Who we help

What we hear

• Who raises our children if something happens to both of us?
• We do not feel like we have enough to need a plan.
• We have life insurance. Is that enough?

Most young parents come to us for one reason: naming a guardian. It is the decision that cannot be delegated and cannot wait, and it takes one document. From there the plan is usually simpler than people expect: directives, powers of attorney, and a structure that keeps life insurance proceeds from landing in an eighteen-year-old’s bank account.

What we hear

• Will my family have to go through probate to keep the house?
• Should I add my children to the deed?
• We refinanced. Is the house still in the trust?

Hawaii property values mean that a single home is often enough to require formal probate. A properly funded revocable trust avoids it. We also spend a lot of time undoing well-intentioned deed changes. Adding a child to title is the most common do-it-yourself move, and it often costs the family more than it saves.

What we hear

• What happens to the business if I am suddenly not there?
• One child works in the business and one does not.
• My operating agreement and my will say different things.

For many local families the business is both the income and the inheritance, and the two pull in different directions. We coordinate the operating agreement, any buy-sell arrangement, and the estate plan so they say the same thing. Then we work through the hard question: how to treat fairly the children who are in the business and those who are not.

What we hear

• Our plan is fifteen years old and our lives have changed.
• Will our children know what to do?
• How do we plan for long-term care without losing the house?

Plans age. Children grow up, trustees move away, laws change, and the property that seemed modest is now the largest asset in the family. We review existing plans honestly, and sometimes the answer is a small amendment. We also prepare the next generation to administer what you leave them.

What we hear

• How do I take care of my spouse and still leave something to my kids?
• What happens if my spouse remarries after I am gone?
• We each brought property into the marriage.

This is where default rules cause the most damage. Leaving everything outright to a surviving spouse quietly disinherits children from a prior marriage in a meaningful percentage of cases. There are well-established structures that provide fully for a spouse during their lifetime while guaranteeing what remains reaches your children. It requires deliberate drafting.

What we hear

• The deed still lists my grandparents.
• How do we keep the property without forcing anyone to stay?
• Six cousins will own this someday. Then what?

Families here often hold land that has passed informally for generations, with title never formally settled. This is common and fixable, though it gets harder every year it waits. We start by pulling the record and telling you plainly where things stand. Then we build a structure with defined use rights, a maintenance fund, and a buyout mechanism so one relative’s change of circumstance does not force a sale.