You’ve managed your practice for long enough to know that there will always be cyclical ups and downs in your revenue and profits. Today, the financial state of many practices unfortunately mirrors that of the economy. One consequence of the current economic slowdown is that attorneys revise their client engagement standards because business is slow. […]

Ever since the Supreme Court case, Bates v. State Bar of Arizona in the 1970s, lawyers have had the right to advertise their services like any other commercial enterprise. Gone were the days of Tombstone ads, playing golf and going out to lunch several times a week just to woo new clients. While the full […]

An important new study about advance directives was just released October 5 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). You and your clients may have already heard about this in the news. The study’s findings are generally favorable (and certainly not unfavorable) toward advance directives. But — some of the press coverage has […]

I was reading a recent Costco monthly magazine and came across an article by Andrew Lock, an internet marketing expert. I just had to share it with you because it reframes the blog I posted the other day about not knowing what is bad or good in our lives. Enjoy… “Often life doesn’t go in […]

Many of you are familiar with that famous line, the first one to email us the name of the group who sang that famous line will win a free ticket to the Fall Summit social on Friday evening October 14th. Email it to the email address at the bottom of this message. We were sitting at […]

I’m preparing for a Summit session on Avoiding Cancellations. All the marketing and effort it takes to get appointments on the calendar in the first place makes it all the more difficult to see them drop off the calendar before they make it into the office.The checklist of things to make sure those appointments stick […]

My first Academy Boot Camp was over Halloween weekend in 1993 in Atlanta, Georgia. It was three solid days and nights on the basics of every estate planning law firm system. In preparing for the October 13—17 Fall Summit and Boot Camp sessions, I’ve had the opportunity to remember the phases that all of the […]

Your firm has the best of intentions for your estate planning clients.  But, good intentions alone are not a defense in a malpractice case. Are you aware of some of the traps in 401(k) and IRA accounts? For example, regardless of what a Will or a Trust says, 401(k) accounts and IRA accounts have a […]

Here Are Critical Questions to Ask and the Tell-Tale Signs (Part I) Who do you get your mailing list from? No reputable direct mail company supplies their own list, they have to “rent” it from a big, national, reputable and approved data compiler. If they do not reveal who and/or can’t give you the phone […]

Sitting at the desk I decided to scan some old material, as I ripped apart pages, arranged neatly for the Fujitsu to do its job, I notice one page marked up so much I could hardly read it. Here then, worth sharing a few words you’ve heard in different ways before, and will likely hear […]