- What EPLS Means (and What It Does Not)
- Who Runs the Credential
- Who Qualifies to Apply
- The Examination: What Is Known and Unknown
- What the Exam Covers
- Application Process, Fees and Retakes
- Staying Certified: Five Years of Obligations
- Who Benefits From the Credential
- EPLS Versus AEP
- Sequencing Your Preparation
- Frequently Asked Questions
- EPLS stands for Estate Planning Law Specialist, an attorney-only credential administered through NAEPC's Estate Law Specialist Board, Inc.
- Applicants need five years of practice, at least 40% of it in estate planning, plus $1,000,000 in professional liability coverage.
- The national exam has 80 multiple-choice questions; the current time limit and numerical passing score are not publicly verified.
- Initial fees are $500 for NAEPC-affiliated local council members and $600 for other applicants; retakes cost $200 each.
What EPLS Means (and What It Does Not)
EPLS stands for Estate Planning Law Specialist. It is a professional certification for practicing attorneys who concentrate on estate planning, and it signals that a lawyer has met a defined standard of experience, peer endorsement, continuing education and examination performance in this field. If you have seen the acronym before, take care: several unrelated credentials and programs share the same four letters. Everything on this page concerns only the attorney credential for estate planning law. For shorter background reading on the name itself, see our explainers on what EPLS stands for and EPLS meaning.
The credential is not a law degree, not a license to practice, and not a substitute for any state's own rules. It sits on top of an existing law license. A lawyer who holds it has demonstrated, through an issuer-run process, that estate planning is a substantial part of their real practice and that peers who know their work vouch for it.
Who Runs the Credential
The governing body is the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils (NAEPC). The program is administered by NAEPC's Estate Law Specialist Board, Inc. (ELSB), an attorney-run subsidiary. The issuer reports that the program received ABA reaccreditation on February 3, 2025. The authoritative pages live on the NAEPC site under its estate-law designation area, including the introduction and mission statement, the standards for certification, the FAQ and the sample questions.
No commercial testing vendor such as Pearson VUE, PSI or Prometric is identified for this exam. That matters for logistics: delivery is handled through the issuer's own process, described below, rather than through a walk-in test-center scheduler.
Who Qualifies to Apply
EPLS is gated by prerequisites rather than by a training course. The issuer publishes no separate degree requirement and no fixed course requirement beyond the licensure, practice and continuing-education standards. The full walkthrough is in our EPLS requirements guide; the core conditions are these:
- License: an active law license in good standing.
- Experience: at least five years as a practicing attorney.
- Concentration: at least 40% of normal full-time practice devoted to estate planning during the preceding five years. Older third-party descriptions that cite a one-third threshold are outdated; the current 40% standard controls.
- Insurance: professional liability coverage of at least $1,000,000 per claim.
- Education: continuing legal education in estate planning over the preceding 36 months, with the standards requiring at least 12 CLE hours per year.
- References: eight professional referrers, with at least five favorable responses.
Reference rules that trip people up
The referrer requirement is where applications most often stall, because it depends on other people responding. A majority of your references must have known you for at least three years, and relatives and lawyers in your own firm do not count. The standards describe the eight referrers as estate-planning law practitioners and/or judges, while the 2024 application says a majority must be knowledgeable attorneys or judges. That wording difference is unresolved in the published materials, so confirm with the issuer before you finalize your list. Choose referrers who can speak concretely about your estate planning work, and tell them in advance to expect the request.
The Examination: What Is Known and Unknown
Passing the national examination is required. What can be stated with confidence:
- The exam consists of 80 multiple-choice questions.
- It is delivered online or in hardcopy after your application is approved.
- It must be taken under a proctor who is an actively licensed attorney, unrelated to you and outside your firm.
- The issuer's sample-question introduction says applicable Code and Regulations tables are supplied on the examination.
What is not publicly verified: the current time limit, the numerical passing score, the scored versus unscored question split, the current exam version year, any general open-book rule, calculator policy, adaptive-testing policy, and any commercial webcam remote-proctoring policy. A 2017 issuer newsletter mentions a two-hour exam for that particular event, but that does not establish today's timer. Anyone quoting a precise duration or cut score without citing the issuer is guessing. We cover what is and is not known on our EPLS passing score page, and the broader difficulty picture in how hard the EPLS exam is.
Key Takeaway
Ask the issuer for the current exam time limit, scoring method and allowed materials when your application is approved. Do not build a pacing strategy around numbers from older articles or archived events.
The proctor requirement is a logistics task
Because the proctor must be an actively licensed attorney who is unrelated to you and outside your firm, arrange this early. Many candidates assume a colleague down the hall will do, but same-firm lawyers are excluded. A lawyer at another firm, with a clean license status, is the profile you need. Confirm availability well before your delivery window so a scheduling gap does not push you toward the two-year processing deadline.
What the Exam Covers
The issuer's sample-question introduction points candidates toward three broad areas. These are unweighted preparation topics drawn from the issuer's own description, not an official blueprint with percentages, so treat them as a map rather than a score allocation. For a topic-by-topic expansion, see our EPLS exam domains guide.
Domain 1: Estate and gift tax
The tax core of the exam. Expect questions that require you to work from supplied Code and Regulations tables and apply them to fact patterns.
- Computing estate and gift tax consequences of transfers
- Marital deduction planning, including QTIP-style structures
- Valuation questions and the effect of Section 7520 rates on valuing interests
- Powers of appointment and their transfer-tax treatment
- Basis consequences of lifetime versus death-time transfers
Domain 2: Planning
Applying the law to design a client's plan, which is where practicing experience pays off.
- Choosing among wills, trusts and lifetime-transfer techniques for a given family situation
- Structuring dispositions to meet both tax and non-tax objectives
- Evaluating how a proposed plan performs under the facts supplied
Domain 3: Ethics
Professional responsibility as it arises in estate planning practice.
- Client identification and conflicts in family and joint-client engagements
- Confidentiality and competence in advising on complex plans
Study resources that match the issuer's own list
The issuer's study-materials page recommends current applicable Code and Regulations and estate-planning texts. Its "Code and Regulations" and "Text Materials" headings are resource categories, not extra exam domains. The bibliography includes older editions and a 2022 eighth edition of Wills, Trusts, and Estates, but it is not a versioned 2026 syllabus, so prioritize current primary sources over any dated edition. Our EPLS study guide turns these resources into a working plan.
Application Process, Fees and Retakes
The issuer says to allow 6-8 weeks for application processing and four weeks for results. The whole certification process, covering your completed application, the examination and the returned references, must finish within two years after the application is received. If it does not, the file closes and you must reapply. Timeline planning is covered further on our EPLS exam dates page.
| Item | Amount (USD) |
|---|---|
| Initial application (includes one exam sitting): NAEPC-affiliated local council member | $500 |
| Initial application (includes one exam sitting): other applicants | $600 |
| Retake, each attempt | $200 |
| Annual renewal | $350 |
| Five-year recertification | $400 |
These are the current issuer fees. Archived 2021 review-course material shows older annual and recertification figures plus an event discount; those do not apply today. A full breakdown, including optional prep spending, is in our EPLS certification cost guide.
The retake rules
- A second attempt is permitted 90 to 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 reapply.
The 365-day window on attempts two and three is the detail to respect. A failed first attempt is not a reason to delay indefinitely; it starts a clock.
Staying Certified: Five Years of Obligations
Certification lasts five years, and it is maintained, not simply held. Each year you pay the $350 renewal, file an insurance declaration, and complete 15 estate-planning CLE hours. At the five-year mark, recertification reassesses your practice involvement, peer review, education and good standing, with no second examination, for a $400 fee.
That structure means the credential rewards continued concentration in the field. A lawyer who drifts out of estate planning practice will find recertification harder than one who stays active. Details are in the issuer's standards page, and a quick-reference version of the numbers is on our EPLS cheat sheet.
Who Benefits From the Credential
EPLS is designed for practicing attorneys, so its audience is narrow: solo and small-firm estate planners, trusts and estates lawyers at mid-size and larger firms, and attorneys whose practices touch wealth transfer for families and business owners. It functions mainly as a differentiator. Clients and referral sources, including accountants, financial advisors and other lawyers, can see that an attorney's estate planning concentration has been tested and vouched for by peers.
We do not publish an earnings figure for the credential. No credential-specific salary or income premium has been established from reliable data, and anyone quoting one should be asked for a source. For an honest treatment of what can and cannot be said, see our EPLS salary guide, and for a decision framework, whether the certification is worth it. Pass-rate information is similarly thin; our EPLS pass rate page explains what is available.
EPLS Versus AEP
NAEPC also offers the Accredited Estate Planner (AEP) designation, and the two are often confused. The difference is audience and scope.
| Feature | EPLS | AEP |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Estate Planning Law Specialist | Accredited Estate Planner |
| Audience | Practicing attorneys | Multidisciplinary estate planning professionals |
| Issuer | NAEPC through its Estate Law Specialist Board, Inc. | NAEPC |
| Exam requirement | National examination required | See the issuer's AEP page for its own process |
An attorney may reasonably consider either, but they answer different questions. EPLS speaks to legal specialization; AEP speaks to collaborative, cross-discipline planning. Check the AEP details directly with the issuer rather than assuming they mirror the EPLS rules above.
Sequencing Your Preparation
Because the three topic areas are unweighted, spend time in proportion to your own gaps rather than an assumed percentage. Most practicing attorneys are strongest in Planning and Ethics from daily work and weakest in the computational side of Estate and gift tax, so that is where a schedule should start. The sample timeline below is an illustration only, not an issuer-endorsed program.
Estate and gift tax computations
- Work problems using current Code and Regulations tables
- Drill marital deduction, valuation, powers of appointment and basis
- Note which sample-page assumptions are historical
Planning
- Walk through fact patterns and compare plan alternatives
- Check each recommendation against its tax result
Ethics and full review
- Review client-identification, conflict and confidentiality issues
- Take a timed 80-question practice set and review every miss
When you are ready to test yourself, our EPLS practice test provides original questions with explanations, and you can pair it with the study guide for the written plan. Be cautious with exact-title practice products from uploaded-document sites; their alignment with the issuer's exam is unverified, so check that explanations cite current law before relying on them.
Key Takeaway
Front-load tax computation, because it is the area where daily practice leaves the most rust, and always practice against current Code and Regulations rather than the historical figures on the issuer's sample page. Practice questions are available on the main EPLS Exam Prep site.
Frequently Asked Questions
EPLS stands for Estate Planning Law Specialist. It is an attorney certification administered through NAEPC's Estate Law Specialist Board, Inc. and should not be confused with other credentials that share the acronym.
No. Council membership is encouraged but not required. Members of an NAEPC-affiliated local council pay $500 on the initial application, while other applicants pay $600.
The exam has 80 multiple-choice questions. The current time limit and numerical passing score are not publicly verified, so confirm both with the issuer after your application is approved.
Retakes cost $200 each. A second attempt is allowed 90 to 365 days after the first, and a third must be at least 90 days after the second and within 365 days of the first. After three failures, you wait at least six months and reapply.
No. Certification lasts five years with annual maintenance, including 15 estate-planning CLE hours and an insurance declaration. Five-year recertification reassesses practice involvement, peer review, education and good standing without another examination.