nonresident. Given Hawaii property values, a single family home held for decades can carry an estate most of the way to $5.49 million on its own, which is the usual way families are caught out. Section 236E-8(c) gives a credit where another state has taxed a Hawaii resident’s property. Confirm the filing deadline with the Department of Taxation. And a state estate tax does not remove the federal returns: the deceased’s final income tax return, and Form 1041 for income the estate itself earns during administration.

HRS §§ 236E-2, 236E-6, 236E-8·last read 2026-09-09

Distribution

Distribute assets to heirs

Hawaii runs the uniform tiers at unusually high dollar figures, and it counts a reciprocal beneficiary the same as a spouse throughout. Under HRS § 560:2-102 the surviving spouse or reciprocal beneficiary takes the entire intestate estate if no descendant or parent of the deceased survives, or if all the deceased’s surviving descendants are also theirs and they have no other surviving descendant. They take the first $400,000 plus three quarters of the balance if no descendant survives but a parent does. They take the first $330,000 plus half the balance if all the descendants are shared but they have one or more children of their own who are not the deceased’s. And they take the first $220,000 plus half the balance if one or more of the deceased’s descendants are not theirs. Those are high enough that in many Hawaii estates the spouse or reciprocal beneficiary takes everything in practice even where the statute technically splits it. Hawaii also bars an absent parent, which decides who takes where a child dies leaving no spouse and no descendants. Under HRS § 560:2-114(a) a parent is barred from inheriting from or through their child in two cases. Where the parent’s rights were terminated and the parent-child relationship was not judicially reestablished. Or where the child died before reaching eighteen and there is clear and convincing evidence that immediately before the death those rights could have been terminated under other Hawaii law for nonsupport, abandonment, abuse, neglect or other acts or omissions. A barred parent is treated as having predeceased the child. Subsection (c) makes the reverse point, which people miss: terminating a parent’s rights does not stop the CHILD inheriting from or through that parent, except as § 560:2-125(b) provides. Hawaii rewrote its parent-child rules in 2023, and that new subpart is where the answer to “is this person a child at all?” now lives. Section 560:2-125(a) ends the parent-child relationship with the genetic parents on adoption. Subsection (b) is the second-marriage case, and it reaches reciprocal beneficiaries as the rest of the chapter does. Where a genetic parent’s spouse or reciprocal beneficiary adopts, the relationship survives with that genetic parent, and with the other genetic parent as well — the second only so that the adoptee or the adoptee’s descendants may inherit from or through them. Subsection (c) does the same where the adopter is a relative of a genetic parent, and (d) where the adoption happens after both genetic parents have died. And § 560:2-128 keeps the common law route open: “This subpart shall not affect the doctrine of equitable adoption.” These shares apply only where there is no valid will — a will overrides all of it. And do not distribute anything until the creditor period has run and the debts are settled: a representative who pays the family early can be personally liable for what is still owing.

HRS §§ 560:2-102, 560:2-114, 560:2-125, 560:2-128·last read 2026-09-09

Close Estate

File a final accounting and close the estate

Hawaii makes you wait six months, one of the longest opening gates among the uniform-code states we have read. Under HRS § 560:3-1003 the verified closing statement may be filed no earlier than six months after the date of the original appointment of a general personal representative — where Utah sets four months, Nebraska five and Colorado six from appointment or one year from death, whichever comes first. The statement must record that the period for presenting creditors’ claims has expired, that the estate has been fully administered and the assets distributed to the persons entitled, and how any undischarged claim has been accommodated. A copy goes to all distributees and to every creditor or other claimant whose claim is neither paid nor barred, together with a written account. If no proceedings involving the personal representative are pending one year after the statement is filed, the appointment terminates. Closing is what ends your exposure, so do not simply stop when the money runs out — an estate left open leaves the representative personally on the hook. And filing a closing statement is not the same as being discharged. In several states the appointment only terminates some months later, if nobody objects. Keep the file, the receipts and the proof of what you sent until then.

HRS § 560:3-1003·last read 2026-08-25

Work through this as a checklist

The free Hawaii checklist tracks where you are across every step, keeps your documents in one place, and tells you what is due next. No payment, no card.

Open the free Hawaii checklist

EstateMate is not a law firm and this is not legal advice. Every note above cites the section it came from and the date it was last read, so you can check it yourself. Statutes change, and the right answer can turn on facts specific to your family — when something looks close to the line, talk to a Hawaii probate attorney.