Estate Planning

Attorneys, financial planners, doctors, dentists, CPA’s and other professionals can be intimidating to their client base.  From the prospective of a professional this doesn’t make much sense.  After all we are people that are similar in many ways to anyone else in the working world.  The only real difference is perhaps a little more schooling and our chosen profession.  But as I think back to before I became an attorney I guess I can relate to this perspective.  But now that I have entered the world of the professional I see that humanizing myself to my clients is an important part of the job. 

A major roadblock to clients entering the front office door or picking up the phone and calling me can be that they are intimidated by my title as an attorney.  I have added to my professional growth plan the task of how to best get my clients to relate to me on a more human level.  Through some medium I must help the client understand that while I have had rigorous training and constantly strive to understand an implement the law for their benefit I am a person who is here to help them. 

As an example when I meet with clients I want to show them that we are in this together, that it is a collaborative process.  We can work together to navigate through the complex estate planning laws towards the ultimate goal of a solid plan that carries out their desires and wishes.  This can be helped by showing them that I am not some impersonal machine that takes in data and spits out a legal document that they sign.

Towards that end I may end up creating a pamphlet or something of the like that explains more about who I am.  It could tell clients where I am from, where I went to school, my hobbies, interests and why I care about their individual needs.  A handout like this could be distributed by me or other contacts of mine that clients could take home, read over and decide for themselves if I am someone they want to include in their planning.  That reminds me, I should update my website to include a little more about my personal life but I have yet to decide how much I should include.  I could add my interest in golf and basketball as these are common interests that would not likely turn off any clients.  But should I include my love for hunting and fishing?  Such hobbies may turn off some, but are those the type of people I want as clients?  I will continue to mull this over and may end up not including anything in my website.  Only time will tell.

The other marketing tactic I have taken is forming an estate planning and probate administration study group with a colleague of mine, Joel Mullen.  A few days ago I sent out an email to the solo/small and estate planning list servs asking if other practitioners would be interested in such a group.  The respone to date has been very exciting.  About 15 people have responded in a few days that they are indeed interested in forming an estate planning study group.  If half of the people follow through and show up willing to make a long term commitment we could really have something.  Hopefully it will grow into a group that is serious about improving their practice and helping others improve as well.