Executor Duties in Hawaii

Notice to creditors may be published once a week for two successive weeks in the judicial circuit; creditors then have four months after first publication to present claims, and the personal representative may also mail notice to known creditors (claims due by the later of four months after publication or 60 days after mailing). Within three months after appointment, the personal representative prepares an inventory with date-of-death fair market values and encumbrances, sends it to interested persons who request it, and may file it with the court. After paying claims and distributing the estate, the representative may close an unsupervised estate by a verified closing statement filed no earlier than six months after appointment, or obtain a court order closing it.

To act, a personal representative must be appointed by order of the circuit court or the probate registrar, qualify, and be issued letters; administration begins when letters issue. Informal probate or appointment is requested by application to the probate registrar; formal proceedings are by petition to the circuit court. Priority goes to the person named in the will, then the surviving spouse or reciprocal beneficiary who is a devisee, other devisees, the spouse or reciprocal beneficiary, and other heirs. No bond is required in informal proceedings unless the will requires it or an interested person asks for one.

If notice to creditors is published, claims arising before death must be presented within 4 months after the first publication, or within 60 days after a mailed or delivered notice to a known creditor, whichever is later. If no notice is published or served, claims are barred 18 months after death.