What Is A EPLS?

What an EPLS Actually Is

EPLS stands for Estate Planning Law Specialist. It is a national specialist designation for attorneys who concentrate their practice on estate planning. Unlike many professional credentials, it is not an entry-level certificate you pick up after a short course. It is a peer-reviewed designation that combines a demanding eligibility screen, a national multiple-choice examination, professional references, and ongoing education requirements.

If you have seen the acronym elsewhere in the professional world, be careful: several unrelated credentials abbreviate to similar letters. This article is only about the Estate Planning Law Specialist designation. For other angles on the name itself, see our explainers on what EPLS stands for and EPLS meaning.

Who Runs the Credential

The designation is governed by the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils (NAEPC). Day-to-day administration and testing run through NAEPC's Estate Law Specialist Board, Inc. (ELSB), an attorney-run subsidiary. The issuer reports that the program was reaccredited by the American Bar Association on February 3, 2025. No third-party commercial testing vendor is identified in the public program materials, which is unusual compared with most professional exams.

Membership in an NAEPC-affiliated local council is encouraged but not required. It does affect your price, as covered in the fee section below.

Who Can Apply

Eligibility is where the EPLS differs most from typical exam-prep credentials. You cannot simply register and test. The published standards require all of the following:

• Licensure: an active law license in good standing.
• Experience: at least five years as a practicing attorney.
• Practice concentration: at least 40% of normal full-time practice devoted to estate planning during the preceding five years. Older third-party pages mention a one-third threshold; the current 40% figure controls.
• Insurance: professional liability coverage of at least $1,000,000 per claim.
• References: eight professional referrers, with at least five favorable responses. A majority must have known you for at least three years, and no relatives or colleagues from your own firm may serve.
• Continuing education: at least 12 CLE hours per year over the preceding 36 months. Some summary materials describe this as 36 hours total, so confirm the annual allocation expectation with the issuer.

No separate degree or fixed training course is required beyond these licensure, practice and CLE standards. For a full walkthrough, see our guide to EPLS requirements and eligibility.

The two-year clock

The entire process, including the completed application, the examination and the returned references, must finish within two years of the date your application is received. If it does not, the file closes and you must reapply. Reference letters that sit unreturned are a common way to burn through that window, so contact your referrers early.

The Examination: Format and Logistics

The national examination consists of 80 multiple-choice questions. Passing it is required for the designation. Several details that candidates often ask about are simply not published, and we would rather say so than guess:

The issuer's materials do not publicly confirm a general open-book rule, a calculator policy, adaptive testing, or commercial webcam remote proctoring. Do not assume any of these; confirm them when your application is approved. Our pages on the EPLS passing score and EPLS exam dates and scheduling track what is and is not confirmed.

The proctor requirement is a real logistical task

Because the proctor must be a licensed attorney who is unrelated to you and outside your firm, you cannot simply have a colleague down the hall supervise. Line up a qualified proctor early, ideally before your application is approved, so that scheduling does not eat into your two-year window.

What the Exam Covers

The issuer's sample-questions introduction points to three broad areas. These are unweighted preparation topics drawn from the issuer's prose, not an official blueprint with published percentages, so treat the order below as organization, not importance.

Because the sample themes are broader than the three headings suggest, some preparation courses also cover marital deduction, gift taxation, generation-skipping transfer tax, and income taxation of trusts and estates. Those are supplemental study subjects, not additional issuer-defined domains. For deeper coverage, read our complete guide to the EPLS exam domains and our EPLS difficulty breakdown.

Fees, Retakes and Timelines

Older third-party pages list different annual and recertification fees, along with event discounts. The current issuer figures above take precedence. For a fuller view of total outlay, including optional review courses, see the EPLS certification cost breakdown.

The retake rules are structured, not open-ended

• A second attempt is permitted between 90 and 365 days after the first attempt.
• A third attempt must come 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 then reapply.

This structure means a failed attempt has real calendar consequences. Because the overall process must also finish within two years, a poorly timed first attempt can compress your options. Our article on the EPLS pass rate explains why published pass-rate numbers should be treated cautiously: the issuer has not published a verified figure we can responsibly cite.

Keeping the Designation Active

The certification lasts five years. Between recertifications, you must complete annual maintenance, file an insurance declaration, and earn 15 estate-planning CLE hours each year. At the five-year mark, recertification reassesses your practice involvement, peer review, education and good standing, and it does not require another examination.

That last point is worth emphasizing for anyone weighing the investment: the exam is a one-time hurdle, while the lasting obligation is staying active in estate planning and keeping your standing clean.

EPLS vs. AEP and State Specializations

Two comparisons come up constantly. The first is with the Accredited Estate Planner (AEP), also issued through NAEPC. The AEP is a multidisciplinary credential open to a range of estate-planning professionals, while the EPLS is specifically for attorneys and tests legal practice. They serve different audiences and are not interchangeable.

The second is with state-bar specializations. A state-bar specialization is a separate credential with its own rules. Importantly, state-specific rules govern how you may advertise the specialist designation, so check your jurisdiction's attorney advertising rules before putting it on a website or letterhead.

Who Benefits From the Designation

The EPLS tends to make the most sense for attorneys whose practice already centers on wills, trusts, and transfer-tax planning, and who want a credential that signals concentrated expertise to clients and referring professionals such as CPAs, financial advisors and fellow attorneys. Employers and referral networks that look for it are typically law firms with estate-planning practices, trust and wealth-management groups, and advisory teams that refer legal work.

We want to be honest about the evidence: credential-specific salary or earnings premiums for the EPLS have not been established, and we will not invent numbers. If compensation is central to your decision, our EPLS salary guide and ROI analysis walk through what can and cannot be concluded. You can also explore EPLS-related jobs for the kinds of roles where the designation is relevant.

Sequencing Your Preparation

Because the exam leans on applying Code and Regulations to computation-heavy scenarios, sequence your study by domain rather than by generic habit. A reasonable arrangement tied to the three areas:

Start with tax because the planning and ethics questions build on it. For a complete plan, see our EPLS study guide and keep the EPLS cheat sheet handy for last-minute review. When you are ready to test yourself, try the EPLS practice questions on our main site. If you are comparing outside options, the EPLS training overview explains how optional review courses fit in.

Frequently Asked Questions