Legacy & multigenerational planning
Structures that carry a family home, a business, or accumulated wealth past the next generation and into the ones after it.
In Hawaii, what one generation leaves the next most often means a home: a place the family can stay, in a place where staying has become extraordinarily difficult.
Planning at this level asks different questions. Not just who receives what, but how it is held, who decides, how it is maintained, and what happens when the family grows and the interests multiply. A property split six ways among cousins with no governing structure and no maintenance fund is how family land gets sold.
This is patient work, and it usually involves the whole family. We are comfortable in those rooms.
What this covers
Continuing trusts for children and grandchildren
Assets held in trust over time, with distribution standards you define and protection from creditors and divorce.
Dynasty and long-term trust structures
Hawaii permits trusts to run for a very long horizon. Where appropriate, we build for it.
Family home preservation
Ownership, use, and cost-sharing structures for a property intended to stay in the family across generations.
Business succession
Coordinating operating agreements, buy-sell arrangements, and the estate plan so a business survives its founder.
Charitable and community giving
Structures for families who want part of what they built to serve the wider community.
Family meetings and letters of intent
The non-legal work of making sure the next generation understands the plan before they inherit it.
Decisions we’ll work through together
Equal is not always fair
One child living in the family home and one on the mainland do not have the same relationship to it. Naming that honestly during your lifetime prevents a great deal of pain later.
Plan for the cost of holding
Property taxes, insurance, and maintenance do not pause. A preservation plan without a funding source becomes a burden.
Prepare the people who will inherit
The most durable plans we have seen are the ones the next generation already understood before it mattered.
Frequently asked
Is this only for very large estates?+
No. The most common multigenerational asset we work with is a single family home. How it is structured counts for more than its dollar value.
How do we keep a property in the family without forcing anyone to stay in it?+
Usually through a structure with defined use rights and a buyout mechanism, so a family member who wants out can exit without forcing a sale.
Should our children be part of these conversations?+
When the family is ready, yes. We facilitate those meetings and they are frequently the most valuable part of the engagement.
Book a consultation
The first meeting is complimentary. Tell us about your family and your property, and we’ll explain which documents fit and what the flat fee would be.
Complimentary initial consultation · Flat-fee quotes · In person on Maui or by video