Whether you have realized it or not, you most likely already have estate planning leads. According to the Census Bureau, there are 253 million adults (over the age of 18) in the US and roughly 30,000 registered estate planning lawyers—that’s 8,433 potential clients per lawyer. As an underserved market with individuals from all walks of life, the odds are that many (if not all) of your existing clients will also have estate planning needs. With such a large market of potential clients, this makes estate planning a complimentary service to almost any legal practice. Here’s why:
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Protects your business from market fluctuations. Attorneys who only offer one legal service usually experience unreliability in their income. This is because single-service businesses carry greater risk to market fluctuations due to their reliance on a single stream of revenue. Whether you’re in family, immigration, business, or criminal law, you’ve probably had months or even years that were great and some where you barely covered overhead costs. This volatility in cash-flow not only interrupts daily operations, it makes it impossible to grow your business. The answer is to not put all your eggs in one basket—which you can do through business diversification. Diversification minimizes risk by allowing income to rely on multiple, noncompeting revenue streams. So, when one revenue stream dries up, you can leverage the other in order to keep your business operational.
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Provides opportunities for reoccurring income. Unlike some areas of law, estate planning is not a “one and done” legal service. Since estate plans are only effective when they accurately reflect a client’s personal and financial circumstance, they need to be updated over time. Particularly as clients inherit new wealth, start their own business, welcome a new family member, and reprioritize their legacy wishes, estate planning provides numerous opportunities for recurring income for attorneys willing to follow-up and educate clients on why they should update their plans.
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Has low start-up and overhead costs. With an office and client base already in place, adding estate planning to an established practice can be done with minimal upfront costs. With resources like WealthCounsel and their automated document drafting technology, Wealth Docx®, attorneys have everything they need to run their practice in one place. From obtaining continuing legal education credits to marketing resources and intelligent drafting software, attorneys can quickly create any estate planning document—from simple wills to more complicated trusts. According to the American Bar Association, attorneys who use the “cut and paste method” and “find and replace” method to create new legal documents face problems with inefficiency as well as higher margins of error. The ABA recommends using automated technology, like Wealth Docx, to draft more accurately and efficiently.
If you would like to learn more about the benefits or how to add estate planning to your current practice, then consider attending an Estate Planning Essentials event. These intensive, one-day workshops teach you how to add estate planning to your practice, the basics of estate planning law, and how to work within Wealth Docx by drafting your own estate plan. You’ll leave the course prepared to serve your first clients, turn them into referrals, and keep your business growing.
