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Hawaii Revocable Living Trust
Support GuideHawaii27 min read

Hawaii Revocable Living Trust

Hawaii living trusts are revocable by default under HRS 554D-602, and a funded trust keeps its assets out of probate at death.

By Settled Editorial

A Hawaii revocable living trust holds your property while you are alive and hands it to the people you name when you die, with no Circuit Court probate case for anything titled in the trust's name. You stay in charge and can change or cancel it. It reaches only the assets you actually move into it, and that gap is where most trusts fall short.

Hawaii trust law lives in HRS chapter 554D, the Uniform Trust Code, enacted as Act 32 of 2021. The same Act repealed the old trust article of the probate code, HRS 560:7-101 through 560:7-501, so a Hawaii trust question now starts in chapter 554D and never in that repealed article. HRS 554D-1104(a) switched the code on for January 1, 2022 and applies it to trusts created before, on, or after that date. Every rule below was read on September 24, 2026 at the Hawaii State Legislature's statute pages. The chapter's history notes show no amendment since 2021, and none of the 265 Acts of the 2026 session carries a title or description touching it. This page gives general information about Hawaii law. It is not legal advice.

This guide covers what the trust does, what Hawaii requires to create one, the 2022 dividing line for older trusts, how funding works here, the pour-over will that backs the trust up, the deadlines that start at your death, and what a revocable trust does not do.

What A Hawaii Revocable Living Trust Does

A revocable living trust is a written arrangement that holds assets for your benefit while you live and for your beneficiaries after you die. "Living" means you sign it now rather than creating it through your will. "Revocable" means you can undo it.

You keep control. HRS 554D-603(a) says that while the settlor of a revocable trust is alive, the rights of the beneficiaries are subject to the settlor's control, the trustee's duties are owed exclusively to the settlor, and beneficiaries other than the settlor have no right to notice, information, or reports under HRS 554D-813. Your children cannot demand to see the books while you are alive.

No court watches it. HRS 554D-201(b) says a trust is not subject to continuing judicial supervision unless the court orders it, and HRS 554D-201(a) lets the court step in only when an interested person invokes its jurisdiction or the law provides for it. When a dispute does reach a court, HRS 554D-203(a) gives the circuit court exclusive jurisdiction over proceedings about trust administration, and HRS 554D-204(a) puts venue in the judicial circuit where the trust's principal place of administration is located. The Hawaii probate courts by circuit page lists the four circuits.

It skips probate for what is inside it. Property titled to the trust is not part of the probate estate, so your successor trustee takes over without an appointment, letters, or an inventory filed with a court.

It does nothing for what is outside it. A trust signed and left in a drawer avoids nothing. The funding section below is the fix, and the other ways to avoid probate reach assets the trust never touched.

Creating One: What Hawaii Requires

HRS 554D-401 lists four ways to create a trust:

  1. Transfer of property to another person as trustee during the settlor's lifetime, or by will or other disposition taking effect at death
  2. Declaration by the owner of property that the owner holds identifiable property as trustee
  3. Exercise of a power of appointment in favor of a trustee
  4. A court acting under its statutory or equitable powers

A revocable living trust usually uses the first or second method. You either sign a declaration naming yourself trustee, or you name someone else as trustee and transfer property to them.

HRS 554D-402(a) says a trust is created only if four things are true: the settlor has capacity to create a trust, the settlor indicates an intention to create it, the trust has a definite beneficiary (or is a charitable trust, a trust for the care of an animal, or a trust for a noncharitable purpose), and the trustee has duties to perform. HRS 554D-402(b) treats a beneficiary as definite if the beneficiary can be ascertained now or in the future.

Capacity matches a will. HRS 554D-601 says the capacity required to create or add property to a revocable trust is the same as the capacity required to make a will. Unless the trust terms set a different standard under HRS 554D-602(c), the capacity to amend, revoke, or direct the trustee is also the will standard.

An agent can create one only with express authority. HRS 554D-402(d) validates a trust created by an agent under a power of attorney only if that document names the creation of a trust as something the agent may do and the settlor had capacity to create a trust when the power was signed. If you want someone to set up or reshape a trust for you after you lose capacity, say so in a Hawaii power of attorney.

No signing ceremony is set in the trust code. Chapter 554D does not require witnesses or a notary for the trust document. HRS 554D-407(a) goes further and says a trust need not be evidenced by a trust instrument at all, though an oral trust and its terms can be established only by clear and convincing evidence. HRS 554D-407(b) lets the terms of a missing trust be proved by clear and convincing evidence, or by court order where that would be fair. Put the trust in writing anyway, and sign it before a notary, because the people who will hold your assets (a bank, a brokerage, the Bureau of Conveyances) will ask for proof of it.

Hawaii has no trust registration. Article VII of the probate code once governed trust registration and administration, and the revisor now prints it as "REPEALED. L 2021, c 32, §11" with a cross reference to chapter 554D. Nothing in chapter 554D asks you to file the trust with any court or office.

The Revocation Default And The 2022 Dividing Line

HRS 554D-602(a) says that unless the terms of a trust expressly provide that the trust is irrevocable, the settlor may revoke or amend it. The subsection then adds a sentence many readers miss: it does not apply to a trust created under an instrument executed before January 1, 2022. A Hawaii trust signed in 2015 is read without that default, so pull the document and look for an express reservation of the power to revoke or amend before you assume you can change it.

HRS 554D-602(c) sets how you revoke or amend. If the trust spells out a method, following that method in substance works; the statute does not demand perfect compliance. If it does not, any written and signed method manifesting clear and convincing evidence of your intent works. Tearing up the paper is not listed. Under HRS 554D-602(d), once you revoke, the trustee delivers the trust property as you direct.

Three more subsections decide who else can act for you:

  • An agent under a power of attorney may exercise your powers over revocation, amendment, or distribution only to the extent the terms of the trust and the power both expressly authorize it (HRS 554D-602(e)).
  • A conservator may do so only with the approval of the court supervising the conservatorship (HRS 554D-602(f)). The Hawaii guardianship planning page covers how a conservator gets appointed.
  • A trustee who does not know the trust was revoked or amended is not liable for distributions made on the old assumption (HRS 554D-602(g)).

Joint trusts split by contribution. Under HRS 554D-602(b), unless the trust says otherwise, when more than one settlor creates or funds a revocable trust, each settlor may revoke or amend as to the portion they contributed. Community property follows a different rule: either spouse may revoke alone, but amendment takes both. When fewer than all settlors act, the trustee must promptly notify the others.

Divorce rewrites the trust for you. HRS 560:2-804(b) revokes a revocable disposition to a former spouse or former reciprocal beneficiary, and to that person's relatives, when a divorce, annulment, or termination of a reciprocal beneficiary relationship occurs, and it revokes their nominations as trustee too. HRS 560:2-804(d) then reads the trust as though the former partner and relatives disclaimed or died before the divorce. Update the trust after a divorce anyway, so no one has to litigate what the statute did.

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Funding Is The Half People Skip

A trust owns only what is titled to it. Funding means changing the owner of each asset from "you" to "you, as trustee of your trust."

Real property

For Hawaii land, sign a deed from yourself to yourself as trustee. Two statutes shape the filing.

The deed has to be acknowledged. HRS 502-50(a) says that to entitle a conveyance to be recorded, it must be acknowledged by the person signing it before the registrar of conveyances or a deputy, a judge of a court of record, or a notary public of the State.

The conveyance tax does not apply, but a certificate does. HRS 247-3(14) exempts "any document or instrument conveying real property from a grantor to the grantor's revocable living trust, or from a grantor's revocable living trust to the grantor as beneficiary of the trust." HRS 247-6(b)(9) still requires a party to file a certificate declaring that the deed makes that transfer, in the manner the director of taxation prescribes. HRS 247-6(e) says the registrar of conveyances and the assistant registrar of the Land Court will not accept the deed for recording until the certificate is filed. So the exemption is real, but it is claimed on paper, not assumed.

Know which system holds your title. Hawaii keeps two land recording systems: regular system property at the Bureau of Conveyances, and registered land in the Land Court under HRS chapter 501. HRS 247-6(e) names both offices. Check your current deed or certificate of title before drafting. The recording fees themselves are set by rule rather than by statute (HRS 502-25), so confirm the current figure with the Bureau before you file.

Placing the house in a trust changes the owner of record, not who lives there. Talk to your lender and title insurer before recording, since both care who holds title.

Bank and investment accounts

Retitle each account into the trust's name, or name the trust as the payable on death or transfer on death beneficiary. Banks usually ask for proof of the trust. That proof does not have to be the whole document.

HRS 554D-1013(a) lets a trustee give a person other than a beneficiary a certification of trust instead of the trust instrument. It states that the trust exists and when it was signed, the settlor, the acting trustee and address, the trustee's powers, whether the trust is revocable and who can revoke it, how cotrustees sign, and whether delegation to an agent is allowed. HRS 554D-1013(b) lets any trustee sign it, HRS 554D-1013(c) requires it to say the trust has not been revoked or amended in a way that makes it wrong, and HRS 554D-1013(d) keeps the dispositive terms private.

The recipient may ask for more under HRS 554D-1013(e): copies of the excerpts that name the trustee and give the trustee power to act in the transaction. HRS 554D-1013(h) makes a person who demands the full trust instrument on top of the certification or excerpts liable for damages if a court decides the demand was not made in good faith. HRS 554D-1013(f) and (g) protect anyone who relies on the certification without knowing it is wrong.

Retirement accounts and life insurance

Do not retitle an IRA or a 401(k) into a trust while you are alive. Those accounts pass by beneficiary designation. Whether the trust should be named as beneficiary is a tax question with its own rules, and many people name individuals instead.

Vehicles and personal belongings

Vehicles in Hawaii are titled by the county, not the State. Many people leave a car out of the trust, because HRS 560:3-1201(a)(1) lets a successor collect motor vehicles registered in the decedent's name by affidavit regardless of value. The Hawaii small estate page covers that affidavit and its $100,000 measure for other property. For household goods, a general assignment of tangible personal property to the trust is common.

The Pour-Over Will

Nobody funds a trust perfectly. The pour-over will catches what you missed.

HRS 560:2-511(a) lets a will validly devise property to the trustee of a trust established during the testator's lifetime, including a funded or unfunded life insurance trust, and it says the devise is not invalid because the trust is amendable or revocable, or because the trust was amended after the will was signed or after the testator's death. HRS 560:2-511(b) says that unless the will provides otherwise, the property becomes part of the trust it is given to and is administered under the trust instrument, including later amendments. It does not become a separate testamentary trust.

HRS 560:2-511(c) carries the warning: unless the will provides otherwise, revoking or terminating the trust before your death makes the gift to it lapse. If you ever revoke the trust, sign a new will too.

The will still has to be a valid Hawaii will. HRS 560:2-502(a) requires a writing signed by the testator, or in the testator's name by another person in the testator's conscious presence and at the testator's direction, and signed by at least two individuals who each witnessed the signing or the testator's acknowledgment. HRS 560:2-502(b) also accepts a holographic will if the signature and material portions are in the testator's handwriting. The details sit on Hawaii will requirements.

One thing the pour-over will cannot do is keep the estate out of court. Where it carries real assets because funding was left unfinished, someone opens a Hawaii probate case to move them into the trust. The will backstops the trust. It does not replace funding.

What Happens After You Die

When you die, the trust becomes irrevocable and your successor trustee takes over. HRS 554D-704(c) fills a vacancy in a noncharitable trust first with the person the trust names as successor trustee, then with a person all qualified beneficiaries agree on, then with a person the court appoints.

Sixty days to tell the beneficiaries. HRS 554D-813(c)(2) requires a trustee to notify the qualified beneficiaries within sixty days after accepting the trusteeship, with the trustee's name, address, and telephone number. HRS 554D-813(c)(3) requires a second notice within sixty days after the trustee learns a revocable trust has become irrevocable, telling the beneficiaries the trust exists, who the settlor was, and that they may request a copy of the trust instrument and a trustee's report.

Five years, or ninety days, to contest. HRS 554D-604(a) lets a person contest the validity of a trust that was revocable at death within the earlier of five years after the settlor's death or ninety days after the trustee sent that person a copy of the trust instrument and a notice of the trust's existence, the trustee's name and address, and the time allowed. Sending the packet starts the shorter clock. HRS 554D-604(b) lets the trustee distribute in the meantime without liability unless the trustee actually knows of a pending contest, or a potential contestant gave notice and then sued within sixty days. HRS 554D-604(c) makes a beneficiary return any distribution if the trust is later held invalid. For how this compares with the deadline to contest a will, see contesting a trust instead of a will.

Trust property still answers for debts. HRS 554D-505(a)(3) makes the property of a trust that was revocable at death subject to the settlor's creditors, the costs of administering the estate, funeral and disposal expenses, and statutory allowances to a surviving spouse or reciprocal beneficiary and children, to the extent the probate estate cannot cover them, subject to the settlor's right to say which source pays. HRS 560:3-801(f) lets the trustee or successor trustee publish a notice to creditors once a week for two successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the circuit where the decedent was domiciled, or where a probate proceeding was filed, telling creditors to present claims to the trustee within four months of the first publication or be forever barred. Act 7 of 2024 cut that publication from three weeks to two. The rest of the timetable is on Hawaii creditor claims.

The successor trustee's whole job, from the inventory to the final distribution, is covered in what the successor trustee does.

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What A Hawaii Revocable Trust Does Not Do

It does not protect assets from your own creditors. HRS 554D-505(a)(1) says that during the settlor's lifetime, the property of a revocable trust is subject to the settlor's creditors, whether or not the trust has a spendthrift clause.

It does not change your income tax. Under 26 U.S.C. 676(a) the grantor is treated as the owner of any portion of a trust where the power to revest title in the grantor is exercisable by the grantor or a nonadverse party. The income stays yours while you live, and the step-up in basis question at death is answered by federal law rather than by the trust.

It does not shrink your taxable estate. 26 U.S.C. 2038(a) includes in the gross estate property the decedent transferred while keeping a power to alter, amend, revoke, or terminate the transfer. Hawaii levies its own estate tax under HRS chapter 236E, and the thresholds sit on Hawaii estate tax.

It does not defeat a surviving spouse's or reciprocal beneficiary's elective share. HRS 560:2-205(2)(B) brings into the augmented estate any transfer made during marriage in which the decedent created a power over the property exercisable by the decedent, alone or with another, for the decedent's own benefit. HRS 560:2-202(a) gives the survivor an elective share equal to fifty percent of the marital-property portion of the augmented estate. HRS 560:2-211(a) requires the petition within nine months after death or six months after the will is probated, whichever is later, and leaves nonprobate transfers out of the calculation if the petition comes more than nine months after death, unless the court extended the time under HRS 560:2-211(b). More on Hawaii surviving spouse rights.

It does not finish the job by itself. Anything you never retitle still passes by your will, by a beneficiary designation, or under Hawaii intestate succession if there is no will.

When A Simpler Tool Is Enough

For a Hawaii household whose main asset is one home, a recorded Hawaii transfer on death deed under HRS chapter 527 often does the same job for the house at lower cost. HRS 247-3 lists that deed as exempt from the conveyance tax too.

Where the estate is small, no instrument may be needed at all. HRS 560:3-1201(a)(1) lets a successor collect personal property by affidavit where the gross value of the decedent's estate in Hawaii does not exceed $100,000, and motor vehicles registered in the decedent's name can be transferred regardless of value. The steps sit on the Hawaii small estate routes.

A trust earns its cost elsewhere. Pick one if you own real property in Hawaii and another state and want to avoid a second court case, if you want distributions staged over time, if privacy matters because a probate file is public, if a beneficiary has a disability or a creditor problem that calls for managed money, or if planning for incapacity matters to you as much as planning for death. Hawaii also allows a trust for the care of one or more designated domestic or pet animals under HRS 554D-408, which ends when no covered animal is living. That instrument has its own page at a trust for an animal.

A Hawaii Funding Checklist

  1. Sign the trust instrument in writing, and have your signature notarized so banks and the Bureau will accept it. (HRS 554D-402, 554D-407.)
  2. Name a successor trustee, and a backup, in the document. (HRS 554D-704(c).)
  3. State whether the trust is revocable, in plain words. (HRS 554D-602(a).)
  4. Deed Hawaii real property to the trustee, acknowledged before a notary. (HRS 502-50(a).)
  5. File the conveyance tax certificate that claims the revocable trust exemption with the deed. (HRS 247-3(14), 247-6(b)(9) and (e).)
  6. Record at the Bureau of Conveyances, or file at the Land Court for registered land.
  7. Retitle bank and brokerage accounts, or name the trust as payable on death or transfer on death beneficiary.
  8. Prepare a certification of trust for banks and title companies. (HRS 554D-1013.)
  9. Review beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance.
  10. Sign a pour-over will with two witnesses. (HRS 560:2-502, 560:2-511.)
  11. Write the agent's trust powers into your power of attorney if anyone will fund or change the trust for you later. (HRS 554D-402(d), 554D-602(e).) See a Hawaii power of attorney and a Hawaii advance directive.
  12. Revisit the trust after a marriage, a divorce, or a move to or from Hawaii. (HRS 560:2-804.)

When To Call A Hawaii Attorney

A lawyer earns the fee when:

  • Your trust was signed before January 1, 2022 and you are not sure it reserves a power to revoke
  • You hold property as community property from another state, or with a reciprocal beneficiary
  • You own Land Court property and want the title work done right the first time
  • A beneficiary receives needs-based public benefits
  • You own property in more than one state
  • Someone is likely to contest the trust or the elective share
  • You want the trust to hold a business interest

Confirm anything about a particular parcel with the Bureau of Conveyances or the Land Court, and anything about a filed case with the Circuit Court handling it. The rest of the planning toolkit sits on the other planning documents, and selling a parcel the trust now owns is covered on selling inherited property in Hawaii.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Hawaii have a uniform trust code?

Yes. HRS 554D-101 says chapter 554D may be cited as the Uniform Trust Code. The Legislature enacted it as Act 32 of 2021, the same Act that repealed the old trust administration article of the probate code (HRS 560:7-101 to 560:7-501). HRS 554D-1104(a) says that on January 1, 2022 the chapter applies to all trusts created before, on, or after that date. HRS 554D-105(a) makes the code the default rulebook for a trustee's duties and powers and a beneficiary's rights, and HRS 554D-105(b) lists fourteen rules the terms of a trust cannot override.

Is a Hawaii living trust revocable by default?

For a trust signed on or after January 1, 2022, yes. HRS 554D-602(a) lets the settlor revoke or amend unless the terms of the trust expressly provide that the trust is irrevocable. The same subsection adds that it does not apply to a trust created under an instrument executed before January 1, 2022. For an older Hawaii trust, read the document itself and look for a reserved power to revoke or amend. HRS 554D-103 defines revocable as revocable by the settlor without the consent of the trustee or a person holding an adverse interest.

Does a Hawaii living trust have to be notarized or witnessed?

Chapter 554D sets no witness or notary rule for the trust document. HRS 554D-402(a) creates a trust when the settlor has capacity, indicates an intention to create it, names a definite beneficiary, and gives the trustee duties to perform. HRS 554D-407(a) says a trust need not be evidenced by a trust instrument, though an oral trust can be proved only by clear and convincing evidence. A notary still matters for funding, because HRS 502-50(a) requires a deed to be acknowledged before it can be recorded.

How do you put a Hawaii house into a living trust?

Sign a deed from yourself to yourself as trustee, acknowledge it before a notary, and record it with the Bureau of Conveyances, or file it with the assistant registrar of the Land Court if the title is registered there. HRS 247-3(14) exempts a deed from a grantor to the grantor's revocable living trust from the conveyance tax. HRS 247-6(b)(9) still requires a certificate declaring that the deed makes that transfer, and HRS 247-6(e) bars recording until the certificate is filed.

Does a Hawaii bank have to accept a certification of trust?

HRS 554D-1013(a) lets the trustee hand over a certification of trust in place of the trust instrument, and HRS 554D-1013(e) lets the recipient ask for excerpts that name the trustee and grant the power to act. HRS 554D-1013(h) makes a person who demands the full trust instrument on top of the certification or excerpts liable for damages if a court finds the demand was not made in good faith. HRS 554D-1013(f) protects a person who relies on the certification without knowing it is wrong.

Can creditors reach a Hawaii revocable trust?

Yes, both before and after death. HRS 554D-505(a)(1) makes the property of a revocable trust subject to the settlor's creditors during the settlor's lifetime. HRS 554D-505(a)(3) says that after death, trust property that was revocable at death answers for creditor claims, estate administration costs, funeral expenses, and statutory allowances to a surviving spouse or reciprocal beneficiary and children, to the extent the probate estate cannot cover them.

How long does someone have to contest a Hawaii living trust?

HRS 554D-604(a) sets the deadline at the earlier of five years after the settlor's death or ninety days after the trustee sent the person a copy of the trust instrument and a notice of the trust's existence, the trustee's name and address, and the time allowed to sue. Sending that notice starts the shorter clock. HRS 554D-105(b)(12) puts periods of limitation among the rules the trust terms cannot change.

Does a Hawaii living trust defeat a spouse's elective share?

No. HRS 560:2-205(2)(B) adds to the augmented estate property the decedent transferred during marriage while keeping a power over it for the decedent's own benefit, which describes a revocable trust. HRS 560:2-202(a) gives the surviving spouse or reciprocal beneficiary fifty percent of the marital-property portion of that augmented estate. HRS 560:2-211(a) excludes nonprobate transfers from the calculation only if the petition is filed more than nine months after the death, unless the court extended the time.

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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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