With the recent birth of our wonderful daughter, my original idea of living fast and dying young…read moresort of didn't make sense anymore, so I thought maybe living slow and dying really old would be a better way to go now. When you have a kid, suddenly you realize that it matters if you're no longer around and you want to make sure that your little ones are taken care of should you go on that journey to the big farm with lots of room to run around and lots of squirrels to chase and all the other things that my mom said our childhood dog experienced when he mysteriously disappeared one day. So I began researching Estate Planning firms here in Hawaii. I went to a seminar. I started trying to find as much info as I can. There are places to do it online, are they good? I don't know, but I don't trust them. What if I have questions? What if they're not familiar with Hawaii law? I figured I wanted someone local. I called a few places in Oahu (I'm based in Oahu). One place didn't even respond. I called them again, they didn't even bother calling me back. I'm going to leave a review on them. Another place quoted an amount close to $5K for an estate plan with a trust which seemed more than it should. But then after doing searches in google I found Hawaii Trust & Estate Counsel and man I'm glad I used these guys. They are based in Big Island and Maui but they also cover Oahu. They are a small office which is what I wanted. John Roth is the founder of the company and if you look at his bio on their website, he's a local Oahu boy and he's got tons of experience with estate planning. Also listed on their page is info on his dad who was a professor at UH with tons of awards and a specialty in estate planning. These guys know their stuff! I expected developing an estate plan would be a huge chore, but it was so easy going and working with John was great. He's extremely easy to work with and he's very calm and low-keyed in a way that I really liked. The seminar I had gone to about estate planning from another company really spent a lot of time scaring me about how much things would cost if I died without an estate plan. John was a lot more matter of fact and reasonable about why an estate plan might help and he really took the time to explain things to us and to also suggest what would be best for our situation. Price was a lot more reasonable than the quote I got from the other place. The logistics of meeting with John was probably the best thing. I was expecting I'd have to take time off of work to meet, but because John is based on another island, you pretty much just contact them through email or phone, and based on John's scheduled visits to Oahu (he comes twice a month or more as his parents still live here), you can book at time at whatever location YOU want to meet. I communicated with his assistant Krystal via email who was very professional and timely. We were able to book a time on a Saturday which was perfect for us and it was at our house which was even better. The first meeting was around an hour and we decided on all the things we wanted. We agreed to do an estate plan. Later I had a few questions so I emailed and got quick responses. After a couple of weeks everything was ready and again we scheduled a time based on when John was back in Oahu. We met during lunch at our house so I could just drive home from work with my wife and an hour later we had all of our documents signed and ready to go. John is also a notary public so all your signatures can be notarized by him which makes things even easier. I can't stress enough how happy we are we used this company. John is a fantastic lawyer and such a nice guy. They're a small company so I felt like they really could give me personal support rather than a company that churns these things out. I had a list from several websites and the seminar I went to about all the things that should be in a good estate plan, and everything was included in our estate plan. It is great peace of mind knowing our daughter will be taken care of!

Hawaii Trust and Estate Counsel set up our living trust and then worked quickly to complete the…read moreforms before we unexpectedly had to be off island. We are very appreciative.