Estate Planning Attorney Resume Example & Writing Guide
Use this Estate Planning Attorney resume example and guide to improve your career and write a powerful resume that will separate you from the competition.
An estate planning attorney is a legal professional who helps clients create plans for the distribution of their assets after death or for the management of their assets during life.
If you’re interested in helping people plan for their future—and making sure they have peace of mind in the process—you might enjoy working as an estate planning attorney. And because there is so much room for customization within the field, your experience could look very different from someone else’s. Some attorneys focus exclusively on wills, trusts, and other legal instruments that protect property and finances. Others work on tax planning or insurance planning matters. And still others work in estate administration, helping families settle an estate after someone has passed away.
Regardless of where your interest lies within estate planning, you’ll need an impressive resume to help you land the job. Here are some tips to follow plus an example to look at when writing yours.
How to Write an Estate Planning Attorney Resume
Here’s how to write an estate planning attorney resume of your own.
Write Compelling Bullet Points
When it comes to writing bullet points, the more specific you can be, the better. Rather than saying you “assisted clients with estate planning,” you could say that you “assisted clients with creating wills, trusts, and other estate planning documents, resulting in an increase in client satisfaction from 85% to 95% over the course of one year.”
The second bullet point is much stronger because it provides specific details about what you did, how you did it, and the results of your work.
Identify and Include Relevant Keywords
When you submit your resume for an estate planning attorney role, it’s likely that it will be scanned by an applicant tracking system (ATS) for certain keywords. These programs look for terms related to estate planning, like “probate” or “wills and trusts,” in order to determine whether your skills and experience are a match for the job opening. If your resume doesn’t include enough relevant keywords, the ATS might filter out your application.
To increase your chances of getting noticed, use this list of common estate planning keywords as a starting point to help you brainstorm:
- Estate Planning
- Wills
- Trusts
- Probate
- Elder Law
- Legal Writing
- Tax Law
- Estate Administration
- Living Wills
- Real Estate Transactions
- Divorce Law
- Business Law
- Power of Attorney
- Law
- Probate Law
- Real Estate
- Corporate Law
- Financial Planning
- Family Law
- Civil Litigation
- Drafting Wills
- Succession Planning
- Tax Planning
- Life Insurance
- Retirement Planning
- Asset Protection
- Asset Management
- Wealth Management
- Investment Advisory
- Investments
Showcase Your Technical Skills
As an estate planning attorney, you need to be proficient in a wide range of technologies in order to effectively do your job. This might include familiarity with legal research databases, case management software, or estate planning software. Additionally, many estate planning attorneys use social media platforms to market their services, and those who are familiar with these platforms will be better equipped to take advantage of this growing trend.