Lawyers With Purpose

The Initial Contact Focuser

A few years ago, a federal investigator subpoenaed one of my calendars to prove a local doctor had committed massive insurance fraud.  The doctor ultimately lost his license and served prison time, based in large part on my calendar.

About that same time, I received a parking ticket in the mail, and was able through my calendar keeping, to prove that I had been in another city that day many miles away.

Using the Initial Contact Focuser may not help you fight a parking ticket or be used in a federal investigation, but the information it captures cannot be recreated after the fact.  The ICF documents the number of prospects who have contacted your firm in any given time period, and perhaps most importantly, documents where those prospects came from.  The ICF should guide and measure the results of every marketing decision you make.

When I hear that a law firm is not either using the ICF or capturing this information in some other way, it’s truly difficult for me to understand.  That valuable information is forever lost.  Putting contact information on a post-it or a phone pad is no way to run a business.

Long-term planning for growth and success can only be successful through systematically capturing, measuring and evaluating information.

A firm that I work closely with recently organized all their ICF information for the prior 12 months and was dismayed to see that a newspaper ad for which they had paid more than $400 per month for more than a year had not generated a single client.   

Another firm created lunch & learn opportunities, cooking and paying for lunches at the local senior center for a number of months before reviewing their ICF data, and calculating that the ROI was negligible.

How can you measure the success of any of your professional relationships if the ICF is not carefully maintained?

This sample shows not only the results of professional relationships, but also documents a referral to another law firm. 

This tool is available on the LWP members website in both Excel and Word formats and can be found by searching “5 Key.”  This information can also be captured through most any database software.

Make reviewing the weekly ICF a part of your weekly team meeting – I promise you won’t regret it.  If you need any support please let me know - [email protected]!

If you want to learn more about the systems and tools that Lawyers With Purpose has to offer, please consider joining us in Phoenix, October 22nd - 24th for our Practice With Purpose Program.  Click the link to review the agenda and see all that you get in just 2.5 days!  Click here to register now.

Nedra Catale - Coaching, Consulting & Implementation, Lawyers With Purpose

It's Going To Be Really Hard!

Labor Day weekend is always a “2-minute warning” type of weekend for the Hall family. Like so many other Americans, once the calendar hits the first Tuesday of September, we panic because the clock is running out on the nice weather. This year we headed to the Grand Canyon to camp for three nights. As we hit I-70 westbound, we bantered back and forth about all the fun we were going to have exploring with two other families we were meeting there, with collectively 10 kids in tow.

Saturday, as we hiked the south rim, we consulted with a park ranger on a few different trails we had been pondering for our Sunday hike. This time we were going to hike down the canyon. The ranger coached us on the best hikes to take with kids in the pack. We finally decided on one that would take approximate two hours roundtrip. We were given the caution list of all the things to take into consideration, as this is a “hard” trail.

Early Sunday morning the 14 of us started hiking down the switchback rock bed trail. We met many great people along the way – of all ages and sizes. Because of the repeated warnings of the hike’s difficulty, we started out slow, stopping and checking to make certain everyone was OK. As we waited, we conversed with the folks coming up. Again, many of them warned us it was going to be hard. It wasn’t until about 20 minutes into the hike that it dawned on me why everyone we met expressed how “hard” it was going to be.

Most hikes consist of hiking up a gradual incline, where you can see the summit. You see where you’re headed, how you’re getting there and when the end is in sight. If the hike is too challenging or way out of your comfort zone as you ascend, you can easily turn back, knowing the hike down provides a reprieve. And you can go back to where you started the known.

When you hike the Grand Canyon, on the other hand, you start at the rim and hike down. There are switchbacks every step, since hiking straight down would surely result in death. You cannot see where you’re headed or how you’re getting there, and the end is definitely not in plain sight. The hard part for most people is hiking up, not down. So there is little enjoyment for the hikers who like to know where the finish line is, get through the hard part first and coast through the easy part on the way back. Hiking the Grand Canyon is not the “norm” when it comes to hiking, so people are quick to exclaim how “hard” it’s going to be.

This is interesting, because many people who said “it’s going to be hard” didn’t know that firsthand. They were just projecting either what they were told or were feeling the uncertainty of a unordinary route. The truth of the matter is, the hike itself was NOT hard – it didn’t test the strength or endurance of the adults or even of the 6-year-old we had with us.

As we began to hike back, it got me thinking. (An occupational hazard as a coach.) Where else in our lives do we buy into the story that something is going to be “hard?” The feeling can be especially strong when we aren’t sure where we are headed, how we are getting there or what the journey back will be like if it doesn’t work out. What if I can’t do this?

I witness this daily with phone calls from burnt-out, transitioning attorneys who can’t stand another day in the courtroom but can’t comprehend the unknown path to an alternative. The certainty of their misery is far less painful than how hard it’s going to be to get on a different path where we will guide them through all the uncharted territory.  I also see it in the attorney who needs to fire an underperforming, entitled employee who has been there since the firm’s inception. There is no named replacement on the horizon, or any certainty that the revenue will be coming in to support the transition. Same with the receptionist who is so very ready to share her ideas about marketing, and is eager to step up to tackle that role. But what if her vision doesn’t work out? What if the job is too much for her? What if the results don’t come immediately? Marketing people are often the first to get cut when funds get low.  

People tell us how hard life and business will be when we share where we are thinking of heading. And we believe it – so we don’t even get on the path. Consider the possibility that “hard” actually means something you’ve never done before that doesn’t have a map with a certain path carefully dotted from beginning to end.

Are you standing at the start of the path feeling oppressed with anxiety and uncertainty, and is that making the change feel like it’s too much work and too hard?

If you're an estate planning attorney and want to learn more about Asset Protection, Medicaid & VA, check out the agenda for our Practice With Purpose Program we're having October 20nd-22nd in Phoenix, Arizona.

Molly L. Hall, Co-Founder, Lawyers with Purpose, LLC, and author of Don’t Be a Yes Chick: How to Stop Babysitting Your Boss, Transform Your Job and Work with a Dream Team Without Losing Your Sanity or Your Spirit in the Process.

 

Congratulations to Andrew Jaloza, LWP Member Of The Month

What is the greatest success you’ve had since joining LWP?  

The two greatest successes I have had to date are 1)  witnessing the dropping of the shoulders as my clients experience the peace of mind that knowing that I have educated them about and assisted in solving their estate planning dilemma, and 2) having a couple who are financial advisors tell me that the reason they have retained me is that they get the feeling that I really care about what I am doing.  LWP has given me the tools to create a practice that is extremely gratifying.

 

What is your favorite LWP tool?

 

The legal/technical support of Aaron Miller and the coaching of my implementation coach Roz Drotar. As I have told them there is no way I could do this without them.   

 

How has being part of LWP impacted your team and your practice?

The systematic approach and the support of LWP has enable myself and my team to create a successful estate planning practice in a very short period of time.  The tools of LWP and my team, headed by my awesome right hand Deatra Austin have created a thriving Estate Planning Practice with Purpose in no time flat.  

Conversations Are Crushing Your Future Revenue

I’m a stickler (PITA - aka "Pain In The A--") about providing a time and place for “conversations” in the workplace. I am all for connection, team building, sharing personal victories and working through where you are stuck in your life. I feel I am by nature a heart-centered person. I spend most of my free time on the yoga mat, hiking, camping or spending time with my dear friends and family. I’m all about connection and conversation. My Language of Appreciation is Quality Time and I lead with WHOO on the Strength Finder 2.0. However, I have strong convictions around limiting “conversation” during dedicated meeting and reporting times.

I’ve heard rumblings of the team saying, “She cuts me off mid- sentence sometimes,” or “She gets irritated easily during department meetings when we XXXXX.” When my director of operations shared some of this feedback with me recently while measuring the effectiveness of our department meetings, none of it surprised me. I feel exactly what they are feeling. I lead my department meetings like a boardroom meeting, always anchoring to the agenda and standards, story-stopping and data-seeking. I always hold the team members’ feet to the fire around consistent tracking, measuring and reporting versus stories about what it all does or doesn’t say.

Weekly team meetings, quarterly internal team retreats, unscheduled water cooler meet-ups, impromptu phone calls, team building events, etc. – ALL of these are excellent places for conversation and connection. But if you're allowing your weekly department meetings to be a place for coffee klatching, you will quickly find people dreading meetings because they are ineffective, and possibly useless. People thrive on structure and accountability. (And yes, you must hold separate department meetings even if you are a team of 1.5. HINT: Revisit The E-Myth.)

“How are things going? What’s occurred since our last call?”  That is how I started the monthly CCI call with a firm this past week. The attorney: “I’m not getting my reporting and have no idea what is working, what’s not working and where we stand with conversion rates right now. I know we are really, really busy, but I’m uncertain if any of this business is connected to revenue. I don’t know what is going on day in, day out because I am behind closed doors counseling, solving or convincing people of why we are worth our fees.” The client services coordinator instantly became defensive and spouted all the reasons why the reporting is or isn't occurring from her perspective. I really didn’t matter at that point; we were having a conversation about what we thought and felt was the state of the business. The reports weren’t doing the talking.

The attorney was really trying to communicate one simple thing with the story-stopping and desperate plea for consistent reporting. Business owners need (not necessarily want) the consistency of weekly meetings that are led and run by someone else. Every business owner needs weekly reporting and tracking so we know if we are shooting in the dark or aiming true north. Business owners are typically secretly walking around scared to death that today is the day “the other shoe will drop.”

You undeniably must create time and space in your workplace for conversation and connection. But if your weekly department meetings lack the unrelenting standards of a boardroom meeting and are instead weighed down with casual conversations, you can guarantee you're crushing your future revenue.

To learn more on how to effectively run your weekly department meetings, contact [email protected]. 

Have you registered for our Practice With Purpose Program yet?  If you want to learn more about Lawyers With Purpose, register today and spend 2.5 day with us learning all you need to know about Asset Protection, Medicaid & VA.  Click here, check out the agenda, and register today!  

Molly L. Hall, Co-Founder, Lawyers with Purpose, LLC, and author of Don’t Be a Yes Chick: How to Stop Babysitting Your Boss, Transform Your Job and Work with a Dream Team Without Losing Your Sanity or Your Spirit in the Process.

Hidden Dangers of Medicaid Qualifying Annuities

Today, many elder law attorneys rely on Medicaid qualifying annuities to get their clients qualified to receive Medicaid benefits. They're also used when clients seek VA pension benefits.

While Medicaid qualifying annuities have become the default solution, they are not without risk. One challenge is that MQA's do not work well for single individuals. Second, even when used in married planning, there is no assurance the amount placed in the Medicaid qualifying annuity will actually be preserved. In fact, it could all be lost with the subsequent disability or death of the community spouse.

These are just some of the issues (not to mention the Veterans Administration's changing position on annuities when applying for veteran pension benefits) that we will be discussing at the Asset Protection, Medicaid and VA Practice With Purpose Program October 20-22^nd  in Phoenix, AZ.

National Asset Protection, Medicaid and VA experts and dozens of attorneys like you will be collaborating to identify the hidden risks in the different Medicaid and veterans' benefits strategies. This program promises to be the hands-on strategic solving many lawyers crave in their practice. Click here to get a full outline and to register for the program.

In these three days here is just some of what we will cover:

ASSET PROTECTION:

• Recent updates to asset protection and Medicaid compliant strategies.
• The new asset protection strategies dominating the marketplace.
• The death of DAPT'S, FLP'S, GRATS, GRUTS, and tax planning, and what's replaced them.
• The five essential trusts and key drafting needs to serve 99.7% of clients.
• The Power of Powers of Appointment, in the right places.
• Four "must have" drafting considerations and three "most forgotten" powers in trust.

MEDICAID:

• Four steps to Medicaid eligibility for any client.
• How to calculate the "breakeven" to ensure the proper filing date for the shortest penalty period.
• Medicaid Qualifying Annuities: Hidden risks and how to properly disclose them to clients or protect from them.
• The seven key factors to calculate any Medicaid case in seven minutes (or less!).
• IRA's: Exemption versus taxes, how to calculate if IRA's should be liquidated or exempted in Medicaid and VA cases.

VETERANS' BENEFITS:

• New fully developed claims process for veterans and widows.
• Qualifying assisted living facilities as UME's.
• Key language to complete the physician affidavit for more timely approvals.
• Update on three year look back for VA benefits.
• The key reports no longer required for VA applications.
• Dangers of annuities in VA benefits planning.
• The effects of the Supreme Court decision on DOMA related to veterans' benefits.

HERE'S WHAT YOUR PEERS HAD TO SAY ABOUT THE PROGRAM:

• "It will change your practice and your life!" --John Koenig
• "Great way to grow into a real firm and help one's community." --Antoinette Middleton
• "Go to the training session and consider and evaluate upgrading your delivery of services, for me it's modernizing what I can offer." --Wally Kelleman

Are you going to miss or attend the most important event of the year? Click here now to join some of your most successful colleagues and leave confident in the strategies you provide to your clients every day. 

David J. Zumpano, Esq, CPA, Co-founder Lawyers With Purpose, Founder and Senior Partner of Estate Planning Law Center

The Five Key Focusers - Why They REALLY Matter!

This week I was involved in a discussion between a 90-day-into-the-job Client Services Director, and the attorney/business owner.   The attorney voiced his deep frustration that the new CSC was not keeping the Five Key Focusers.  The CSC felt she had been tossed into the deep end of the pool with very little training, had inherited an extremely disorganized office from the departed and disgruntled CSC, and had worked hard to bring order to the firm, while simultaneously learning the processes and mastering the tools.

Both of them were tired, discouraged and felt unheard and under-appreciated. 

Does this sound familiar to you?

The interesting thing, from my perspective, is that they were both right.

I’ve been the tired and discouraged CSC, trying to find time to get everything done that needed to be done, with constant interruptions.   So I could totally relate to her story.

On the other hand, I understand what keeps the attorney from sleeping at night …

Let me tell you a true story …

Years back, my husband’s friend’s wife took the family checkbook and went shopping.  She was young (and perhaps a blonde – I never asked) and did not fully understand the concept of a checking account.  She thought that as long as she had checks, she could just write them.  She actually had no idea that you actually had to have money in the bank to cover the checks.  True story, I promise!

She wanted to surprise her husband by sprucing up their home, and “purchased” new carpet, flooring, drapes and decorative items. 

By the time her husband discovered what she had done, not only had she written out checks, but she had not documented the amounts nor identified to whom she had written the checks.   She simply wrote checks until she ran out.  It was a few days before her husband knew anything about her “surprise” so when he found out; it was too late to stop payments and cancel purchases, etc.

Back in the days before you could just log into your bank account online Peter, the friend, had no way to know his actual balance, nor to control or plan for the consequences.  It was a total mess and, as I understand it, seriously stressed their relationship for quite a while.

Am I trying to say that the CSC acted in the same way as this newlywed?  Not at all!  But she didn’t realize that by not capturing critical business data her boss, the attorney, feels that he has no way to do damage control or to ensure that her salary check will clear the bank at the end of the month.  He needs to know who is calling the firm, how they heard about the firm, and see the birds-eye view of what is going on with prospects, conversions and cash flow.  He must be able to depend upon her capturing this information, because he himself is not in a position to do so.  She is the only one in a position to be able to document this information, and if he cannot rely upon her attention to detail it will send him into a panic mode.

Which is exactly what happened!

In so many areas of life we tend to pay attention and care for urgent matters, too often at the expense of critical matters.  Yes, it’s urgent that the phones be answered.  It’s urgent that prospects receive quality and painstaking care.  It’s urgent that documents get drafted and clients get scheduled … but it is CRITICAL that the business side of the firm is tended and cared for.

If your firm is not documenting through the Five Key Focusers, or some other means, and you would like more information on how to take control and sleep better contact me at [email protected].

If you aren't a Lawyers With Purpose member, but want to experience first-hand what we have to offer, join us October 20-22nd in Phoenix, AZ, for our Practice With Purpose Program.  Just click the link to review the agenda chalk full of all you need to know to run an efficient and effective estate/elder law practice.  

Nedra Catale - Coaching, Consulting & Implementation, Lawyers With Purpose