Why My Office Has A Wait And Why That's Not A Bad Thing For You

The short answer to this question is, I am not sure. People sometimes tell me why they are willing to wait 10 to 12 weeks to meet with me and get started on their estate plans, but not everyone does so. I do have a few ideas based on what some people tell me. I am certainly thankful and grateful people are willing to wait the necessary time to work with me, and I certainly will not turn someone down who wants to work with me.. I am not trying to brag about my wait times, or say that somehow I am always worth the wait, but I do think that having a time period to wait to see me can be good for my clients.

I also think that I do a lot of things to let people know more about me and what I can do to help potential clients, and that helps people get to know me before they even call me. I write blogs that help answer questions people may have. I tell stories about my family in my newsletters. And I answer initial questions people have when they call me. I think all of these things help those who call to see a little bit more about who I am and what I can do for them. I feel a little bit like I do when meeting a new friend. When I meet someone new, and we talk, I start to get a sense of what they are like, but I want to know more about them. I think that is what happens when someone wants to work with me. I give people some of what they want and then we can set up a time to dive deeper into how we can help each other, and people are more willing to wait to meet with me since they want to know more about how I can help them and we know each other just enough to be willing to wait to know more.

People Referred to Me by Previous Clients Seem to Make Sense

I do think a lot of it comes down to how people hear about me. When someone calls me saying they were referred by a friend, and the friend highly recommended me, that helps. Those who were recommended by friends, or by clients of mine, tend to be the most enthusiastic clients, and tend to be those who are most prepared on what it is like to work with me. These folks know the time frame I work on and know that I will take care of them. They have been referred by clients who are happy with the work I have done and how I have treated them, and that makes them more likely to want to work with me and wait until I have an opening to work with them.

While it is not quite the same, those who read my online reviews also seem to get a sense of what it is like to work with me, and hopefully the online reviews correctly convey what I want to tell people – that I want to help them, even if it takes a while to get going. I ask for reviews and referrals from clients, so that I can help others know that I am most interested in helping people, and that the wait is worth it to get me to help them. I am not just trying to get your will or trust written, but rather I want to help you get your estate plan set up because I care about you and your family, and I think that comes across in referrals and reviews. If it does, then I have succeeded.

I want to help as many people as I can, including you, even if it takes a while to get started.

My goal is to serve as many people as possible in setting up their estate plans, and I think that comes across from referrals and online reviews. Or, at least I hope it does.

I am Certain Other Factors Also Exist

Not everyone who calls me came from a referral or read my online reviews. Some people call and just don’t know any other attorneys, or any other estate planning attorneys. These folks may not really want to do a lot of calling around to find another attorney, so they may just go ahead and set up an appointment with me. I am happy to work with this type of person. I really do hope that they will be the client who will refer their friends in the future because they had a positive experience working with me.

Some of these people will remark that they are happy to hear that I am so busy. I tell people that I am happy to help and want to help as soon as I can, but I can’t just push other people out of the way. Usually this results in some sort of laugh, and people understand that I am just trying to help as many people as I can as quickly as I can, but there is only one of me, and I cannot be helping more people than I am at any given time, even though I would like to be able to do so.

Many people tell me that they have already waited several years, or even several decades to get started on an estate plan. They seem to understand that an extra couple of months shouldn’t make a huge difference when it comes to getting their estate planning done. Some say “Well, I’ve waited this long, so we might as well get it done as soon as we can.” and then we move on to setting up an appointment. I am not trying to wear people down or have them resigned to their fate of waiting a bit, but as we often discuss, we hopefully aren’t facing a time crunch, as I want my clients to live long, happy, healthy lives, and not need to use their estate plan any time soon! I would prefer to write an estate plan that doesn’t get used for years, or decades even, but give assurances that if something does happen, my clients are prepared and ready.

The Wait Time Can Help You Prepare

I have also found that not everyone is ready to set up an estate plan the moment that I get a call. Instead, people need, or want, time to think about and consider what it is they want to do in their estate plan. They want to think about who they want to inherit assets and they want to think about who they will leave in charge of their estate plan. Some people will even want to reach out to the person who will distribute their assets (a personal representative in a will, or a trustee in a trust) or the person who will raise their children if they are gone (a guardian) and ask if that is a role the proposed person is willing to accept.

Being a personal representative, trustee, or guardian is an important thing to do, and can take a lot of work. You don’t want to choose someone who is not willing to take on such an important role and you don’t want to force someone who would not be good at a role to take it on. If someone needs to wait a couple of months to meet with me, then that person can take the time to discuss who will take on these important roles with the proposed person or people before we meet. That means a potential client will be even more prepared to meet with me before we sit down together. And that means we can spend more time talking about how I can help you, rather than you trying to come up with who will fulfill the necessary roles without warning when we do meet.

In addition to who will receive assets and fulfill the necessary roles in an estate plan, most people need time to compile a list of assets they own. Some people have everything organized, or have a financial planner that keeps track of their assets and the value of such assets, but not everyone has that on hand. For those who don’t just keep track of assets at all times, having a couple of months to gather information on assets and asset values is nice. The wait time means you don’t need to rush your preparation and means you don’t need to rush into getting ready for our estate planning meeting. Instead, you can take your time, and you can be ready to provide me with a better picture of your life, so we can find out what you need and include that in your estate plan.

I usually do this though my intake worksheet, which I can either send to people, or they can find on my website. Although it is not a perfect document, and probably never will be, the intake worksheet helps you to organize a description of your assets, think about what you want to do in your estate plan, and present that information to me when we do meet.

When I Have Correct and Complete Information, I Can Help You Better

Although it seems fairly obvious to me, the better I know what your situation is and the more I can know about what it is you want to do, the better outcome I can achieve for you in your estate plan. The more I understand what you want, the better I can help you. I think that the better I can understand how to help you, the better I can serve you and that’s really what I am looking to do, to help you. The couple of month time frame to meet with me can help me serve you better and help me get you what you want. And that is really what I want to do – help you get what you want.