Estate planning is a very rewarding but often overlooked area of the law because students have not encountered it or because they have not been dispelled of misconceptions regarding what it is actually like. Ultimately, trusts and estates is not a static or purely technical field, but a dynamic and expanding practice that is one…
Introduction
Our generation is in the middle of the “Great Wealth Transfer,” where between $84-124 trillion of assets will pass into the hands of Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z over the coming decades. At the same time, many trusts and estate attorneys are retiring from practice and there’s not enough new attorneys joining the field to help offset the transition. This leaves a gap in an area that touches nearly every person’s life.
Not everyone will require a constitutional lawyer to handle a rights violation case, or an employment attorney to handle a workplace dispute. Even with 40% divorce rate in this country, not everyone will need a family lawyer. However, everyone will die and almost everyone will confront the practical realities that follow, such as navigating probate, making decisions about aging parents’ end of life care, or asking themselves, what do I do with all this stuff I have accumulated over my life and where do I want it to go when I am gone?
Benjamin Franklin famously observed that “in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” Given that reality, there is a shortage of attorneys in a practice area that promises evergreen demand. The legal education framing of the legal profession offers one explanation as to why that is. Generally, law schools emphasize litigation or areas of the law that lend themselves to the Socratic classroom. Many students have the misconception that to “make a difference” and serve their communities, they must prevail in trial over the corporation poisoning the town’s water supply, defend the wrongly convicted, or repay their student loans by working in corporate law in sleek, downtown skyscrapers. There are no inspiring movies about the lawyer who against all odds drafts a will. Further, as trust and estates will likely be moved off of the bar exam, many students will graduate without encountering the field in a meaningful way. Without exposure in law school or from practitioners, most students will not find their path to estate planning or estate administration through mere self-reflection.
Additionally, another deterrent to many law school students is the broad range of fields with which practitioners should be familiar. The family estate has extended beyond the family farm and has grown to include digital assets, non-traditional family structures, cryptocurrencies, and international assets. Further, estate planners must stay abreast of the ever-evolving legislature like the SECURE Act, the Corporate Transparency Act, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
These converging factors have left the legal market asking an increasingly urgent question: where are all the Trusts and Estates lawyers? Addressing this growing gap requires confronting and correcting the persistent misconceptions surrounding estate planning and estate administration. Too often, the field is overlooked by law students who misunderstand its scope, complexity, and significance. In reality, the trusts and estates practice sits at the intersection of technical legal analysis and deeply personal client service. As Charles Dickens observed, “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” Few areas of the law embody this principle more clearly than trusts and estates, where attorneys guide families through financial planning, intergenerational wealth transfers, and some of the most difficult moments of loss and transition.
Misconception 1: The Scope of Estate Planning Has Not Evolved
As the world has increasingly moved into digital spaces, so too has the scope of the trusts and estates practice area. People not only leave behind their physical belongings but also extensive digital footprints including photos, social media accounts, intellectual property, and online banking to name a few. These assets are different from assets typically associated with trusts and wills like bank accounts. These types of assets require special planning in order to ensure they actually pass to those intended while still maintaining security and privacy. For example, wills are considered to be public information since they are published by the probate court. This would potentially include any login information. At the same time, not all online accounts allow anyone to log on with just a password, and so sophisticated work is required to draft provisions that allow clients to obtain the right to access nontangible assets. As a result, estate plans that include provisions guiding the distribution of these assets may also require more frequent updates, to ensure online accounts and digital assets are up to date.
Recent litigation has underscored the legal complexity surrounding digital assets. In a Massachusetts’s case, Ajemian v. Yahoo!, Inc., the decedent’s siblings sought full access to a Yahoo email account after being appointed personal representatives of the decedent’s estate. They argued that the contents of the account were property of the estate, however, Yahoo cited its terms of service which granted it discretion to deny access to the account argued the Stored Communications Act (SCA) prohibits disclosure. Here, the court held that Congress did not intend the SCA to supersede the authority of personal representatives who are granted broad authority to handle assets. They also rejected Yahoo’s claim that lawful consent requires the decedent’s actual consent and was remanded to Probate Court to determine the enforceability of its terms of service.
Two years later, a contrasting result occurred in New York with the Matter of Coleman, a New York case two years later. When the decedent died unexpectedly at the age of twenty-four without a will or any other document regarding his digital assets, his parents, the fiduciaries and administrators of his estate sought Ryan’s digital assets including his iCloud data to ascertain potential medical issues and aid in the administration of his estate. The court held that without a document indicating that the decedent consented to allow others access to his online accounts, Coleman’s parents did not sufficiently demonstrate the need to access the potentially sensitive information including emails, photos, and contacts. Together, these cases illustrate how modern estates extend beyond the traditional notions of assets comprising an estate. Perhaps more importantly, they also spotlight the rapidly changing nature of modern-day estates.
Misconception 2: The “Human Side” Is Secondary
Another common misconception about the work of estate planning attorneys, is that it is purely technical work that demands only analytical precision. While technical knowledge is essential, one of the most important skills required to be a successful practitioner is the ability to guide clients through difficult conversations, break down complex legal and tax strategies, and advise clients how to steward their assets for the next generation. While law students are trained to apply the law methodically and orderly, estate planning clients are often making decisions emotionally because thinking about how their property will be divided after they are gone, how they would like to dispose of their remains, where beloved pets will be rehomed, or how end of life care will play out are difficult and emotionally taxing decisions. Emotional awareness, compassion, and patience are crucial qualities that are more often associated with the practice of family law. However, while the trusts and estates practice provides legal services, it is also one that provides client services. This practice therefore represents a unique marriage of technical legal work and meaningful, human interaction.
These skills are highly applicable considering how the law is changing in response to changing family structures. Increasingly, estate planners encounter more complex familial structures including blended families and families who have children with special needs or require specialized care. Increased strategical planning is required to create documents for life partners and those who do not wish to marry and therefore may lack statutory protection. At the same time, emerging issues, such as how frozen embryos should be treated in an estate plan call for sensitivity and counseling. As people continue to live long lives, elder law, a specialized field that focuses on the needs of older adults and focuses on long-term care planning and health care underscores the need for attorneys who can guide clients through the emotional considerations. Together, these societal changes underscore that estate planning demands not only technical expertise, but a deep understanding about the personal circumstances that shape a client’s life and influence their needs.
Misconception 3: Estate Administration Is Routine and Non-Adversarial
One of the great opportunities within the trusts and estates field is the burgeoning area of Estate Litigation. As the American author, Ambrose Bierce, wrote, “Death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate.” Data shows that litigation over estates has been steadily rising since 2020 and has increased by 13% between 2024 and 2025. The Great Wealth Transfer means estates are larger and more advantageous to fight over, especially as the cost of living continues to rise and adult children are more depending on inheritances. Additionally, the rise of Generative AI has created a surge of do-it-yourself (DIY) wills which are often incomplete or unenforceable in part or in whole. As a result, the trusts and estates practice area is no longer confined to purely technical work but increasingly demands attorneys who are skilled in advocacy.
Misconception 4: The Profession Is Prepared for the Next Generation of Wealth Holders
The shortage of trusts and estates attorneys is compounded by the underrepresentation of women in the field. It is estimated that women will inherit 70% of the wealth from the Great Wealth Transfer with projections suggesting that women will control $30 trillion by 2030. Yet, the legal profession and the trusts and estates field have not fully adapted to this shift. As women sit poised to inherit unprecedented levels of wealth, there is a disparity between them and the those who are counseling them how to handle it. This is not to suggest any deficiency on the part of male attorneys. However, many traditional estate planning models were developed with a more conventional wealth holder in mind and may not fully account for the realities women are statistically more likely to encounter.
For example, women are become the primary holders of family wealth and continue to engage in longer and larger careers. Women tend to live longer than men and may require plans that can carry them through a longer period of retirement. Many women have a patchwork resume that reflects their career but also time raising a family or nontraditional careers like self-employment or social media which calls for more specialized tax and financial planning. Trends also suggest that women, more than men prioritize philanthropy.
Expanding the presence of women in trusts and estate would address the growing market demand but also position the profession to better serve a generation of clients that has historically been excluded from the conversation. This isn’t to suggest that male attorneys are unable to effectively advise female clients, rather, because estate planning is deeply personal and often tied to individual goals, a more representative and diverse group of advisors strengthens the quality overall. Thus, as clients’ needs evolves, so too must the trusts and estates profession, moving beyond the traditional frameworks and forward to meet the realities shaping modern estates.
Conclusion
Estate planning is a very rewarding but often overlooked area of the law because students have not encountered it or because they have not been dispelled of misconceptions regarding what it is actually like. Ultimately, trusts and estates is not a static or purely technical field, but a dynamic and expanding practice that is one of the only areas capable of keeping pace with real societal changes, unlike other areas for whom the wheel of justice turns slowly. This new generation of estate planning attorneys is situated at the right place and time to identify the gaps within the system and find ways to meaningfully address them. For those willing to engage with both its technical and human dimensions, it offers not only meaningful work, but a practice with real and growing opportunity.
