What Is an Estate Planning Attorney?
An estate planning attorney is a licensed lawyer whose practice focuses on helping individuals and families plan for two related things: how their affairs are managed if they become unable to manage them, and how their property is distributed when they die. That's a broader job than most people expect from the phrase "estate planning."
In practice, an estate planning attorney typically works with:
- Wills — directing how property is distributed and naming a guardian for minor children.
- Trusts — legal arrangements that can manage and transfer property, often without probate.
- Powers of attorney — documents naming someone to manage your finances if you can't.
- Advance health care directives — naming someone to make medical decisions and documenting your wishes.
- Probate and trust administration — guiding a personal representative or trustee through settling an estate after a death.
- Asset protection planning — structuring ownership to reduce exposure to future creditors or unnecessary risk.
The common thread is that every one of these documents and processes is governed by state law, and the details — how a trust must be signed, what a power of attorney must say to be honored by a bank, how property passes if there's no will at all — vary meaningfully from state to state. That's the specific expertise an estate planning attorney brings that a do-it-yourself form or a generic legal template generally can't.
Estate Planning Attorney vs. Other Professionals
The title gets confused with a few adjacent roles. They're not interchangeable, and understanding the difference helps you get the right kind of help for what you actually need.
| Professional | What they can do | What they generally can't do |
|---|---|---|
| Estate planning attorney | Draft legally binding wills, trusts, and powers of attorney; give legal advice; represent you in probate or trust disputes | Manage your investments directly |
| Financial advisor | Manage investments, recommend beneficiary designations, coordinate overall financial strategy | Draft legal documents or give legal advice |
| CPA / accountant | Advise on tax strategy and prepare returns, including estate and trust returns | Draft legal documents or give legal advice |
| General practice attorney | Legally permitted to draft estate documents, like any licensed attorney | May not concentrate a meaningful share of their practice on this area |
| Online will service | Generate a document from a template based on your answers | Evaluate whether that document actually fits your situation or holds up under your state's law |
For a closer look at that last row, see The Hidden Dangers of DIY Online Wills in Utah. The short version: a template can produce a document that looks correct and still fails to accomplish what you intended, because it wasn't built around your specific family or Utah's specific requirements.
What Qualifications Does an Estate Planning Attorney Have?
Every estate planning attorney has, at minimum, the same baseline as any practicing lawyer:
- A Juris Doctor (J.D.) law degree from an accredited law school.
- A passing score on their state's bar examination.
- An active law license, in good standing, in the state where they practice.
- Ongoing continuing legal education (CLE) to keep that license active.
Beyond that baseline, the qualifications that actually distinguish an estate planning attorney are less about a credential and more about focus: how much of their practice is genuinely built around wills, trusts, and probate, rather than estate planning being an occasional service tacked onto an unrelated practice area. Years of concentrated experience in this specific field, involvement in professional organizations dedicated to estate planning, and — often — additional education in the financial side of the work (an MBA, a tax background, or similar) are the practical signals worth looking for.
A note on "certified" or "specialist" claims: Utah does not maintain a formal board-certification process specific to estate planning the way some states certify specialties like family law. When you see an attorney in Utah described as a "certified estate planning specialist," it's worth asking exactly what certified them — it may be a private organization's marketing designation rather than a state bar credential. Depth of focused experience is a more reliable signal here than a certification badge.
What Does an Estate Planning Attorney Actually Do, Day to Day?
The public image of "meeting with a lawyer to sign some papers" undersells the work. A typical estate planning engagement moves through several distinct stages:
- Discovery. Understanding your family structure, your assets, and what you're actually trying to accomplish — this determines everything that follows.
- Design. Recommending which documents and structures fit your situation, and explaining the tradeoffs in plain language rather than legal jargon.
- Drafting. Preparing the actual documents — wills, trusts, powers of attorney, health care directives — and walking through them with you before signing.
- Execution. Making sure documents are signed with the correct formalities — witnesses, notarization — that Utah law requires to make them enforceable.
- Funding. For a trust-based plan, this means actually retitling accounts and property into the trust's name — a step that's frequently skipped and quietly makes a trust useless.
- Maintenance. Estate plans go stale. A death, a divorce, a new grandchild, or a move to another state are all reasons to revisit a plan that was fine five years ago.
- Administration guidance. When the plan is eventually needed, an estate planning attorney is often the person a successor trustee or personal representative calls to walk through what happens next.
Most of that work happens well before — and well after — the single meeting where documents get signed.
Curious what this looks like for your own situation?
A free consultation is exactly the "discovery" step described above — no cost, no obligation, just a conversation about your family and what you're trying to accomplish.My Background as an Estate Planning Attorney
Paul R. Maxfield, Attorney at Law — Provo, Utah
I've spent my career as an estate planning attorney focused specifically on the areas described above — wills, trusts, probate and trust administration, powers of attorney, and asset protection — rather than treating estate planning as a side practice alongside unrelated legal work. My background:
- J.D., J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University (2010)
- M.B.A., Western Governors University (2015)
- B.S., Business Management, University of Phoenix (2004)
- Licensed to practice law in the State of Utah
- Over a decade of experience practicing estate planning law
- 2015 President, Utah Valley Estate Planning Council
The combined law degree and MBA background is deliberate. An estate plan isn't only a legal document — it interacts with taxes, business ownership, and long-term financial goals, and I've found that understanding both sides produces a plan that actually holds together rather than one that's legally sound but financially awkward, or vice versa.
I'm based in Provo, Utah and work with individuals and families across Utah County and statewide. You can read more about my approach and full practice areas on the About page.
How to Choose an Estate Planning Attorney
Whether you end up working with our firm or someone else, these questions are worth asking before you commit:
- Are they licensed in your state? A law license from another state doesn't authorize someone to practice law where you live.
- Does estate planning make up a real share of their practice? Ask directly. "I handle a few wills a year alongside my main practice" is a different answer than "this is what I focus on."
- Can they explain their fees clearly, upfront? You should know roughly what a plan will cost before you commit to anything — see our post on estate planning costs in Utah for typical ranges.
- Do they ask about your specific situation, or push a one-size-fits-all package? A blended family, a business, or an out-of-state property all change what a plan needs to do.
- Do they explain things in plain language? You should leave a consultation understanding your own plan, not just trusting that it exists.
In practice: Every new client conversation at my office starts as a free 30-minute consultation — no cost, no pressure, and no assumption that a particular package is the right fit before I've heard about your family and your goals. That's not a marketing line; it's the "discovery" step described above, and it's the same starting point for every engagement regardless of how simple or complex the resulting plan turns out to be.
Frequently Asked Questions
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An estate planning attorney is a licensed lawyer whose practice focuses on helping individuals and families plan for the management of their assets during life and the transfer of those assets after death. That typically includes drafting wills and trusts, powers of attorney, and advance health care directives, and guiding families through probate or trust administration when someone dies or becomes incapacitated. Unlike a general practice attorney who might draft an occasional will, an estate planning attorney concentrates a substantial share of their practice specifically on this area of law.
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Every estate planning attorney is a licensed lawyer, but not every lawyer practices estate planning. Law is a broad field — an attorney might focus on personal injury, criminal defense, family law, or business litigation, and only occasionally draft a will or trust as a side service. An estate planning attorney has built a practice specifically around wills, trusts, probate, and related planning, which typically means deeper familiarity with the state-specific statutes, tax rules, and drafting conventions that govern how these documents actually hold up when they're needed.
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No, and the distinction matters. A financial advisor helps manage investments, retirement accounts, and overall financial strategy, but is generally not licensed to draft legal documents or give legal advice. An estate planning attorney drafts the actual legal instruments — the will, the trust, the power of attorney — that carry out a plan. The two roles work best together: a financial advisor's investment and beneficiary-designation strategy should line up with what an attorney has drafted, not conflict with it.
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At minimum, look for a law license in good standing in your state. Beyond that, look for practical signals of focus: does a substantial share of their practice concentrate on wills, trusts, and probate, rather than estate planning being an occasional add-on to an unrelated practice area? How many years have they spent working specifically in this field? Are they involved in professional organizations related to estate planning? Utah does not have a formal board-certification process specific to estate planning the way some states do for certain other legal specialties, so in Utah those signals of experience and focus matter more than a certification badge.
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Costs vary by the complexity of the plan and how the attorney bills — flat fee versus hourly is common for estate planning work. A simple will-based plan generally costs less than a full trust-based plan, and costs rise with complications like blended families, business interests, or out-of-state property. For a fuller breakdown of typical ranges, see our post on estate planning costs in Utah. Most estate planning attorneys, including this firm, offer a free initial consultation so you can get a specific quote for your situation before committing to anything.
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Estate planning isn't only about the size of your estate. Even a modest estate benefits from naming a guardian for minor children, naming someone to manage finances or make medical decisions if you're incapacitated, and avoiding a default distribution scheme that Utah law imposes when there's no will at all. A small estate may need a simpler plan than a large one, but "small" rarely means "no plan needed" once there are people who depend on you.