Keep Wills & Trusts on the U.S. Bar Exam

Changes are being made to the bar exam which will result in the elimination of wills and trusts as a test subject. These changes will take effect starting with the July 2026 bar exams. The decision to remove wills and trusts from the bar exam should be reversed and lawyers and non-lawyers need to help achieve this.

U.S. Bar Exams

Generally, the path for an American to become an attorney / lawyer in the U.S. is as follows:

• Receive 4-year Bachelor’s degree in any subject/major

• Attend 3 years of law school full time (or 4 years part time) to receive a Juris Doctor (JD)

• Pass the 2-day bar exam with one day being a national test and the second day being a state-specific test.

• Get sworn in by a specific state to practice law in that state.

The bar exam is created by the non-profit corporation National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE). NCBE claims its NextGen bar exam will “test a broad range of foundational lawyering skills, utilizing a focused set of clearly identified fundamental legal concepts and principles needed in today’s practice of law.”

Law schools hire law professors to teach the subjects which are tested on the bar. Students enroll in some combination of most of the subjects tested on the bar. If the topic is not on the bar, student demand is reduced, the law school eliminates the class, law school scholarship in the field is diminished, and U.S. society loses out on a new crop of lawyers to help them through a difficult subject area.

Opposition Experts Rejected

According to The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), NCBE rejected the requests of ACTEC, the National College of Probate Judges, the American Bar Association, and others to keep trusts and estates on the bar exam. NCBE apparently believes wills and trusts are not something U.S. lawyers need to understand in today’s world. This is a startling conclusion given the long used quote of Benjamin Franklin: “in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.”

It is also a surprising conclusion if one does some simple google searching regarding shortage of lawyers for clients across income levels and geographies seeking assistance with will preparation, estate planning, and trust formation. In the U.S. estate planning and trust establishment are not just for the rich and famous. As Attorney Dana Fitzsimons explained in the ACTEC podcast:

[Wills & trusts] connects to almost every other kind of law – business planning, bankruptcy, domestic relations, and tax law. It’s preserving the family farm and business, protecting family members who are incapacitated, vulnerable, or addicted. It is giving to charity, managing retirement assets, and avoiding fights that destroy families. Not surprisingly, it’s one of the top five areas of consumer legal need. And it has to be a minimum skill we expect for all new attorneys.

Next Steps

Some states are already signing on to accept the NextGen bar exam, so it is important for people to help keep wills and trusts on the bar exam. What can you do . . .

• Listen to ACTEC’s 14 minute podcast re: this issue.

• Contact your State Bar Examiners and Supreme Court Justices (links provided on ACTEC site).

• Publicize the issue on social media.

For assistance, please contact me via my contact page or at elizabeth@elizabethmcmorrowlaw.com.