Whether you are just starting out in your law career as a solo, leaving a big firm, or have been in the business for a year or so, it is important to have the tools you need to succeed, scale and grow. In this article, we will outline 5 essential tools that you need to properly manage your solo estate planning firm to keep you well organized and efficient.
This is what I consider to be the lifeblood of your estate planning firm. This is where your hot leads go and clients live, all the way from onboarding to case completion. As an estate planning attorney operating solo, it can also be a great source for streamlining your practice, which will allow you to operate more efficiently. Some software can even offer you extensive automation capabilities. This can include the automation of emails, tasks, client intake and documents. Two practice management software that I highly recommend are Lawmatics and Lawcus. They provide for the most extensive capability in the way of automations and keep your leads and matters moving through your process.
With practice management software, you will be able to keep a consistent track of where all Matters are in the process, as well as time and billing, client communication, client portals, intake forms, engagement agreements, etc.
2. Calendaring
If you don’t have great calendaring software available in your practice management software, you need to have one, regardless. Calendaring software, such as, Calendly, will sync up to your calendar to ensure that there are no cross ups with any current appointments you have. It is an absolute, must have! As an estate planning firm, you are managing the scheduling of your consultations, design meetings, revision meetings and signings.
Some Practice Management Software does offer their own calendaring software, in-house, but it is important to vet it before completely committing yourself to using theirs as they are not always intuitive. Some software I do recommend are Calendly and Asana, to name the more popular ones.
3. Drafting Software
This isn’t a “must have”, but if you can afford drafting software, which has been increasing in price lately, it will most definitely make your life easier. Some of these come preloaded with prebuilt forms for you to use with your estate plan clients. You simply fill in the basic details that you have collect from the client through your design meeting and the software does the rest. Some of these softwares even come with the capability of doing client intake forms, which you can send to your clients to fill out and then directly use that data to be pushed into a document within your drafting software.
Examples of this software include Wealthcounsel and Interactive Legal.
Now, if you find that these are a bit out of your budget, I’d recommend looking at your practice management software. Most of them have the capability to draft documents for you. Since you’re already paying for it, you might as well see how far this capability will get you. Most of the time, it is sufficient for someone just starting out.
How it looks:
A Matter in your practice management software typically consists of what is called “Matter Fields” or “Custom Fields”. These fields collect specific data on a clients case. This is typically done by having your client complete an intake form. You will also need to find your own template to work from and input what are called “Merge Fields”. These fields will match up with the Matter or Custom Fields on the client Matter, to pull the data inputted into those fields and into the document. Examples include, client name, addresses, related contact (spouse), children names, etc.
4. Payment Processer:
Most Practice Management Software will require you to have your own payment processor which will integrate with them. Therefore, I recommend have your practice management software picked out first! This way, you can find out what payment processors they are capable of integrating with.
Examples include, LawPay, Confido Legal and Quickbooks.
5. A Written Process and Procedure:
This may not be tech, but it is the most important piece of running any business. Having a process written out, detailing every step in the handling of your leads and matters is essential to managing your estate planning firm.
It is important, that when writing this, you be as detailed as humanly possible. Every step and every task that needs to be completed, who is responsible for completing the tasks and what tools are being used to complete the tasks.
This is what we call a Standard Operating Procedure or SOP and it will even help you to understand how all the tech we discussed above, comes together. Once it is written, you will want to stick as closely to it as possible, making small changes as you go. By sticking to an SOP, it will give you measurable insight into what is working within your process and what is not. From there you can make small changes to it, as you move forward in your practice.
In conclusion:
There are a lot of tools out there you can use. It is important to vet all of the different providers out there to ensure that their software is going to meet not just your needs, but your client’s needs as well.