The traditional understanding of “child”, “family”, and “parent” have been significantly affected by rapidly advancing assisted reproductive technologies, the use of others’ genetic material, and surrogacy. The legal landscape surrounding the use of these technologies and their intersection with estate planning is a developing area of law. This paper aims to assist estate planning practitioners to be able to articulate these issues to clients, explain the applicable law to clients, and draft testamentary documents in a way that properly addresses their client’s concerns. It includes a sample client information gathering form specific to genetic material.

This paper is part of a collection presented at LESA’s 50^th Annual Refresher in Lake Louise from May 7–9^th, 2017.