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State-of-the-art asset protection software can alert you to potential problems. Case in point: During the interview, LWP software will display “light bulb” icons offering built-in practice tips and pointers that provide background and help you make informed choices. For example, there is a light bulb that displays information about required minimum distributions, which can help you select the best option for how to treat income from retirement accounts. These practice tips can include the language that would appear in your documents based on the selection you choose, references to case law or other legal authority, and sometimes just a simple explanation of the legal concept to help you make the proper selection for a particular client’s needs.

Light bulbs are just one of the safety nets you’ll find in LWP’s cloud-based software. A big, bold warning appears if one of your selections could impact your client’s Medicaid eligibility. It reminds you to use your best judgment to determine whether the warning applies in your jurisdiction and in your client’s particular situation.

The process of creating a customized estate plan begins with the client interview. State-of-the-art software uses a single-entry system; as you work through the interview, you only have to enter information once. That information is later reused in the interview and replicated in the assembled documents.

Another benefit of a single-entry system is that it allows you to easily update necessary information. For example, if you need to change Bob Sample’s name to Robert P. Sample (or make a change considerably more complex), you only have to correct it once. The change will automatically be adopted throughout the interview, and ultimately, across every document included in this particular estate plan.

Additionally, the data collection tools within the software and workflows are designed to make it easier for you to gather the information you need to draft your clients’ documents. For example, when your legal assistant or client services coordinator enters a client’s information into a matter within the workflow, the information will populate and pre-fill some of the choices within the software interview.

Next time: Discover the power of Dynamic Interviews

LWP cloud-based workflows and the Color-Coded Planning System can help you manage time efficiently, monitor cash flow, hold your team accountable, and ultimately, realize your firm’s full profit potential. The more you work with the focusers and your calendar, the better you will get at reading them and pinpointing the areas that must be improved to achieve your goals. As always, if you have questions about these tools, or any of LWP’s systems and processes, we invite you to reach out to us.

Always cheering you on,

Your LWP Team

Green time is the time you spend on serving your clients to provide the value for which they hired you. This requires working with your team, utilizing systems and processes to create consistent quality, and ultimately, reducing the amount of time YOU work every week, every month, every year.

Green time encompasses all of the following:

• Working on client tasks, both products and services (light green)
• Meetings with clients that deliver work/product (dark green)
• Time with coworkers on work/product (light green)
• Review of work/product (light green)

Ideally, 40 percent of your week should be devoted to green time.

This focuser measures how many money meetings the firm has on the books for a given month. It encompasses all the meetings where there is a check being collected for work completed. (Remember, the LWP process trains firms to collect 50 percent of the fee at the Design Meeting and the other 50 percent at the Signing Meeting.)

The Cash Flow Focuser tells you at a glance whether you are on track to meet your monthly revenue goal, and if not, how many more money meetings are necessary to achieve your goal. It also helps you balance your calendar.

Utilizing your LWP cloud-based workflows will help you keep your business on track and hold your team accountable. The more you work with these focusers, the better you will get at reading them and pinpointing the areas that need to be improved to achieve your goals.

Now let’s look at LWP’s Color-Coded Planning System and how using it in conjunction with your reports will help you make the most efficient use of your time.

This focuser reveals an attorney’s hire rate. That is, it measures how many Vision Meetings or Initial Meetings an attorney had during a given week, how many of those meetings resulted in an engagement agreement being signed, and the dollar value of each engagement. It will also measure how many Vision Meetings and Initial Meetings resulted in a follow up call.

In essence, the Pipeline Results Focuser is a synopsis of what is happening in the conference room between an attorney and the prospective client. If the numbers are low, you need to figure out why. For example, let’s say several clients have mentioned during meetings that the firm on the other side of town offers a lower price for a foundational estate plan. If that’s the case, you’ll know your pricing structure needs adjustment.

Or perhaps prospects seem disengaged during meetings, or claim to be in a hurry and rush out without signing an engagement agreement. Then, when you follow up, they fail to respond. If scenarios like this happen frequently, you may need to examine your mindset before the meeting, or your approach during it.

Low numbers in the Pipeline Results Focuser let you, together with your coach and your implementation specialist, know there’s a problem and we must roll up our sleeves and solve it together. This is what makes the Pipeline Reports Focuser so valuable.

This focuser tells you at a glance the number of opportunities you will have to get hired in a particular week. How? By measuring all of the meetings on your weekly calendar that offer the possibility of a prospect signing and an engagement agreement.

If the numbers in the Pipeline Focuser are high, congratulations, you have a good chance of generating new revenue. If the numbers are low, marketing and client services need to do a better job of filling your week with meetings and, consequently, opportunities to convert more prospects to clients.