Rethinking the Estate Planning Curriculum

As a result of recent changes in Federal estate tax law, fewer and fewer clients need sophisticated estate tax planning. Many lawyers are thus spending less time acting as estate tax planners and instead deploying different skills and expertise. In this brief article, I explore the extent to which law schools are rethinking their curricula as a result. The discussion proceeds in two parts.

First, I discuss the curricular changes I have overseen at the law school at which I teach, setting out both the changes made and the assumptions underlying them. Second, relying on a brief survey of other ACTEC Academic Fellows, I explore the extent to which other law schools have been considering similar curricular revisions.