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NextGen Bar Exam Call to Action
Impact of Trusts & Estates Being Removed from the NextGen Bar Exam
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Protecting and Promoting the Testing of Wills, Trusts & Estates on Bar Exams

In nearly every U.S. state, aspiring lawyers must pass a bar exam to be admitted to practice law. The purpose of the bar exam is to protect the public by ensuring that new attorneys possess the minimum skills necessary for competent legal practice.

The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) has developed the new NextGen Uniform Bar Exam (NextGen UBE) that will replace its former Uniform Bar Exam beginning in 2026. NCBE has removed wills, trusts, and estates from the subjects tested on the NextGen UBE. NCBE’s troubling action is based on its mistaken belief that entry-level lawyers are unlikely to encounter these areas of law in practice.

ACTEC strongly disagrees. The exclusion of wills, trusts, and estates form the NexGen UBE is a serious concern for law students, wealth management professionals, probate judges, practicing attorneys, and the public. This change is misguided and will have serious negative consequences, and we are working urgently to sound the alarm and encourage actions to protect and promote the essential testing of wills, trusts & estates on both the NextGen UBE and state specific bar exams.

Understanding of wills, trusts, and estates must be a minimum skill expected of all attorneys. Wills, trusts, and estates are in the top five areas of consumer legal need and affect critical and deeply personal parts of people’s lives, such as marriage, the birth of a child, the rearing and education of children, aging, sickness, incapacity, death, grieving and recovering. It’s an area of the law that is important to aging with dignity and safety, peace of mind at end of life, taking care of your loved ones left behind, and caring for orphaned children. It impacts every ethnic, cultural, and economic walk of life, and connects to almost every other kind of law-including business planning, domestic relations, and tax law. Legal knowledge in wills, trusts, and estates is essential for preserving the family farm or business, protecting family members who are incapacitated, vulnerable, or addicted, giving to charity, managing retirement assets, and avoiding inheritance fights that destroy families. NCBE’s actions will hurt America’s seniors, people living with disabilities, and minority communicates, damage intergenerational wealth, undermine busy probate courts, hinder charitable giving, and increase legal malpractice. If wills, trusts, and estates are not tested as foundational subjects on the NextGen UBE and state bar exams, the bar exam will have failed its core purpose of protecting the public.

ACTEC’s complete statement on the importance of bar exam testing of wills, trusts, and estates is available here:

ACTEC’s Public Statement on NextGen Bar Exam (March 27, 2024)

The Time to Act is NOW!

Search for your state and utilize the letter templates and contact lists provided below.

As of August  2025, 45 U.S. jurisdictions have already committed to adopting the NextGen UBE. Now is the time for strong action in response to NCBE’s decision. NCBE must be convinced to change its course and include wills, trusts, and estates as foundational subjects on the NextGen UBE. States adopting the NextGen UBE must be convinced to include wills, trusts, and estates on the state-specific portion of their bar exam (and as part of the requirements for alternative pathways to licensure where available). Adopting states should also be convinced to demand that NCBE restore wills, trusts, and estates as foundational subject areas on the NextGen UBE.

Your voice is essential! Join ACTEC and urge your jurisdiction and NCBE to act now using the resources below. Together we can protect the future of wills, trusts, and estates law and ensure it remains a core part of legal education and professional competence.

The resources below include:

  • Information about states that will require a jurisdiction-specific law component and those that will not.
  • Letter templates for both Fellows and wealth management professional to use in this important outreach.
  • Contact lists for bar examiners and supreme court justices.

ACTEC Fellows and wealth management professionals are urged to find their state below and contact their state bar examiners and state supreme court justices!

NextGen UBE Adopting States With a Jurisdiction-Specific Law Component

The following states have adopted the NextGen UBE and will require a jurisdiction-specific law component:

Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Virgin Islands, and Washington.

ACTEC Fellows and wealth management professionals residing in these states are urged to contact their state bar examiners and state supreme court justices to advocate for the explicit inclusion of Trusts & Estates law as a jurisdiction-specific law component on the NextGen UBE, and to also demand that NCBE restore wills, trusts, and estates as foundational subject areas on the NextGen UBE.

Wealth management professionals who are not ACTEC Fellows, please download:

NextGen UBE Adopting States Without a Jurisdiction-Specific Law Component

The following states have adopted the NextGen UBE and will not require a jurisdiction-specific law component:

Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

ACTEC Fellows and wealth management professionals residing in these states are urged to contact their state bar examiners and supreme court justices to advocate for the explicit inclusion of Trusts & Estates law on the NextGen UBE.

Use the sample letters below. Contact lists are found at the bottom of this webpage.

Wealth management professionals who are not ACTEC Fellows, please download:

NextGen UBE Adopting States With a Jurisdiction-Specific Law Component That Includes Trust & Estate Law

The following states have adopted the NextGen UBE and will require T&E law to be part of the jurisdiction-specific law component:

Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

We urge Fellows and wealth management professionals to continue to fight for trust and estate law to be a foundational knowledge component on the NextGen UBE!

Use the sample letters below. Contact lists are found at the bottom of this webpage.

Wealth management professionals who are not ACTEC Fellows, please download:

States Which Have NOT Adopted NextGen UBE

The following states have not adopted the NextGen UBE:

Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, and Wisconsin.

We urge Fellows and wealth management professionals to continue to fight for trust and estate law to be a component of their state bar exam!

Use the sample letters below. Contact lists are found at the bottom of this webpage.

Wealth management professionals who are not ACTEC Fellows, please download:

Contact Information for State Bar Examiners

A – C

D – F

G – I

K – M

N – R

S – U

V – W

Contact Information for State Supreme Court Justices

A – C

D – F

G – I

K – M

N – R

S – U

V – W

ACTEC’s Response to Date

Success in California!

On April 28, 2023, ACTEC Past President Kurt A. Sommer submitted a letter to the State Bar of California requesting that trusts and estates continue to be included as subjects on the bar exam. The Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA) included the letter in materials they submitted to the California Supreme Court, which had been reviewing the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on the Future of the Bar Exam over the past year. On October 10, the California Supreme Court issued an Administrative Order to include the topics of wills and trusts on the bar exam and furthermore expand the scope to also cover probate, found on page 2 of the order: “The court agrees with the Commission’s recommendation to test nine topics on the examination, but orders the list of test topics to be supplemented to include three additional topics…Employment Law, Family Law, and Estate Planning, Trusts, and Probate.”

Read the Administrative Order

Share Your Thoughts on Social Media

In addition to contacting your State Bar Examiners and Supreme Court Justices, voice your options on NCBE’s Facebook and LinkedIn social media sites!

Understand the Issue

The NextGen Bar Exam Threat to Wills and Trusts

ACTEC urges states to reject the NextGen Bar Exam because NCBE has essentially dropped wills and trusts from it. Listen to the ACTEC Trust and Estate Talk podcast, “The NextGen Bar Exam Threat to Wills and Trusts,” with ACTEC Fellow Dana Fitzsimons to appreciate the impact of the removal of trust and estate law from bar exams.

NextGen Bar Exam