Impact of Trusts & Estates Being Removed from the NextGen Bar Exam
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The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) is a corporation that develops the state bar exam for admission to law practice. The purpose of the bar exam is to protect the public by ensuring that attorneys have the minimum skills that entry-level lawyers need. In almost every state, you have to pass the bar exam to practice law.
NCBE believes that lawyers aren’t likely to encounter wills and trusts in law practice and has removed these topics from the NextGen Bar Exam. ACTEC knows they are wrong and is working to sound the alarm. Twenty-one states have adopted the NextGen Bar Exam so far.
NCBE’s new NextGen Bar Exam will replace the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) and will roll out in 2026. It’s a major change. It will eliminate memorization across multiple legal subjects, reduce the exam from 12 to 9 hours, and test fewer subjects. Law students, wealth management professionals, probate judges, lawyers, and the general public should be concerned about the effect a diminished understanding of trust and estate (T&E) law will have on the United States. Effective T&E management impacts the transfer of generational wealth in all communities.
This is a hot issue now! Please join me and ACTEC in voicing our concerns. ~ ACTEC President Susan D. Snyder
ACTEC’s Response to Date
ACTEC has been actively contacting the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) to encourage the restoration of T&E questions on the NextGen Bar Exam. ACTEC’s public statement, requests from President Susan D. Synder and Past President Kurt A. Sommer, the NCBE’s response, and ACTEC’s efforts by state are found below.
On April 28, 2023, ACTEC Past President Kurt A. Sommer submitted a letter to the State Bar of California requesting that trusts and estates continue to be included as subjects on the bar exam. The Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA) included the letter in materials they submitted to the California Supreme Court, which had been reviewing the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on the Future of the Bar Exam over the past year. On October 10, the California Supreme Court issued an Administrative Order to include the topics of wills and trusts on the bar exam and furthermore expand the scope to also cover probate, found on page 2 of the order: “The court agrees with the Commission’s recommendation to test nine topics on the examination, but orders the list of test topics to be supplemented to include three additional topics…Employment Law, Family Law, and Estate Planning, Trusts, and Probate.”
“We all need the Bar Exam to ensure lawyers have basic competence in wills and trusts to protect the public, including some of its most vulnerable people, to protect homes and businesses, farms, and wealth, to foster a diverse and inclusive society, to support charities, and to ensure access to justice.”
ACTEC Fellow and Regent Dana Fitzsimons
Understand the Issue
ACTEC urges states to reject the NextGen Bar Exam because NCBE has essentially dropped wills and trusts from it. Listen to the ACTEC Trust and Estate Talk podcast, “The NextGen Bar Exam Threat to Wills and Trusts,” with ACTEC Fellow Dana Fitzsimons to appreciate the impact of the removal of trust and estate law from bar exams.
This is a national issue, as shown by the states that have already adopted the NextGen Bar Exam.
What You Can Do
Contact your State Bar Examiners and Supreme Court Justices to urge them to include trust and estate topics on your state’s bar exam using the sample letters provided below.
Please see the sections below for resources to communicate with your State Bar Examiners and Supreme Court Justices.
Contact Your State Bar Examiners
ACTEC has a draft letter which is available in Word format at the link below. Please download the document, find the bar examiners in your state listed below, and update the draft letter to include your information and jurisdiction.
ACTEC has a draft letter which is available in Word format at the link below. Please download the document, find the state supreme court justices in your state listed below, and update the draft letter to include your information and jurisdiction.
