First Strategic Alliance Meeting

I had my first meeting with an estate planning attorney using the Strategic Alliance system created by Steve Moeller. The attorney’s name is Ron L. and he is based in Sun City. He has done some work for a few of my clients and knew my Dad pretty well. His office is literally across the street from the Merrill Lynch office that my Dad was the manager of for many years. I went into this meeting expecting it to be pretty easy since Ron already knew me on a personal level. I was right.

The purpose of the first meeting is to see if you would like to work with him as an alliance partner in the future. You also want to see if he works with clients that are similar to your ideal clients and that he is open to the idea of working with you.

Here is what I found out about Ron L.

Ron’s business breaks down to 75% estate planning and trusts and 25% general law practice helping business owners set up LLC’s, Corporations, and agreements. He has practiced law for over 20 years. He went to college at the University of Wyoming (which is my wife’s alma mater) and Law School at Arizona State.

In his Sun City office he has an office manager, receptionist, and a legal secretary. He also keeps office hours in Scottsdale. At that office he uses the staff at his office complex.

His practice for estate planning is pretty broad in that he will do simple wills for small clients to advanced estate planning strategies for multi millionaires. Most of his clients have net assets in the $1MM to $3MM range. The only business that he refers out to another attorney is anyone interested in a “Miller Trust” that is used to qualify for Long Term Care under the ALTCS program. He used to do a lot of Form 706 work (Estate Tax Returns) but that has slowed down last few years as there has been a steady decrease in the unified credit over the last few years.

He estimated that he has over 800 clients and is looking for more. His ideal client is about to retire and needs a will and a trust and possibly some life insurance. He likes them a little younger so he has a chance to work with them a few times over the years as their situation changes. He gave me an interesting answer when I asked him about his business goals. He said he has never set goals because he always works hard and he doesn’t need to write down a specific number. He believes that with hard work, he will do the best he can and whatever happens he will be happy with it.

The main challenges in his practice are paralegals who practice law when they are not allowed to do the work. He also sees some of the online sites like “Legal Zoom” as competition. He has a hard time with clients who are very busy. They tend to lack focus. He can get them through the basic estate plan or trust but when it comes to doing advanced planning, they seem to lose patience or focus and do not follow through. He has also found it hard to get through some of the complicated or technical issues in estate planning with clients. Ron would call this “getting them to the next level” where he feels he can really add value to their situation. Often he will advise them to use Life Insurance and sometimes the insurance agent or financial planner he refers them to, does not do a good enough job of convincing the client that it is the right thing to do. Ron does not have an insurance license and does not believe it is ethical for an attorney to recommend it and get paid for it.

Most of his marketing is done through informal networking. He gets alot of his probate work through Title officers at banks who are working with clients that are trying to sell Mom or Dad’s home and suddenly find out they need to put the home through probate before they can sell it. He is a member of the Central Arizona Estate Planning Council and he has done some seminars for the State Bar of Arizona. For the most part he feels as if he does not do a lot of marketing. He depends on doing a good job for his clients and utilizing their good word of mouth.

One of the ways he stands out from most Estate Planning Attorneys is that he always tries to go over the documents with the client face to face. Most attorneys will mail out the documents and encourage their client to read them and get back to them with questions. Ron feels this is a deterrent for many clients who are intimidated by the documents or the process.

Ron said he would like to work with me and he is willing to take the next step and set up a second meeting.