Download Printable Article By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law You may be thinking I’m nuts. It may have taken you years of your blood, sweat, tears, time and money to get your current office up and running smoothly and profitably (or you’re still in the process of getting that done). So why would you want to open another office? There are lots of good reasons. Here are a few: Gain access to a larger audience of potential clients (particularly if your current market has a…
Scale Your Estate Planning Practice With AI-Powered Content Marketing
By Foster Consulting AI tools give estate planning attorneys an unprecedented advantage in creating client-centered content at scale. Instead of spending hours drafting basic articles about wills and trusts, you can use AI to generate foundation content, then use your specialized knowledge to add the insights only an experienced attorney can provide. This hybrid approach allows you to create more content in less time without sacrificing quality or authenticity. You maintain control of the messaging while eliminating the blank-page paralysis that derails many content marketing efforts. The key is understanding how to direct AI tools effectively. At Foster Consulting®, we…
IRS to Cut as Much as Half of Its 90,000-Person Workforce: How This Will Affect Tax Planning
By Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished) According to The IRS is drafting plans to cut as much as half of its 90,000-person workforce, AP sources say, it appears that tax attorneys and accountants may be practicing their trades in a world where “almost anything goes”. This is dangerous. If this happens, there will likely be substantially less auditors which may cause a gunslinger wild, wild west mentality among taxpayers and their advisors. Afterall, what’s the point in following the rules when the odds of being audited are a gazillion to one? No, No, No! No, no, no! As advisors,…
Is Your Receptionist Losing You Business?
By Kristina Schneider, Executive Assistant | In a time when a lot of people utilize e-mail communication, the telephone is still, by far, one of the most common forms of communication for businesses. In a personal service industry such as estate planning – – regardless of whether you’re an attorney, financial advisor, CPA, life insurance agent, trust officer or some other kind of advisor to clients – – telephone communication plays an even bigger role for having a successful business. So, why is that we see so many estate planning professionals have flawed systems for answering the phone? (If you…
When and How to “Fire” a Troublesome Client (or Convert Them Into a Good One!)
By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law Some of the first jobs that I ever had were in the retail and customer service industries. I can recall, in much of the training that I received, being told the old adage that the “customer is always right”. Having run my own practice now for over 43 years, I can tell you that, although the old saying is usually true (or at least should be your guiding principle), there are times when the client is not right and,…
This Is the Worst Problem That Many Domestic Asset Protection Trust Jurisdictions Have
By Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished) I have assembled state rankings charts for many years showing which states are best for various types of trusts. With so many different charts and so many different variables, one variable stands out as being disregarded, or maybe even completely missed, by estate planners — the requirement in many of the states’ Domestic Asset Protection Trust (“DAPT”) statutes for the transferor to execute a new Affidavit of Solvency for each and every transfer to the DAPT. At first blush, one would think that this is merely a public policy requirement. We certainly don’t…
How You & Your Assistant Can Work Better Together
By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success Coach Trust in the workplace is always a difficult, but necessary, part of running a successful practice. A lot of estate planners, regardless of his or her professional designation, struggle with this concept. Although just about every single one of these professionals could benefit from having some kind of assistant or other administrative support, they have difficulty in trusting others to take on important tasks. Unfortunately, estate planners are only ever making any real money if they are either meeting with clients or doing some kind of marketing or networking to develop potential new business. …
Current State of the Corporate Transparency Act
By Griffin Bridgers, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation) UPDATE AS OF FEBRUARY 27, 2025 In certain geographic locales, it is often said that if you don’t like the weather, you should just wait 30 minutes. Such seems to be the nature of the Corporate Transparency Act. Less than 24 hours after this newsletter was published, FinCEN issued a press release on February 27 stating that there will be no fines, penalties, or enforcement actions for any failure to file or update BOI information by the current deadlines (March 21, 2025 or, if later, 30 days after filing or a change). As part…
Heckerling 2025 Reports from the ABA
The 2025 Heckerling Institute was held in-person (and virtually) in Orlando on January 13-17 and marked the conference’s 59th year. The Phillip E. Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning is the nation’s premier conference for estate planning professionals, offering unparalleled educational and professional development opportunities for all members of the estate planning team. Over the course of the conference’s five days, numerous timely topics of interest to estate planners of all designations—including, but not limited to, attorneys, trust officers, accountants, charitable giving professionals, elder law specialists, wealth management professionals, and nonprofit advisors. As they have done for many years, the American…
Fight Back Against “Commoditization” and Low-Priced Competition
By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law The estate planning profession, and in particular the basic Living Trust-centered practice, has been hammered by new challenges. There’s the proliferation of Internet “zoom” document providers and do-it-yourself trust kits (Suze Orman and the like). There are non-attorney trust mills increasingly grabbing market share (often in violation of the state statutes prohibiting the unauthorized practice of law). And there are bargain-priced, low-end attorneys (many of whom have jumped aboard the Living Trust craze from other areas of the law)…