Trustee Notice to Beneficiaries Requirements in Hawaii

At a glance

Requirements one by one

The two notices sit behind a post-death gate

Hawaii Revised Statutes § 554D-813(c) begins, “After the settlor's death.” It then requires notice within 60 days after acceptance of a trusteeship and within 60 days after the trustee acquires knowledge of an irrevocable trust's creation or a formerly revocable trust's irrevocability.

The acceptance notice states the acceptance and gives the trustee's name, address, and telephone number. The other notice states the trust's existence, identifies the settlor or settlors, and explains the rights to request the trust instrument and a trustee's report.

The statute does not state a new death-date reset for a trustee who accepted earlier or acquired knowledge earlier. The post-death prefatory language and the event-based 60-day clocks therefore both matter when applying the rule to a lifetime trust.

Qualified beneficiaries reach three distribution horizons

Section 554D-103 includes a beneficiary eligible to receive income or principal now, one who would become eligible if the current distributees' interests ended without terminating the trust, and one who would become eligible if the trust terminated on the determination date.

Section 554D-301(a) gives notice to an authorized representative the same effect as direct notice to the represented person.

Lifetime incapacity uses a recipient hierarchy

During the settlor's lifetime, § 554D-813(a) makes the trustee's duties under the section run exclusively to the settlor even if the settlor lacks capacity to revoke. For an incapacitated settlor, the trustee may instead provide information and reports in order of preference to a trust-designated person, conservator, guardian, durable- power-of-attorney agent, or a spouse who is a trust beneficiary.

Only when none of those people exists does the statute direct information and reports to qualified beneficiaries during the settlor's incapacity.

The core notices cannot be erased by trust terms

Section 554D-105 generally lets trust terms prevail, but subsection (b)(8) protects the § 554D-813(c)(2)-(3) notice core. The trust terms cannot remove notice of the trust's existence, trustee identity, and report-request right from the mandatory list.

Delivery remains functional. Section 554D-109 permits a reasonably suitable method likely to result in receipt, including first-class mail, personal or last-known-address delivery, and a properly directed electronic message.

What trips people up

• The current paragraphs are in subsection (c), not subsection (b). Hawaii's statute inserts the lifetime-settlor and post-death information rules before the two notices.
• The post-death gate is part of the operative text. Section 554D-813 states no separate automatic lifetime irrevocability notice to beneficiaries.
• Not every qualified beneficiary automatically receives every annual report. Subsection (d) names distributees or permissible distributees and other qualified beneficiaries who request a report.
• The pre-2022 exclusions are event-specific. The notices exclude a trustee who accepted before January 1, 2022, an irrevocable trust created before that date, and a revocable trust that became irrevocable before that date.

Common questions

Must the full trust instrument accompany the notice?

No. The irrevocability notice states the right to request it. Under § 554D-813(c)(1), the trustee must furnish a copy promptly when a qualified beneficiary requests one after the settlor's death.

May a beneficiary waive notice or information?

Yes. Section 554D-109(c) permits the person entitled to notice to waive it. Section 554D-813(e) separately permits waiver of reports or other information and allows withdrawal for future reports and information.

Can the trustee charge for requested information?

Yes. Section 554D-813(f) permits a reasonable fee to a qualified beneficiary for providing information under the section.

Does the notice need a trustee signature or sworn proof of service?

The cited initial-notice and delivery provisions require neither. They prescribe the contents and delivery standard without a signature, notarization, adult-server, penalty-of-perjury declaration, or proof-of-service certificate.

Statutes and sources

• Haw. Rev. Stat. § 554D-813(a)-(f), (i) — lifetime hierarchy, post-death information duty, two initial notices, contents, reports, waiver, fees, and pre-2022 exclusions. Hawaii Legislature (accessed 2026-07-31).
• Haw. Rev. Stat. § 554D-103 — qualified-beneficiary definition. Hawaii Legislature (accessed 2026-07-31).
• Haw. Rev. Stat. § 554D-105(a), (b)(8)-(9) — trust-term control and mandatory notice/information duties. Hawaii Legislature (accessed 2026-07-31).
• Haw. Rev. Stat. § 554D-109(a)-(c) — delivery, unknown recipients, and waiver. Hawaii Legislature (accessed 2026-07-31).
• Haw. Rev. Stat. § 554D-301(a) — representation effect. Hawaii Legislature (accessed 2026-07-31).