Learn so you don't get burned...

One of the things that drives me nuts is when people don't take the time to check something out before they make a decision.  For example, I can't tell you how many clients come in and tell me they know they want a Living Trust or that they "only need Simple Wills" or that "everybody knows that marital agreements don't work."  When I ask what they know about the subject, usually the answer is pretty far from reality.  Two elements get you where you need to go... an understanding of YOUR facts and the application of the law to them.  You can help get a good to great result and to save money if you learn the basics.  This investment pays off as you will quickly focus on solving your real issue and getting the result you want.

To help you in this process, here is a video I put together that I would encourage everyone to see BEFORE they go see their attorney about estate planning.  Whether you hire me or someone else, please watch this 5 minute video and it will help open up some great questions that can get to the heart of the problem for you.  Here it is...



So what did you think?  Was it helpful?  If you would be so kind, I would appreciate any comments you have - you can leave them below in the comment section.  Thanks for watching (and learning).  See you soon...

Buying Tires vs. Legal Services

Are you ever in the market to buy tires? Sure, all of us are at one point or another. How do we buy tires? We wait until we need them and then we start shopping for them. We don’t see any tire ads until the time we decide we need them and then that’s all we see are tire ads. You just don’t think about tires until something happens when you need a new one or set of them.

Is this any different than how you use an attorney? I don’t think so, at least for the majority of people. When something happens, then you do a mad search for an attorney and hope you find one that is ethical, honest, can be trusted and is someone you want to deal with about some of your most critical issues. Tough way to shop for something that could help you change your life one way or the other.

The big question for attorney’s is, “how do you build a relationship along the way with people so that when the time comes they need an attorney, this isn’t a “knee-jerk” reaction and you just pick the one that happens to come along. This is one of the key reasons I am doing a blog. To help let you and your friends get to know me before you need me. Then you can make an “educated decision” on whether or not you want to work with me or not.

Now isn’t that a much better way to shop for something as critical as legal advice instead of running all over town “kicking tires” of different attorney’s and hope you found the one that best fits your needs and personality? We think so.

Special Forces or the whole Army?

I had the rare privilege of spending a few years in the U.S. Army Infantry, and I was lucky enough to be Ranger and Airborne qualified.  I worked with great soldiers, officer and enlisted, in our Army and those of other countries.  I worked with quite a few Special Forces units, especially other Rangers and Commandos (mostly British SAS and French Army.)  What a life experience that was. I can look back on that time and realize that this training and these experiences truly shaped who I am today. So what does this have to do with Law and attorney’s you might ask?  Plenty.

People ask us all the time what is the difference between those of us who work in smaller, very focused law firms vs. the very large ones. Great question and one that needs an answer. But rather than just give you some generic “sales pitch” about us, I thought I could better illustrate it through an example.

“Special Forces” soldiers, whether RANGERS (like me) or SEALS or GREEN BERETS are expected to be agile, problem-solving, solution-oriented and above all, focused on action and results.  Rangers don’t have time to try and be “politically correct” in everything they do – the focus is on action (speed and energy) in order to accomplish the mission as expediently and efficiently as possible with the lowest possible cost to the troops. The “whole Army” is focused on a larger scale involvement, with a lot more moving parts and a decidedly more ponderous approach to making the enemy see the light...

It is no different in law. Most of us in the Wealth Planning area are boutique firms that work just like the Rangers. We specialize on just diving in and getting the best and most expedient result for our client – whether that is a normal individual or someone of very high wealth. We don’t worry about pleasing anyone other than our clients – getting it done. This is probably the biggest difference I feel we have in our smaller, more specialized and focused practice. We are the Special Forces of planners - we just solve the problem as expediently and efficiently as possible. Something to consider when choosing the type of lawyer or type of legal issue you might have.

Would you choose an Attorney for their RECIPES?

A while back I had a very rude and rewarding experience talking with one of my clients. For the sake of confidentiality, I will call her Sally. One day I was in a meeting with Sally and we were going over her estate planning information and I was helping her with some issues relating to her children and her estate – getting the living trust and other things in order.

But as we finished up the meeting, she said something that put me back on my heels. She asked me I could give her another copy of the wonderful recipe we sent out on how to fix a particular salmon dish. I said, “What are you talking about, I think you have me confused with someone else on this?” After all, Sally was 80 years old and it was not uncommon for her to confuse a few things in our meetings.

She came back and said, “No, Dennis, two months ago you sent out a recipe in your newsletter that was just fabulous on how to fix salmon and I misplaced the newsletter before I could write it down. Can you give me another copy?” Now I knew what she was talking about and was shocked that this is what she remembered from our newsletter. Mind you, putting together a newsletter is no inexpensive task – both from the time it takes to create the content as well as the hard costs to have it produced, published, and mailed.

So I asked her a very revealing question, “Sally, do you read any of the legal articles we put in the newsletter?” Of course you probably already know her answer, “Oh, Dennis, I’m afraid not, I really only read your recipes every month.” OUCH! That is the most expensive recipes she will ever get. The moral of the story: Shoving more information at your clients that they don’t need doesn’t do anything but drain your pocket book and doesn’t do anything for the relationship. Just send them the Recipes, or the crossword puzzles – much easier and much less expensive.