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Estate Planning and Administration

Self-Guided Professional Development Plan

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  • Development Units
  • About this Plan
  • Use Note
  • Development Units

    Development Units

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    Unit 1 expand

    Overview and Initial Client Contact in an Estate Planning Matter

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    Last updated 05/10/2023
    Unit 2 expand

    Estate, Gift, and Generation-Skipping Transfer Taxes

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    Last updated 12/08/2023
    Unit 3 expand

    Fundamental Testamentary Planning

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    Last updated 12/08/2023
    Unit 4 expand

    Marital Deduction Planning

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    Last updated 05/10/2023
    Unit 5 expand

    Lifetime Asset Transfers

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    Last updated 05/10/2023
    Unit 6 expand

    Charitable Giving Outright and in Trust

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    Last updated 12/08/2023
    Unit 7 expand

    Life Insurance

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    Last updated 12/08/2023
    Unit 8 expand

    Retirement Benefits

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    Last updated 12/08/2023
    Unit 9 expand

    Marital Agreements

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    Last updated 12/08/2023
    Unit 10 expand

    Estate Planning for Nontraditional Families

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    Last updated 04/21/2023
    Unit 11 expand

    Postmortem Estate Planning

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    Last updated 12/08/2023
    Unit 12 expand

    Preserving and Protecting the Family Business

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    Last updated 12/08/2023
    Unit 13 expand

    Living Wills, Durable Powers of Attorney, and Health-Care Proxies

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    Last updated 12/08/2023
    Unit 14 expand

    Planning for Incapacity/Elder & Disability Law

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    Last updated 12/08/2023
    Unit 15 expand

    Guardianships and Conservatorships

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    Last updated 12/08/2023
    Unit 16 expand

    Medicaid and Creditor Protection Trusts

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    Last updated 05/10/2023
    Unit 17 expand
    Last updated 12/08/2023
    Unit 18 expand

    Irrevocable Trusts

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    Last updated 05/10/2023
    Unit 19 expand

    Drafting Estate Plans

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    Last updated 12/08/2023
    Unit 20 expand

    Drafting Wills & Trusts

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    Last updated 12/08/2023
    Unit 21 expand

    Ethical Issues for Estate Planners

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    Last updated 09/17/2018
    Unit 22 expand

    Preparing Fiduciary Income, Gift, and Estate Tax Returns

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    Last updated 01/30/2020
    Unit 23 expand

    Probate Practice

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    Last updated 05/13/2021
    Unit 24 expand

    Fiduciary Litigation, Including Will Contests, in the Probate Court

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    Last updated 05/17/2019
  • About this Plan

    About this Plan

    This professional development plan takes you step by step through the most essential elements of estate planning practice.


    How to Use the Plan


    Click on a unit to identify relevant online resources that have been selected from MCLE’s collection of programs and publications. Then click on any link to


    • view a recommended program or specific lecture,
    • read a relevant chapter,
    • select a sample form, or
    • choose a training module with a practical demonstration by MCLE's highly experienced faculty.

    The resources identified represent only a small portion of what is available on MCLE’s website. To see what else is available on any given topic, click the “See All MCLE Resources” link at the bottom of each unit to conduct a search for other full programs, individual lectures, chapters and forms.


    Ongoing Updates and Additions


    We continue to work on this plan and are adding dynamic content to each of these topics on a regular basis, including new programs and lectures, information from our books, and demonstrations. Keep checking back for updates and new material. We also look forward to your suggestions on how we can make this plan the most effective tool for your professional development and training needs.


    Other Available Resources


    In addition to the resources available through the professional development plan, MCLE offers in-person programming for developing core competencies and providing opportunities to engage with the estate planning and administration practice communities. MCLE’s signature BasicsPlus!® programs help you master the fundamental concepts, law, and skills to represent your clients successfully. These one- and two-day primers include Estate Planning, Elder Law, Estate, Gift & Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax, Fiduciary Income Taxation of Estate & Trusts, and Probate Practice. For practical drafting guidance from the experts, don’t miss Will & Trust Drafting Techniques, a five-session course offered every winter that gives you a toolkit of provisions to help you prepare will and trust documents. MCLE’s annual New England Estate Planning Conference and New England Elder & Disability Law Conference provide cutting-edge analyses of the latest practice developments and opportunities to share ideas with attorneys in similar practices from around the state.


    Note to Firm Training Directors and Law School Librarians & Clinical Program Directors


    MCLE’s professional development plans have been designed to complement in-house training and law school educational programs. Firms can tailor plans to the specific needs of their training programs—taking associates unit by unit through an entire practice area plan or targeting only the areas of greatest relevance. Law school faculty and clinical program directors can use professional development plans to identify lectures, demonstrations, articles and forms for use in the classroom, as a supplement to classroom presentations, or to support the student’s representation of clients in the school’s clinical program. If your firm or law school subscribes to the MCLE OnlinePass®, all the electronic resources included in MCLE’s professional development plans are instantly accessible to everyone in your firm or school.


  • Use Note

    Use Note

    All of Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc.'s ("MCLE's") products, services, and communications ("MCLE Products") are offered solely as an aid to developing and maintaining professional competence. The statements and other content in MCLE Products may not apply to your circumstances and no legal, tax, accounting, or other professional advice is being rendered by MCLE or its trustees, officers, sponsors, or staff, or by its authors, speakers, or other contributors. No attorney-client relationship is formed by the purchase, receipt, custody, or use of MCLE Products. The statements and other content in MCLE Products do not reflect a position of and are not ratified, endorsed, or verified by MCLE or its trustees, officers, sponsors, or staff. Contributors of statements and other content in MCLE Products are third-party contributors and are not agents of MCLE. No agency relationship, either express, implied, inherent or apparent, exists between MCLE and any third-party contributor to MCLE Products.

    Due to the rapidly changing nature of the law, the statements and other content in MCLE Products may become outdated. Attorneys using MCLE Products should research original and current sources of authority. Nonattorneys using MCLE Products are encouraged to seek the legal advice of a qualified attorney.

    By using MCLE Products, the user thereof agrees to the terms and conditions set forth herein, which are severable in the event that any provision is deemed unlawful, unenforceable, or void. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, MCLE Products are provided on an "As Is," "As Available" basis and no warranties or representations of any kind, express or implied, with respect to MCLE Products are made by MCLE or its trustees, officers, sponsors, or staff, individually or jointly. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, neither MCLE nor its trustees, officers, sponsors, or staff are responsible for the statements and other content in MCLE Products or liable for any claim, loss, injury, or damages of any kind (including, without limitations, attorney fees and costs) arising from or involving the use of MCLE Products.

    Failure to enforce any provision of these terms and conditions will not be deemed a waiver of that provision or any other provision. These terms and conditions will be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, notwithstanding any principles of conflicts of law. These terms and conditions may be changed from time to time without notice. Continued use of MCLE Products following any such change constitutes acceptance of the change.

    IRS Circular 230 Notice: Any U.S. tax advice found to be included in MCLE Products (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of avoiding U.S. tax penalties or for promoting, marketing, or recommending to another party any tax-related matter or any other transaction or matter addressed therein.

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