Hawaii Probate Glossary

Plain language definitions of the words a Hawaii personal representative actually meets, each tied to the section of the Hawaii Revised Statutes that creates it. Hawaii adopted the Uniform Probate Code as HRS chapter 560, and its sections carry a colon: HRS § 560:3-1201 is article III, section 1201. Three things set Hawaii apart. Probate belongs to the circuit courts of four judicial circuits numbered First, Second, Third and Fifth. A reciprocal beneficiary takes wherever a spouse takes. And Hawaii keeps its own estate tax with an exclusion frozen at the 2017 federal amount. Use this page to decode probate language before you open forms, call the local filing office, or decide whether an estate needs court supervision.