How much does probate cost in Hawaii?
8 Aug 2026
Hawaii sets no percentage for either fee — the personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation, and the attorney is paid by agreement. The court’s own charge is flat: $100.00, paid once only for each estate.
That $100.00 is not the whole bill — a $50.00 administrative cost and a $65.00 indigent legal services surcharge apply, bringing the unavoidable figure to $215.00 — but it does cover most of what comes later, including approving a sale and passing the accounts. Two Hawaii features have no equivalent anywhere: registered motor vehicles transfer regardless of value under the small-estate route, and for an estate of $100,000.00 or less the court clerk can be appointed to run it personally — for three per cent of the gross estate, paid to the State.
Haw. Rev. Stat. §560:3-719 — Hawaii Revised Statutes, published by the Hawaii State Legislature · Verified 7 Aug 2026
Informational only, not legal advice. Figures verified on the date stamped. Details: /disclaimer/
Work it out on your own number
Neither professional fee computes in Hawaii. Two court-side figures do, and one of them — the clerk’s three per cent — is a genuine percentage charge that most people have never heard of.
| Probate, administration or ancillary administration — paid once only for each estate | $100.00 |
| Administrative costs on processing a civil filing | $50.00 |
| Indigent legal services surcharge | $65.00 |
| Search of records · certification of a copy · exemplification | $2 · $1 · $2 |
| Filing any other paper not in a pending proceeding | $3.00 |
| Jury demand, including in probate cases | $200.00 |
| Clerk-administered estate — of the market value of the first $100,000 of the gross estate | 3% |
| Personal representative and attorney | reasonable compensation — no rate |
Worked through: the unavoidable court cost to open a Hawaii estate is $215.00 — the $100.00 probate fee plus the $50.00 administrative cost plus the $65.00 surcharge. Where the clerk administers the estate instead, the three per cent charge is $1,800.00 on a gross estate of $60,000.00 and $3,000.00 at the $100,000.00 ceiling.
The $100.00 probate fee bundles a great deal — appointment of a successor, instructions, approval of an investment, approval of a sale, mortgage, lease or other disposition, approval of a compromise of a claim, removal, accounting and the allowance of fees, all without additional charge. Treat it as covering the whole administration rather than as a first instalment.
What each part costs
Every row is one figure, one source, one date. Where Hawaii fixes no price, the row says so instead of guessing.
| Fee | Amount or formula | Set by | Source | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attorney feeOrdinary services | No statutory rateHawaii fixes no attorney fee for probate. The relevant part of the probate code contains no attorney compensation section — the chapter contents list was read end to end. What you pay is agreed with the lawyer. The court may review the propriety of employing any person by a personal representative including any attorney, auditor, investment advisor or other specialised agent, and the reasonableness of their compensation, and may order any person who has received excessive compensation to make appropriate refunds. Hawaii lists no factors at all for that review, unlike several states with the same underlying provision. One procedural point is worth knowing: where informal probate is granted, the written information sent to heirs and devisees must state that attorney fees incurred on behalf of the estate will be reviewed by the probate court only if an interested person requests such a review. In an informal probate, nobody checks unless somebody asks. | Agreement, reviewable on request | Haw. Rev. Stat. §560:3-721, with §560:3-306(c) Negative finding from the chapter 560 contents list, not from inference | 7 Aug 2026 |
| Personal representativeExecutor or administrator | No statutory rateA personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for services. There is no percentage and no schedule. Where the will provides for compensation and there is no contract with the person who died, the representative may renounce that provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead — after qualifying, the will’s figure stands. A representative may also renounce the right to all or any part of the compensation, and a written renunciation of fee may be filed with the court, which is what most family representatives do. | Reasonable compensation | Haw. Rev. Stat. §560:3-719 Unamended since 1996 | 7 Aug 2026 |
| Court filing feeCircuit court — flat, and it bundles | $100.00, or $215.00 payableThe fee schedule charges $100.00 for probate, administration, a domiciliary foreign personal representative or ancillary administration — and says expressly that this fee is to be paid once only for each decedent’s estate. It also bundles: the schedule heading provides that the fee includes, without additional charge, the appointment of a successor, instructions, approval of an investment, approval of a sale, mortgage, lease or other disposition of property, approval of a compromise of a claim, removal, accounting and the allowance of fees. Two further charges are unavoidable. A $50.00 administrative cost applies to the processing of all civil filings except those brought by the State or a county, and a $65.00 surcharge for indigent legal services applies to any person required to pay an initial circuit court filing fee — the exemption list covers small claims, restraining and protective orders, parties proceeding in forma pauperis and government bodies, and probate is not on it. So $215.00 is the figure to budget. Optional per-item charges follow: $2.00 to search the records, $1.00 to certify a copy, $2.00 for exemplification, $3.00 to file any other paper not in a pending proceeding, and $200.00 for a jury demand, which the schedule notes applies in probate cases too. | Statute — flat, statewide | Haw. Rev. Stat. §607-5, part I item (14) and part II, with §607-5.7 The schedule was amended by L 2025 c 298 §23 — a live re-check section | 8 Aug 2026 |
| Newspaper publicationTwo regimes, split at $10,000 | Not fixed by statuteNot fixed by statute — the newspaper sets its own rate. Hawaii is the only state on this site with two publication regimes on one page, and the line is at $10,000.00 of total value. At or below it, the clerk publishes: a notice posted at the front entrance of the courthouse of the judicial circuit, and advertised in the English language at least once in a newspaper of general circulation in the circuit, giving creditors sixty days from the date of publication to file duly verified claims with the clerk and inviting anyone claiming to be an heir to file notice in the same period. The court may direct that the newspaper advertisement need not be made at all if it deems it unnecessary — the only outright waiver of publication we have found. Above $10,000.00, the ordinary rules apply, and publication is permissive: a person applying for appointment, probate of a will or a declaration of intestacy may publish a notice once a week for two successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the judicial circuit, giving creditors four months from first publication or be forever barred. Two insertions is the shortest run of any publishing state on this site. A creditor given written notice has four months from the published notice or sixty days from the mailing, whichever is later. The representative must undertake a reasonable review of the records to ascertain creditors, and is not liable for giving or failing to give the notice. | The newspaper | Haw. Rev. Stat. §560:3-1206, with §560:3-801 §560:3-801 amended L 2023 c 158 and again L 2024 c 7 — a live re-check section | 8 Aug 2026 |
| BondUsually none — and the highest demand gate anywhere | No bond by default; a floor if ordered
|
Statutory floor, on the representative’s sworn estimate | Haw. Rev. Stat. §560:3-603, with §560:3-604 and §560:3-605 §560:3-605 amended L 2023 c 158 — a live re-check section | 8 Aug 2026 |
Any Hawaii executor percentage you find is a bill that never passed. In 2006 a measure proposed replacing reasonable compensation with a banded percentage schedule computed on probate assets at the date of death. It did not become law, and §560:3-719 still reads reasonable compensation. Percentage figures circulating for Hawaii are that failed bill, not the statute.
How the Hawaii sources are linked. The Hawaii State Legislature publishes one clean page per section, so every source above points at the exact section we read. One section is served with an upper-case file extension; the link is stored exactly as it resolves.
What can change the bill — allowances, waivers and one-off charges
- The court may waive the newspaper advertisement entirely on the small-estate route, if it deems it unnecessary. No other state on this site gives a court that power.
- The $100 probate fee covers the later steps. Appointment of a successor, instructions, approval of an investment, approval of a sale, mortgage, lease or other disposition, approval of a compromise of a claim, removal, accounting and the allowance of fees are all included without additional charge.
- A jury demand costs $200.00, and the schedule says expressly that this applies in probate cases.
- Printing, publishing or posting notice is charged at amounts necessary to cover actual costs.
- Clerk-administered estates are free of court costs — except the actual advertising expenses, the advertising, posting or service fees required to carry out any order of the court including orders relating to the sale of property, any expenses reasonably necessary for the preservation, disposal, distribution and administration of the estate, and the three per cent fee.
- If someone else finishes the job, the clerk’s three per cent is not charged at all. Where the administration is completed by another personal representative — because of the size of the estate or for any other reason — no fee is charged by the clerk.
Haw. Rev. Stat. §560:3-1206(a); §607-5 parts I and II; §560:3-1211 — Hawaii Revised Statutes · Verified 8 Aug 2026
What changes YOUR number in Hawaii
- Nobody reviews the attorney’s fee unless somebody asks
- In an informal probate the notice sent to heirs and devisees must say in terms that attorney fees incurred on behalf of the estate will be reviewed by the probate court only if an interested person requests such a review. The review power is real and carries a refund remedy, but it is entirely request-driven — and Hawaii, unlike several states with the same provision, lists no factors to guide it.
- The court clerk can be the executor
- For an estate of $100,000.00 or less with nobody appointed, the clerk of the court for the judicial circuit may, on a verified petition, obtain an order authorising the clerk to administer the estate as the personal representative — and the order may be made without notice or hearing at the court’s discretion. No clerk may act for an estate above $100,000.00. It is a route no other state has.
- The clerk’s three per cent replaces the executor’s fee
- Where the clerk administers, a fee of three per cent of the market value of the first $100,000.00 of the gross estate is paid into the State treasury out of available assets. It is not an executor’s commission and it is not a court filing fee — it is what the State charges for doing the job, and it comes off the estate. On a $60,000.00 gross estate that is $1,800.00.
- Two insertions, not three
- Where a notice is published, Hawaii runs it once a week for two successive weeks — the shortest publication run of any state on this site, where three is the norm. It is a real, if modest, cost difference, and the four-month claim bar starts from the first insertion either way.
- It is the judicial circuit, not the county
- Hawaii’s notices run in a newspaper of general circulation in the judicial circuit where the application is filed, not in a county newspaper. On an island chain that is the sensible drafting, and it means the relevant paper may not be the one nearest the property.
- The bond demand gate is ten times the usual
- Anyone with an interest in the estate worth more than $10,000.00 may demand a bond. Comparable states set that gate at $1,000.00. And Hawaii is the only one where the demand does not compel a bond by itself — the court still decides. Both features make a Hawaii bond less likely than in most states with the same underlying code.
- Cars are outside the small-estate cap
- Registered motor vehicles may be transferred under the affidavit route regardless of value, on top of the $100,000.00 limit. It is the only asset-class carve-out of its kind we have found, and it means a vehicle never pushes an estate over the line.
- The State can use the small-estate route against the estate
- Where the Department of Human Services has a claim against the estate under the public assistance recovery provisions, the holder pays or delivers to the department rather than to the family — and the department’s affidavit has priority over any other claim presented under the section.
Hawaii’s line is $100,000 — with cars excluded and two ways through it
The affidavit route needs a death certificate and a sworn statement that the gross value of the estate in this State does not exceed $100,000.00 — and registered motor vehicles transfer regardless of value, so they never count against the cap.
- There is no waiting period. Unlike most states, the section states none — the affidavit can be presented as soon as the death certificate is available.
- The affidavit states that no application or petition for appointment of a personal representative is pending or has been granted in the State, and explains the successors’ relationship to the person who died.
- On presentation, anyone with legal authority to issue a certificate or other evidence of ownership must change the registered ownership and issue a document evidencing it.
- The State can claim first. Where the Department of Human Services has a claim under the public assistance recovery provisions, property is paid or delivered to the department, and its affidavit has priority over any other claim under the section.
- Route 2 — the clerk administers. Where a person dies leaving property in the State of a total value not exceeding $100,000.00 and no personal representative has been appointed, the clerk of the court may, on the verified petition of the clerk or any interested person, be authorised by order to administer the estate as personal representative. The order may be made without notice or hearing, at the court’s discretion.
- These proceedings are free from all costs of court — but the clerk charges the actual advertising expenses, the advertising, posting or service fees needed to carry out any court order including a sale, any expenses reasonably necessary for the preservation, disposal, distribution and administration of the estate, and a fee of three per cent of the market value of the first $100,000.00 of the gross estate, paid into the State treasury.
- Below $10,000.00 the clerk also does the publishing — a courthouse posting plus at least one newspaper insertion, with a sixty-day creditor window, and the court may waive the newspaper advertisement altogether.
Haw. Rev. Stat. §560:3-1201, with §560:3-1205, §560:3-1206 and §560:3-1211 — Hawaii Revised Statutes · Verified 8 Aug 2026
Check your own estate against the Hawaii route →
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Hawaii probate cost questions
How much does an executor get paid in Hawaii?
Hawaii sets no percentage and no schedule. A personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for their services. If the will names a figure and there was no separate contract with the person who died, the representative can renounce that provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead, or give up the fee entirely by a written renunciation filed with the court. Any Hawaii percentage schedule you come across is a 2006 bill that never became law.
Does Hawaii set probate attorney fees by statute?
No — the probate code contains no attorney compensation section at all. What you pay is agreed with the lawyer. The court can review whether employing an attorney was proper and whether the compensation was reasonable, and can order excessive compensation refunded, but Hawaii lists no factors for that review. In an informal probate the notice to heirs and devisees must state that attorney fees will be reviewed only if an interested person requests it.
What does it cost to file for probate in Hawaii?
One hundred dollars, paid once only for the estate — and it bundles most of what follows, including approving a sale, passing the accounts and allowing fees, at no extra charge. On top of it sit a fifty dollar administrative cost on civil filings and a sixty-five dollar indigent legal services surcharge, from which probate is not exempt, so two hundred and fifteen dollars is the figure to budget. A jury demand, which the schedule says applies in probate cases too, is a further two hundred.
Does an executor need a bond in Hawaii?
Usually not. In an informal probate no bond is required unless the will expressly requires one, a special administrator is appointed and an interested party asks, or somebody demands one — and Hawaii’s demand gate is ten thousand dollars of interest, ten times the usual, with the court retaining a discretion even then. No bond at all is needed from a representative who has deposited cash or collateral with a State agency. Where a bond is ordered without a stated amount, the representative swears their own estimate of the personal estate plus a year’s expected income and the bond must be for at least that.
Does Hawaii have a small estate affidavit?
Yes, where the gross value of the estate in the State does not exceed one hundred thousand dollars — and registered motor vehicles can be transferred regardless of value, so a car never counts against the limit. No waiting period is written into the section. There is also a second route with no equivalent elsewhere: for an estate of a hundred thousand or less with nobody appointed, the court clerk can be authorised to administer it personally, without notice or a hearing. Those proceedings are free of court costs, but the clerk takes three per cent of the first hundred thousand of the gross estate, paid to the State.
Sources & verification
Every figure on this page was checked against the official source on the date shown. The Hawaii State Legislature publishes one clean page per section, so each link below opens the exact section we read.
- Attorney fee — the stated absence and the review power — Haw. Rev. Stat. §560:3-721, with §560:3-306(c) www.capitol.hawaii.govVerified 7 Aug 2026 · chapter 560 contents list read end to end; no attorney compensation section exists · no factors are listed for the review · annual statutory re-check
- Personal representative’s compensation — Haw. Rev. Stat. §560:3-719 www.capitol.hawaii.govVerified 7 Aug 2026 · L 1996 c 288, unamended since · annual statutory re-check
- Court fee schedule and the two add-ons — Haw. Rev. Stat. §607-5, part I item (14) and part II item (32), with §607-5.7 www.capitol.hawaii.govVerified 8 Aug 2026 · read as PDFs · schedule history ends am L 2025 c 298 §23 · the $215.00 total was produced by running code over the printed components · annual re-check
- Publication below $10,000 — the clerk publishes — Haw. Rev. Stat. §560:3-1206 www.capitol.hawaii.govVerified 7 Aug 2026 · the court may direct that the newspaper advertisement need not be made · annual statutory re-check
- Notice to creditors above $10,000 — Haw. Rev. Stat. §560:3-801 www.capitol.hawaii.govVerified 8 Aug 2026 · amended L 2023 c 158 and L 2024 c 7 · publication is permissive, two insertions, four-month bar · closer watch than the annual re-check
- Bond — default, amount and the demand gate — Haw. Rev. Stat. §560:3-603, with §560:3-604 and §560:3-605 www.capitol.hawaii.govVerified 8 Aug 2026 · §560:3-605 amended L 2023 c 158 · annual statutory re-check
- Small-estate affidavit, and the vehicle carve-out — Haw. Rev. Stat. §560:3-1201 www.capitol.hawaii.govVerified 8 Aug 2026 · this section is served with an upper-case file extension and the link is stored as it resolves · annual statutory re-check
- The clerk-administered estate and its three per cent — Haw. Rev. Stat. §560:3-1205, with §560:3-1211 www.capitol.hawaii.govVerified 7 Aug 2026 · the fee is waived entirely where another personal representative completes the administration · annual statutory re-check
Researched and verified by John Terra · Methodology
This page is information, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws and fee schedules change; every figure here was verified on the date stamped beside it. For advice about your own situation, consult an attorney licensed in Hawaii. Full terms: /disclaimer/ · Privacy
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