About the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys

I’m a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, which means I complete at least 36 hours of continuing legal education every year, all of it in estate planning, trust administration, probate, and elder law.

Thirty-six hours a year, in one field

California requires every lawyer to complete 25 hours of continuing legal education every three years, in any area of law. The Academy requires more than four times that, and all of it in one field.

	State Bar of California	American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys
Hours required	25	36
How often	Every three years	Every year
Subjects	Any area of law	Estate planning, elder law, probate, or trust administration
Per year, on average	About 8 hours	36 hours
Over three years	25 hours	108 hours

If you’re comparing lawyers, ask each one how many hours of estate planning education they completed last year.

Estate planning law changes under a signed plan. Proposition 19 rewrote how California reassesses inherited homes in 2021. The small-estate threshold adjusts every three years. A trust that was right when you signed it can drift out of date without anyone touching it. When a change like that touches your plan, it comes up at your three-year review.

What the Academy is

The Academy is a national membership organization for attorneys whose practices center on estate planning. Two estate planning attorneys, Robert Armstrong and Sanford Fisch, founded it in 1993, and it’s based in San Diego.

It doesn’t take every applicant. It checks that a lawyer is in good standing with the state bar, calls three professional references, and limits membership by territory. Once a firm is in, the Academy provides the education through the year, along with estate planning drafting software and systems for running a practice. It doesn’t take clients and doesn’t practice law.

What membership isn’t

The Academy doesn’t certify, test, or rank its members, and membership is not a State Bar certification of any kind.

I’m not an employee or agent of the Academy. Ridley Law is my own practice, and every plan I write is my responsibility.

Checking for yourself

The Academy publishes its membership requirements. The State Bar publishes its continuing education requirements, and its attorney search shows my license status and any discipline history.

The first call is free and takes about thirty minutes. Bring your current plan if you have one. Talk to Eric.

Written by Eric D. Ridley. Estate Planning Attorney at Ridley Law, serving Ventura County since 2010. Learn more about Eric.