ACTEC Fellow vs. board certification

What each credential verifies: ACTEC Fellow's peer-election process and Florida Bar certification, from each organization's own published requirements.

Two credentials come up often when researching an attorney who works in wills, trusts and estates: being an ACTEC Fellow, and being board certified by a state bar in this specialty. Both are worth knowing about, and neither is administered by the same kind of organization as the other.

This page describes the mechanism each credential actually uses: who is eligible, what gets checked, and who does the checking, drawn from each organization's own published requirements. It does not weigh what either credential implies about an individual attorney's litigation experience specifically. That is a separate question from what the credential itself verifies, and it is not addressed here.

ACTEC Fellow: peer nomination and election

ACTEC, the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, is an organization of trust and estate lawyers and law professors. Its Fellows are peer-elected trust and estate attorneys, law professors, and fiduciary counsel.

Source: ACTEC, About

To be elected into the College, a candidate must meet six published prerequisites:

• At least ten years predominantly in the active practice of trust and estate law, or at least ten years serving primarily as fiduciary counsel with a fiduciary services company, or a combination of the two.
• Substantial professional contributions to the field of trust and estate law: lecturing, writing, teaching, being involved in bar activities or in the enactment of significant state or federal trust and estate legislation, or outreach, education and mentoring to communities historically underrepresented in estate planning, on topics and issues connected to estate planning, probate, and trust.
• A well-deserved, outstanding reputation in the field of trusts and estates.
• Being a lawyer the other Fellows in the candidate's own jurisdiction would readily refer a matter to, within one's field of expertise, without reservation.
• Being licensed to practice in the highest court of a U.S. state or jurisdiction.
• Demonstrated exceptional skill in trust and estate law.

Source: ACTEC, Become an ACTEC Fellow

Meeting those prerequisites is the starting point. ACTEC names finding a nominator, an existing Fellow who signs and submits the Nomination Form, as the first step. ACTEC staff and the candidate's State Chair then review the nomination, and a background check is also part of the process.

The nomination goes out for a 30-day poll of Fellows in the candidate's own jurisdiction, asking whether the nominee has a well-deserved, outstanding reputation and whether the nominee is someone they would readily refer a matter to. If the candidate has taught or practiced in another jurisdiction in the last ten years, separate polls run there too.

The State Membership Committee for the candidate's jurisdiction reviews the Nomination Form and the poll reports, deliberates, and takes a formal vote. The Membership Selection Committee, which meets twice a year in March and October, then reviews the full file and makes a recommendation to the Board of Regents. The Board of Regents decides at its own meetings, in March and September, whether to extend an invitation.

Depending on when a candidate begins the process, election usually takes between six and nine months, and it is not guaranteed.

Source: ACTEC, Become an ACTEC Fellow

Florida Bar board certification in wills, trusts and estates law

Board certification works differently. It is run by the Florida Bar itself, not a peer association, and it combines a practice-history and CLE requirement, peer review and a written exam, rather than a nomination and election.

The Florida Bar states the purpose of the credential directly: to identify lawyers who practice in wills, trusts and estates and have demonstrated special knowledge, skills and proficiency, so they can be properly identified to the public as board certified. Florida runs this certification program in this exact specialty; its published requirements are the example described on this page. Other states' certification rules, if any, are not covered here.

Minimum standards for this certification, provided in Rule 6-7.3, include:

• Practice of law for at least five years, or four years with an LL.M. in taxation or estate planning and probate law.
• Substantial involvement in the specialty, defined as 40% or more of practice, during each of the two years immediately preceding application.
• 90 hours of approved wills, trusts and estates continuing legal education in the three years immediately preceding application.
• Peer review.
• A written examination.

Source: The Florida Bar, Wills, Trusts and Estates Law Certification

All applicants are told to read the full Rules Regulating The Florida Bar to confirm they have met each requirement before filing.

Applicants who pass the exam are officially certified in August. Certification is not permanent: under the rules, it lasts no longer than five years before recertification is required.

Source: The Florida Bar, Wills, Trusts and Estates Law Certification

How the two mechanisms compare

• Administered by. ACTEC, a professional association, for the Fellow credential. The Florida Bar, a state bar, for board certification.
• Core mechanism. Peer nomination, jurisdiction polling and committee votes for ACTEC Fellow. Practice history, CLE, peer review and a written exam for Florida Bar certification.
• Practice history. At least ten years predominantly in trust and estate practice, or primarily as fiduciary counsel, for ACTEC Fellow. At least five years in practice, or four years with a relevant LL.M., for Florida Bar certification.

Either credential is a starting point for research, not a substitute for it. Confirming a specific attorney's current status directly with the organization that grants it, ACTEC for Fellow status, the Florida Bar for board certification, is the reliable way to check either one. How to choose a probate litigator covers what else is worth asking at a first consultation, beyond either credential.

ACTEC also publishes a public Fellow directory separate from this election process. What is ACTEC and the Fellows directory covers what an entry in it shows. The Florida Bar publishes a comparable, searchable roster of its own currently certified Wills, Trusts and Estates lawyers; Florida's board-certified estate lawyers covers how to search it and what a listing does and doesn't show.

California runs its own state-bar certification in this specialty, separate from Florida's. California's certified specialist program covers what it specifically requires and how to check a named attorney's status on the State Bar's own roster.