by Sanford Okura | Jul 20, 2012 | Estate Taxes and Gift Taxes
HAWAII ESTATE AND GENERATION SKIPPING TRANSFER TAXES On July 5, 2012, Governor Abercrombie finally signed into law the Estate and Generation-Skipping Tax Reform Act, which is Act 220. Parts of this law were badly needed to clean up the poorly written Hawaii Estate Tax...
by Sanford Okura | Jun 15, 2012 | Estate Planning, Powers of Attorney and Health Care Directives
THE DURABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY – PART 2 Not all Powers of Attorney are of equal quality. You need a carefully written Power of Attorney which contains special wording for estate planning situations. A Power of Attorney does not give the...
by Sanford Okura | May 3, 2012 | Estate Planning, Powers of Attorney and Health Care Directives
Every adult should have a Durable Power of Attorney. A “Power of Attorney” is a legal document in which one person gives another person the power to act for him, including the power to sign papers for him. The person who is giving the power is...
by Sanford Okura | Apr 20, 2012 | Estate Planning, Trusts and Wills
UNDERSTANDING REVOCABLE LIVING TRUSTS Trusts began in England in the Middle Ages. The Statute of Uses is a law enacted in 1536 under King Henry VIII. The Statute of Uses is the basis of trust law in England. From England, the concept of trusts came to America...
by Sanford Okura | Mar 29, 2012 | Estate Planning
MAKING IT EASIER FOR YOUR LOVED ONES From time to time, our law firm has a client who passes away with a situation similar to the following actual experience. The wife died. She handled all of the family finances. She was the family record keeper. When she died,...
by Sanford Okura | Feb 22, 2012 | Estate Planning
WHO INHERITS WHEN SOMEONE DIES? When someone dies without a will, we say that the person died “intestate.” The law of intestacy explains who will inherit the property of a person who dies without a will. Each state has its own law of intestacy. I will...
by Sanford Okura | Jan 20, 2012 | Estate Planning, Estate Taxes and Gift Taxes, Medicaid and Nursing Home Costs
Here is a 2012 update on important numbers used in Estate Planning and Medicaid Planning in Hawaii. How much money and property can a person have at death without paying estate taxes? Under a temporary federal law, $5,000,000 is tax free this year. From January 1,...
by Sanford Okura | Dec 19, 2011 | Estate Planning
REVERSE MORTGAGE People often ask me for advice about reverse mortgages. They hear that with a reverse mortgage the bank pays you instead of your paying the bank, and that sounds good to them. Here is the advice I give them: if you want your children or other loved...
by Sanford Okura | Nov 18, 2011 | Estate Planning
PROBATE & TAXES vs. NURSING HOME COSTS Many senior citizens are worried about probate and death taxes. For most people, the fear of probate and estate taxes is misplaced. The greatest threat to our hard earned money is not probate or taxes, but nursing...
by Sanford Okura | Oct 31, 2011 | Estate Planning
NEW LAW: TRANSFER ON DEATH DEED Hawaii has a new law which allows real estate to go to a beneficiary when the owner dies, without having to go to court for probate. This new procedure requires a new kind of deed, called a “Transfer on Death Deed.” Governor...
