EPLS Meaning

What EPLS Means (and What It Does Not)

EPLS stands for Estate Planning Law Specialist. It is a professional designation for practicing attorneys who concentrate on estate planning. If you have arrived here from a search for the acronym, the short answer is that the letters name a credential, not a job title and not a degree. A lawyer does not become an EPLS by taking a course or paying a membership fee; the designation is earned through a combination of documented practice experience, peer references, professional liability coverage, continuing education and a national examination.

For a plain-language overview of the term itself, see our companion pieces on what EPLS stands for and what EPLS certification is. This article goes a layer deeper: it explains what the name signifies in practice, who is eligible to use it, and what it takes to earn and keep it.

Who Stands Behind the Designation

The designation is run under the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils (NAEPC). Day-to-day certification and testing are handled by its Estate Law Specialist Board, Inc. (ELSB), described as an ABA-accredited, attorney-run subsidiary. The issuer reports that the American Bar Association reaccredited the program on February 3, 2025.

That structure matters for two reasons. First, the credential is administered by lawyers, for lawyers, which shapes the rigor of the eligibility rules and the proctoring requirements. Second, the program is separate from state-bar specialization programs. A state-bar specialist certification is its own credential with its own rules, and state-specific rules also govern how a lawyer may advertise a specialist designation. Anyone planning to market the EPLS title should check their own jurisdiction's advertising rules first.

Council membership is encouraged but not required. It does, however, affect price, as covered in the fee section below.

What the Credential Certifies

Read closely, the title tells you what a holder has demonstrated. "Estate Planning" identifies the practice area. "Law" signals that the designation belongs to attorneys, not to the broader advisory community. "Specialist" reflects the concentration threshold: the program does not certify generalists who occasionally draft a will, but lawyers who devote a substantial share of their practice to estate planning over a sustained period.

The certification is built on several pillars working together rather than the exam alone:

• Experience: a minimum period in practice with a documented share devoted to estate planning.
• Peer validation: favorable references from professionals who know the applicant's work.
• Protection: required professional liability coverage.
• Education: a continuing-legal-education history in the field.
• Knowledge: the national examination.

If you are weighing whether those pillars justify the effort, our analysis in Is the EPLS Certification Worth It? works through the tradeoffs.

Who Can Even Apply

Eligibility is the first real filter, and it is stricter than most professional designations. The published standards require all of the following:

The reference rules

References are where many applicants stumble. A majority of the referrers must have known you for at least three years, and no relatives or lawyers from your own firm may serve. The standards describe the referrers as estate-planning practitioners and/or judges, while the 2024 application phrases the majority requirement as knowledgeable attorneys or judges. That narrower wording difference is worth raising with the issuer before you finalize your list, rather than assuming either reading.

Reconciling older descriptions

You may find directory pages and older descriptions that cite a one-third practice-involvement threshold. The current standard is 40%, and the current figure controls. Likewise, the standards call for 12 CLE hours annually across 36 months, while summary materials mention 36 hours total; because the annual allocation is part of the standard, plan for the per-year requirement, not just the total.

There is no separate degree requirement or mandatory training course beyond the licensure, practice and CLE standards. For the full walk-through, see EPLS Requirements: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.

What the Exam Covers

The exam is an 80-question multiple-choice national examination, and passing it is required for certification. The issuer's sample-question introduction points candidates toward three broad areas, which we use as the working framework for preparation:

Watch the dates inside the samples

The issuer's sample page uses fact patterns built on 2001 death and gift assumptions and a 7% Section 7520 rate. Those are historical exercise assumptions, not current-law figures. They are useful for learning the style and complexity of the questions, but do not memorize their numbers as if they were current rules. The issuer indicates that applicable Code and Regulations tables are supplied on the examination itself, so the skill being tested is application and reasoning, not rote recall of rate tables.

For a domain-by-domain breakdown, see EPLS Exam Domains: Complete Guide to All 3 Content Areas.

Exam Mechanics and Logistics

Several logistical details are well documented, and several are not. Separating the two prevents unpleasant surprises.

Notice what is missing. The current time limit and the numerical passing score are not publicly verified, and the exam version year is not stated. A 2017 issuer newsletter described a two-hour exam for that particular event, but that does not establish today's timer. A general open-book rule, calculator policy, adaptive-testing policy and commercial webcam remote-proctoring policy are likewise not publicly verified. Confirm each of these directly with the issuer when you apply. Our pages on the EPLS passing score and EPLS exam dates track what is and is not known.

The proctor requirement deserves early attention. Because the proctor must be an actively licensed attorney with no relationship to you and no connection to your firm, arranging one is a real scheduling task, not an afterthought.

Fees, Attempts and Timelines

Council membership therefore saves $100 on the initial application, which is worth weighing against the cost of joining. You may encounter archived 2021 review-course information listing older annual and recertification fees and an event discount; the current issuer figures above take precedence. A fuller breakdown lives in EPLS Certification Cost: Complete Pricing Breakdown.

Retake rules

The attempt structure is specific and worth planning around:

1. A second attempt is permitted between 90 and 365 days after the first.
2. A third attempt must come at least 90 days after the second and within 365 days of the first.
3. After three failures, you must wait at least six months and reapply.

Combine that with the two-year completion window and the 6-8 week processing plus four-week results turnaround, and the calendar gets tight for candidates who expect to need more than one sitting. Treat the first attempt as the real one.

Keeping the Designation Active

The certification lasts five years, and holding it involves ongoing obligations in the interim:

• Annual maintenance with an annual renewal fee of $350.
• An insurance declaration confirming the required liability coverage.
• 15 estate-planning CLE hours each year.

At the five-year mark, recertification costs $400 and reassesses your practice involvement, peer review, education and good standing. Importantly, recertification does not require taking the examination again. For more on keeping the credential current, our EPLS certification page collects the essentials.

Same Letters, Different Credentials

Because "EPLS" is a shared acronym, searching for it can return results about entirely different certifications and systems. This causes real problems for candidates, who sometimes land on pages with fees, exam dates or domain structures that belong to another program. A few habits protect you:

• Always confirm that a page is about the Estate Planning Law Specialist designation and mentions NAEPC and the Estate Law Specialist Board.
• Treat any source citing exam details not listed in the issuer's own materials with suspicion.
• Be careful with commercial practice-question products that use the exact credential title; their alignment and quality may be unverified.

For related definitional questions, see What Does EPLS Mean? and What Is a EPLS?.

EPLS Compared With AEP

The most common point of comparison is the Accredited Estate Planner (AEP) designation, also administered through NAEPC. They are distinct credentials with different audiences, and choosing between them depends on your professional role.

The practical takeaway is that EPLS speaks to a lawyer's depth of concentration in the legal practice itself, while AEP addresses the broader team around a client. Attorneys sometimes pursue both, but they are separate processes. Check the AEP requirements directly on NAEPC's designations page rather than assuming they mirror EPLS rules.

Who Benefits From the Designation

The designation is for lawyers, so "who hires" really means where the credential carries weight. It tends to matter for attorneys in estate-planning boutiques, trust-and-estates departments of larger firms, and solo practitioners who want a third-party signal of concentration when marketing to clients and referral sources. Because the program requires peer references and sustained practice involvement, it can help a lawyer stand out among referral partners such as accountants, financial advisors and other attorneys.

On earnings, be cautious. Credential-specific salary or earnings premiums for EPLS have not been established, and anyone quoting a precise figure should be treated skeptically. Our EPLS Salary Guide and EPLS jobs overview discuss what can and cannot be said responsibly. Similarly, a verified pass rate is not published; the EPLS pass rate page explains how to think about that gap and how hard the exam is in practice via How Hard Is the EPLS Exam?.

A Domain-Based Study Sequence

Because the eligibility process already guarantees substantial practice experience, preparation is less about learning estate planning from scratch and more about sharpening technical tax computation and closing gaps outside your daily work. Here is one way to sequence the three domains. Adjust the length to your own schedule and strengths.

The reasoning behind this order is simple: the tax material is the most computation-heavy and benefits from the longest runway, planning questions build directly on it, and ethics is shorter but easy to underestimate. Start with the issuer's own study guide approach and keep our one-page cheat sheet nearby for quick review. When you want realistic question practice, use the EPLS practice tests, and remember that the issuer recommends current Code and Regulations and estate-planning texts as its study materials. Our EPLS training overview covers optional review courses, which are supplementary and separate from certification fees.

Frequently Asked Questions