Lawyers With Purpose

Introducing March Member of the Month, Peggy Timmel

Timmel Law, which began in 2009, has been an LWP member since 2012.  Located in New Albany, IN, it has the unique distinction of serving markets in 2 states, Kentucky and Indiana, or “Kentuckiana.”  Attorneys Peggy Timmel, who founded the practice, and Jessica Richards together with a support team of seven, plus Fred, a delightful canine who serves as the “Director Of Goodwill,” provide estate planning, elder law, asset protection, long term care & Medicaid, veterans’ benefits, and probate & estate administration services for their clients.

Attorneys Jessica Richards (left) and Peggy Timmel (right)

To celebrate Timmel Law’s many successes, LWP sat down with Jessica Richards to talk about their firm.

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

Our revenue has increased 120% since 2014.  Our firm has grown from 2 attorneys & 1 CSC to 2 attorneys and 5 full-time, 2 part-time team members.  We have a very strong, cohesive team right now, and we used the Kolbe/Strengthsfinder to build it.

What do you believe sets Timmel Law apart from your competition?

Peggy does!  She is incredibly empathetic; that is just one of her strengths, and it can be helpful to hand-hold people through the process, particularly if they’re having a tough time.  Also, we’re not pushy or salesy; about 90% of our clients come through our workshops, and that’s the main way we educate people about what they need. 

LWP helps set us apart, too.  The integration of the LWP system – processes, drafting software, member interaction, and membership support, has empowered us to educate individuals and then address their fact specific needs with great outcomes for clients and our team. 

For example, we have the processes and use the workshops, and people getting pre-educated in this way is huge.  Also, we’re good at finding the right solution for clients because we don’t just assume there is only one way to do things.  Some of our competitors are only able to offer 1-2 options, and there are some that do general estate planning, but not Medicaid planning, so there are issues that they’re not addressing for their clients.  They’re not thinking about looking at a trust for asset protection, while we remain focused on providing a number of options to best suit our clients. 

What was your deciding factor in choosing LWP over our competitors?

LWP isn’t just a drafting software; we joined because we appreciated the focus it provides.  All of the processes are like an overall umbrella to keeps us organized, anchored to systems, and delegating properly.  It’s all about being more efficient: taking time to set goals, identifying who in the office should be doing what, working within your strengths, and having a weekly team meeting.  We also appreciate the member support and interaction, and we send at least one person from our team to every TAPER. 

Speaking of TAPER, what’s one of the best tips you’ve gotten from attending?

We heard one attorney at TAPER talk about putting a certain percentage of revenue into a charity account each month, so when there’s a cause the firm would like to support, there’s already money set aside.  We loved that idea, and we implemented that in our firm as soon as we got back.

What is your favorite LWP tool?

The CCS drafting software and templates.  This keeps us focused on the client’s needs and building a plan that works for them.  Plus, it makes the drafting process less tedious.  It took a while to get on board, but now I take the design meetings, and our paralegal drafts. 

You joined the practice in 2013.  What kinds of changes, if any, have you seen in your market or with your clients, since then?

I’ve seen the same types of issues, but our competence and abilities have changed.  When I first joined, it was just the two of us and an assistant.  We had similar client issues, but now, we handle more volume and find new solutions and find exception in Medicaid rules. 

What are some of the biggest challenges your clients are facing right now?  Are you seeing any trends in client needs?

There aren’t a lot of trends; it’s just consistent that when clients need to go into a nursing home or need care, they’re concerned whether everything will go to the nursing home.  In Indiana, we have more Medicaid opportunities Medicaid covers home care.  We also get a lot of people who need help when their parents go into a nursing home.  They do planning for their parents, and then for themselves.

Any advice for attorneys who are new to estate planning & elder law?

Join LWP!  The cost of doing something like this can be scary, but it’s critical to be able to build the firm.  Also, stick to processes as much as possible.  Most people don’t want your firm to get too big. 

 

FUN FACTS About Jessica Richards:

Share something about yourself that most people don’t know about you.

I have been to the Infield at the Kentucky Derby for 24 consecutive years.  It started out as a family tradition long before I was old enough to attend.  I continue to go with some of my cousins and many friends who have joined the tradition over the years.  The best part of the day is when we stand in a circle singing “My Old Kentucky Home” right before the best two minutes in sports.

What is your favorite book and how did it impact your life?

I love to read, especially fiction! So this is a hard question for me. I am much better at top 5 lists, so in no particular order:

1. To Kill A Mockingbird
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Atonement
4. Atlas Shrugged
5. Hunger Games Series (I love dystopian novels – for example, I just finished reading 1984 this week)

Each book had its own unique impact on my life.  Most importantly, each book contributed to my love of reading and diving into a fictional world. 

Building Profitable Referral Relationships: Ask the Right Questions

Asking the right questions accomplishes several goals. It allows you to find ways to distinguish yourself from your competition and demonstrate the value you offer the allied professional and his or her clients. This can convince the professional to move forward with you. In addition, asking the right questions allows you to determine whether or not you want to forge a relationship with this particular professional. The key is understanding what type of questions to ask allied professionals—and why.

• Ask questions that help you understand what they do
• Ask questions to understand their experiences when working with attorneys, and what their clients have experienced working with attorneys
• Ask questions to understand where there is opportunity or challenges
• Ask questions to gain an understanding of what your services mean to them
• Ask if they think their clients are planning properly
• Ask questions to help you identify what to expect from this relationship
• Ask questions that let them discuss how they see your firm supporting them and their goals

As you can see, a professional’s answers to these types of questions will give you an opportunity to further demonstrate your value by addressing his or her greatest concerns and showing how the two of you can work effectively together. Equally important, the answers will help you determine whether you want to work with this professional. We’ll talk more about qualifying your referral sources next time.

Building Profitable Referral Relationships: How to Get Off on the Right Foot

Why should a professional refer his or her clients to you? For starters, the professional must know why and how your services will benefit his or her clients. The professional must also be confident that you will “do right” by his or her clients—basically, that you will provide effective legal representation.

Next, why should the professional refer clients to you rather than the firm down the street? How do you distinguish yourself and assure them that you will keep your promises? Perhaps it’s your process that sets you apart and addresses their initial concerns. Or the number of years you’ve focused on elder law and estate planning. Or the fact that you have plenty of recommendations from former and existing clients. Or maybe, what you have to say is something they have never heard before and they find extreme value in it.

Once you and the allied professional have agreed that there is value in your working together, you may find yourself thinking along the following lines: “This is going well, the professional really likes me, I’m going to get plenty of work from this person.”

Hold on. Remember, your goal isn’t just to have nice meetings. You want meetings that generate revenue. You need to know that this particular professional is someone you’re comfortable working with and a person who has the potential to actually deliver revenue-producing clients to you. In order to know that, you need to ask the right questions. We’ll cover the types of questions you need to ask in our next post.

Building Profitable Referral Relationships: With Whom Should You Meet?

Simply put, you want to meet with professionals that service your market in a different way than you do and whose clients (or patients) can benefit from your services.

So where do you find these professionals? Your sources can be broken down into four categories: institutions such as hospitals and hospices; wholesalers like brokerage houses, insurance companies, and banks; agencies such as nursing homes, RCILs, and ARCs; and advisors, including financial advisors, insurance representatives, accountants, and tax preparers.

It can be helpful to think of these four categories as a funnel, with institutions and wholesalers at the top, agencies and advisors in the middle of the funnel, and their clients (or patients) at the bottom of the funnel, ready to flow into your firm as prospective clients.

Now that we know the institutions, wholesalers, agencies, and advisors with whom you want to meet, let’s look at how to get started on the right foot with them and how to clearly understand your value proposition. We’ll cover that next time.

Why it is worth the time to forge relationships with allied professionals—Yes, you can develop profitable referrals!

To a large extent, your success is determined by how well you manage your leads and vital relationships, especially referral relationships with allied professionals. Unfortunately, forging and maintaining profitable referral relationships is one of the greatest challenges facing most law firms.

In the coming weeks, we’re going to discuss proven strategies for building a strong referral network. We’ll talk about how to get started on the right foot, the questions you need to ask to qualify your referral sources and properly set expectations, how to track your results, and more.

At the very least, we hope these emails help you understand the importance of the following two concepts:

Contrary to what some potential referral sources would have you believe, your value is not in the referrals you send back. Your value goes far beyond that.

Your goal is not simply to have good meetings with allied professionals. Rather, your goal is to turn meetings into revenue.

Logically enough, building profitable relationships with allied professionals begins with knowing precisely which professionals you should be meeting with. We’ll talk about that next time.

Use the Proper Software and System to Build a More Efficient Team

Using state-of-the-art software within an effective system allows you to build a highly efficient team and firm. Each workflow is comprised of a series of steps with a defined set of tasks to be completed at each step. Many of the steps are designed to do things automatically, like assign tasks to staff, send emails to update your clients on progress, and much more. Your staff can easily see the work assigned to them and what they need to do next, while you get a crystal clear picture of the workflow throughout your whole firm. You will see every matter’s progress, who is working on what, the steps that need to be taken next, and what might be holding things up. Armed with information like this, you’ll be able to better hold members of your team accountable and improve overall efficiency.

As we have seen, leading-edge software allows you to generate accurate, customized planning documents following a single client interview. Over time, and with proper training, you may even be able to turn this task over to a paralegal. And in the process, free up more time to pursue new clients and generate new revenue, or to simply work less and live more. The possibilities are limited only by your priorities.

From Efficiency to Proficiency: Automatic Alerts about Potential Planning Mistakes

State-of-the-art asset protection software can alert you to potential problems. Case in point: During the interview, LWP software will display “light bulb” icons offering built-in practice tips and pointers that provide background and help you make informed choices. For example, there is a light bulb that displays information about required minimum distributions, which can help you select the best option for how to treat income from retirement accounts. These practice tips can include the language that would appear in your documents based on the selection you choose, references to case law or other legal authority, and sometimes just a simple explanation of the legal concept to help you make the proper selection for a particular client’s needs.

Light bulbs are just one of the safety nets you’ll find in LWP’s cloud-based software. A big, bold warning appears if one of your selections could impact your client’s Medicaid eligibility. It reminds you to use your best judgment to determine whether the warning applies in your jurisdiction and in your client’s particular situation.

Improve Your Efficiency Further with the Power of Dynamic Interviews

Another powerful component of some software is the ability to do dynamic interviews. Let’s say John and Jane Sample want separate revocable living trusts and you collect the information needed to do each one. But what if they change their minds and want a joint revocable living trust? The software can help you make the adjustment. When you change the parameter the software then “knows” you are only creating a single joint trust for both John and Jane and it no longer requires you to ask questions for Jane’s individual trust, or enter that information, thereby saving time.

So just how much time can you save with the right software? With the simple click of a ‘Finish’ or similar button, all of a client’s relevant information will be assembled into customized WORD documents specifically tailored to meet your client’s needs. In effect, you’ll have turned 15 to 20 hours of document drafting into less than two hours of work.

Next time we’ll discuss how the proper software can enhance document accuracy and coordination.

Create Customized Estate Plans with Greater Efficiency

The process of creating a customized estate plan begins with the client interview. State-of-the-art software uses a single-entry system; as you work through the interview, you only have to enter information once. That information is later reused in the interview and replicated in the assembled documents.

Another benefit of a single-entry system is that it allows you to easily update necessary information. For example, if you need to change Bob Sample’s name to Robert P. Sample (or make a change considerably more complex), you only have to correct it once. The change will automatically be adopted throughout the interview, and ultimately, across every document included in this particular estate plan.

Additionally, the data collection tools within the software and workflows are designed to make it easier for you to gather the information you need to draft your clients’ documents. For example, when your legal assistant or client services coordinator enters a client’s information into a matter within the workflow, the information will populate and pre-fill some of the choices within the software interview.

Next time: Discover the power of Dynamic Interviews

February's Members of the Month, Valerie Anias & Jessica Estes

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

Time Management. Though it’s a work in progress and likely always will be, we have learned so much about how to be more efficient, better organize ourselves and our calendars, and become more productive.

What is your favorite LWP tool?

The focusers in general but definitely the Daily and Weekly Focuser!

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

We value ourselves as a team rather than just individuals working independently of one another. We have learned about our communication styles and differences that have helped us communicate more efficiently.

Share something about yourself that most people don’t know about you.

Most people don’t know that Jessica loves to cook and is really quite good. And Val loves to eat all of Jessica’s food creations!

What is your favorite book and how did it impact your life?

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. It has helped us learn how to interact with others in a more meaningful way. The most impactful habit we practice is to “seek first to understand, then to be understood.” In other words, learning how to listen empathetically in order to truly understand a person. All people are different, and you never truly know what they are going through.

Congratulations to you on your continued success!