How to Become an Estate Planner

First, let's take a look at estate planning. Essentially, as estate planners, you are going to be the legal entity who helps plan out the disposition of individual and corporate estates that have been accumulated by your clients during their lives. You might find that the role involves a great deal of tax planning, the setup of trust funds, and the arrangement of charitable contributions. You will also find that you are going to be instrumental when it comes to doing things like taking care of the last will and testament of the individual in question. This is a position of high trust and honor, and you might find that your client is almost literally trusting the welfare of his or her family into your hands. Sometimes, your work will guarantee that your clients can rest easily, knowing that their descendants are going to be well provided for.

So what does it take to become an estate planner? First, you are going to need an advanced degree. Most people will get their degree in law before they go into estate planning, but you will also find that you can enter the field through finance or accounting as well. This is the education that you are going to need when you are thinking about going into estate planning and at the very least you need a master's degree, if not more. The education that you can bring to bear will be a large part of what you need to handle the work that you are looking at, so make sure that you are thorough.


After you have earned your degree, you will find that you should sign up for a Certified Estate Planner program. There are a number of different options that are going to be open to you in this regard; there are many companies that administer them, so look around for testing in your area. The best certification is usually thought to come from the National Institute of Certified Estate Planners. This can make a great deal of difference at the end of the day, so choose your certification wisely. There are going to be many topics covered, including things like living trusts, trust provisions for special situations, funding, revocable living trust, and joint ownership accounts.

The coursework that can go into getting certified can be fairly immense, but you'll discover that they are fairly straightforward. For the most part, you may even be able to take the majority of the classes online, something that can make studying for your certification a lot easier to deal with. Remember that if you take your classes online that you are going to need to consider what your options are going to be to get the test proctored at the end of the day, however.

Finally, after you have achieved the certification and sworn to uphold the code of ethics of estate planning, you are ready to start advertising your services. There are plenty of venues that will offer you work, and you should decide whether you want to be part of a company or whether you want to work on your own. There are definitely advantages to either and when you are thinking about getting the best results, take some time to consider your own personality. This is something that can make a lot of difference to your career goals.