Estate Planning's New Frontier: Reaching the 77% of Affluent Investors Who Go It Alone

How much are you leaving on the table by focusing primarily on referrals? Here's a thought-provoking episode that addresses the missed opportunities for estate and elder law attorneys who are heavily dependent on referrals from financial advisors. It's a wake-up call to the stark income disparity between the two professions, with financial advisors outearning their attorney counterparts by embracing digital marketing. While referrals make up an important business strategy, they shouldn't be your only play. If you want to truly thrive and expand, look to generating  just about 20% of your revenue from referrals. The rest? Let's talk about digital marketing strategies that don't just trade your time for money, but buy back your time – and pay dividends.

Shift your mindset. Let's challenge the common notion of trading time for money. Instead, let's explore investing in strategies that free up your time, giving you room to become a more effective CEO of your business. With the market seeing more affluent investors going the self-advised route, direct-to-consumer marketing is now more crucial than ever. It's high time to take inspiration from successful financial planners, adopt a more forward-thinking approach towards digital marketing, and be open to new strategies. Ready to take your practice to new heights? Let's get started.

Grow Value and Sell-ability in Your Firm
Quid Pro Quo helps lawyers build law firms as a business that have value and can be sold.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Video version on YouTube
Book your free Discovery Call with my team.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hi and welcome back to the Marketing Lawcast. I'm your host, jennifer Goddard, with a big question for you today. If you are an estate planning or elder law attorney and you've been growing your practice with referral-based marketing, have you ever thought about the big portion of the market that you might be missing out on and how missing that market could be affecting your revenue? Stay tuned, we're gonna dive into some of those numbers and share those with you right after this message.

Speaker 2: 0:31

Before we dive into today's episode, a special shout out to our sponsor, Quidpro Quo. Are you a law firm looking to scale or sell your practice? Qpq's expert team can help you unlock your firm's full potential. Stay tuned for valuable insights brought to you by QPQ.

Speaker 1: 0:46

So if you're an estate planning or elder law attorney and you rely primarily on referrals from my financial advisors to bring you new business, I've got some startling news for you.

Speaker 1: 1:01

The truth is, by relying primarily on financial advisors to send you new business, you're really putting a cap on your revenue and missing out on the biggest part of the market for your services. It's so interesting when I talk to estate attorneys and then financial advisors, the differences in their aspect and the way that they look at marketing their practices. For example, typically when I talk to a state planning and elder law attorneys about digital marketing, I get a lot of pushback and skepticism that digital marketing probably is not gonna bring me good clients, and I get a lot of people who have a lot of skepticism about digital marketing. When I talk to financial advisors, however, it's a completely different conversation. When I talk to financial advisors about digital marketing, their ears perk up, their eyes light up and they say so tell me more about that strategy, how could I implement that strategy and where do I sign up? And I think it's really important to kind of take a look at those two different ways of looking at marketing your practice. So the estate attorney typically relies on the financial advisor to send him or her business, whereas the financial advisor has really grasped the concept of marketing directly to consumers. Now, I know there are a lot of things that really impact income. There's like market impacts there are a lot of things that go into what would be your income but I think that this attitude about marketing and how we market the practice should be something to explore.

Speaker 1: 3:02

When we look at the disparities in income between certified financial planners and estate planning attorneys, recently released studies this is very recent 2023 numbers show that certified financial planners with less than nine years of experience earn, on average, $145,000 a year. On the other side of the coin, a similarly experienced estate planning attorney is earning between $75,000 and $99,000 a year less than $100,000 a year. Now, the disparities continue. When we look at a certified financial planner with nine to 15 years of experience, that average income is $217,000 a year, and with more than 15 years of experience, the average income is $297,000 a year. If we look at an estate attorney who is a partner in a law firm or a primary principal in a law firm, the average is $100,000 to $149,000 a year. Now, that is a huge disparity and, like I said, I know there are a lot of factors that go into, you know, income levels, but marketing strategies certainly could play a role and I think maybe we could look at the eagerness on the financial advisor's side, that eagerness to adopt internet marketing might have some correlation with income levels and that mindset of being able to market directly to consumers and bring in new business without relying primarily on referrals could be part of this income disparity. I'm not saying all of it, but the income disparity is so large that I think it's worth looking at this attitude about the marketing.

Speaker 1: 5:18

Now, when I look at referral marketing, that's like the consider the holy grail in building your estate planning or elder law practice. Every time I talk to anybody that's giving advice to estate planning attorneys or elder law attorneys about how to grow your practice, they always say you know, referrals are the gold in your practice. You've got to build your referral network and I'm not really slamming referrals. I think referrals are great, but there are a few things that you need to consider about referral marketing that could be limiting your ability to break through and make good money and, you know, generate wealth for yourself and your firm and your staff and your family and future generations. When we look at referral marketing, I think that one of the biggest problems that we see with referral marketing is that we don't have any control over the referrals that we get. We don't have any control over the quality of those referrals. We don't have any control over the timing of the referrals.

Speaker 1: 6:27

When I advise estate and planning attorneys and elder law attorneys on how to grow their their practice and how they should allocate their income sources, I look at referrals as being about 20 percent. I would like to see about 20 percent of the revenue coming through referrals. Typically I see more like 70 percent of the revenue. And while I think that referrals are great, if we can look at that huge opportunity that is beyond referrals and kind of adapt some of that attitude that these successful financial planners are adopting, which is that eagerness about internet marketing, digital marketing, how can I use it? And I'm willing to sacrifice some money or invest some money to build my practice and trade some of my money for some time if I can get a marketing strategy that will work for me, that I don't have to be out there, you know, drumming up the business myself, but that digital marketing strategy is working all the time. For me, that's a good exchange. I'm willing to invest money to get back time. Now, typically, attorneys exchange time for money. I give you my time, you pay me for my time. Exchanging time for money. But maybe a little mindset shift that I'm going to give my money and you're gonna give me back some time. I'm gonna turn that on its head and invest money for time, and that's what digital marketing really does for you. You put some money in, you invest some money into making this work and it brings you not only business, but it also buys you back time because of the nature of digital marketing, where it works 24 seven and it has incredible reach. Now, one of the problems that is a growing problem for estate planning and elder law attorneys who rely on referral based marketing is that when you rely on referrals, you are getting a small and increasingly smaller percentage of the market.

Speaker 1: 8:57

Let me share some numbers to you that may be a little bit astounding. In 2015, surveys showed that among affluent investors, only about 35% considered themselves self-advised. In other words, about 65% of affluent investors were connected with a financial advisor. They considered themselves advisor dependent. That was 2015. And that may be a mindset that you are still holding onto. That may be putting a cap on your revenue, because in 2021, the numbers are changed drastically. In 2021, 69% of affluent investors considered themselves self-advised, which means there's only 31% of the market there's only 31% who are connected with an advisor, who consider themselves advisor reliant. So that's a complete flip from 2015 to 2021, when, in 2015, 35% considered themselves as self-advised and now less than 35% consider themselves advisor reliant. So the biggest portion of the market by far is not connected to a financial advisor. If we look at a very important age group among those affluent investors 40 to 49, why is that important? These are people who are accumulating wealth. They will continue to accumulate wealth. They probably have children, they probably have aging parents. They are your next group of clients In that age bracket. 77% are self-advised, which means only 23% of that market considers themselves advisor reliant or is attached to a financial advisor. My point being that if you rely on referrals from financial advisors, you are getting a smaller and smaller segment of the market.

Speaker 1: 11:38

The financial advisors are going directly to consumers and they're embracing digital marketing and they are earning money and their practices are growing and they see these numbers and they know that they have to get out there and market themselves, because more and more people are reliant on what they're reliant on digital resources to help them manage their portfolios, to help them manage their investments. So the financial advisor is keenly aware that his market, or her market, is online. They are using tools online. They are constantly working online, so to reach them, they must employ online marketing techniques. They must deploy digital marketing resources and strategies.

Speaker 1: 12:36

Is your law firm truly achieving its maximum potential? Our partner, quidproquo, understands that making informed decisions is essential to the success of your firm. That's why they offer comprehensive valuation services tailored for you and your business. Are you ready to elevate your firm's success? Contact QPQ today at info at quidproquolawcom or visit them online at quidproquolawcom and set up a clarity call to get started today. This is really important information for estate planners or elder law attorneys who want to grow a thriving practice, who want to earn high six figures, perhaps even seven figures, in their law firm, realizing that if you continue to stay reliant on referrals from financial advisors, you are trying to feed your law firm from a smaller and smaller and smaller piece of the pie.

Speaker 1: 13:49

If you can figure out how to go directly to consumers and using digital marketing because all of these affluent investors are using digital access, digital resources, to help them manage their portfolios. We know where they are, they are online and they are searching for resources. They are searching for information and they are using that information to make decisions about their investments. So it only makes sense that, as estate planning attorneys and elder law attorneys, we need to open up the market beyond this tiny slice that we are getting who are advisory-liant. Open up that market to that 77% of affluent investors who are not advisory-liant, and go directly to the market. So I'm thinking that one of the biggest mindset shifts that can propel your law firm your estate planning or elder law firm can propel it far beyond where you are now would be to be eager and excited and invested in doing business. So you are getting digital marketing that can help you reach that huge piece of the market that is not advisory-liant.

Speaker 1: 15:25

Now here's where this really starts to work. Great for you. You have already done some work to develop referral sources. You're already getting business from financial advisors. Listen to them, find out what they're doing to grow their business, listen to how they are doing their marketing, listen to their challenges. Listen to them talk about the fact that they've got to reach these younger investors. They've got to reach a bigger piece of the market. They already know that there are ways that you can help them. There are things you can learn from them and you can go directly after those people who are not advisory-liant connected to a financial advisor.

Speaker 1: 16:18

There's another big thing that happens when you start to do that, when you really dominate your market with digital marketing online and you start to bring in great prospects, great leads and great clients who are not connected to a financial advisor, what does that put you in the position to do? You are suddenly in a position to be able to make a referral to a financial advisor. When you can do that, when you can be a rainmaker for financial advisors, you are going to propel yourself forward in terms of receiving referrals. We all know that that's kind of the biggest frustration of being an estate planning attorney who relies on referrals. The financial advisor who's sending you referrals is kind of like so what am I getting out of this? And you can't really send a referral to them because everybody that came to you came from someone else and that would be disloyal and that would ruin your other referral relationships.

Speaker 1: 17:26

But when you really get this under control and you dominate your market online. You build your brand, you build your reputation, you attract great clients, you can reach those affluent investors, you bring in great clients. You have a steady stream of new clients who are not affiliated with a financial advisor but could, per chance, benefit from working with a financial advisor. Now you have the opportunity to make those referrals and you can become a rainmaker in your own market, and we all know who makes the most money in a law firm it's the person who is the rainmaker, and so, rather than just relying entirely on what someone else sends you, if you can get out there and build your own book of business and use digital marketing to do that, you not only open up this huge portion of the market up to seventy seven percent of affluent investors, depending on the age group you protect yourself from the ups and downs that roller coaster revenue that you can get from referrals and you set yourself up as a rainmaker to receive even more referrals. So I just kind of wanted to talk a little bit about this difference of attitude that I notice when I talk to financial advisors versus when I talk to attorneys.

Speaker 1: 18:59

From attorneys, I get a lot of skepticism and concern about digital marketing and I think one of the reasons is Oftentimes attorneys don't want to make the investment In the digital marketing because they are afraid it won't work and they will lose that investment. And it sort of becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, Because if you don't invest in the digital marketing to make it work probably won't, and so it's very easy to say well, I put you know this, making numbers, I put five thousand dollars into that and I didn't get anything back. Well, it depends on how you look at what did you get back? But five thousand dollars is a very small investment in digital marketing, especially over the course of your career. To make a decision based on five thousand dollars that didn't return to you immediately, when you know that you've got to be investing in that to grow that business and you know if one aspect of digital marketing is not working for you, than the thing to do is not to abandon that but to fix it, to find the strategies that will work for you and to invest in those and just that.

Speaker 1: 20:17

That mindset of I am going to stop trading my time For money and I'm going to start trading my money for time and invest in things that will buy you back your time so that you can be a more effective CEO of your business, so that you can give clients tremendous service and eventually you can become that rainmaker where you're sending the referrals into the financial planning and that will come back to you a hundred fold.

Speaker 1: 20:51

So I just want you to kind of think about why is it that the certified financial planner is making so much more money than the estate planning attorney, when they work in the same market and they're talking to the same people? I realized that there are lots of things that can contribute to that. But could part of it be that mindset, that eagerness, that attitude towards digital marketing, harnessing that, using that and going directly into that Big section of the affluent investor market that is not already connected to a financial advisor? Just some food for thought. If any of this makes sense to you, I really encourage you to get on the phone, set an appointment with my team and let's talk about where you are, what strategies you're using now that are working for you, what strategies we might be able to bring in to take what you're doing now and just exploded into additional revenue, growing that revenue 30%, 50%, doubling it and really getting you to dominate your market and hit that big piece of the market that you're currently missing, if you're relying solely on referral marketing.

Speaker 2: 22:22

That's a wrap for today's episode and a big thank you to our sponsor, quid pro quo. Qpq is your partner in law firm success, offering expert guidance on scaling, selling and optimizing your practice. With a team of experienced professionals, they bring real world insights to the table. Are you ready to take your law practice to new heights? Visit their website at wwwquidproquolawcom To learn more and start your journey toward a thriving and sellable law firm.