The Top 6 Reasons You Should Be Giving Seminars

By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law For estate planning attorneys, all of the technical and legal education in the world is great, but if you are not able to bring in prospective clients to plan for, there is no way for you to be able to successfully run your own estate planning practice.  If you regularly receive referrals from other sources, such as financial advisors, CPAs, life insurance agents or other attorneys, that’s great.  However, what happens if those referrals stop?  How consistent and predictable…

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…

In-Person Seminars Are Back and Working!

(And You Should Ditch Online Webinars!) By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of seminar marketing. Seminars have been a tested and proven marketing staple for my law firm and many other estate planning attorneys for over 35 years – – if you do them right! Unfortunately, the pandemic forced in-person seminars to shut down.  My law firm, like many others, adjusted by offering virtual seminars online. For a while, the virtual model appeared to work and…

Are You Spending Too Much Time (and Money!) to Bring In New Clients?

By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law I recently conducted not one, not two, but three different coaching consultations in a single week with fellow colleagues who all expressed to me the same major challenge in their practice.  If three firms, in such a short period of time, happened to share this same issue with me, then I thought there must be others out there who must be grappling with it too!  Hence, this article. All of these firms complained about spending far too much time…

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To… (Some of My Craziest Seminar Stories from Over the Years)

By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law If you have ever attended one of my presentations, you already know that one of my favorite things in life and throughout my career has been presenting educational seminars on estate planning. What you may not know, however, are some of the unusual stories and occurrences I have experienced in doing over 3,000 seminars over the past 35 plus years. I’ve had so many funny, odd and not-so-funny events happen on the way to, during and after seminars that…

Successful Seminar Marketing 101: Tips for Getting Started

By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law It’s no secret that I am a big proponent of seminar marketing.  That’s because I have regularly used seminars to successfully build and grow my practice over the past 40 years. Benefits of Doing Seminars Before we get into how to start up the seminar marketing process, it’s important for you to understand the benefits of doing seminars.  Some people believe that seminars are about educating people on estate planning or building your image and firm name in the…