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Hawaii Probate Bond Requirements
Support GuideHawaii19 min read

Hawaii Probate Bond Requirements

Hawaii needs no probate bond unless the will requests one or the court orders it.

By Settled Editorial

Most Hawaii personal representatives never post a bond. HRS 560:3-603(a) says no bond is required of a personal representative appointed in informal proceedings, and it lists only three exceptions: a special administrator where an interested party asks and the court agrees, a will with an express requirement of bond, and a bond ordered after a demand under 560:3-605. In a formal proceeding the court may order one at appointment. The Hawaii Probate Rules say it outright in the commentary to Rule 46: "Posting of bond is rare in probate."

That default runs the opposite way from many states, where the statute requires a bond unless something excuses it. A paragraph copied from one of those states reads Hawaii backwards. Every rule on this page was read on September 24, 2026 in the Hawaii Revised Statutes on the Legislature's data site, with each section's history note. That compilation runs through the 2025 session, so the 2026 session was screened too: the one 2026 Act titled for the Uniform Probate Code, Act 47, amends guardianship and conservatorship sections and leaves the bond sections alone. This page explains how Hawaii law works, not how it applies to one estate, so confirm your situation with the circuit court handling the case or a licensed Hawaii attorney.

SituationBond required?Who decides the amountStatute
Informal appointment, will silent or no willNoNobody, no bond560:3-603(a)
Informal appointment, will expressly requires bondYesThe will, or the sworn estimate if the will names no figure560:3-603(a)(2), 560:3-604
Informal special administratorOnly if an interested party asks and the court finds it desirableThe order, or the sworn estimate560:3-603(a)(1), 560:3-604
Formal appointmentOnly if the court orders it at appointmentThe order, or the sworn estimate560:3-603(b), 560:3-604
Formal appointment, will relieves the representative of bondNo, unless an interested party asks and the court finds it desirableThe order560:3-603(b)
Formal appointment, will requires bondYes, unless the court finds it unnecessaryThe will or the order560:3-603(b)
Written demand by someone with more than $10,000 at stakeIf the court orders itThe court or the sworn estimate560:3-605
Representative who has deposited cash or collateral with a state agency by statuteNoNot applicable560:3-603(b)
Small estate collection affidavitNo, nobody is appointedNot applicable560:3-1201

The Three Informal Exceptions

Informal probate in Hawaii goes to the registrar, and most estates open that way. Here is what can still put a bond on an informal appointment under HRS 560:3-603(a).

  1. A contested special administrator. A special administrator is the short-term appointee who protects the estate before a general personal representative is in place or after an earlier appointment ends (HRS 560:3-614). Bond attaches only where an interested party has requested it and the court is satisfied that bond is desirable. A request alone does not do it.
  2. A will that asks for one. Bond applies when an executor or other personal representative is appointed to administer an estate under a will "containing an express requirement of bond." Silence requires nothing. The will has to say it.
  3. A demand under 560:3-605. Covered in its own section below. The bond follows a court order, not the demand by itself.

The special administrator exception matters because of the definition. HRS 560:1-201 says "personal representative" includes an executor, an administrator, a successor personal representative, a special administrator, and others who perform much the same function under the law governing their status. So every bond rule on this page reaches a special administrator too.

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Formal Proceedings: The Court Decides

A formal proceeding runs through a judge after notice, and HRS 560:3-603(b) gives the court the choice. Bond may be required by court order at the time of appointment. Three more sentences shape that choice.

  • A will that relieves the representative of bond holds, unless an interested party requests bond and the court is satisfied it is desirable.
  • A will that requires bond can be set aside. Bond required by any will may be dispensed with in formal proceedings upon a determination that it is not necessary. That is the formal route for a family whose will demands a bond nobody wants to pay for.
  • A deposit with the State replaces the bond. No bond is required of a personal representative who, under a statute, has deposited cash or collateral with an agency of the State to secure performance of the representative's duties.

The court learns what you want from the petition and the flag sheet. Hawaii Probate Rule 81 requires flag sheets for hearings to admit a will, adjudicate intestacy or appoint a personal representative, presented no later than 10 days before the hearing. Flag Sheet No. 1-A (probate of will and appointment) asks whether the petition requests appointment without bond, whether the will waived bond, and, if it did not, the reason for the request and the proposed representative's relationship to the decedent or beneficiaries. It also asks the amount requested if the appointment is with bond. Flag Sheet No. 1-B (adjudication of intestacy) asks the same no-bond question and wants the relationship to the decedent or heirs. Have your answer ready before you file. The order of steps from petition to letters is laid out in informal versus formal probate.

How Hawaii Sets the Amount

Hawaii prints no percentage and no multiplier for a personal representative. HRS 560:3-604 builds the figure from a sworn estimate.

If bond is required and the will or order names no amount, and the application or petition does not state one, the person qualifying files a statement under oath with the registrar giving a best estimate of:

  • the value of the decedent's personal estate, and
  • the income expected from the personal and real estate during the next year.

The bond, "or other suitable security," must be not less than that estimate. Real estate value stays out, and a year of rent or other income from the land goes in. A decedent who owned a house worth $1,200,000 and $80,000 in accounts, with the house earning $36,000 a year in rent, points to a bond of at least $116,000 plus any income the accounts are expected to earn.

The same section controls who can stand behind the bond. The registrar has to find the bond duly executed by a corporate surety, or by one or more individual sureties whose performance is secured by a pledge of personal property, a mortgage on real property, or other adequate security. A relative's signature alone is not enough, since an individual surety needs something pledged behind the promise.

Two tools bring the number down.

  • Restricted deposits. The registrar may reduce the bond by the value of estate assets deposited with a domestic financial organization, as HRS 560:6-101 defines it (banks, savings banks, savings and loan companies, financial services loan companies and credit unions), in a manner that prevents their unauthorized disposition. Money the representative cannot move without permission needs less coverage.
  • A petition to the court. On petition of the personal representative or another interested person, the court may excuse a bond requirement, increase or reduce the amount, release sureties, or allow a substitute bond with the same or different sureties.
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A $10,000 Stake Lets Someone Ask for a Bond

HRS 560:3-605 is the one route that can impose a bond on an informal appointment after the fact. Any person apparently having an interest in the estate worth more than $10,000, or any creditor with a claim more than $10,000, may make a written demand that the personal representative give bond.

The procedure has four parts.

  1. File and mail. The demand is filed with the court, and a copy is mailed to the personal representative if appointment and qualification have already happened.
  2. The court orders it, or it does not. Bond is required "if ordered by the court." A demand alone does not set the bond. The requirement ends if the person demanding it stops being interested in the estate, or if bond is excused under 560:3-603 or 560:3-604.
  3. Powers freeze. After the personal representative receives notice, and until the bond is filed or the requirement ends, the representative must refrain from exercising any powers of the office except as necessary to preserve the estate.
  4. Thirty days. Failing to give suitable bond within thirty days after receipt of notice is cause for removal and appointment of a successor.

The $10,000 figure is recent. Act 158 of 2023, which updated Hawaii's Uniform Probate Code articles I through IV, raised it from $1,000 for both an interested person and a creditor. The Act was approved June 29, 2023 and took effect on approval. Older articles still quote $1,000.

Removal itself runs through HRS 560:3-611. An interested person petitions, the court sets a hearing, and after notice the personal representative may act only to account, to correct maladministration, or to preserve the estate. Cause includes having "failed to perform any duty pertaining to the office," and the court directs what happens to the assets left in the removed representative's hands.

What the Bond Promises

HRS 560:3-606(a) writes the terms into every personal representative's bond required under this part.

  • Obligee. The bond names the presiding judge and the judge's successors as obligee, for the benefit of the persons interested in the estate, and is conditioned on the faithful discharge of all duties according to law.
  • Joint and several liability. Unless the approved bond says otherwise, the sureties are jointly and severally liable with the personal representative and with each other. The sureties' addresses go in the bond.
  • Consent to jurisdiction. By signing, a surety consents to the jurisdiction of the probate court that issued the letters in any proceeding on the representative's fiduciary duties that names the surety. Notice goes by delivery or by registered or certified mail to the surety's listed address and to any address the petitioner then knows.
  • Who can sue. A successor personal representative, any other personal representative of the same decedent, or any interested person may start a proceeding against a surety for breach of the bond.
  • Repeated recovery. The bond is not void after the first recovery. It can be proceeded against from time to time until the whole penalty is exhausted.
  • No carve-outs. A bond may not be conditioned to relieve the surety from liability for a breach of the representative's duties, or for a failure to perform an act this chapter requires, and any provision trying to limit the surety's liability that way is void.

Subsection (b) gives the surety one defense: no action or proceeding may be started against the surety on any matter where an action against the personal representative is already barred by adjudication or limitation.

Hawaii Probate Rule 46(c) adds the court's side. Each surety on a bond presented to the court irrevocably appoints the clerk of the court as its agent for service of papers affecting its liability, and its liability may be enforced on petition without a separate lawsuit.

Posting the Bond and Getting Letters

Qualification comes first. HRS 560:3-601 says that before receiving letters, a personal representative qualifies by filing with the appointing court any required bond and a statement of acceptance of the duties of the office.

Hawaii Probate Rule 46(a) solves a timing problem. A surety will not issue a bond without a certified copy of the appointment order, and letters issue only after the bond is filed. So when the court orders a bond:

  1. The petitioner presents the order appointing the fiduciary for signature without the letters.
  2. The clerk accepts the order for filing without the letters.
  3. The fiduciary takes a certified copy of the order to the insurer for issuance of the bond.
  4. The completed bond and the letters go back to the court for filing and issuance of the letters.

Rule 46(b) settles the cost: the fiduciary may charge it as a proper cost of administration of the estate. No Hawaii statute or court rule sets a premium rate, so the price is whatever the surety quotes. Ask for the quote before the hearing if the flag sheet requests appointment with bond.

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When the Bond Stops Mattering

Hawaii has no statute that discharges a probate bond on a certificate, so the surety's exposure follows the personal representative's. Three sections set the outer edge for an estate closed by sworn statement.

  • HRS 560:3-1003(b): if no proceedings involving the personal representative are pending one year after the closing statement is filed, the appointment terminates.
  • HRS 560:3-1005: the rights of successors, and of creditors whose claims are not otherwise barred, against the personal representative for breach of fiduciary duty are barred unless a proceeding starts within six months after the closing statement is filed. That bar does not reach fraud, misrepresentation, or inadequate disclosure related to the settlement.
  • HRS 560:3-606(b): once a claim against the personal representative is barred, the same claim cannot be brought against the surety.

The closing steps themselves are covered in the personal representative's duties.

Bonds That Are Not the Personal Representative's

Check the caption before assuming a bond in the file is yours.

  • Conservators work from a formula. HRS 560:5-415 lets the court require a conservator's bond, with sureties as it specifies. Unless the court directs otherwise, the cost is charged to the protected person's estate and the amount is the aggregate capital value of the estate property in the conservator's control plus one year's estimated income, minus assets deposited under arrangements requiring a court order for their removal and the value of any real property the conservator lacks power to sell or convey without court authorization. The court may accept collateral in place of sureties, such as a pledge of securities or a mortgage of real property. HRS 560:5-416 adds joint and several liability and consent to jurisdiction, and Hawaii Probate Rule 107 lets the court adjust the amount at a regular accounting when the estate rises or falls a great deal.
  • A guardian of the property posts what the court sets. Hawaii Probate Rule 107(a)(1) lets the court require a bond of a guardian of the property in an amount the court determines. Planning on that side is covered in Hawaii guardianship planning.
  • A foreign personal representative files a copy of theirs. HRS 560:4-204 lets a domiciliary foreign personal representative, where no local administration or application or petition for it is pending in Hawaii, file authenticated copies of the appointment and of any official bond given with a court in a judicial circuit where the decedent's property is located. No Hawaii bond is posted on that route.

If Someone Raises a Bond

Work through this in order.

  1. Read the will for an express bond clause. Under HRS 560:3-603(a)(2), only an express requirement of bond puts one on an informal appointment. Under 560:3-603(b), a clause relieving you of bond carries weight in a formal case.
  2. Decide on the flag sheet. Flag Sheet No. 1-A or 1-B asks whether you want appointment without bond and why. Rule 81 wants it at least 10 days before the hearing.
  3. Build the estimate the way 560:3-604 builds it. Personal estate, plus next year's income from personal and real estate. Leave the land's value out.
  4. Ask about a restricted account. Assets deposited so they cannot be moved without permission can reduce the bond under 560:3-604.
  5. Treat a 560:3-605 demand as a deadline. Stop everything except preserving the estate, and give suitable bond within thirty days of notice if the court orders it, or petition under 560:3-604 to have it excused or reduced.
  6. Keep the receipt. Rule 46(b) lets you charge the premium to the estate as a cost of administration.

If you are handling the estate yourself, the self-filer's checklist covers the rest of the filing. An estate at or under $100,000 in Hawaii may not need an appointment at all, and the collection affidavit route explains the HRS 560:3-1201 conditions.

Common Questions

Is a probate bond required in Hawaii?

Usually not. HRS 560:3-603(a) says no bond is required of a personal representative appointed in informal proceedings, with three exceptions: a special administrator where an interested party asks for bond and the court is satisfied it is desirable, a will that contains an express requirement of bond, and a bond ordered after a demand under 560:3-605. In formal proceedings, 560:3-603(b) lets the court require bond by order at the time of appointment. The commentary to Hawaii Probate Rule 46 puts it plainly: posting of bond is rare in probate.

How much is a Hawaii probate bond?

Where the will or the order does not name an amount and the application or petition does not state one, HRS 560:3-604 has the person qualifying file a statement under oath with the registrar giving a best estimate of the value of the decedent's personal estate and of the income expected from the personal and real estate during the next year. The bond, or other suitable security, must be at least that estimate. The value of real estate stays out of the measure, and one year of the income it produces goes in.

Can a Hawaii will waive the executor's bond?

A will matters in two directions. In informal proceedings no bond is required anyway unless the will contains an express requirement of bond (HRS 560:3-603(a)(2)). In formal proceedings, 560:3-603(b) says no bond is required where the will relieves the personal representative of bond, unless an interested party requests one and the court is satisfied it is desirable. A will that does require bond can be overridden too: the court may dispense with it in formal proceedings on finding it unnecessary.

Can a beneficiary or creditor force a Hawaii executor to post a bond?

They can ask, and the court decides. Under HRS 560:3-605, any person apparently having an interest in the estate worth more than $10,000, or any creditor with a claim of more than $10,000, may file a written demand for bond with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative. Bond is then required if the court orders it. From notice until the bond is filed or the requirement ends, the personal representative may act only as necessary to preserve the estate, and failing to give suitable bond within thirty days after notice is cause for removal.

Who pays for a Hawaii probate bond?

The estate. Hawaii Probate Rule 46(b) says the fiduciary obtaining a bond may charge the costs as a proper cost of administration of the estate. For a conservator, HRS 560:5-415 charges the cost of the bond to the protected person's estate unless the court directs otherwise. No Hawaii statute or rule prints a premium rate, so the price comes from the surety.

Does a Hawaii small estate affidavit need a bond?

No. The collection affidavit under HRS 560:3-1201 works only where no application or petition for a personal representative is pending or has been granted in Hawaii, and the gross value of the decedent's estate in Hawaii does not exceed $100,000. Nobody is appointed, so nobody qualifies under 560:3-601, and the bond sections of 560:3-603 through 560:3-606 never come into play.

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Sources:

It is not legal advice.

Information current as of September 24, 2026

Settled Estate is not a law firm, and this content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Probate laws and procedures in Hawaii can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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