Your state’s pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Hawaii T&E solo who knows the Uniform Probate Code (HRS ch. 560) cold but still loses an afternoon a week hunting the current homestead number, the Med-QUEST / QUEST Integration (DHS Med-QUEST Division) program posture, whether the latest Hawaii bar ethics opinion changes how you scope an engagement, or whether a recent Intermediate Court of Appeals decision just moved the law on capacity, undue influence, or a trustee’s duties. What’s below is what mattered in Hawaii lately — the week’s developments and the recent rulings from the bench.
For licensed attorneys. This pack is general legal information and professional commentary for practicing attorneys — it is not legal advice, does not apply to any specific matter, and creates no attorney-client relationship. Verify every authority against the cited primary source before relying on it with a client. Published by Mike Moss, a Utah-admitted attorney, as an AI-enablement information product; it is not an offer of legal services and is not a representation that the author is admitted to practice in your jurisdiction.
Three developments from the last several weeks that I think actually matter to a Hawaii T&E solo. Each one has a read that lands on your practice specifically — and each one comes with the citation so you can verify the detail yourself before you use it with a client.
HB 2093 SD1, enacted as 2026 Haw. Sess. Laws Act 047 on May 27, 2026 (Gov. Msg. No. 1147), provides for the temporary sealing of certain medical records and professional evaluations filed in guardianship and conservatorship proceedings, pending a judicial determination on whether continued sealing is warranted. It came through the Judiciary package.
This is the filing-desk change in Hawaii adult-guardianship practice this year. The capacity evaluation and medical records you file in a petition now get temporary protection by operation of the statute rather than only by motion — but it is temporary, and continued sealing turns on a judicial determination. Build the continued-sealing request into your petition workflow rather than assuming the initial seal holds.
2026 Haw. Sess. Laws Act 047 (H.B. 2093, S.D. 1), May 27, 2026 · capitol.hawaii.gov · HB 2093
HB 2329 CD1, enacted as 2026 Haw. Sess. Laws Act 035 on May 26, 2026 (Gov. Msg. No. 1135), conforms Hawaii income tax and Hawaii estate and generation-skipping transfer tax law to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 as amended as of December 31, 2025.
Hawaii is one of the minority of states that still imposes its own estate tax, and it reaches that result by reference to federal law — so the annual conformity act is what fixes which version of the IRC your Hawaii estate-tax analysis runs on. Check the conformity date before relying on any federal change enacted after December 31, 2025; it is not picked up until the next conformity act.
2026 Haw. Sess. Laws Act 035 (H.B. 2329, C.D. 1), May 26, 2026 · capitol.hawaii.gov · HB 2329
S.B. 3025 (2026 Haw. Sess. Laws Act 220, signed July 9, 2026) directs the Office of Wellness and Resilience to establish and administer a program that purchases and eliminates outstanding medical debt of Hawaii residents, contingent on available funds — scaled at up to roughly 50,000 residents and as much as $91M in relief.
Medical debt is the paradigmatic creditor claim against elder clients and their estates. A state program extinguishing provider balances changes the insolvency math in estate administration and the advice you give families staring at hospital liens — watch the program’s eligibility rules as they issue.
2026 Haw. Sess. Laws Act 220 (S.B. 3025), signed July 9, 2026 · data.capitol.hawaii.gov
Decisions that bind a Hawaii practitioner — Hawaii’s appellate courts and the federal courts covering Hawaii, including the U.S. Ninth Circuit — read for what actually changes how you draft, advise, and plan. Trusts and estates broadly, not Medicaid alone: wills and capacity, undue influence, fiduciary duty, trust construction, and estate recovery. One read, the holding, and the official cite.
This lane reads each new opinion from Hawaii’s appellate courts and the federal courts covering Hawaii (Ninth Circuit) before anything lands here, and reads-and-discards matters that aren’t trusts-and-estates — criminal, family, commercial/LLC fiduciary, tax, and cases where an estate or trust is only a party. For this period’s trailing window, no new verified trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision from those courts was identified in the sources reviewed.
Nothing to re-paper from the bench this period; controlling authority is unchanged. When the next verified T&E ruling issues, it lands here with the holding and the official cite.
Controlling authority unchanged · Hawaii appellate courts · U.S. Ninth Circuit.
This week in Hawaii for the T&E solo with Med-QUEST clients: the developments from the Hawaii State Bar Association (Probate & Estate Planning Section) and the DHS Med-QUEST Division that actually moved your practice this period — each one primary-source verified.
Bar and Medicaid changes land on different schedules and aren’t indexed by practice focus. Every item here was checked against its primary source, with the link, so you can verify before relying on it.