Support & Systems for the Academy Pillars

QUICK JUMP TO:
The Importance of Continuing Legal Education
The Difference Marketing Makes
How Technology Streamlines a Practice
Document Assembly Software
Contact Management Software/Database
Pulling it all together with Coaching

The Importance of Continuing Legal Education

The Academy's Legal Education Department is one of the most sought-after and appreciated Academy services. The total number of years of experience with Estate Planning, Medicaid and Financial Services in this department is overwhelming. Ask anyone in the membership which aspect of the Educational support offered is used the most in their firm and you're likely to get 10 different answers from 10 different members!

The Education team stays busy keeping the documents current, updating the membership on law changes and recent developments through "FYIs", creating materials for training and answering questions from the membership. A complete online knowledge base for use when unique client needs arise.

While some members transitioning from another type of law practice to this field may enjoy the comprehensive training programs, a more experienced member gets the most out of the constant stream of alerts updating the membership on the latest breaking news and case study information related to estate planning. Still other members value the monthly educational conference calls or sessions at our Summits twice per year.

The Academy feels that significant substantive training is essential to be effective counseling clients. The amount of continuing legal education (CLE) offered by the Academy surpasses 40 hours per year and the Academy expects members to have 36 hours of relevant CLE each year. CLE can be met by attending local CLE events, listening to qualified CLE audio recordings or qualified live conference calls or attending Academy educational events. Our members are very proud to be among the most sophisticated, educated estate planning attorneys in the country.

The Education Advisory Board (eab@aaepa.com) was created to ensure that the Academy's development of Educational support for the members remains on target. This Board consists of 6 members and a Chairperson of the board. They assist the Academy with the planning of future projects and provide essential feedback on projects in progress. Feel free to direct any questions you wish to this board as you investigate membership.

The Difference Marketing Makes

Often Marketing is thought of as the most important function in your practice because if you have nobody to talk with about your services, it doesn't matter how much substantive knowledge you have, how many years of experience, how up-to-date your software and hardware is and how fabulous your office looks!

The Academy's original model started with marketing support and training for estate planning law firms. The number of tools and programs along with the amount of advice and coaching available to members is overwhelming. Much of the coaching is centered around which tools to start with, how to organize your approach and measure the results.

The list of marketing tools such as seminar slides, scripts, handout materials, advertising, direct mail letters, along with instructions on getting the best results with the use of these tools, is constantly growing. Our seminars are available to members in PowerPoint for use with an LCD. Even the way an attorney should (or should not) edit or create a presentation is an available training module!

Not only are these tools available to members, but members have the exclusive use of these tools in their area! Members also have full training, coaching and services available for themselves as well as for the Marketing Director that we recommend each member have on staff.

Proven marketing tools in the Academy arsenal include everything you need in order to generate the following services:

Be sure to review the many other public relations, marketing and practice building tools on the Benefits at a Glance and don't forget to ask a member about the tools they use with the most success in their area.

How Technology Streamlines a Practice

• Programming the two proprietary software programs offered to the membership DAP and CATS.



• Updating the Document Assembly Program (DAP) by working closely with Education to ensure the documents are kept current.



• Maintaining the CATS database (Complete Activity Tracking System) by collaborating with Marketing and Member Services to ensure the latest letters and management reports are updated in the database.



• Assisting member law firms with the installation of the software.



• Training staff in the member law firms to use the programs either by phone, by audio tape, or in person at Academy Summits.



• Assisting member offices with any trouble-shooting that may be necessary.



• Educating the membership on hardware requirements for the software as well as maintenance tips for their computers and networks.



• Working closely with each firm's computer consultant as well the firm's entire staff.

Document Assembly Software

Software is an essential tool for real success in business. A law firm invests money and time in generating interest in their services, they meet with potential clients and make creative decisions with the client enabling that client to achieve the goals they have for building, preserving, protecting and distributing their wealth… and after all that, if they can't efficiently create unique timely documents, they risk losing the business or earning a reputation for being sloppy or slow.

Because Estate Planning documents are so complex, software that gives an attorney every conceivable option to solve a client's problems is extremely difficult to come by.

The Academy's "DAP" (Document Assembly Program) is the most comprehensive document assembly program available and it's only available to members and the other attorneys in those member law firms. This state-of-the-art software program is kept completely up-to-date by the Academy's Education and Technology Departments, leaving the attorneys in the membership free to actually practice law.

The Academy's Technical Support team recommends the appropriate hardware to support the Academy software. They coach a member's staff person through the installation and then provide the training necessary to operate the software.

DAP is equipped with all options necessary to produce both simple and extremely complex estate planning documents:

Contact Management Software/Database

Most business experts agree that having the right Contact Management Software is the key to a successful practice. However, there was nothing available "out of the box" that was customized to an estate planning and elder law practice. Until the Academy created this proprietary, highly customized database for estate planning law firms, it was impossible to find a program loaded with as much management and marketing help as CATS.

"CATS" is the Academy's Client Activity Tracking System. This database regulates and reports on every area of your firm. This is a powerful Microsoft Access relational database programmed in C ++.

Stores all contact information including notes from anyone in the firm for clients, prospective clients, vendors, professionals, staff and more. Produces over 40 management or marketing reports. These reports tell the proper law firm staff: What marketing method was used for a speaking engagement, how many people attended, how many appointments were made, how many appointments were kept, how many new clients were retained and what type of work did they require. What were the expenses and revenue relating to that event? Where is the work now? How many documents are in production, how many are awaiting signing, how many were signed during a specific time period. Reports can be created to reflect a list of clients or prospects celebrating a birthday or anniversary this week or month. Reports can be created to list clients with a deceased spouse. Consultation "no-shows", cancellations and retention reports can be generated. Marketing Budget Reports help members plan effectively. Referral Source reports for particular periods of time. "Age Group Total" and "Zip Code" Reports help in the planning process. With well over 200 letters for specific purposes, members never have to draft a single letter, it has already been written and is ready and waiting for use inside the database. Mail merge feature: ONE record can be merged for any of these letters, or the letter can be used for specific filters of records inside the database.

Pulling it all together with Coaching

After receiving marketing tools, software, document compendia, public relations and personnel systems, new members are overwhelmed with Academy materials.

Pulled together in one place on the members-only website are over 1,000 pages of practice building tools. What to use first, how to use it, what not to use at various times of the year or geographic areas… there are 1001 traps to avoid along the way.

The Member Services Department assigns a Practice Building Consultant to coach members through implementation and planning. These coaches meet by phone on a weekly basis with new members until a certain level of implementation is accomplished, then the phone meetings move to once or twice per month.

The phone meeting agendas vary depending on where the firm is and what goals the firm has. The primary focus on these calls is to review the action items and results. Getting the Academy Systems in place is often a huge task up front, but keeping those systems in place requires very little maintenance… the coaching necessary to accomplishing this growth in a member law firm is the main focus of this department.

During and after implementation, the department's focus is tied to planning. Month-end and year-end financials are reviewed in detail so planning for the coming month, quarter or year is on target. These Strategic Planning calls are typically conducted twice annually, the marketing plans that stem from these calls are reviewed monthly or quarterly.

When experienced members hire associate attorneys or marketing coordinators, the Practice Building Consultants also work closely with those key law firm people to ensure they too are familiar with all of the Academy tools and recommendations.

Member Services is referred to as "the gateway to the Academy". Being experts in the products, tools and services offered by the Academy and meeting with each and every member keeps the success rate of all programs top of mind.