Current as of November 2026. General information, not legal or tax advice.
Hawaii moved its trust law onto the Uniform Trust Code on January 1, 2022, in HRS Chapter 554D. The new code brought the familiar annual report to beneficiaries. It also kept a duty with no counterpart in most Uniform Trust Code states: a trustee appointed by a court must file annual accounts with that court. Estates and conservatorships stay under the Uniform Probate Code in HRS Chapter 560, and the Hawaii Probate Rules govern how any accounting is presented.
Who must provide an accounting in Hawaii
Section 554D-813 sets the reporting duty. While a trust is revocable and the settlor has capacity, the trustee's duties run to the settlor. After that, the trustee must keep the qualified beneficiaries reasonably informed and respond promptly to reasonable requests for information.
The trustee must also send a report at least annually and at termination of the trust. It goes to the distributees and permissible distributees of income or principal, and to other qualified beneficiaries who ask for it. A beneficiary may waive the right to reports and may later withdraw the waiver.
Notice comes first. Within sixty days of accepting the trusteeship, the trustee must tell the qualified beneficiaries of the acceptance and give the trustee's name, address and telephone number. Within sixty days of learning that a trust has become irrevocable, the trustee must tell them of the trust's existence, the settlor's identity, their right to request a copy of the instrument, and their right to a trustee's report. These two notice duties do not apply to trustees who accepted before January 1, 2022, or to trusts that became irrevocable before that date.
Subsection (g) is the Hawaii-specific duty. Every trustee acting under a court appointment, or under an appointment requiring court approval, must file annual accounts with the court that has jurisdiction over the trust. Subsection (h) exempts additional or substitute trustees the court appoints alongside trustees named in the instrument, and trustees named in the instrument whose appointment a court has only confirmed, unless the instrument requires accounts.
What a Hawaii trust accounting must contain
The statute sets a floor for the annual report: the trust property, liabilities, receipts and disbursements, the source and amount of the trustee's compensation, and a listing of the trust assets with their market values where feasible. A court account under subsection (g) must show all receipts and disbursements, with a full and detailed inventory of the property in the trustee's possession or control.
Hawaii Probate Rule 26 goes further for any accounting presented to the court, and fixes the order of the pieces:
1. A brief summary of receipts and disbursements for the period, at the front.
2. A list of the assets held at the end of the period, with values. Probate accountings use inventory value; all others use current fair market value.
3. A summary of the fiduciary fees taken or charged, with the amount and the basis.
4. A detailed account of every transaction during the period.
5. A copy of any auditor's report and management letter for the period.
The petition that presents the accounting describes the trust's operations and holdings during the period and lists the current beneficiaries. For a trust, the rule also requires a copy of the controlling trust documents as an exhibit once every five calendar years. Regular and minor transactions may be summarized, so long as the account can still be followed.
Income and principal allocation in Hawaii
Allocation is governed by HRS Chapter 557A, Hawaii's Uniform Principal and Income Act, enacted in 2000. Hawaii has not adopted the 2018 Uniform Fiduciary Income and Principal Act. A Hawaii account therefore allocates under the earlier uniform scheme. For a family with trusts in California or Florida, which have moved to the 2018 act, the Hawaii account will not line up section for section with its mainland counterparts.
Filing an accounting with the Hawaii court
Under section 554D-201, a trust is not subject to continuing judicial supervision unless the court orders it. The court acts when an interested person invokes it, including to review a trustee's report or accounting, or to compel one. For trusts with no court-appointed trustee, nothing is filed routinely.
Court-appointed trustees are the exception. They file annually, although the court may allow accounts every two or three years where it considers that advisable for the beneficiaries. The court passes on the accounts itself where annual income is $1,000 or less; larger accounts, and any final account, may be referred to a master. If a trustee falls behind, the clerk sends notice. An account not filed within thirty days after that notice requires the trustee to appear and show cause why it should not be held in contempt, and the court may remove the trustee.
A petition to approve a trust accounting proceeds under Hawaii Probate Rule 126(d), which adds the settlor, the date the trust was created, the trustee and any vested remainder beneficiaries to the Rule 26 requirements.
For estates, the personal representative brings the final account before the court through a petition for complete settlement under HRS § 560:3-1001, which may ask the court to consider the final account or to approve an accounting and distribution.
When a Hawaii accounting is contested
Rule 25 lets the petitioner gather written approvals from interested persons before filing. If all of them approve, the court may approve the accounting ex parte, without a hearing. Where some decline, counsel files an affidavit describing the efforts made, and the court may appoint a guardian ad litem for minor, unborn or unascertained beneficiaries and a master to review the trustee's conduct. Where the Attorney General must approve as parens patriae, as with charitable trusts, a master is required.
The report itself sets the limitation clock. Under section 554D-1005, a beneficiary may not bring a proceeding for breach of trust more than one year after being sent a report that adequately disclosed the potential claim and told the beneficiary how long they had to sue. A report discloses adequately if it gives enough information that the beneficiary knows of the claim, has reason to know of it, or should have inquired. Where no such report was sent, the outer limit is three years from the trustee's removal or resignation, the end of the beneficiary's interest, or the end of the trust, whichever comes first.
The practical lesson matches the one in other Uniform Trust Code states. A thin report does not start the one-year clock. A complete one, with the right notice, can.
How T.E.A. Fiduciary helps
We prepare Hawaii trust, estate and conservatorship accountings in the order Hawaii Probate Rule 26 requires, as annual accounts for court-appointed trustees, and as section 554D-813 reports built to start the section 554D-1005 limitation period. We work alongside your attorney and your tax preparer; we do not prepare tax returns.
This page provides general information about Hawaii fiduciary accounting requirements and is not legal or tax advice. Statutes and court rules change. Verify the current text before relying on any of it, and consult counsel on questions of legal interpretation.
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Primary source: HRS Chapter 554D, Hawaii State Legislature; Hawaii Probate Rules.
Written by Christina Gutman, C.P.A. — Founder and Principal of T.E.A. Fiduciary. Christina is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant by the State of California and has specialized exclusively in fiduciary accounting for over a decade, preparing trust, estate, and conservatorship accountings for law firms, professional fiduciaries, trust companies, family offices, and individual trustees nationwide. She has also served as a forensic consultant in contested accounting matters. More about Christina
