How to Have a Virtual & Remote Law Practice Without Sacrificing Client Connection and Retention

Ali Katz:
You know, you're brand new at it, so it makes sense that it would be a little bit more difficult because you're going to need to get used to it. And the only way to get used to it is by doing it, having it be awkward at the beginning, and then getting better.

Ali Katz:
Hello, and welcome to the NewLaw podcast, where we guide entrepreneurial lawyers to build law practices into businesses they love. I'm Ali Katz. In this episode, you are going to get one of my best behind the scenes tips for exactly how to handle your virtual sessions so that the people that you're meeting with, your potential new clients become clients because of how you are working with them during the virtual session. You're also going to hear how we work with multicultural, multigenerational clients. So, dive in and I'll see you on the other side.

Ali Katz:
All right. Alayna, welcome.

Alayna:
Hi.

Ali Katz:
Hi.

Alayna:
Okay, so I had my first virtual family wealth planning session yesterday, and I want to say that this was only actually, my fourth. I did engage everyone else before, which made me feel great. But, you know, even though I realized they got better, the second one and then the third one, they all engaged. But I found it was so much easier in person, and I do find it a little bit challenging what happened yesterday with the virtual, because it was a little bit harder connecting with, you know, the prospect and coming from a place of caring virtually was a little bit harder for me. I don't know if anybody else has encountered that problem.

Ali Katz:
Sure, you're brand new at it. You know, you're brand new at it. So it makes sense that it would be a little bit more difficult because you're going to need to get used to it. And the only way to get used to it is by doing it, having it be awkward at the beginning and then getting better and then getting better. And so, maybe you can share. What did you learn from that experience?

Alayna:
Okay. Well, for me in this community, I learned that there are a lot of older Spanish speaking people. And what happened in this particular meeting was that the daughter, you know younger people, middle aged, tend to be bilingual and not a problem to just conduct the meeting in English. But she had actually, the planning was for her mom and there are four adult children. The father had passed away, and so the mom was right there. And so she said to me, can we do it in Spanish, or at least some of it, because I want my mom to be able to understand. And of course, the planning is for her.

Alayna:
So what I found is that I need to practice. I speak Spanish, but I haven't translated all this stuff the right way, you know, using the right words. So for me, I find that I'm going to be working translating and just, you know, coming across in Spanish a little bit better because I realized some of these sessions, I'm going to have to speak Spanish to some of these people in this community.

Ali Katz:
Yeah. Yes, absolutely. That's one of the things that you bring. That's such a great thing. Right, right. So it seems like it wasn't just the virtual nature of the family wealth planning session. It was the multilanguage piece as well, and multifamily members. So it wasn't just mom, but mom and one of her daughters.

Ali Katz:
Yeah. So that's a complex situation. So I wouldn't read too much into the virtual nature of it. You had multiple challenges there.

Alayna:
Right. What I did, yes. And by the way, it's not that they said no, it's just that some people just don't make the decision right then and there, they were. The part that I have to say what did work well was that I was able to communicate to the mother how this planning really would benefit her children, for her children not, you know, maybe not so much for her, but when they receive the assets, they can be totally protected. And that seemed to be the thing for her because she was thinking at the beginning, well, so I don't have any creditors myself. I don't have a problem with that. She wasn't thinking about how the children, the grown children would receive. And then at the end, we talked a little bit about that. And I just want to say for anybody else, that with these grown children, she was very much interested in the protection, that they would get the assets and be totally protected if they kept it in the trust, you know, that kind of thing.

Ali Katz:
Were you able to take them through the entire process of looking at everything that mom has and what would happen to everything that mom has in the event of mom's death, without doing any planning?

Alayna:
Yes, I was able to do that. I also, on a sheet of paper, I was able to just write down what would happen, that they would go to probate, what the cost would be, and then I wrote it on the sheet of paper with the box, and then I put that on the screen. They were able to see that.

Ali Katz:
Let me give you an alternative to that for the next time.

Alayna:
Okay.

Ali Katz:
Would you love direct support to help you grow your law practice into a business you love? Go to newlawbusinessmodel.com/show and sign up for a call with one of our trusted law business advisors. Each of our advisors has been trained directly by me over the past five years plus to help you chart your path from wherever you are now to where you want to go as efficiently and effectively as possible. You're ready to grow. We're here to help.

Ali Katz:
Have them have a piece of paper in front of them and have them writing as you're writing. So you create your piece of paper. They're creating their piece of paper.

Alayna:
Oh, that's an option.

Ali Katz:
And they're writing the exact same thing down on their piece of paper that you're writing down on your piece of paper. This is what I used to do when I did virtual, before we had Zoom and whiteboards. This is on Skype 15 years ago, so that's what I did. I had my yellow legal pad. I had them have a piece of paper, and I had them draw everything and write everything that I was writing on their paper.

Alayna:
Well, that's a great idea. Thank you. I think that would have been helpful. Yeah. If I had done that, it would have been good. Thank you.

Ali Katz:
What was the concern? Was mom okay with that? Was mom okay with those assets going through the probate process before they got.

Alayna:
No, no, of course. But, you know, she. She had a will, um, and I haven't seen it. They haven't sent. They did not send it to me before, but it's an old will. And then I explained to her what would happen without will in how the only way would be creating the trust and to protect her children. And that seemed to. To matter to them.

Alayna:
What they said at the end was, well, you know, we're gonna talk to. Because there were three other adult children that were not there. They were get together, talk, and then we plan to follow up. We sent them an email after saying, thank you, and we're here to answer any questions and let us know if you want to move forward.

Ali Katz:
Got it. Okay, great. I would say that what you can do differently next time is you can schedule the follow up meeting after they have talked with the other adult children with the assumption that, of course they're going to move forward. Mom wants her assets to not go through the probate process, so.

Alayna:
Yeah. And I think that they would have been, you know, they were very nice, very grateful and everything else, and I think that if I had done that, honestly, I think that they would have had an objection to rescheduling right then and there. And I did not do that. Yeah.

Ali Katz:
Yeah. So you could do that. Yeah. And so I'm curious now following up with them. When will you reach out again?

Alayna:
Okay, so we were talking about them, me and my client services director, and we were thinking about not letting too many days go by and maybe next week, like on Monday, say we have some availability, you know, and just try to schedule it.

Ali Katz:
Yeah. What I would say at that point is I just want to check in with you, see if you met with the kids this weekend, because I know it was important to you to make sure that if something happens to mom, maybe say specifically what the assets are, don't go through the court process. And that means we need to get things in place now in order to make sure that happens. So I want to see if you spoke to the other adult children so that we could get you back on the calendar and move things forward.

Alayna:
Perfect. I will do that. Thank you.

Ali Katz:
Okay, great. You're so welcome. And I hope all of you heard that tip and wrote it down that when you do your virtual meetings, you don't need to use a fancy whiteboard, though you can if you're great at using, you know, the whiteboard features online. And you want to be all technologically savvy and cool, great. But you don't need to be. You can be super old school. You're writing on your legal pad, they're writing on their piece of paper in front of them. You just need to make sure they have a piece of paper and a pen so they can follow along. And they're writing it all down, too.

Ali Katz:
If you loved the strategies that I shared in this episode on how to handle your virtual sessions, well, you're going to love my direct support on you, either building, growing, or scaling your law practice into a business you love. And you're going to love getting on calls with me, bringing your specific issues week in, week out, month in, month out, quarter in, quarter out, so I can help you achieve your goals for time and money and of course, a business you love. If you want that, go to newlaw.co/show, talk with a law business advisor. If you are either already offering estate planning or want to offer estate planning and do it in a way where you cannot be competed with by financial advisors, legal tech, cheap legal, legal insurance, we've got a differentiated service model for you that you and your clients are going to love. Apply at newlaw.co/show and I look forward to seeing you on the inside.