The 10 Biggest Mistakes Estate Planning Attorneys Make – – Running Their Business!

By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law Over the past 40+ years, I have been blessed with a successful and fulfilling estate planning law practice.  But, it was not always successful and it was not always fulfilling.  It was through my own set of expensive, costly and stressful sets of trial and error that I was able to see what worked and what does not.  Based on my real-world experience, I have compiled what I believe to be the 10 most common mistakes that I’ve seen most…

Generate More Revenue This Year with More Referrals from Clients

By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law If you’ve read any of my previous newsletter articles or purchased any of my presentations (or attended our Ultimate Level event), you know that I am a huge systems nut. Systems for EVERYTHING – – from marketing to receptionist scripts, to conducting initial client meetings, to generating trust documents, to signing meetings, and regular client follow-ups.  Utilizing time-tested systems for everything involved in operating an estate planning practice is how you develop a successful practice. Yet, even those who…

Ten Tips for Boosting Office Morale

By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success Coach With all that’s going on right now in the world, office morale may be down.  A lot of change has impacted people over the past few years.  Perhaps you have different staff now, but the effects of the pandemic, the politics, the news stories, and the fears of the economy have left a lot of people feeling burnt out and empty. Even if you have tried your best to keep these things from impacting the overall environment in your office, morale in your office may be taking a hit. Boosting office morale is not…

Staff Reviews & Setting Goals at the Beginning of the New Year

By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law In successfully running a law practice for over 40 years, I have found that it’s vitally important to periodically meet with each of my staff members (even ones that may be part-time or independent contractors) to review their job performance and set clear and defined goals.  Once you do these reviews on a regular basis, you will be amazed how much more motivated and productive your staff will be! I do these reviews semi-annually, at the beginning of January…

6 Ways You’re Holding Yourself (and Your Firm) Back Without Even Knowing It!

By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success Coach If your practice isn’t where you want it to be and you feel “stuck”, do you know why?  There may be plenty of reasons why.  However, more often than not, there are a lot of things that you, the estate planning attorney, are doing (or not doing) that are the reasons why you can’t seem to move forward. Having worked with estate planning attorney, Philip Kavesh, for over 18 years, both in his law practice and with our attorney customers of The Ultimate Estate Planner, I’ve seen a commonality in most attorneys and what’s…

Stop the Constant Fire Drills and Chaos at the Office with This Simple, But Effective Tip!

By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success Coach A recurring theme that I continually see coming up for estate planning attorneys that I speak with is this overwhelming stress that they’re feeling like every single day feels like they’re just constantly putting out fires and everything is in chaos and disarray.  When you are so busy in this reactive mode, it can be extremely difficult to know how to get out of it.  You become too consumed with being in the deep trenches of working in your business to have enough time, let alone a breath of fresh air, to even begin…

Clearing the Bubble—The Transition To Fixed Fees

By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law In the past, I have emphasized and reemphasized the advantages of utilizing a fixed fee structure rather than an hourly billing system. Here’s just a few of the main advantages for a fixed fee structure: Fixed fees avoid the need to maintain hourly records and keep track of every moment of your time. Fixed fees avoid having to go through the effort of preparing, reviewing and sending out billings. Fixed fees avoid you having to be a bill collector,…

Are Your Employees Quiet Quitting?

By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success Coach Recently, there has been a lot of buzz about the concept of “quiet quitting”.  You may have seen conversations on LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok or even some articles online or on news outlets.  Many employers are experiencing this concept and there has been a lot of debate about exactly who is to blame and what, if anything, can be done about it. What is Quiet Quitting? So, what is it exactly? “Quiet quitting” is a term to describe employees who are not outright quitting their jobs, but who may be essentially “quitting” in other ways. …

Estate Planning Attorneys – Stop Sending Your Clients Drafts!

By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success Coach At just about every single Ultimate Level event that we hold, the issue of sending clients drafts of their estate planning documents comes up.  There’s always at least one, but usually several, attorneys that have a regular practice (or as part of their estate planning process) to send clients drafts of their estate planning documents prior to signing them. It is to no surprise that these attorneys then also complain about some (or all!) of the following challenges: Trouble reaching clients to get them to move forward An enormous amount of questions Hours of…

The Importance of Taking Time Off and Getting a Break from Work

By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success Coach The concept of taking time off of work or stepping away from work seems like an obvious one, but for those that are super-dedicated to their job, this can actually be a difficult task to do sometimes. It took me some time, but it was something that I had to learn over a number of years of going full-steam, with very little to no breaks. I can recall when I was first hired by Phil back in 2004, I was an eager, freshly graduated college student. There were a lot of details to my…