The Academy recently announced a new coaching model for members consisting of 11 Training Courses. Each course has a series of classes, and the subjects focus on major practice building systems and marketing strategies. They range from Strategic Planning to Marketing Planning to Staffing to Public Seminar Marketing, and more.

This platform expands on the coaching from the Practice Building Consultants by providing more opportunities for each member firm and their team to participate in a structured coaching and training program from the Academy. Each course has been developed to examine each major system in smaller, more manageable and easy to comprehend topics. This will allow members and their teams to take a microscopic look at all of the details involved in each particular topic area. In combination with the assignments and recommended reading, each course will provide member firms with the training, tools and accountability to plan and execute on Academy systems and recommendations at a much faster pace.

Since the announcement of this new coaching and training course model, there has been an overwhelming amount of excitement and conversation around the Academy office and amongst the membership.

In fact, the first training course, The Power of Law Firm Systems & Workflow started on April 4^th, and almost one-third of member law firms registered to participate. The first class focused on time management as a foundation to effective systems. Yesterday, we finished the second class in the course, where we reviewed the recommendations on how to prepare for consultations – from the confirmation to setting follow-up appointments after the client is retained.

All 11 courses are scheduled to be covered this year, with a total of 57 classes taking place thru the end of December. The next course on Strategic Planning starts on May 6^th, followed by Creating Your Marketing Plan starting on May 28^th. A syllabus for each upcoming course will be available for members to review and registration for each course will begin a month before the course starts.

We are thrilled to be offering this new program – we are confident that it will quickly become an indispensable opportunity for members and their team to set themselves up for unprecedented success. In fact, our intention is that these courses will not only facilitate an increase in knowledge but will also accelerate mastery and implementation of Academy recommended systems.

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

The Academy is all about systems that allow firms to be productive and efficient and therefore, profitable. One of the ways to ensure that law firm revenue goals are achieved is to incentivize staff so they also share in the firm’s continued growth and success. In fact, over the years, many Member firms have tied bonuses to performance or to a daily number revenue goal. There isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” approach for a bonus plan; every law firm is unique and the right bonus plan will focus on what’s important to them and their staff.

When setting up your own system, consider what areas you would like to see growth or improved performance. Those areas that you want to focus on are where you’ll want to set a bonus system around. Consider that each area of practice may need to have its own bonus structure. Why? If paralegals work on more than one area of the practice, you wouldn’t want to bonus them on estate planning and then have them ignore their other responsibilities because they aren’t tied to a bonus.

Here are some ideas for estate planning:

• If you want XX documents produced per month – then put that goal out there

• If you want XX signings per month – put that number out there

• If you want a Medicaid person setting up nursing home seminars – perhaps a number of Medicaid seminar attendees per month would be one of the goals for the firm

• If you want to increase endorsed seminars, then you could have a goal tied to it for a marketing coordinator or associate attorney

• If you want to increase client referrals – then you can set a goal for what percentage of new clients should provide you with at least 1 name

Some of these goals or objectives will require a team effort to complete. For example, if you have a goal of 20 new trusts a month (signed and final payment collected), then it requires a group or team effort to ensure that the goal is met. You can set up a bonus pool that everyone or some people participate in based on their responsibilities and your goals. The more they accomplish the more they earn. When all staff get the same bonus– they end up helping each other with the document, the seminar, the signing or whatever else needs to get done, because the more they get done the bigger ALL their bonuses are. This will ensure, for example, that a final signing paralegal jumps in to help the document production paralegal if necessary to make certain that the work is complete for 20 final signings to actually occur. You would need to have a particular dollar amount that you reserve for a bonus pool that everyone knows about and is in writing. They should feel like this goal is attainable but they should have to work for it, so it’s not just a handout. They also need to have a little taste of what it feels like to have the bonus money in their pocket. The more frequent the bonus is paid the more effective it is. Paying every month on the rolling average for the past three months looks after any weird odd-ball month in this effort.

If your bonus is paid quarterly be careful not to base it on a monthly goal that needs to be met for every month of the quarter. If you pay at the end of the first quarter: if they met the goal in January, then they get paid for that month; if they don’t meet the goal in February, then they don’t get anything for that month; but if they meet it in March, they get a bonus for their performance that month. This ensures that if they don’t reach the goal for one month, they continue to try and reach the goal the following month.

Also keep in mind that not all employees are motivated by money. For some the incentive might be extra time off to spend with their kids while they’re on vacation OR number of Fridays that they get off of work during the summer.

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

Success is all about planning — it includes having a vision for where you want your law firm to be in the future and then creating a plan that makes that vision a reality. Around August of each year we start conversations with member law firms about planning for the coming year. The following includes a few of my notes from our November Practice Building Call for members where we reviewed how to set revenue goals and calculate a marketing budget. The recording of the call will be posted on the Member Only website next week. All the forms discussed below, in addition to our new Marketing Budget Worksheet, are all available now for downloading from the site!

This planning is typically a 5-step process. Here’s a quick breakdown of the system, which you can start to incorporate for 2013.

 1.      Set Your Gross Revenue Goal

Start by reviewing your year-to-date revenue. Then look back at your annual Profit & Loss Summary for each of the last few years to determine your average growth rate from one year to the next. What’s your growth capacity for the coming year? Don’t be afraid to push yourself and your firm out of its comfort zone to grow the practice. What is really possible for your firm and staff? Perhaps you’ve added a new practice area, such as Medicaid planning, and will start to see that pay off in the new year or you’ve hired new staff and are now able to take on more work than you have in the past. Also, keep in mind efforts that allow you to work smarter and not harder which can increase your revenue for the year. Increasing your fees is a good example.

2.      What’s Your Body Count?

Now that you’ve set your Gross Revenue Goal, determine what your goal is for each revenue stream. You’ll want to be detailed about exactly how much revenue you plan to have in each category, for example Amendments and Restatements for existing clients, Living Trusts, Trust Administration and Medicaid Pre-planning. This will allow you to calculate the number of people the attorney should speak with every month to achieve those revenue goals per revenue category. We call this the body count and Academy members have access to a Body Count Cheat Sheet that helps them calculate those numbers. The majority of members end up with a Client Body Count and a Prospective Client Body Count.

 3.      Identify Your Marketing Activities

With your revenue goals and body count in hand, you’ll next identify the marketing activities that support your goals and get the attorney in front of the right number of prospective clients each month. Academy members have access to a 5-page Marketing Activities Checklist that allows them to consider all of their seminar and non-seminar marketing options.

 4.      Set a Marketing Budget for the Year

When we review law firm financials every year for our financial database, we use 10-15% of Gross Revenue as the benchmark for marketing expenses. When creating your Marketing Budget for the new year, you’ll want to base it on your total gross revenue goal and not your current revenue. The first step is to set an actual dollar amount that you’re comfortable with and that is within the range of 10-15% of the goal. Next you’ll identify all of your non-public seminar marketing expenses. You can do this by reviewing the list of marketing activities you’re planning on for the year from step 3 above. This should be a comprehensive and thorough list of expenses, that includes everything from Website and Online Marketing Efforts to Client Marketing to contributions towards Endorsed Seminars to any Networking. Once you have an estimated total for non-public seminar marketing expenses, you can subtract that from your total budget and determine how much you have left over for public seminars in the new year. Add up all of your advertising costs, followed by other expenses so you can determine what each public seminar will cost you. You may end up with a different total for newspaper advertising than direct mail costs if you market public seminars using both mediums. Next, determine how many public seminars you can afford to have in the new year.

 5.      Creating a Marketing Planning Calendar

Now you’re ready to put your plan on paper and create a roadmap that will help you accomplish your goals and vision for the coming year. Academy members have access to a Marketing Planning Calendar template that they can customize for their firm. The first step is to identify which months you’ll be having your public seminars. This should be based on tracking data that shows you which months are most profitable for public seminars from your previous efforts. Then create a plan for the other months of the year that incorporate your marketing activities from step 3 and will allow you to hit your monthly body count. Don’t forget to track your new efforts so you can analyze your results in order to repeat the activities which are most successful and revise your plan if needed for future months in the year.

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

It was truly a transformational first day for Academy Members attending the Medicaid Training Workshop yesterday, presented by David J. Zumpano, JD, CPA, founder of Medicaid Practice Systems (MPS, LLC). This information-packed program provides an in-depth review of the federal Medicaid rules and principles and how they can be applied in local communities to provide some true asset protection for clients who are interested in preserving their estate from long-term care and nursing home expenses.

The very real possibility of helping clients literally save hundreds of thousands of dollars in long-term care expenses with these strategies was a real eye-opening experience. At the end of the first day many attendees commented on how the training program made them “better lawyers.” They felt better equipped to address more of their client needs and were excited to return home and start implementing what they learned right away.

The learning objectives for the training program include:

• The Different Ways to Pay for Long Term Care

• Medicaid Laws, Rules, Exceptions, Exemptions, Special Planning &  Spend Down Methods

• How to Distinguish Preplanning from Crisis Planning & How to Serve Both!

• Trust Compliance Requirements

• How to Properly Fund a Medicaid Plan

• How to Qualify a Client to Receive Medicaid Benefits

• How to Systematically Implement Medicaid into Your Existing Practice

The Medicaid planning topic and training program are so popular that the first training was full within minutes of its announcement at the Academy’s Spring Summit last month in Williamsburg, VA. A second training program is currently being scheduled and is already 75% full. If you’re interested in learning more about the next Medicaid Training Workshop, and how you can be a guest, please email info@aaepa.com.

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

Is your staff saying they are too busy, have too much on their plate, can’t possibly handle another responsibility? Well, before you rush to hire a new staff person, you may want to look at your current employees’ productivity and its impact on your revenue.

One benchmark we analyze on financial review calls and strategic planning calls with Members is revenue per person on the payroll. We look for a minimum of $130,000 per person annually – this includes everyone from the receptionist to the attorneys. Of course, part-time employees count as a fraction of a full-time employee. Let us know if you want the exact formula for calculating the number of people on your payroll.

We often see the revenue per person on the payroll for law firms range anywhere from $80,000 to $250,000 – both the bottom and top end of the scale are a red flag and prompt a conversation about the cause and impact on the health of the business.

If your revenue per person is under the benchmark, it could be caused by:

1. Inefficient Systems: Your systems for producing the work aren’t effective or being followed on a routine basis. Your staff may very well be busy, but it’s not a productive type of busy. Your systems need to improve and your revenue needs to increase in order to justify having that number of staff.
2. Your fees are too low: This may mean that your staff is honestly busy, but it isn’t reflected in your numbers, because you and your staff are producing too much work for the money you’re getting paid. Before hiring anyone, increase your fees and see what impact it has on your bottom line.
3. Untrained Staff: You may either have a lot of turnover with untrained staff or you could be adding a new service to your business that hasn’t been fully implemented.
4. Wrong people on the bus: Your staff may not be in a position that takes advantage of their interests or their strengths. They may not be that busy and it could be time to reshift and reorganize those job descriptions. Is it just a job for them OR is it a career and they honestly care about the business and the families you help? Also look at their strengths and whether they’re in the right position to take advantage of them, there could be an opportunity to move them to a different position where they can be more productive. As Jim Collins explains in his book Good to Great, you have to get the right people on the bus and in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus so that it will move in a positive direction.

If your revenue per person is hovering around $200,000 or more, you are taking some risks. Your office has systems in place and is operating like a well-oiled machine. Your employees are juggling a ton of balls and don’t have time to stop and think about the details or ways to improve what is currently in place. It could be time to hire a new staff person. Take out your organizational chart, talk to your current employees, and determine what the job description for that new hire will look like.

If you don’t make another hire, beware of:

1. Systems falling apart: If you lose a key employee unexpectedly (they get sick, have an accident, move to a new city, have a baby), you won’t be able to continue at the same pace. Everyone is already operating at breakneck speed – they can’t possibly fill in for that missing employee and get all of their own work done as well. Balls will be dropped, clients may have to wait too long and get upset, all costing the firm referrals and money.
2. Burnout: If everyone is consistently working overtime, 50 – 60 hours a week, how long can they sustain that pace and how long will it take before they look for another job?

If your staff isn’t productive, remember that you, as the business owner, are responsible for the leadership role in the firm and holding your staff accountable. You aren’t just an attorney meeting clients, you must have a vision for the firm with an organizational strategy that takes into consideration your short-term and long-term goals.

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