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Carroll Taylor, a Honolulu trust lawyer with no financial interest in the Bishop Estate, discussed a court-appointed master's report released on November 17, 1997, covering the estate's fiscal year 1994. Taylor explained that under the terms of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop's will, trustees are required to seek periodic court approval of their accounts, and that the master — an attorney acting as a deputy to the probate judge — investigates those accounts and reports back. The 1997 report documented several instances of non-compliance with prior court orders: trustees had failed to disclose the fair market value of estate assets, to publish annual schedules of gains and losses, and to produce a long-required strategic plan. Taylor noted that past accounting approvals might not shield trustees from liability if material information — including details of co-investment by individual trustees in estate holdings — had never been disclosed. He concluded that the report was necessarily incomplete because adequate information had still not been supplied. The central question is whether the probate court will impose meaningful consequences for non-compliance, up to and including the removal of trustees.
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