About NAEPC

The NAEPC's particular focus is on:

• Accounting
• Insurance
• Law
• Trust Services
• Financial Planning

A primary goal of the NAEPC is to encourage specialization programs to increase recognition and acceptance of estate planning as a specialty. NAEPC has two separate and distinct specialization programs:

Accredited Estate Planner® (AEP®) is available to individuals in all NAEPC-recognized disciplines. This designation is for individuals who have met the requisite requirements, including estate planning experience and recommendations by colleagues, and currently requires completion of certain graduate estate planning courses. All individuals obtaining the AEP® designation demonstrate commitment to the team approach in estate planning.

The Estate Planning Law Specialist (EPLS) program is available to attorneys practicing in the estate planning arena.

NAEPC serves to assist its affiliated local estate planning councils, their members, and the Individual/At-large NAEPC membership by providing a forum to maintain and strengthen:

• Their cutting-edge awareness of the continually changing and expanding opportunities.
• Communication and development of a common language between the five disciplines.
• A unified point-of-approach. 

Both NAEPC and The NAEPC Education Foundation have a social media presence!  Visit and be sure to "like" the Foundation's Facebook fan page.  Intended for the public, this initiative provides consumer estate and financial planning information with a link back to www.EstatePlanningAnswers.org.  Additionally, NAEPC has a presence on LinkedIn.  You'll find an open group for designees and council members, as well as a private group solely for council leaders.  Before participating on either platform, we recommend you read our Social Media Participation Guidelines and contact us if you have any questions.   

WHO WE ARE April 2012, Reflections on holding the AEP® designation for sixteen years by Gary L. Flotron, MBA, CLU, ChFC, AEP®

It is hard to believe that I have now held the Accredited Estate Planner® (AEP®) designation for 16 years.  Yet the meaning and the reasons for wanting to acquire the designation have not changed over this timeframe but have only been reinforced with the passage of time.  There are six professional designations that have long been associated with the field of estate planning.  However, with the possible exception of the CTFA designation, these professional designations do not connote a practice or expertise exclusively devoted to estate planning.

For example, an attorney could be practicing in the field of criminal law, and a CPA could be specializing in the auditing of financial statements for public corporations or income tax planning.  A person with my particular designations, the CLU and ChFC, could be specializing in the group insurance field or in general financial counseling and planning.  So I wanted a designation that was the highest accreditation that recognized my expertise in the field of estate planning.  The fact that this designation was awarded by the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils (NAEPC), a multi discipline organization dedicated to the team concept of estate planning, only enhanced the prestige of having this designation.

When I received the designation in 1995 I had no idea that I would line up a Board member of NAEPC, Chair of the AEP® Designation Committee with the job of revamping the program and tightening the standards, and, eventually, President of NAEPC.  However, what I learned doing that tenure is that the purpose for establishing the AEP® designation in 1990 were the exact same reasons for which I wanted to acquire the designation in the first place.  An additional feature of this designation is the fact that it is really a graduate level specialization designation in estate planning.  It is over and above the education and experience required for the six professional credentials necessary for qualifying to obtain the AEP® designation.

Last, but certainly not least, is that the AEP® designation stands for excellence, competence, ethics and professionalism.  These virtues are vital and paramount in advising and working with clients on their estate plans.  In short, the AEP® designation is the paradigm of what an accreditation should represent in the field of estate planning.

A word about the team approach to estate planning by M. Eileen Dougherty, CTFA, CFP®, AEP®, ChFC®

The trust officer’s job on the estate planning team continues the focus the other members share as they work with the multifaceted lives of their clients and beneficiaries.  The ultimate purpose of a good estate plan is one that meets the client’s goals.  For some the primary focus may be tax savings or the protection of challenged family members while others strive to sustain a legacy that will reach many generations.  A holistic approach to the plan will incorporate all the aspects of the client’s life that they want to have documented and managed from a financial perspective and still honor their personal need to be treated with dignity and respect at times when they are not able to communicate their wishes on a consistent basis.

As client’s lives evolve through the years their needs change as do the needs of their loved ones and their personal plan needs to be flexible enough to evolve and yet be adaptable to changes within the law. For trust officers, members of the team will be both inside and outside their firms and an open dialogue that maintains the client’s best interest as the primary focus will insure a more beneficial result.  People today are bombarded with information everywhere they go about financial and estate planning in a way that would lead you to believe that most plans are a one-size-fits-all matter.  The reality is that some needs can be met with a standard array of documents and services, but the art is in the details of a custom fit.

A word about the team approach to estate planning by Walter Lee Davis, Jr., Atty, CPA, AEP®, EPLS

Since becoming an AEP®, I have consciously strived to engage the whole team of estate planners, preferably AEP® designees, from the various disciplines when working on an estate plan for a client. I send every client a Client Info Packet that gives them data sheets to complete so I have the facts. You can’t plan without the facts! The packet also includes client educational materials about both TN and US gift taxes, TN Inheritance tax, US Estate tax, US GST tax and how these taxes work, including hypothetical examples, so the client can better understand these complex topics about which they generally have only scant information. It has info, including examples, about Crummey powers, GRATs, CRUTs, CLATs and all sorts of things I think a client needs to know.

I include a full page devoted to the NAEPC Team Concept of Estate Planning with space for the client to name his team members and provide their contact data. NAEPC members are authorized to use it as they choose, making whatever revisions they deem helpful for their particular practice.

A word about the team approach to estate planning by Gregory E. Sellers, CPA, AEP®

The “Team Approach” to estate planning – sometimes these words seem trite, but they are so true.  When determining how to best serve my estate planning clients, I realize that the client is best served by a team of estate planning professionals.  I, the CPA, have probably the regular contact with the client since I plan and assist the client with their income tax filings.  I act as the quarterback for the team. Much like reading defenses and calling play schemes, I gather information from the clients to make calculations and find out their wishes and desires.  From there, I call in the other skill players, attorney for will and trust drafting, life insurance and financial planning professionals to provide liquidity and achieve returns on the existing assets, and trust officers for administration and asset protection.  All of these individuals enhance the other, making sure that the client receives the best service in their best interest.  In these days of unethical behavior by many different professional "advisors", it is good to know that the team that I work with and to whom I refer clients embraces the team concept and the Accredited Estate Planner® code of ethics in addition to their own professional discipline.