Hawaii probate starts with a $100 court fee, and the usual route can't close in under six months. Hawaii's estate tax starts above $5,490,000 and runs from 10 to 20 percent. The federal estate tax doesn't start until $15,000,000. So an estate between those two lines can owe Hawaii up to $1,308,070 and owe the IRS nothing. Six tools keep your family out of probate court, and three moves lower the Hawaii estate tax.
Hawaii froze its estate tax exclusion at $5,490,000, and the federal exclusion kept rising. In 2018 Hawaii stopped following the federal figure and pinned its own to the 2017 amount. The statute doesn't index it for inflation. For 2026 deaths the federal exclusion is $15,000,000 per person. Hawaii's is still $5,490,000.
That leaves a $9,510,000 band where an estate owes Hawaii tax and no federal tax. Hawaii's Department of Taxation calls the difference between the two exclusions "the Gap." An estate in that band must prepare a "dummy" federal Form 706 for Hawaii purposes only. Hawaii updated its tax-code conformity in 2026 (Act 35, signed May 26, 2026) and left the $5,490,000 exclusion where it was.
A 2026 bill, House Bill (HB) 2148, didn't become law. It would have kept the $5,490,000 exclusion for estates with an owner-occupied home or a farm. For estates without one, it would have cut the exclusion to $3,000,000, indexed for inflation. HB2148 would also have put a 3 percent surcharge on transfers carrying $2,000,000 or more of unrealized gain. The $5,490,000 figure is current law for 2026 deaths, and a similar bill could return in the 2027 session.
| What your family faces at death in Hawaii | 2026 reality |
|---|---|
| Hawaii estate tax | Yes. 10 to 20 percent on the amount above the $5,490,000 exclusion. No cliff: only the excess is taxed. |
| Hawaii inheritance tax | None. |
| Hawaii gift tax | None. |
| Portability between spouses | Yes, but only if the first spouse's estate files Hawaii Form M-6, even when no tax is owed. The carried-over amount is capped at $5,490,000. |
| Federal estate tax | $15,000,000 per person in 2026, or $30,000,000 for a married couple using federal portability. |
| Probate court fee | $100, once per estate (set by statute). |
| Personal representative pay | No statutory percentage. The law says "reasonable." Third-party estimates put it at 2 to 4 percent, and family members often waive it. |
| Probate attorney fees | "Reasonable," and a court can review them. Third-party estimates differ widely: $3,000 to $6,000 for a simple informal probate in one source, 2.3 to 3.6 percent of the estate in another. |
| Time tied up | Informal probate, the usual route, can't close by sworn statement earlier than six months after the personal representative is appointed. Third-party estimates put a typical informal probate at 6 to 12 months. |
Probate costs run to thousands of dollars, while the estate tax runs to hundreds of thousands. Avoiding probate still saves a Hawaii family time and court process, though the estate tax stays where it was.
Hawaii law and your account contracts give you six ways to pass assets to your family without probate court. The right mix depends on what you own and how you hold title.
You set up a trust, act as your own trustee while you're alive, and retitle your assets into the trust's name. At your death, a successor trustee distributes them on your instructions, with no probate court. The successor trustee can also publish a four-month notice to creditors, the same window a probate estate gets. Authority: Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) ch. 554D (Hawaii Uniform Trust Code); HRS 560:3-801.
Married couples keep creditor protection inside a Hawaii trust. Spouses who own real estate as tenants by the entirety can deed it into a joint revocable trust. They can also deed equal shares into two separate revocable trusts. Either way, they keep the protection from each spouse's separate creditors. The deed and trust have to meet the statute's conditions, including notice in the recorded deed. Once they do, the protection continues after the first death. Authority: HRS 509-2.
Your trust should set the trustee's pay. If it doesn't, or only says "reasonable compensation," Hawaii's default schedule applies to an individual trustee. A successor trustee who isn't you gets 1 percent of trust assets on taking over and 1 percent when the trust ends. In between, the trustee gets a yearly fee: half a percent of the first $5,000,000 of principal, plus 5 percent of income, with a $3,000 minimum. Professional trustees charge their published schedules instead. You and your trustee, or after your death the trustee and every beneficiary, can agree to other terms. Authority: HRS 607-18.
Best for: married couples, owners of more than one property, business owners and blended families. A trust also gives you a successor trustee ready to act if you become unable to manage your own affairs.
You sign a deed naming who inherits your Hawaii real estate at your death. It has to be recorded at the Bureau of Conveyances, or filed with the Land Court assistant registrar, before you die. While you're alive nothing changes: you can sell, mortgage, change the beneficiary or revoke the deed, and the beneficiary doesn't need to be told. Authority: HRS ch. 527 (Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act).
A TOD deed comes with four Hawaii rules. Land Court registered property needs a Land Court petition after death before title passes. Two or more beneficiaries inherit as tenants in common, with no survivorship between them. If a beneficiary dies before you, an alternate named in the deed takes first. With no alternate, the share passes to the beneficiary's descendants when the beneficiary was your grandparent, a descendant of a grandparent (such as a child, sibling, niece or nephew) or a stepchild. Otherwise the share goes to the other beneficiaries on the deed, and with none, the gift of that share fails. And for 18 months after death, creditors and the family's statutory allowances can be paid from the property if the probate estate can't cover them. Authority: HRS 527-13, 527-15, 560:2-706.
Best for: a single owner of a home, condo or rental, or a backstop for property that never made it into a trust.
When spouses (or reciprocal beneficiaries) hold Hawaii real estate as tenants by the entirety, the survivor owns all of it at the first death without probate. Tenancy by the entirety also protects the property from one spouse's separate creditors. Joint tenancy works the same way at death without that creditor protection. Authority: HRS 509-2.
Both forms handle the first death only. The survivor still needs a plan for the second. Adding a child as a joint tenant gives the child ownership today and exposes the property to the child's creditors, so it's a poor default.
Best for: spouses who want both names on the deed. Many couples pair it with a trust or a TOD deed for the second death.
Your 401(k), IRA, 403(b) and life insurance policy each pay the person you name, by contract, with no probate. It's the easiest tool on this list and the one most often broken. The common mistake: naming "my estate" as the beneficiary, or leaving the form blank. Both pull the asset back into probate.
These assets skip probate and still count toward your Hawaii estate tax. A policy on your own life counts at its full death benefit if you hold any ownership right in it at death, such as the right to change the beneficiary.
Best for: every Hawaii resident with a retirement account or a policy. Review every form after every major life event.
On a checking, savings or certificate of deposit (CD) account, a POD designation names who inherits the balance. On a brokerage account, a TOD registration does the same for stocks and bonds. You keep full control while you're alive, and the beneficiary deals directly with the bank or broker. Only a sole owner, or co-owners with survivorship rights, can register securities this way. Tenants in common can't. Authority: HRS 560:6-101 to 6-106 (POD accounts); HRS ch. 539 (Uniform TOD Security Registration Act).
Best for: every bank and brokerage account you own. It's a form at the institution, with no filing fee, though a brokerage firm doesn't have to offer TOD registration.
If the gross value of the estate in Hawaii is $100,000 or less, a successor can collect the personal property with a sworn affidavit and a death certificate, with no probate. Motor vehicles can be transferred this way at any value. The affidavit moves personal property only, so it's no route for Hawaii real estate. Authority: HRS 560:3-1201.
Hawaii law doesn't currently provide a transfer-on-death title for vehicles. A vehicle registered in two names is presumed to be held in joint tenancy, so the co-owner keeps it. Authority: HRS 286-49.
Best for: cleaning up what's left outside a plan. It isn't a plan on its own.
Hawaii builds its taxable estate from the federal gross estate. That includes your revocable trust, real estate passing by TOD deed, jointly owned property, retirement accounts and life insurance you own. A funded living trust saves the probate cost. It doesn't lower the estate tax by itself.
The Hawaii return, Form M-6, is due nine months after death. The estate gets six more months to file automatically in two cases. One is attaching an IRS-approved federal extension (Form 4768) and filing by the IRS date. The other, for an estate in the Gap, is filing Form M-68 and paying the tax by the original due date. Either way, the payment date doesn't move. A personal representative who hands out property before the Hawaii tax is paid or secured is personally liable for the tax. The liability runs up to the value of the property that passed through their hands. Authority: HRS 236E-9, 236E-16; Form M-6 Instructions.
Hawaii applies its rates to the Hawaii net taxable estate, which is the taxable estate minus the $5,490,000 exclusion.
| Hawaii net taxable estate | Hawaii estate tax |
|---|---|
| $0 to $1,000,000 | 10 percent |
| $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 | $100,000 plus 11 percent of the amount over $1,000,000 |
| $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 | $210,000 plus 12 percent of the amount over $2,000,000 |
| $3,000,000 to $4,000,000 | $330,000 plus 13 percent of the amount over $3,000,000 |
| $4,000,000 to $5,000,000 | $460,000 plus 14 percent of the amount over $4,000,000 |
| $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 | $600,000 plus 15.7 percent of the amount over $5,000,000 |
| Over $10,000,000 | $1,385,000 plus 20 percent of the amount over $10,000,000 |
The 20 percent rate starts at $10,000,000 of net taxable estate. For a resident using a full exclusion, that's a taxable estate above $15,490,000. Authority: HRS 236E-8.
| Taxable estate, single owner, 2026 | Hawaii estate tax / federal estate tax |
|---|---|
| $8,000,000 | $271,200 to Hawaii. $0 federal. |
| $15,000,000 | $1,308,070 to Hawaii. $0 federal. |
Hawaii lets a surviving spouse add the first spouse's unused exclusion to their own, up to $5,490,000. That carried-over amount only exists if the first spouse's personal representative files a timely Hawaii estate tax return, even when the first estate owes nothing. With the filing, a couple can pass up to $10,980,000 with no Hawaii estate tax. Civil union partners get the same treatment. If the first estate wasn't required to file, the Department accepts a late election up to five years after death, marked as one on the return. After five years, the estate needs a written determination from the Department. An estate that was required to file gets no extra time. Authority: Hawaii Department of Taxation, Form M-6 Instructions and Form M-6, Schedule A.
Best for: every married couple whose combined estate could pass $5,490,000, counting the home, retirement accounts, business and life insurance.
A married couple's revocable trust can divide at the first death and put up to the first spouse's $5,490,000 into a separate credit-shelter (bypass) trust. That locks in the first exclusion even if the M-6 election is never filed, and growth inside the credit-shelter trust stays outside the survivor's estate. Portability doesn't protect that growth. This is standard estate-planning design rather than a Hawaii statute, and your attorney drafts it.
Best for: couples above $5,490,000 whose assets are likely to keep growing after the first death.
An irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) owns the policy instead of you, which keeps the death benefit out of your Hawaii taxable estate. That works from day one when the ILIT buys a new policy. A policy you already own counts again at its full death benefit if you die within three years of moving it into the ILIT. Either way, you can't keep any ownership right, such as the right to change the beneficiary. Terrence holds the life insurance licenses on our team and is paid when a policy is placed. Authority: IRC 2035, 2042.
Business owners can pay the Hawaii tax in installments. The test is whether your closely held business interests are worth more than 35 percent of your adjusted gross estate. If they are, the Hawaii tax on them can be paid in up to 10 annual installments, with interest only for the first five years. Hawaii allows this even when no federal tax is due, and the Director of Taxation then decides who qualifies. Authority: IRC 6166; HRS 236E-9(e); Form M-6 Instructions.
Best for: anyone whose estate is near or above $5,490,000 with a policy in their own name, and owners whose business is most of what they'll leave.
Hawaii taxes the Hawaii share, and only when your whole taxable estate is above $5,490,000. Hawaii taxes a nonresident whose estate includes real property in Hawaii, or tangible personal property kept there. Hawaii prorates both the taxable estate and the exclusion by the Hawaii property's share of the whole estate, then applies its rates to the result. So a mainland owner whose whole taxable estate is $5,490,000 or less owes Hawaii nothing and doesn't need to file a Hawaii return. A reciprocal exemption can also zero out the Hawaii tax in narrow cases. Your home state's exemption for Hawaii residents' property has to name Hawaii or carry a reciprocal provision, and you have to have been a U.S. citizen and resident. A state with no estate tax and no such provision doesn't qualify. If the estate has to file a federal estate tax return, it still files a Hawaii return, with the Hawaii property shown at zero. Authority: HRS 236E-6, 236E-7, 236E-8; Form M-6 Instructions, Schedule B.
Putting the condo in a single-member LLC doesn't change that result. Unless the LLC has elected to be taxed as a corporation, Hawaii ignores it and treats you as owning the property directly.
Hawaii also presumes that anyone who dies owning property in the state was a Hawaii resident. The estate has to prove otherwise. If you've moved away, keep the records that show where you live. Authority: HRS 236E-6(c).
The probate side matters too. Hawaii real estate held in your own name can need its own Hawaii probate, called ancillary administration, on top of the probate in your home state. A TOD deed or a funded trust keeps the Hawaii property out of a Hawaii courtroom.
That's 0.6 to 4.3 percent of the estate. Informal probate also can't close by sworn statement for six months, and it leaves a public court file.
The cost is $0 when a family trustee waives pay or your trust sets no trustee pay. Hawaii's default also adds 5 percent of the trust's income each year, plus any special-services pay a court approves, such as for preparing estate tax returns or selling real estate. Assumes every asset is in the trust or has a named beneficiary, and that the trust closes within a year. Your attorney quotes the cost of drafting and recording.
Paid at Hawaii's default rates, a successor trustee's $25,000 is more than the $20,000 a personal representative takes at 2 percent. The trust still skips the court process, the six-month wait and the public file. A trust saves the most when a family member serves as trustee without pay, or when the trust sets lower terms.
The estate tax math carries the bigger numbers. Let's take a married couple, both U.S. citizens, with $8,000,000. Everything passes to the surviving spouse at the first death, and the marital deduction means nothing is owed then. The survivor dies with the same $8,000,000.
Federal estate tax: $0. The first spouse's $5,490,000 exclusion went unused.
One filing at the first death, with no tax due on it, keeps an estimated $271,200 with the family at the second death.
Numbers are illustrative. The estate tax figures apply Hawaii's statutory rate schedule (HRS 236E-8). They assume no prior taxable gifts, no deductions other than the marital deduction at the first death, and no change in value between deaths. The probate and trustee figures combine statutory amounts (the $100 court fee and Hawaii's default trustee schedule) with third-party fee estimates, which differ widely. This isn't legal or tax advice.
We're Enrolled Agents. We work on the tax: what your estate would owe Hawaii and the IRS, which filings it triggers, and what each choice is worth in dollars. We don't draft documents and we don't practice law.
Every tool on this page is a legal instrument. Which one fits your family, how it's drafted, and how it works with the documents you've already signed are questions for a Hawaii attorney. We can tell you what each choice is worth in tax, so you walk into that meeting knowing the number.
Avoiding probate is one part of an estate plan. Five Hawaii issues go beyond probate and need their own conversation:
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Probate | The court process that moves what you owned into the names of the people who inherit it. |
| Informal probate | Hawaii's simpler probate route. A court official called the registrar handles the application without a hearing. |
| Ancillary administration | A second probate in another state where you owned property, such as a Hawaii condo owned by a mainland resident. |
| Personal representative (PR) | The person who settles your estate. Called an executor in many other states. |
| Revocable living trust | A trust you control and can change during your life. Assets titled in it skip probate. |
| Funding a trust | Retitling your assets into the trust's name. A trust only controls what's been moved into it. |
| Successor trustee | The person who takes over your trust when you die or can't manage it, and hands out the assets. |
| Credit-shelter (bypass) trust | A trust created at the first spouse's death and filled up to that spouse's exclusion, so the exclusion is used and later growth stays out of the survivor's estate. |
| Irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) | A trust that owns a life insurance policy. A policy the trust buys new stays out of your taxable estate. A policy you move into it counts again if you die within three years of the move. |
| Transfer on death (TOD) deed | A recorded deed naming who inherits your real estate at death. You keep full control while you're alive. |
| Land Court | Hawaii's separate system for registered land titles. Land Court property needs an extra court step after death before a TOD deed passes title. |
| Tenancy by the entirety | A way for spouses to own property together. The survivor owns all of it at the first death, and one spouse's separate creditors can't take it. |
| Joint tenancy | Co-ownership where the surviving owner takes the whole property at death. |
| Payable on death (POD), transfer on death (TOD) | A beneficiary named directly on an account. The account passes to that person without probate. |
| Death benefit | What a life insurance policy pays when the insured person dies. |
| Gross estate | Everything you owned or controlled at death, counted before deductions. It includes trust assets, TOD property and life insurance you own. |
| Adjusted gross estate | The gross estate minus debts, expenses and losses. The business installment test uses it. |
| Taxable estate | The gross estate after deductions. Hawaii starts from the federal figure. |
| Hawaii net taxable estate | The taxable estate minus the $5,490,000 exclusion. Hawaii's rates apply to this amount. |
| Exclusion | The amount that passes with no estate tax. In Hawaii, $5,490,000. Federally, $15,000,000 in 2026. |
| The Gap | The Department of Taxation's name for the difference between Hawaii's $5,490,000 exclusion and the federal $15,000,000. An estate in that band owes Hawaii tax and no federal tax. |
| Portability | A surviving spouse's right to use whatever exclusion the first spouse didn't. In Hawaii it requires filing Form M-6 at the first death, and the carried-over amount is capped at $5,490,000. |
| Marital deduction | The rule that lets property pass to a surviving spouse who's a U.S. citizen with no estate tax at the first death. A spouse who isn't a citizen usually gets the same result only through a qualified domestic trust. |
| Form M-6, Form 706 | Form M-6 is the Hawaii estate tax return. Form 706 is the federal estate tax return. |
| Estate tax | A tax on what you leave, paid by the estate before anyone inherits. Hawaii has one. |
| Inheritance tax | A tax on what a person receives, paid by the heir. Hawaii has none. |
| Elective share | A surviving spouse's right to claim part of the estate even if the will or trust leaves them less. |
| Single-member LLC | A limited liability company with one owner. For Hawaii estate tax, it's ignored unless it elected to be taxed as a corporation. |
| HRS, IRC | Hawaii Revised Statutes (state law) and the Internal Revenue Code (federal tax law). |
Our Enrolled Agents and advisors can review your titling, your beneficiary forms and who owns your life insurance. Then we'll show you your Hawaii estate tax today and what each choice is worth, before you meet an attorney. Book a no-cost discovery call.
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