by Ethan Okura | May 14, 2021 | Articles, Powers of Attorney and Health Care Directives
ADVANCE HEALTH-CARE DIRECTIVES by Ethan Okura | May 14, 2021 | 0 comments Everyone should have Advance Health-Care Directives. “Advance Health-Care Directives” are instructions which you are giving now (while you can still make decisions) about how you want doctors...
by Ethan Okura | Apr 12, 2021 | Articles, Probate
by Ethan Okura | Jan 8, 2021 | Trusts and Wills
For most couples who do not have trusts, if one dies, everything goes to the spouse. If a married couple will have more than $5.49 million of assets (including life insurance death benefits), then having everything go to the spouse could cause an estate tax problem....
by Ethan Okura | Dec 11, 2020 | Trusts and Wills
Although a Revocable Living Trust is good for avoiding probate (and for married couples, an A-B Trust can reduce or eliminate estate taxes), it cannot protect your home from nursing home costs. Some years back, the State of Hawaii passed a Medicaid rule: If your home...
by Ethan Okura | Nov 12, 2020 | Trusts and Wills
Last month we shared information on funding your Revocable Living Trust. This month we decided to go back to the very beginning and explain what a Revocable Trust is and how they started in the first place. What is a Revocable Living Trust? Trusts began in...
by Ethan Okura | Oct 12, 2020 | Articles, Trusts and Wills
If you have an existing estate plan, you are probably already familiar with the benefits of creating a Revocable Living Trust. One of the biggest advantages of a Revocable Living Trust is the ability to avoid probate. Probate is a court process when a...
by Ethan Okura | Jun 9, 2020 | Articles
During the past two and a half months of lockdown, I’ve had a fair amount of time while walking the neighborhood or taking breaks from working at home to ponder life, and I’ve come to some interesting realizations. Here in Hawaii we’ve been fortunate...
by Ethan Okura | Feb 11, 2020 | Articles
On December 20, 2019, the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act was signed into law by President Trump. The SECURE Act makes some really big changes to the way that retirement accounts must be distributed—especially after the original...
