The recent death of Steve Jobs really made me stop and think about how I will be remembered long after I’m gone. I think this is a fundamental question that we all have. We all want to be remembered well and not just be another faceless name on a family tree or a name on a headstone in some remote cemetery.

When Steve Jobs passed away, I was amazed to see the immediate shift in the news cycle on every major channel. One minute I was watching Piers Morgan on CNN, and the next minute the news that he had died changed everyone’s news coverage to Steve Jobs and his legacy. It was pretty incredible for a business leader to receive this much attention. I can understand this type of attention for a US President, a famous actor or a member of the Royal family, but this type of coverage shows the impact he has had on our society.

I was also encouraged by the impromptu memorials that popped up at Apple stores all over the world. It reminded me of what we saw when Princes Diana and Ronald Reagan died. It was a very impressive show of love and support for this great man.

Now, whether you’re a fan of Apple or not, you have to agree that Steve Jobs was a visionary man that changed the way we all live, work and communicate with others. Very few people can impact one industry in their lifetime and yet he was a pioneer in many. He revolutionized the personal computing industry with Apple and the Macintosh computer. He changed the animation world forever through Pixar. He turned the music industry upside down with iTunes. He shook up the portable music market with the iPod. He woke up the mobile phone industry with the iPhone. And, he made the mobile computing industry available and fun for millions of people with the iPad and the iPhone.

I really liken him to someone like Michelangelo, Galileo, Christopher Columbus, and others that not only impacted our lives but changed them forever with their art and discovery. I really don’t think we realize now how future generations will remember this man and all that he’s done for our society.

Now the tough question is, “How will you be remembered?” I don’t ask this to discourage you. The reality is that most of us won’t have this type of impact on our entire society, but we can on our families. I encourage you to take chances in life, be bold and most of all love your family with all that you have. You may not invent the iPhone, but to your family you are just as important. So start working now on your legacy to ensure that you are remembered well by all those that matter to you!

Bryan W. Adams is President & CEO of Premier Planning, LLC and Founder of Legacy Safeguard. Bryan is considered one of the nations’ leading experts on final expense planning, and he frequently speaks throughout the country about the importance of assisting clients to gain peace of mind through advanced funeral funding.

Bryan’s passion for helping families prepare for their final expenses came from being raised in the funeral business. His family still owns and operates several funeral homes, and he is constantly amazed at how unprepared families are when a death occurs. Bryan has worked tirelessly to help Americans plan for the inevitable and lessen the burden on their loved ones.

Academy Guest Blogger
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

Email marketing can be a valuable, low-cost tool to help you keep in touch with your clients as well as potential clients. But it has to be managed in accordance with the email industry’s established rules and “best practices.” Perhaps the most important thing to pay attention to is your list itself.

If you haven’t been keeping your list clean via monthly updates or if you have a list but you haven’t used it in, say, nine months or so, your emails could get labeled as spam. This can result in your ISP (internet service provider) blocking your emails from being delivered. This can also damage your “reputation” in the minds of the ISPs, since they assign a score to you which is akin to a consumer credit score.

Here are some tips to help you with building, then managing, your email list.

• If your email list is old, meaning you haven’t used it in the last nine months or so, it’s time to clean things up. Assuming that all of your email contacts have “opted in” (given permission for you to email them), consider using an email delivery service that boasts a high delivery percentage and reports on the open rates as well as bounced rate. Disable the email address in contact records that opt out or bounce back.
• If you’ve been sending emails regularly (every month or two) and you haven’t had any spam complaints, your list is probably OK. Presumably, these people have opted in to receive your emails, which of course is a best practice. Best rule of thumb is, as mentioned above, remove all the opt outs and bounce backs to keep your list as clean as possible.
• The old adage, “it’s better to ask forgiveness than it is permission” does NOT ring true with email! Get creative when it comes to getting permission to communicate with the email herd you build. Generally, getting permission from clients or prospective clients at speaking engagements (by offering a newsletter or the delivery of some other valuable information) or offering something of value on your website that requires permission in order to deliver what you offered—is the easiest way to obtain permission.

Remember, your list is a valuable asset. Manage it accordingly, keep it clean, set systems in place to add to the list whenever you can, and deliver your emails as promised in terms of frequency and value-added content.

Jennifer Price
Director, Member Services
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

As estate planning attorneys, we are well aware of the need to do estate planning. Because we are so immersed in our practice area, it can be easy to forget how many Americans remain in the dark on the issues we help people with every day.

Back in 2008, Congress took a look at the following statistics:

• It is estimated that more than 120 million Americans lack an up-to-date estate plan
• Two-thirds of Americans over age 65 believe they lack the necessary knowledge to plan adequately for retirement
• Nearly one-half of all Americans are unfamiliar with basic retirement tools, such as a 410(k) plan

The result was the passage of HR 1499, declaring the third full week in October National Estate Planning Awareness Week.

One benefit of having a week dedicated to estate planning awareness is that it reminds us of something we tend to forget. Things we see as routine daily matters are actually overwhelming foreign concepts to many of the people around us. We have daily opportunities to educate our clients and improve their lives and those of their families.

What are you doing– this week and year-round — to make your clients and others in your community aware?

We as estate planning attorneys do a wonderful service for our communities. So, be proud and celebrate National Estate Planning Awareness Week!!!

Stephen C. Hartnett, J.D., LL.M. (Tax)
Associate Director of Education
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

On Halloween, October 31, we celebrate ghosts and scary things. The spirits of the deceased are remembered on November 1 and 2, All Saints Day and All Souls Day, respectively, also known as the Day of the Dead celebration.

Yet, you might not know this October 30 is the 12^th annual Create a Great Funeral Day. Before Halloween ghosts and Day of the Dead spirits can go a-haunting, there’s usually a funeral or memorial service – the party no one wants to plan.

Confronting the idea of our own death causes uncomfortable thoughts. Rather than facing the inevitability of our dying, our culture denies death. Yet at the same time, we have this enormous celebration of scary and death-related things at Halloween.

The idea behind Create a Great Funeral Day is to consider how you would like to be remembered. By letting loved ones know how you’d like your life celebrated, the survivors’ experience can be so much easier.

Create a Great Funeral Day began in 2000, started by Stephanie West Allen. She saw her husband struggling to pull together a meaningful funeral for his mother, who had left no directions before she died. Observing his grief, Allen felt that knowing what her mother-in-law might have wanted would have eased the pain of memorial service preparations.

Why do people hesitate to discuss funeral planning, let alone do anything concrete about it in advance?

Social psychologists cite the Terror Management Theory, that all human behavior is ultimately motivated by the fear of death. Death creates anxiety, not only because it can strike at unexpected and random moments, but because its nature is essentially unknowable.

The awareness of our own eventual death, called “mortality salience,” affects our decision-making in the face of this terror. Many people decide to avoid the topic.

Create a Great Funeral Day prompts us to be mindful of our mortality. This self-awareness enables us to plan reflectively in advance, so we don’t leave our families to react, disorganized and stressed, after our death.

Blue Öyster Cult’s 1976 hit song, “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” is a perennial favorite on classic rock stations. Its intended message is that love transcends the actual physical existence of the partners. The Reaper refers to the Grim Reaper, a traditional personification of death in European folklore.

A fear of funeral planning equates to fear of death. Those who hold fear in one area of their lives often have fear in other areas. It won’t kill you to move away from the fear of funerals.

Act with love, plan ahead, and talk about what you might want. Your courage will help your family reduce stress at a time of grief, save money, and create a meaningful, memorable “good goodbye.”

On Create a Great Funeral Day, don’t fear the Reaper.

Gail Rubin is a Certified Celebrant and author of A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die. Follow her “30 Funerals in 30 Days Challenge” during the month of October at http://thefamilyplot.wordpress.com/category/30-day-challenge/

Academy Guest Blogger
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
~Company.HTMLCanSpamAddressBlock~
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

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. This is a recipe for short term gain and long term pain.

What often happens to practitioners in a downturn is that they start to scramble for revenue. The most common revenue “fix” is to make a push for new clients you would not ordinarily want as clients or, worse yet, to pursue new niches to specialize in. These tactics can backfire, especially if they are pursued hastily, and can result in a law firm taking on clients who may be difficult to deal with or who do not pay their bills. Some of these clients may even bring the worst result of all, the malpractice lawsuit.

The key to success in a downturn is to stay the course: maintain focus, do what you do best, tune up your new business development tactics, and, most importantly, choose new clients carefully. For today, let’s just focus on the problem of lowering your client engagement standards and accepting every client who walks through the door.

As you proceed with new client retention, proceed with care. Screening potential clients is somewhat of an art; you need to listen to them carefully to determine what kind of client they will turn out to be. Some of the best indicators of a new client’s nature include how emotional they are and how they talk about other people, especially other attorneys. Try to determine the potential client’s ability to work with you in a methodical, patient manner. Talk about fees up front, and gauge their reaction to both initial and ongoing legal fees. Sometimes, a search of public records may help you in the screening process.

What we have found to help in uncovering problem clients is this line of interview: First, have the potential client identify why they are in your office; in essence, get them to tell you the problem they have. Then ask how long it has been a problem. Now comes the magic! Ask what they have done to address the problem. This question will usually help you, because the prospect will tell you what they have done and if they have gone attorney shopping. This line of questioning often results in the disclosure of failed relationships with other law firms. Not uncovering this information can be fatal to your practice.

The new client process is a two-way street. Remember, you are interviewing them as much as they are evaluating you. After all, gaining a new client who proves to be a difficult client is a losing proposition. Once you do get a new client, be sure to maintain a steady stream of written communications that keeps them up-to-date on all proceedings and fees.

Economic downturns can be challenging. The best business-building methods for your practice should include maintaining and promoting your areas of specialty, developing a customer retention strategy, and carefully screening potential clients to make sure they are a solid fit.

Sanford M. Fisch
CEO & Co-Founder
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

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 range of ethical marketing tools has been available to law firms for some time, the recent growth of the internet has been a game changer.

The old marketing paradigm was based on outbound campaigns that bombarded consumers with sales information hoping it would lead to a sale, or in the legal setting, getting retained. However, the internet has completely changed the consumer’s shopping habits. When the prospect is interested in retaining legal counsel today, the odds are that he is going online to a search engine, like Google to find out about his options. Surprisingly, more than 91% never leave the first page of Google in their pursuit of information. That’s why being visible or highly ranked on the search engines is essential if your law firm is going to harness this new marketing platform.

Studies show that consumers look on average at 4.8 attorney websites online BEFORE they contact a firm. 89% of people who use the internet go online to find an attorney and 65% begin their search for an attorney on the internet. When you combine those statistics with the research out of the University of Southern California showing that consumers trust the information on the internet more than referrals or recommendations from friends and family, you know that this internet thing is here to stay.

Failing to optimize your website and make it search engine friendly is a huge mistake most law firms make. The purpose of your online presence must be to be visible, drive traffic to your site and capture contact information from interested prospects. Dominating your market online should be at the top of every law firm’s marketing efforts. Otherwise, you stand the very real chance of extinction in this new digital age.

Robert Armstrong
President & Co-Founder
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

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 the potential to confuse clients or cause them concern about the purpose of the advance directives that you helped them create. Specifically, some of the coverage describes advance directives as a “cost-saving measure” or as “not effective.”  

Here are some of the main points from the JAMA study that may be important for your firm and your clients to understand should clients ask you about this study:

1. This study looked at patients who wanted less aggressive treatment at the end of their lives. It used cost of care as the proxy measure of the treatment received, hence the reporting focus on costs.
2. The findings suggest that people with advance directives who wanted less aggressive end-of-life care did have their wishes met. Specifically:
   

   • this group of patients did not have everything medically possible done for them, as measured by their lower costs of care.
   • these patients had a higher rate of dying outside the hospital (a measure of less aggressive care)
   • these patients had higher rates of using hospice and palliative care (comfort and pain management) services

3. In certain areas of the country, advance directives helped patients achieve their goal of less aggressive treatment. In other areas, advance directives were not necessary for people to have their wishes met because of less aggressive treatment norms there.
4. The study did not find or even suggest that advance directives were used as a cost-cutting measure. Nor does it suggest that patients received less care than they wanted for any reason. In fact, the study did not evaluate the care of patients who specifically stated in their advance directives that they wanted the most aggressive treatment possible (to determine if advance directives helped them achieve this goal).

In closing, this study suggests that having advance directives either helped or at worst had no effect on patients getting the less aggressive care that they wanted at the end of their lives. It did not find that advance directives were counterproductive to these patients receiving their desired care.

If you have any questions about this study or its meaning for your clients, please feel free to call me at 610-667-3524 or email me at rsiegel@docubank.com.

Randi J. Siegel, MBA, is the President of DocuBank (docubank.com), the largest advance directive registry in the U.S., which ensures that the healthcare directives of its 190,000 enrollees are immediately available 24/7/365. Working with estate planning professionals since 1997, Randi frequently speaks at national estate planning conferences and has appeared on radio and television as an authority on registries. She is active in health policy pertaining to advance directives and serves as a Senior Fellow at the Jefferson School of Population Health in Philadelphia. Randi is an ongoing contributor to the Academy blog.

Academy Guest Blogger
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

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 the direction we want it to. Does that mean our lives are doomed and we can’t achieve the success we dream of? Let’s be realistic: Everybody fails. Consider the following.

Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” Disney went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. In fact, the proposed park was rejected by the city of Anaheim, California, on the grounds that it would only attract “riffraff.”

Thomas Edison’s teachers said he was “too stupid to learn anything.” He was fired from his first two jobs for being “nonproductive.” As an inventor, Edison made more than 1,000 unsuccessful attempts to invent the light bulb. When a reporter asked him how it felt to fail 1,000 times, Edison said that he didn’t fail all those times, but that the light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.

Albert Einstein did not speak until he was 4 years old and did not read until he was 7. His parents thought he was “subnormal,” and one of his teachers described him as “mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in foolish dreams.” He was expelled from school.

Every cartoon that Charles Schulz, creator of the comic strip Peanuts, submitted to the yearbook staff at his high school was rejected.

After Fred Astaire’s first screen test, the memo from the testing director of MGM, dated 1933, read, “Can’t act. Can’t sing. Slightly bald. Can dance a little.” Astaire kept that memo over the fireplace in his Beverly Hills home.

Decca Records turned down a recording contract with The Beatles with this fascinating evaluation: “We don’t like their sound. Guitar groups are on their way out.”

A friend of mine in the music industry personally auditioned a singer by the name of Reg Dwight in the 1960s. He unceremoniously shoved the singer out of his office for wasting his time. That singer is now better known as Elton John.

Imagine if these individuals had given up, believing they were doomed to failure and would never achieve success. Do you think they ever felt down and depressed? Sure. But they didn’t allow a gloomy state to overtake them, to overpower their desire to succeed. In every case they did succeed—in a huge way, far greater than their wildest dreams.

Bad experiences can be viewed as positive in hindsight. They can be stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks. It’s your choice. But be determined to never give up.”

Robert Armstrong
President & Co-Founder
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

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 14^th. Email it to the email address at the bottom of this message.

We were sitting at lunch the other day and talking about a comment made to us by someone we did not know while we were in a common area of the office building where the Academy is located. Someone said, “It is a beautiful day and here we are stuck in an office.” Funny thing is we do not feel stuck and, hopefully, none of you feel stuck either. We are not just talking about feeling stuck in the office but more importantly stuck in any way at all.

By “stuck” we mean not moving forward, lack of progress and or frustration with not getting things done and implemented. Not a day goes by where we do not encounter hearing or reading from someone that a task is on my “To Do” List. We all encounter this either personally or with colleagues, staff and maybe even at home! The tools for success are there but some things never get started or they get started but never get finished.

There are many complex reasons why this occurs but let’s look at we think are the top three. One is no ability to see the result or goal, another is not knowing all the steps needed to accomplish that goal and the third reason we get stuck is our failure to control our TIME. Of course, failure to control time is the same as the fact that we all get “distracted” or more accurately we allow ourselves to be distracted.

Distraction control: Let’s start here because this is something we have total control over – our time and limiting distractions. Distractions come in many forms. We distract ourselves by getting involved in trivia. We are looking for something specific on the internet and we wind up Googling something else, then watch a video on it and then go to a website. Before long 15 minutes is gone and we barely remember where we started. So here it is, we let ourselves get distracted. Discipline is in order to control this all too common form of time robbery.

Another favorite is the infamous interruption. How do we stop that from occurring? We need to control our environment where we work so we can focus. Interruptions come in the form of people and electronic interruptions. We need to train all around us to not interrupt and provide a set method and set time to address important issues. On the electronic front, you need to make some decisions. Email and cell phones are the biggest concern. Compulsive checking of phone messages has given way to compulsively checking email and for some checking text messages or checking the latest new communications tools. All of this destroys the ability to focus and accomplish and implement.

Action:  Immediately identify the top three distractions in your daily work environment. Phone, email, employees, you make the list and determine how to eliminate (control) them. Set a deadline and communicate the new system to those involved. For example, can anyone reach you by phone or do they have to go through a gatekeeper? Can you limit access to you by a DND button on your phone? Whatever it is it can be controlled as long as you decide to control it.

Your time will be controlled based upon what your agenda happens to be. You will use your time according to your agenda, someone else’s agenda or randomly because you have no agenda! Use your calendar and plan for the year, the month, the week, the day, the hour. Schedule everything. When to start and when to stop.

A small amount of time allocated to addressing this issue can result in a significant ability to get work done and get programs implemented.

Sanford M. Fisch
CEO & Co-Founder
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com
info@aaepa.com

UPDATE: ‘Jacquelyn Leuener’, from Brad Anderson’s office wins for submitting the first right answer! ROLLING STONES

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 is short:

• The Right Team. Without the right staff and right attorney perspective – it doesn’t matter how many systems are in place or how much is read, studied, discussed, or debated… none of it will work in the end. But WITH the right law firm direction, team and regular meetings to ensure the flow of work and the analysis of results are functioning optimally, there is no limit.

• Build rapport, trust and respect by doing what you say you’ll do. Start by setting expectations, finish by delivering on them. Entirely too often in our lives we learn to wait for the disappointment. Having a doctor’s appointment at 11 and not being seen until 12:15. Getting a quote on a car repair that is half of what it will end up being. The countless other examples in our everyday life just go to show us that on the rare occasion that someone actually DOES what they said they’d do—it’s almost a memorable occasion! Opportunities to do what you say you’ll do abound. If you tell someone you’ll call them back tomorrow, do it. If you tell them you’re mailing a map to the office, do it. If you tell them that you’ll follow up with a reminder call the day before the appointment, do it. The person who handles these interactions with clients or prospective clients needs to be organized and on top of every detail.

• Passion and Compassion. The engine behind rapport building efforts must be passion for what you’re doing and compassion for those you’re doing it for. If you don’t care about these clients or this type of work, it will surely show up—there is no way for them to build the feeling of “obligation” it takes to fight off the desire to cancel an appointment. The people you and all the law firm staff work with need to feel special. They need to have the type of relationship that would cause them to not want to let you down. Develop relationships with the people you do business with.

• Follow Checklists. Of course without systems, checklists, schedules, or routines even the best personalities and highest skilled team members would flounder. Break EVERYTHING down into a process or system that can be documented and allow someone in the firm to own that responsibility.

When these important areas are covered and a prospective client or client experiences loving care from highly skilled professionals—the possibility of a cancellation is greatly reduced!

Jennifer Price
Director, Member Services
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com