- What the EPLS Credential Actually Certifies
- The Core Prerequisites at a Glance
- The 40% Practice-Involvement Threshold
- CLE Hours: The 36-Hour and 12-Per-Year Wrinkle
- Insurance Coverage and the Eight Referrers
- Application, Fees and Proctoring Logistics
- What You Are Qualifying to Sit For
- Retake Windows and the Two-Year Clock
- Staying Certified: Renewal and Recertification
- A Qualification Timeline for Candidates
- Frequently Asked Questions
- You need an active law license in good standing and at least five years as a practicing attorney.
- At least 40% of normal full-time practice must be estate planning during the preceding five years.
- Carry at least $1,000,000 in professional liability coverage per claim, and line up eight professional referrers.
- The whole process, including exam and returned references, must finish within two years of application receipt.
What the EPLS Credential Actually Certifies
The Estate Planning Law Specialist (EPLS) designation is an attorney-only credential. It is governed by the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils (NAEPC) and administered by its Estate Law Specialist Board, Inc. (ELSB), an ABA-accredited, attorney-run subsidiary. That structure shapes everything about the requirements: this is not an entry-level certificate you earn by completing a course. It is a peer-reviewed, practice-verified specialty designation, and the eligibility rules are designed to confirm that you already do this work at a meaningful level before you ever sit for the exam.
If you are still orienting yourself on what the credential is, start with What Is EPLS Certification? and What Does EPLS Stand For?. This article assumes you know the basics and want a clear, dated reconciliation of what you must show to qualify.
The Core Prerequisites at a Glance
The published standards, the FAQ and the 2024 application form together establish the following baseline. Notably, no separate degree requirement and no fixed training course are published beyond the licensure, practice and CLE standards listed here.
| Requirement | What the Standards Say |
|---|---|
| Law license | Active license, in good standing |
| Years in practice | At least five years as a practicing attorney |
| Estate planning concentration | At least 40% of normal full-time practice during the preceding five years |
| Professional liability coverage | At least $1,000,000 per claim |
| Professional references | Eight referrers; at least five favorable responses |
| Continuing legal education | At least 12 CLE hours per year over the preceding 36 months |
| Examination | Passing the national examination is required |
| Council membership | Encouraged, not required |
Each row has nuance, and a few contain source discrepancies you should know about before you assemble your file. We take them in turn below.
The 40% Practice-Involvement Threshold
This is the requirement that most often determines whether an otherwise experienced attorney qualifies. The current standard requires that at least 40% of your normal full-time practice has been devoted to estate planning during the preceding five years.
You may encounter older descriptions, including some third-party directory pages, that cite a one-third threshold. Treat those as outdated. The current 40% figure controls.
How to think about the percentage
- It is measured against a normal full-time practice. Part-time attorneys should read the application carefully and consider contacting ELSB to confirm how the threshold applies to their situation.
- It looks backward five years. A recent pivot into estate planning generally will not satisfy a requirement that examines the entire preceding five-year window.
- The application collects practice-involvement evidence. The categories on the application describe the kinds of estate-planning work that count as eligibility evidence. They are not additional exam domains, so do not confuse them with exam content.
CLE Hours: The 36-Hour and 12-Per-Year Wrinkle
Continuing education is one place where the published sources need careful reading. The Standards for Certification require at least 12 CLE hours per year over the preceding 36 months. The FAQ and the application summarize the same requirement as 36 hours over that period.
These are not contradictory in total (12 hours across three years equals 36), but the annual allocation matters. The standards language means you cannot satisfy the requirement by cramming all 36 hours into a single year. Plan your education so that each of the 36 months of lookback shows steady, distributed activity.
What to do about it
- Pull your CLE transcript for the past three years.
- Confirm each of the three annual periods shows at least 12 hours of qualifying content.
- If one year is short, address it before applying, since the issuer retains the annual-allocation requirement.
- Keep certificates and transcripts organized, as you will need them again for annual maintenance after certification.
Optional exam-review courses can also earn general CLE credit. For example, one commercial review course advertises 3.0 general CLE credits, but that credit is separate from the certification requirements and does not replace the estate-planning CLE the standards describe. Confirm how any course credit applies to your jurisdiction and to ELSB's standards.
Insurance Coverage and the Eight Referrers
Professional liability coverage
You must carry professional liability (malpractice) coverage of at least $1,000,000 per claim. After certification, the annual maintenance process includes an insurance declaration, so this is an ongoing obligation, not a one-time checkbox. If your current policy limit is below the threshold, address it before you apply.
The reference requirement
The credential relies heavily on peer verification. You must identify eight professional referrers, and at least five must return favorable responses. A majority of your referrers must have known you for at least three years. Relatives and members of your own firm are excluded.
There is one wording difference worth flagging. The standards describe the eight referrers as estate-planning law practitioners and/or judges, while the 2024 application states that a majority must be knowledgeable attorneys or judges. The narrower wording is retained as a question for issuer clarification, so if your reference list includes non-attorney professionals, confirm with ELSB before relying on them.
Choosing and managing your referrers
Because the process includes returned references, and because the entire certification must finish within two years, your referrers can become the bottleneck.
- Select attorneys or judges who know your estate-planning work firsthand.
- Favor people who have known you three or more years, since a majority must meet that threshold.
- Avoid relatives and anyone in your firm, who are not eligible.
- Choose more than the minimum of reliable respondents so a few late replies do not stall your file.
- Give each referrer advance notice and a realistic timeframe for responding.
Application, Fees and Proctoring Logistics
Fees are published in USD on the standards page. The initial application includes one examination sitting.
| Item | Fee (USD) |
|---|---|
| Initial application, NAEPC-affiliated local council member | $500 |
| Initial application, other applicants | $600 |
| Each retake | $200 |
| Annual renewal | $350 |
| Five-year recertification | $400 |
The $100 difference between member and non-member pricing is worth weighing if you are not yet affiliated with a local council, although council membership itself is not required for certification. For a fuller financial picture, see our EPLS certification cost breakdown. Note that archived third-party pages may list older annual and recertification fees or event discounts; the current issuer fees above take precedence.
Processing times and delivery
- Allow 6 to 8 weeks for application processing.
- Allow four weeks for results after you sit for the exam.
- Online and hardcopy delivery are available after your application is approved.
- Your proctor must be an actively licensed attorney who is unrelated to you and outside your firm.
That proctor rule deserves early attention. Finding a qualified, unrelated attorney outside your firm who is willing to administer the exam is a logistics task you should resolve before approval arrives, not after. For scheduling considerations, see EPLS exam dates, testing windows and scheduling.
Public sources do not identify a commercial testing vendor such as Pearson VUE, PSI or Prometric for this exam, and a commercial webcam remote-proctoring policy is not publicly verified. Rely on ELSB's instructions at the time you are approved.
What You Are Qualifying to Sit For
Meeting the eligibility requirements earns you the right to take the national examination, which is mandatory. Public sources confirm 80 multiple-choice questions. The current time limit, numerical passing score, scored/unscored split and current exam version year are not publicly verified, so be wary of any site that states them with confidence. A September 2017 issuer newsletter described a two-hour examination for that specific event, but that does not establish today's timer. Our page on the EPLS passing score tracks what is and is not publicly confirmed.
The issuer's sample-question introduction points to three topic lines, which we present here as unweighted preparation themes rather than an official blueprint or a verified current exam outline:
Domain 1: Estate and gift tax
The sample materials emphasize computation-oriented problems, and the issuer indicates applicable Code and Regulations tables are supplied on the examination. Expect to work with valuation, marital deduction concepts such as QTIP, gift-tax transfers, powers of appointment and basis.
Domain 2: Planning
Practical planning judgment across the instruments and strategies an estate planning attorney uses daily.
Domain 3: Ethics
Professional-responsibility issues arising in estate planning representation.
For a deeper look at content areas, read our complete guide to the three EPLS content areas, and build your plan with the EPLS study guide. When you are ready to test yourself, try the EPLS practice tests.
Retake Windows and the Two-Year Clock
Two time constraints shape your qualification path, and they interact.
The two-year completion window
The certification process, including application completion, the examination and returned references, must finish within two years after your application is received. If it does not, the file closes and you must reapply. This is why slow referrers or a delayed proctor arrangement can be costly.
Attempt rules
- The first attempt is included with your initial application fee.
- A second attempt is permitted 90 to 365 days after the first attempt.
- A third attempt must be at least 90 days after the second and within 365 days of the first.
- After three failures, you must wait at least six months and reapply.
Retakes cost $200 each. Because a failed attempt forces a minimum 90-day wait, preparing thoroughly for the first sitting is the most economical strategy. For realistic expectations, see how hard the EPLS exam is and what we can and cannot say about the EPLS pass rate; no official pass-rate figure is publicly verified, so treat any claimed number skeptically.
Staying Certified: Renewal and Recertification
Qualifying is not a one-time event. Certification lasts five years, with obligations in between.
- Annual maintenance: a $350 annual renewal, an insurance declaration and 15 estate-planning CLE hours each year.
- Five-year recertification: a $400 fee, reassessing your practice involvement, peer review, education and good standing, without requiring another examination.
The jump from 12 hours per year (to qualify) to 15 per year (to maintain) is easy to overlook. Budget your CLE accordingly once you are certified.
Key Takeaway
Think of qualification as a two-stage commitment: prove your practice and references up front, then maintain coverage, CLE and good standing for as long as you want to hold the designation. If you are weighing the long-term value, see whether the EPLS certification is worth it.
A note on advertising the designation
State-specific rules govern how you may advertise a specialist designation. A state-bar specialization is a separate credential with its own rules. Check your jurisdiction's attorney advertising regulations before you use the EPLS designation in marketing materials.
A Qualification Timeline for Candidates
Because of the two-year window and the 6 to 8 week processing period, sequencing matters. Here is one way to schedule the qualification work around the exam's three topic areas. This is a planning aid, not an issuer-mandated schedule.
Audit your eligibility
- Document five years of practice and the 40% estate-planning share.
- Verify three annual periods of at least 12 CLE hours each.
- Confirm $1,000,000 per-claim coverage.
Line up referrers and a proctor
- Recruit eight eligible referrers, favoring those who have known you three years or more.
- Identify an actively licensed, unrelated attorney outside your firm to proctor.
Apply and study during processing
- Submit the application and fee, then use the 6 to 8 week processing period to study.
- Front-load Domain 1 (Estate and gift tax), the most computation-heavy area, using current Code and Regulations.
Planning and ethics, then sit
- Reinforce Domain 2 (Planning) and Domain 3 (Ethics).
- Take timed question sets from the practice test site, then sit for the exam once approved.
Keep your file moving so that application, exam and references all land well within the two-year limit. Our EPLS cheat sheet offers a compact review aid as the exam approaches.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. The prerequisites require an active law license in good standing and at least five years as a practicing attorney. The credential is built for lawyers, and the exam proctor must also be an actively licensed attorney.
At least 40% of your normal full-time practice during the preceding five years. Some older directory pages cite a one-third threshold, but the current 40% requirement controls.
No. Council membership is encouraged but not required. Membership in an NAEPC-affiliated local council does reduce the initial application fee from $600 to $500.
The certification process, including application, examination and returned references, must be completed within two years of application receipt. Otherwise the file closes and you must reapply.
No separate degree or fixed training-course requirement beyond the stated licensure, practice and CLE standards is published. Optional review courses exist, but they are not a prerequisite.