One of the most popular (and effective) sub-themes most seminar marketers include in their seminar invitation targeting affluent prospects is the “2nd opinion.” But, that message may NOT be the right one to send in a post-recession market. According to a recent survey by Cerulli Associates, the wealthiest investors in the U.S. are turning to […]

Perhaps the most important issues of a revocable trust are trustee issues. Estate planning attorneys see these issues all the time. Who should be the initial trustees?Ordinarily, the grantor(s) of the trust will want to be the initial trustee(s). However, sometimes it might be appropriate to have a trusted adult child as the initial trustee. […]

Register Now for This Exclusive Academy Webinar for Non-Member Attorneys! www.aaepa.com/bloginvite Hey there, you information loving, knowledge thirsty blog readers! Happy Monday to each of you from your Girl Friday. I have a special announcement for you that I didn’t want you to miss, so although we usually only see each other on Fridays, I’m […]

In this Best Practices for Hiring installment, I want to touch on how you can maximize your time with another critical area of hiring… resume selections. We, like most organizations, run at a pretty fast pace. We don’t have a lot of extra time to meet with every individual who sends in a resume or […]

As I mentioned in last week’s blog, I spent the week in Orlando at the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning. Heckerling provides a wide range of sessions on estate planning and elder law topics. The institute opened with a great run down of 2013 developments by Dennis Belcher, Carole Harrington, and Jeff Pennell. It continued […]

In days of yore, the last will and testament included statements of ethics. That was the testament part. Today’s wills mainly focus on the distribution of material goods the person is leaving behind – hopefully through a trust you’ve set up for your clients. The ethical will articulates the deceased’s values, beliefs, wisdom, and parting […]

Happy New Year to all and I hope your year has started off on the right path. I am excited to announce the release of our Spring 2014 Webinar Series lineup! For 20 years, the Academy has helped attorneys from all backgrounds transform their struggling practices into thriving, profitable law firms while living fulfilling lives […]

On Christmas day, I blogged about New Mexico becoming the 17th state to recognize same-sex marriage. Oddly, very conservative Utah became the 18th state to do so when a federal judge ruled on December 20th that a Utah constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage violated the U.S. constitution. The state did not originally seek a stay […]

Wouldn’t it be great if clients could avoid ever needing the disability planning you are so appropriately creating to protect them? Or at least postpone it? They can, and it has nothing to do with law. It’s that loaded 7-letter word: FITNESS.In their senior years, clients can be plagued by chronic illness. It’s a major […]

We are closing out one of the Academy’s busiest and most successful years ever. A major focus in the past year has been law firm TECHNOLOGY! SOFTWARE: We launched a new version of our database and estate planning document assembly software, CounselPro™ Version 7.0. We’ll be hosting a conference call soon for our Members to […]