Blog Post #21 -ESTATE PLANNING ATTORNEY PRIMARY REFERRAL TARGETS

ESTATE PLANNING ATTORNEY PRIMARY REFERRAL TARGETS

MM:  The next professional is the Estate Planning Attorney.  The Estate Planning Attorney’s targets are very similar to the Financial Advisors.  Again, they are in more of an advisory role, so they are viewed as more relational professionals and are less transaction focused.  It’s easier for them to make certain referrals and they are just in a very trustworthy role. 

JB:  Who are the primary referral targets? 

MM:  The Estate Planning Attorney’s primary referral targets are the Financial Advisor and the Realtor. 

JB:  So it’s pretty similar to the Financial Advisor, but I still think it’s worth going over, right? 

MM:  Yes. You know, the Accountant, the Estate Planning Attorney and the Financial Advisor have similarities.  They are very much alike in their primary target cross-sell responsibilities. 

Just like the Financial Advisor, they should recommend an Equity Assessment and refer their Core7 Realtor partner to make sure Net Worth is accurate.  And again, for the Realtor, this is typically a quick, 5 minute, rapport-building phone call with the end result being permission to stay in touch and for the Realtor to be resource moving forward. 

JB:  You know we go over all this in much more detail in the modules.  Now, like the Financial Advisor, another very easy segue for the Estate Planning Attorney is when reviewing the property section of their fact finder. 

MM:  Absolutely.  Many times, the client will own multiple properties.  As an Estate Planning Attorney, it’s easy to say, “I see you own multiple properties. What are your plans with these properties?  Will they be sold? Will they be passed on?” 

All of these questions create a great opportunity to ask the Referral Generator Question, and introduce your Core7 Real Estate Agent partner.  

JB:  Yes, in these situations, value assessments are always needed, so it’s easy to introduce a Realtor partner using the Referral Generator. 

MM:  Correct, and many times they hire an Appraiser which can cost them money.  They can actually use a Realtor who would do it just for the relationship. 

JB:  Who is the second primary referral target?

MM:  The second target for the Estate Planning Attorney is the Financial Advisor.  There are many great opportunities for the Estate Planning Attorney to introduce the Financial Advisor. 

In my opinion, the best opportunity is that the clients need to consistently review their Estate Plans and what are the best vehicles to pass on their assets to their heirs.  One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is they view an Estate Plan as a one time event. 

It’s constantly evolving based on new purchases of investment products, real estate, etc.  It’s just constantly changing and constantly needs to be updated.

JB:  So, like the Accountant and Financial Advisor, there’s going to be a lot of secondary referral targets.  Can you talk about that?

ESTATE PLANNING ATTORNEY SECONDARY REFERRAL TARGETS

MM:  Yeah, absolutely. The secondary referral targets for the Estate Planning Attorney are the Accountant and the Property & Casualty Insurance Agent. 

Just like the with Financial Advisor, with Estate Planning there are many tax questions that come up when the Accountant is needed.  There are protection needs regarding a client’s assets where the Property & Casualty Insurance Agent is needed to talk about an Umbrella.

You know Justin, we described earlier how the Property & Casualty Insurance Agent, the Estate Planning Attorney, the Accountant and the Financial Advisor are always collaborating on a client’s financial plan. 

JB:  Yeah. Give us a few examples.

MM:  Well, like we said earlier, once a financial plan is created the Estate Planner is needed to create a Will. 

There are always tax ramifications that need to be discussed where you need an expert Accountant. 

Again, as we said earlier, if you have a lot of assets, you have to protect them from lawsuits.  It’s very common, so a Property & Casualty Insurance Agent would definitely be needed. 

JB:  Yep, that makes sense.  Alright, Mastermind Groups.  Talk about the questions asked at the Mastermind Groups. 

ESTATE PLANNING ATTORNEY ACCOUNTABILITY QUESTIONS

MM:  For the Estate Planning Attorney, the two referral targets that need to be discussed at each meeting for the Estate Planning Attorney  are:

1. How many clients have you discussed Estate Planning with this month?
2. When you were reviewing their Net Worth, how did the Referral Generator work when introducing the Financial Advisor?
3. How did the Referral Generator work when introducing the Real Estate Agent when discussing value when properties came up?

JB:  It’s so important to make sure that these actions are monitored.  If one of the professionals is not doing their job, it really can hurt everyone in the group. It’s like I said before, it’s a balance. 

Alright, I would think the one-on-ones are even more important for these professionals. 

MM:  Yes, absolutely.  The one-one-one small group meetings are even more important for the Financial Professionals because they have multiple products and strategies that need to be addressed in detail. 

Every member of the Core7 should have some idea of everyone’s products, but there is an increased importance for the Estate Planning Attorney, the Accountant, the Property & Casualty Insurance Agent and the Financial Advisor. This all creates great opportunity to refer and add value to the whole group.

JB:  Yeah.  They need to educate themselves a little bit more about what their partners are doing.