The Long Forgotten Story of Queen Liliuokalani’s Contested Estate Plan

Roth was frequently was called upon to testify as an expert witness in legal battles over some of the country’s largest and oldest trusts. He also gave talks and wrote articles about some of Hawaii’s most interesting trust controversies, such as The Queen’s Estate, which he co-authored with Sam King and Walter Heen based on documents provided by the trustees of the Queen Liliuokalani Trust. This article documents Queen Liliuokalani’s effort to leave her entire estate in trust for the benefit Hawaiian orphans, and Prince Kuhio’s semi-successful attempt to thwart that plan by having her declared legally incompetent. This exceptionally controversial real-life story appeared with extensive footnotes in the May 2009 Hawaii Bar Journal (linked here and embedded below) and was republished, without footnotes, in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on May 17, 2009 (Page 1; Page 2) and May 18, 2009 (Page 3; Page 4). Roth, King, and Heen took no joy in spotlighting this heartbreaking conflict between members of Hawaii’s royal family, but they believed a community ignores its own history at its peril.

Roth also served as a consulting expert on the formation or operation of numerous large trusts, and worked with scriptwriters on the fictional trust depicted in an award-winning movie, The Descendants. The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and various other publications described Roth’s involvement and commented favorably on the script’s accurate portrayal of complicated legal issues. In addition to winning the academy award for script writing, The Descendants garnered praise in blogs of legal experts. National and local law journals published Roth’s subsequent description of the real-life trusts that inspired the fictional movie. Numerous law schools tapped Roth to lead conversations about trust law with their faculty and students, often with a goal of entertaining as well as enlightening.