Heckerling Graduate Program in Estate Planning (LL.M.)

Choose From a Variety of Career Paths

The Heckerling Graduate program offers career development for students seeking successful and rewarding professions. With an Estate Planning LL.M. job opportunities can include:

• Large law firm attorney
• Boutique estate planning firm attorney
• Bank or trust company officer
• Internal Revenue Service position
• Wealth manager at bank or investment house
• In-house or independent attorney for public or private charity
• Tax and probate litigator
• More on career development

• Program Awards & Honors

  

  Ranked as a top school for estate planning by preLaw Magazine.

How Does this Degree Differ from a Tax LL.M.?

The unique program prepares attorneys to deal with the tax implications of wealth transfers and with the related non-tax, investment, and business succession planning issues. The breadth and depth of coverage of the tax and non-tax aspects of individual and estate planning distinguishes the curriculum from traditional graduate tax programs. Tax LL.M. programs may offer a cluster of survey courses on estate planning, but cannot match the in-depth, practical focus of Miami Law’s spring semester classes which cover exclusively essential non-tax issues, including fiduciary administration, asset protection, life insurance, investment planning, elder law, and probate.

• Strong Camaraderie: Students and Alumni

  The graduate program fosters close connections with fellow students who progress together through two semesters of small seminar style classes. Lifelong relationships are nurtured by annual alumni reunions at the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning. Small classes also create close ties with faculty and students not only develop a close core relationship with each other, but also join a national network of distinguished estate planners upon graduation.

• Purposeful Course Scheduling

  The graduate program begins with a traditional 14-week fall semester of foundational course work covering core conceptual topics that provide the foundation for the spring semester. Building on the fall, the Graduate Program’s unique spring semester consists of a series of one-week, one credit modular courses on advanced-level tax and estate planning to give students a high level of technical expertise. Students are also invited to attend the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, the nation's largest educational conference for estate planning professionals.

• Exceptional Faculty & Mentoring

  Unmatched in graduate-level legal education, nationally recognized experts and faculty in the field of estate planning teach in the program. Select program size also allows for personalized attention - students prepare and draft an estate plan working under the direct supervision and guidance of an experienced estate planning attorney.

The late Philip E. Heckerling was a Miami Law faculty member from 1963 to 1983. A professional to the core, Professor Heckerling was an active member of the FL Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the American College of Probate Counsel, and the American Law Institute. From his early years in trust work, he was a man with a passion for improving the technical competence of estate planners. In pursuit of his goal, he created the University of Miami School of Law's Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning in 1967 as a place for experts to gather and refine their skills. He nurtured it through the years of its phenomenal growth to its position as the largest and most respected continuing education program for estate planners today. That passion led him also to establish this graduate LL.M. program in estate planning, which is named in his honor.

 "The Graduate Program in Estate Planning at UM is mandatory for a successful career in sophisticated estate planning and complex trust and estate administrations."
Ganon J. Studenberg, J.D., LL.M. '08
Studenberg Law, Melbourne, Florida