“Estate planning overlaps with many other areas of law, making it a field that requires a large breadth of knowledge,” observes Legal Answers Web. Legal Answers names just a few:
- property law
- elder law
- tax law
- contract law
“Tax law and estate planning are remarkably interesting practice areas due to their ever-changing and highly personal nature,” according to the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law.
“Because tax attorneys must regularly take into account their clients’ estate planning goals and because estate planning attorneys must think about the tax ramifications of their clients’ estate plans, tax law and estate planning often overlap,” the authors add. “Tax and estate planning attorneys may work on cases involving the taxation of:
- Corporations
- Partnerships
- Charitable organizations
- Pensions and retirement plans
- Social security benefits
- Estates
- Trusts
- Gifts
Both estate planning and tax attorneys like the fact that they are able to help their clients in concrete ways, the McGeorge authors explain. McGeorge alumnus Mark Drobny, who runs a tax law and estate planning firm remarks, “People walk out of here after they’ve signed their estate plans with the feeling that they’ve done something for themselves and their family that they’ve wanted to do for a long time and have put off. “
Reading the way the McGeorge School of Law describes to students what they can expect from a career focused on estate planning, the lawyers at Rebecca W. Geyer & Associates almost felt they were talking about us:
Many estate planning attorneys work with their clients over a long period of time. As a result it is not unusual for them to develop close bonds with their clients and to come to know a great deal about the intimate details of their finances and personal lives….
“Estate planning attorneys must be familiar with the laws governing wills, trusts, social security benefits, medical benefits, life insurance, pensions and retirement plans, real property, and probate, as well the laws that relate to taxation,” the McGeorge authors conclude.
