Graduate Tax

	Graduate Tax Menu
	Overview | Admission | Brochure | Schedules | Book Lists Forms | Course Descriptions | Registration | Financial Aid Academic Calendar | BlackBoard | Certificate Programs J.D./LL.M. Program | Audio Files | Exams | New Students Parking

Estate Planning Certificate Curriculum and Requirements

Curriculum

The estate planning certificate program has two tracks, one for attorneys and the other for accountants and other highly qualified professionals.

Attorneys

The attorney track entails five courses totaling nine credit hours, taken in the following order (full descriptions of the courses appear in this brochure. See Course Descriptions below.)

1. Probate Process and Practice: 1 credit. Coverage: The course deals with the nuts and bolts of the probate and estate administration process in Pennsylvania.
2. Federal Wealth Transfer Taxation: 2 credits. Coverage: Federal wealth-transfer taxes—the gift, estate, and generation-skipping provisions and their application to commonly encountered transactions.
3. Estate Planning: 2 credits. Coverage: Estate planning devices and techniques.
4. Drafting Fundamentals for Estate Planning Documents: 2 credits. Coverage: Tax and non-tax considerations involved in precise and effective drafting of instruments used in estate planning and administration.
5. Elective course: one of these two-credit courses.
   Taxation of Trusts and Estates
   Estate Planning of Business Owners
   Tax Planning for Families That Own and Operate Businesses
   Post Mortem Estate Planning
   Taxation of S Corporations

Non-Attorneys

The non-attorney track requires all of the courses just described, but the non-attorney must also take as the first course in the certificate program the two-credit Legal Orientation course that is required for all M.T. students. As a result, non-attorneys need 11 credits to qualify for the certificate.

In addition, all certificate students are required to take the six-hour Symposium on Professional Responsibility in Federal Tax Practice, and the three-hour Computer Familiarization Seminar. (No tuition is charged for either offering.)

Admission Requirements

Attorneys 

Same as the requirements for admission to the LL.M. program: a J.D. degree, regardless of when awarded, with an acceptable cumulative grade point average. (See Admission: Degree Candidates, above.)

Non-attorneys

Accountants: (i) If the applicant has passed the CPA exam, no other requirement; (ii) If not, then an undergraduate degree in accounting with a minimum 3.0 cumulative grade point average, plus the Graduate Management Admission Test with an acceptable score, plus at least one year’s experience in the tax area.
Non-accountants: A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university plus professional certification in the financial planning area (e.g., CLU, CFP), or extensive acceptable experience in individual business or financial planning, or both.

Examinations and Grading

With the exception of the Probate Process and Practice course (and the Employee Benefits Law course for the employee benefit certificate), all certificate students will be examined and graded in the same manner as regular matriculated graduate tax students. As in the regular graduate tax program, a cumulative 2.5 grade point average will be required for the award of the certificate.

Certificate for Matriculated Graduate Tax Students

A regular matriculated LL.M. or M.T. candidate can qualify for the estate planning certificate, in addition to the regular degree, by taking all of the courses required for the certificate. Having done so, because of the new Probate Process and Practice course the matriculated degree candidate will graduate with 25 credits instead of the regular 24 credits.

Tuition

Tuition for certificate students is the same per-credit amount as for matriculated degree students. (See General Program Policies, Tuition below.)

Time to Complete the Certificate Program

Given an appropriate sequencing of courses, a certificate student can finish the program in one three-semester year. But, to accommodate work-schedule and other time commitments, a certificate participant has three years within which to complete the program requirements.

Certificate Students Switching to the LL.M. or M.T. Program

Some persons who enter the certificate program may develop an interest in the regular LL.M. or M.T. degree. Since admission requirements for certificate participants generally are the equivalent of those for degree candidates, in most instances the transition to degree candidate poses no qualification problem. And, in appropriate cases, the degree program requirements for required and pre-requisite courses will be adjusted according to the individual circumstances of the certificate participant.

Form of Certificate

The certificate awarded is a “Certificate of Achievement” that signals the successful completion of the limited course of study. Note that the certification is not an attestation as to the professional competence of the certificate holder, nor is it a formal degree.

Continuing Education Credit

CLE and CPE credit is available to attorneys and accountants who are certificate students. For more detail see: Continuing Professional Education Credits below.

Back to the Top