James E. Hickmon

James E. Hickmon is an attorney at North Carolina Estate Planning & Fiduciary Law, which is located in Charlotte, North Carolina. With over 17 years of experience in the legal field, he focuses his practice exclusively on estate planning matters, including complex lifetime and post-death estate planning and administration, planning for incapacity and beneficiaries with disabilities, and trust administration and probate.

Certified by the North Carolina State Bar Board of Legal Specialization, Mr. Hickmon is a specialist in estate planning and probate law. He helps business owners in different industries, including farmers and ranchers, real estate developers, commercial property owners, and towing and trucking companies. He also helps business owners create succession plans that will protect their family businesses after the owner’s death.

Mr. Hickmon attended University of North Carolina Wilmington and earned his bachelor’s degree in finance and earned his Master in Business Administration degree from East Carolina University. He went on to study law at Wake Forest University, earning his Juris Doctor degree. He is admitted to practice in North Carolina and Virginia and before the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and the U.S. Tax Court.

In addition, Mr. Hickmon teaches wealth transfer and fiduciary income taxation of trusts and estates as an adjunct professor for law students at Wake Forest University. He also graduated from the College for Financial Planning and is designated as a certified financial planner by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards.

Actively involved in the legal field, Mr. Hickmon has memberships in the Financial Planning Association’s Charlotte Chapter, the Charlotte Estate Planning Council, the Mecklenburg County Bar Association and the Humane Society of Charlotte, Inc., for which he serves as a board member. He is also a member of the American Bar Association’s Employee Benefits and Estate Planning Committee; the Uniform Laws for Trusts & Estates Committee; the Tax, Labor & Employment Section; and the Real Property & Probate Section. 

Mr. Hickmon has written extensively about tax, probate and wealth transfer and is published in renowned journals. A firm believer in helping those who need it the most, he works closely with many national, international and regional charitable associations. He is also AV Preeminent peer-review rated,* the highest rating, through Martindale-Hubbell.

*AV®, AV Preeminent®, Martindale-Hubbell Distinguished and Martindale-Hubbell Notable are certification marks used under license in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedures, standards and policies. Martindale-Hubbell® is the facilitator of a peer-review rating process. Ratings reflect the anonymous opinions of members of the bar and the judiciary. Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™ fall into two categories – legal ability and general ethical standards.