Many people overlook their estate plan during a move, which is understandable. You’re busy thinking about whether to ship your car or buy one on-island, figuring out which reef-safe sunscreen *doesn’t* leave a white film on everything, and deciding which holidays you’ll fly back for. Unfortunately, this means we see a lot of smart, successful women who assume their documents are good to go, right up until something happens and their plan no longer works.
Whether you’re building a new life in Hawaii for work, love, family, or a long-awaited fresh start, our job at 3FG Law is to help make sure your financial and legal world moves with you.
Here are some of the most common estate planning tasks we see people miss when moving to Hawaii.
1. If Your Documents Were Prepared on the Mainland, Update Them to Hawaii’s Legal Standards
Every state has its own rules around wills, powers of attorney, and advance health directives. Most people assume that if their documents were done “correctly” in another state, they’ll work everywhere. Unfortunately… not always.
In Hawaii, certain formalities must be present for a document to be honored. Some states use different signing requirements, different forms, or different witnessing standards. And if your estate planning documents don’t align with local law, they can be rejected when your family needs them most.
For example, let’s say you lived in California when you designated your power of attorney. It’s perfectly valid there, but without Hawaii-specific language, your agent could be turned away by a bank or financial institution. The same could happen with an advance healthcare directive. Without properly updating your estate plan in Hawaii, you and your loved ones could be left with stress, conflict, and decisions being made by courts rather than by the people you actually trust.
2. Not Married to Your Partner? Make Sure You Have Sufficient Joint Property Provisions
One of the most common surprises for couples moving here is how titles and ownership forms shift once they become Hawaii residents.
That’s because Hawaii is one of the few states that recognizes Tenancy by the Entirety, a form of joint ownership exclusively for married couples. It offers strong protection against creditors and ensures that the surviving spouse automatically inherits the property. The catch is that not every state recognizes this form of ownership. So if you bought property on the mainland and titled it jointly, you may need to update the ownership structure once you move.
Obviously, this also has implications for LGBTQ+ partners and those in domestic partnerships or long-term relationships: once you move to Hawaii, the default form of joint ownership may not work for you. In some cases, your partner may not inherit your share automatically. In others, your ownership might not be protected from individual creditors.
All it takes to fix this is a simple title adjustment, but it’s something that often gets overlooked.
3. Check If Your Trust Needs to Be Restated or Updated
If you already have a revocable living trust, you’re ahead of most people. But even then, your trust may not automatically adjust to Hawaii law when you become a resident.
Here are some trouble spots we’ve seen:
- Trusts drafted under mainland statutes that don’t line up with Hawaii’s requirements
- Trustees named who can’t serve/won’t meet local standards
- Outdated funding instructions that don’t reflect Hawaii’s probate thresholds
- Properly placing mainland property in a trust, but incorrectly adding Hawaii property after the move
Sometimes, all it takes to bring your trust up to Hawaii speed is a few amendments, which is easy to do with the right help.
This Is the Perfect Time to Realign Your Financial + Legal Strategies
We serve clients all over the US for financial planning, but our estate planning work is specifically for Hawaii residents. The overlap means we have a unique vantage point: big life changes are also the best opportunities to recalibrate.
Moving is stressful, but it can also be reinvigorating. You’ll get to find a new favorite coffee shop, develop new life rhythms, and even take on a more empowering role in your financial matters. At 3FG Law, we recommend reviewing your estate plan annually because life changes, and your financial strategy needs to keep up. There’s no better time to build that habit than at the same time you’re building a new life in paradise.
If you need help reviewing your documents or creating a plan that fits your life, we’d love to support you. Connect with us at https://3fg-law.com/contact-us/.
