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Senior Attorney Match PodcastAuthor: Jeremy E. Poock, Esq.
The Senior Attorney Match Podcast addresses all topics relating to lawyers considering how to sell their law practices, including how to value a law practice, determining the "right" successor, when to start a transition toward retirement, and much more. Language: en Genres: Business, Careers, Education, How To Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Q.2 from Ep. 29 of the Ask the Law Firm Seller Show: I Lead a Trusts & Estates Law Firm that Has Prepared 500+ Estate Plans. What Are My options?
Episode 123
Tuesday, 18 November, 2025
During Ep. 29 of the Ask the Law Firm Seller Show, Jeremy E. Poock, Esq. replies to the following Question 2: I lead a Trusts & Estates Law Firm that has prepared 500+ estate plans. What are my options? Initially, Poock explains that the owner of a Trusts & Estates firm needs to determine what the firm has in terms of: Its sources of revenues and amount of revenues per source (egs. Drafting, Probate/Trust Admin., Real Estate, etc.). The firm’s client list, including updated information about names, addresses, e-mail addresses, and cell phone numbers. Importantly, for T&E firms, updating client information should include updating contact information about fiduciaries named in the firm’s estate planning documents (egs. Personal Representatives and Trustees). Inventorying the number of estate plans under management, including ideally, determining how many clients have re-published their estate plans with another law firm, moved out of state, or may have already died. Regarding sale options, Poock shares the following 3 options: (a) Sell to or merge with a Growing Law Firm, and preferably, a Growing Law Firm that focuses on T&E or maintains a T&E department (Preferred) (b) Pursue an internal succession plan (Potential) (c) Maintain the Status Quo, i.e., establish no succession plan (Risky) Poock points out that Growing Law Firms offer the preferred option because they want and need the following resources that Senior Attorney-led T&E law firms offer: (1) New clients; (2) An experienced workforce, comprised of both lawyers and para-staff; and (3) Subject Matter Knowledge to convert to Digital Content to attract the attention of new clients who search online today (and tomorrow) for lawyers and law firms to retain. Poock also observes the following trend that jeopardizes a particular, future value of Senior Attorney-led T&E Law Firms: Digital Marketing Disruption in the legal industry means that, despite T&E law firms including a “blue back” page in their estate planning documents that lists the contact information for the law firms that prepared a given estate plan, surviving family members and fiduciaries have begun by-passing those “blue backs” in favor of asking Google or their AI thought partner to suggest the best T&E attorney near them to administer a Will or Trust. If the families of estate planning clients do not return to the original firm that drafted an estate plan to assist with Probate/Trust Administration, the future value of that firm will become jeopardized because of the expectation that surviving loved ones and fiduciaries will seek Probate/Trust administration services from the same firm that prepared a client’s estate plan. Poock concludes with offering the following suggestion to T&E law firms that have prepared 500+ estate plans and may (should) have growing concerns that families will not return to their law firms for Probate/Trust Administration of the plans that the firm has drafted: Maintain contact information for clients’ named beneficiaries and fiduciaries for the purposes of: (i) Establishing a relationship with the firm that prepared an estate plan; and (ii) Minimizing the risk that beneficiaries and fiduciaries by-pass the firm that prepared a client’s estate plan in favor of asking Uncle Google or an AI thought partner to recommend an alternative law firm for Probate/Trust Administration services.
