Our Office Has Moved!

Please note our new office address:

Pauahi Tower

1003 Bishop Street, Suite 2550

Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

Hawaii Estate Planning & Trust Attorneys

Serving Hawaii Families for Over 35 Years

Law Office of Stephen H. Reese

The Law Office of Stephen H. Reese is an established estate planning law firm in Honolulu with an office in Lihue and serving all islands. 

We take a compassionate approach to serving clients, focusing exclusively on estate planning, probate, and trust administration, as well as business planning matters.

For over 35 years, our clients have appreciated the peace of mind and confidence they feel after they call.

Our experienced attorneys and staff work hard to meet your estate and wealth planning needs and make it convenient to obtain the legal advice and guidance you seek in a clear, plain-spoken manner.

Call us today at 808-536-2800

 

Our Practice

Estate Planning

Our estate planning attorneys can help guide you to create an estate plan to protect your hard-earned assets and to provide for your loved ones after you’re gone.  An estate plan not only helps you to feel secure in your family’s future, it also significantly decreases the stress and grief of your survivors, preserves your legacy and memory, and helps to maintain family harmony.  Common estate planning documents include: Will, Trust, Power of Attorney, and Advance Healthcare Directive.

An experienced estate planning attorney can help guide you to the right plan for your circumstances considering your unique family dynamics, state and federal tax laws, and oftentimes complex property and probate laws.

Probate

Probate is a legal process to transfer title to a decedent’s property to appropriate beneficiaries and to tie up the decedent’s affairs. A personal representative is appointed by the court to take control of the decedent’s property, to act on the decedent’s behalf, and to distribute property to the decedent’s beneficiaries.

The probate process can oftentimes be complex and time-consuming, and most often, a personal representative will hire an experienced probate lawyer to assist them in understanding their legal responsibilities and tasks.

Our probate attorneys have assisted in the completion of hundreds of probates. If you have been nominated as a personal representative, let our experienced probate attorneys guide you.

Trust Administration

When someone dies leaving a trust, a new trustee will need to accept responsibility for taking care of trust matters and distributing property to the trust beneficiaries.  Oftentimes, the person named as the successor trustee in the trust has little experience or knowledge about serving as a trustee.

Hawaii trust attorney Stephen Reese or John Van Atta can assist you in understanding your duties and responsibilities as trustee.

Visit our Honolulu or Lihue Office.

Honolulu:

1003 Bishop Street, Suite 2550

Honolulu, Hwaii 96813

Lihue:

Lihue Plantation Building

2970 Kele Street, Suite 208

Lihue, Hawaii 96766

FAQ's

The estate planning attorneys at the Law Office of Stephen H. Reese provide a range of legal services relating to estate planning, probate, and trust administration.  We help our clients with wills, trusts, powers of attorney and advance healthcare directives.  However, estate planning is more than simply drafting documents.  We take a personalized approach to counsel and advise you on appropriate estate planning tools and techniques and can advise you on the impact of applicable property, tax, and estate laws.

If you are a named a personal representative (sometimes called an “executor” in other states), we can serve as a guide through the probate process and advise you on necessary tasks and obligations.  Similarly, if you are a trustee,  we can advise you on your duties and responsibilities as trustee, counsel you on applicable trust and tax laws, and help you to distribute trust property to beneficiaries.

We also advise clients on the legal and tax considerations of structuring their businesses and planning on transfers to the next generation of owners and managers.

Your life, your property, and the people you care about are important.  The consequences of not planning can include unintended consequences and stress and dispute among your survivors.  A knowledgeable Hawaii estate planning attorney can guide you through the process of developing and implementing a sound estate plan.  He or she will have an understanding of applicable tax laws, including income tax, estate tax, and gift tax, as well as applicable estate and property laws.  A good estate planning attorney can present you with alternatives to match your situation, walk you through difficult concepts, and coordinate with other professionals who may advise you, such as accountants, financial advisors, and insurance professionals.

Probate is a complex and specialized area of the law and includes knowledge of not only wills and trusts, but also estate, income, and gift tax, property laws.  It also very often touches upon other areas of the law such as family law, contract law, debtor and creditor law, and business law.  A Hawaii probate attorney can help guide you through the probate process and procedure and can also help coordinate with other professionals, governmental institutions, and financial organizations.  An experienced probate attorney will have the wisdom that comes from seeing common situations and the insight to deal with unique situations that may arise during the course of probate administration.

Over the last several decades, trusts have become a powerful tool for families to plan for their estates.  As a result of the increased popularity of trusts, many more people will find themselves named as trustees under a trust.  Most people have very little knowledge, if any, about the laws applicable to trusts and the obligations of a trustee.  While trusts can greatly simplify the transfer of one’s assets, there are still tasks that need to be completed after someone passes away in order to administer a trust and distribute property to beneficiaries.  An experienced Hawaii trust attorney can advise you as trustee on your duties and obligations, on applicable deadlines, and on any tax requirements.