The ACTEC Commentaries 6th Edition

The Sixth Edition of The ACTEC Commentaries on the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (“The ACTEC Commentaries”) offering guidance particular to estate and trust practitioners is now available. The ACTEC Commentaries are managed and prepared by ACTEC’s Professional Responsibility Committee, and made available through the financial support of The ACTEC Foundation. This edition addresses changes to the estate planning and probate practice, and the practice of law in general, since 2016, when the Fifth Edition was published.

Topics include the effect the recent pandemic has had on the use of technology in the practice and subsequent changes to the formalities of document execution that had been in place for centuries; increasing concern about elder abuse and the dilemma of the client with diminishing capacity; and changes in family law and issues that have been addressed in cases and ethics opinions around the country since the Fifth Edition was published.

Chair J. Lee  E. Osborne offers his thanks to Fellow Karen Elizabeth Boxx, Reporter for the Sixth Edition, and all of the Committee Members who contributed to this project:

“The ACTEC Commentaries serve as an invaluable resource to trust and estate practitioners in addressing ethical issues that can arise routinely in estate planning and administration. The effort to keep The Commentaries current is a duty which members of the ACTEC Professional Responsibility Committee do not take lightly. The work on the Sixth Edition began in March of 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic, under the leadership of then Committee Chair Linda J. Retz. A dedicated subcommittee reviewed every Model Rule previously addressed in The Commentaries, as well as the implications of changes in technology, remote and distance lawyering, and the privacy implications of FATF. The most significant changes, however, were to the Commentaries on Model Rule 1.14, dealing with client concerns about elder abuse and clients with diminished capacity. Special thanks is owed to Mary F. Radford, Amy Morris Hess, and William “Bill” Hennessey for their work in this area and for their ALI CLE program on this subject.”

The College joins Lee in thanking the above ACTEC Fellows and Professor Elizabeth R. Carter, Co-chair of The ACTEC Commentaries 6th Edition Subcommittee; Subcommittee Members Andrew D. Rothstein, Christopher H. Gadsden, Janet Rae Montgomery, C. Kevin McCrindle, Mary F. Radford, Peter T. Mott, Richard A. Gorini, Steven A. Benefield, and William Thomas Hennessey III; and all of the Members of the Professional Responsibility Committee for their time and dedication to this project.