By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success Coach If you’ve ever had an employee approach you randomly and request an increase in their salary, it may be challenging to know how best to respond. While you may be happy with their work, you may be strapped from being able to financially accommodate such a raise. It creates all sorts of fears and concerns around this person walking away if you don’t oblige. Below are some practical tips to help you manage (and avoid) this happening. TIP #1: Create a Process for How and When You Review Compensation. First and foremost, by creating…
State Trust Jurisdictional Wars: Where the States Stand in 2024
By Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished) Which jurisdiction do you use to situs your trusts? Let’s look at the most popular trust jurisdictions. Alaska If we went back in time about a decade, the Big Four trust jurisdictions were Alaska, Delaware, Nevada and South Dakota. But somewhere along the way, Alaska seemed to have lost its way. I haven’t personally heard of even one non-Alaska resident using Alaska law in many, many years. I’m sure it’s being done, but, if so, it can’t be a lot of trusts. Alaska hasn’t materially improved its trust laws in so many years…
Asset Protection Goals and Probabilities
By Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished) A Game of Probabilities Asset protection is a game of probabilities. Every legitimate wall that is placed around the assets should move the settlement number more in favor of the debtor. And every bad case that comes down the pike should move the settlement number more in favor of the creditor. Uncertainty over collectability causes most disputes to settle long before they get to that point. The creditor must assess the probability that he will be able to collect and the expenses that will be involved in trying to collect and then make…
The Top 20 Seminar Marketing Mistakes People Make (Part 2 of 2)
By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law Marketing – – particularly seminar marketing – – has come up quite a bit in recent weeks. From our May Ultimate Level event, to list serve discussions, to people randomly contacting me. It prompted me that perhaps it was time to take a break from the usual practice-building topic and put together an article on seminar marketing. Over the years, seminar presentations sure have evolved, from overhead transparencies, to slide carousel projectors to laptops and LCD projectors. But despite…
5 Best Types of Video for Marketing Your Estate Planning Practice
By Foster Web Marketing Video is an incredible tool for connecting with potential clients and encouraging them to reach out to your estate planning firm. It’s a powerful motivator on its own, and it’s a powerful force multiplier when you incorporate it into a healthy marketing mix. And it makes sense—video demands attention, enhances understanding, and builds relationships faster than text alone. However, not just any kind of video content will do. You need to be intentional about the kinds of videos you create if you want to see results from your effort and investment. So, today, let’s take a…
Squash the Drama: 5 Steps to Properly Handling Interoffice Conflicts
By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success Coach It’s a fact in just about every single office, conflict is going to happen. There are times when the workplace is going to be stressful. There are going to be different people with different personalities and with different things going on in both their personal and professional lives. Regardless of what industry you’re in, but especially in an estate, tax or financial planning practice, what is inevitable is that, at some point or another, there will be conflict. Knowing and implementing the steps to properly handle this conflict, while they may seem obvious and…
It’s Time to Stop Using Health, Education, Maintenance and Support Trusts!
By Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished) Thanks to the generosity of Leimberg Information Services, we are pleased to provide you this recently published article on LISI. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Nearly Everybody Nearly every estate planning attorney uses “health, education, maintenance and support” (“HEMS”) as a distribution standard in the trusts they draft. This language is probably found in more than 95% of the trusts that are drafted nowadays. Some trusts use it as the sole method of making trust distributions, whereas others have provisions giving an interested trustee the ability to distribute under this standard and also allow an independent trustee…
The Top 20 Seminar Marketing Mistakes (Part 1 of 2)
By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law Over the years, seminar presentations sure have evolved, from overhead transparencies, to slide carousel projectors to laptops and LCD projectors. But despite these technological changes, the fundamental rules of successful seminar marketing have remained the same. I learned these rules only after personally presenting thousands of seminars – – and making lots of mistakes – – so I thought I would assemble what I have found to be the “Top 20 Seminar Mistakes”, so you can avoid having to…
4 Things Google Says Your Estate Planning Content Needs to Do
By Foster Web Marketing What makes your website content “good” for marketing your estate planning firm? Why does some content rank easily at the top of search while other content suffers? While producing excellent content is one of the very best things you can do to drive new clients to your website from organic search, it’s also one of the most difficult things to get right. This leaves a lot of estate planning practices producing blogs, FAQs, and articles for their websites every month without a clear reason or strategy. Unfortunately, directionless content tends to be pretty directionless in attracting…
Tips to Maintaining a Positive Online Reputation
By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success Coach With the growing use of the internet, clients, prospective clients and professional referral sources will look you up online and learn about you before they decide to do business with you. So, you have to maintain a quality online presence, more than merely having a good website. You also must maintain a positive online reputation! First, let’s start with some basic questions: Have you ever Googled yourself or your firm before? Do you know that Yelp, Google, and Facebook create profiles for your business (even if you didn’t initiate one) and customers can leave…