The aging baby boomer generation has set the stage for the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history. This, combined with the increasing complexity of income tax, wealth transfer tax, property laws, and today’s changing economic environment, has created a demand for attorneys with expertise in individual and estate planning.
Attorneys can meet this growing demand by attending our LL.M. program in estate planning, offering a unique combination of tax and non-tax estate planning courses unavailable elsewhere.
The Heckerling Graduate program offers career development for students seeking successful and rewarding professions. With an Estate Planning LL.M. job opportunities can include:
Ranked as a top school for estate planning by preLaw Magazine.
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.How Does this Degree Differ from a Tax LL.M.?
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