Marketing your service products to Clients
You will have your own methods of marketing your products and services. As a general rule we like to suggest to firms:
If you have a service product, then you ought to have:
- A Best Practice written for it;
- A Webpage about it (based on the best practice);
- A leaflet about it to hand to clients (based on the best practice);
- A cost schedule or costs information about it (based on the best practice);
- A video explanation of the leaflet highlighting elements of the service you provide regarding the service product
- A written/working case study – for training of staff
- A tailored Fact Find relating to the service product (all questions to be asked of a client).
- If possible, a testimonial from a happy client who has undertaken the service product with you.
Trust Work as a Cornerstone of Private Client legal services
One aspect of Private Client legal services to review with you is the extent to which ‘Trusts’ are an important part of your services. We have seen the benefits of firms focusing on trust work within the scope of Wills and Estate Planning. The benefits include:
- With Estate Planning: using trusts within a Will structure can lead :
- A better structure for a Will for almost any given scenario;
- Increased fee income (when compared to a basic Will structure); often 100% uplift or more; and
- Reduced risk (the flexibility of the Trust structure can often ‘heal’ errors in drafting)
- With Probate/Estate Administration: with executors often able to deal with IHT and probate applications themselves without the help of professional firms, there is less client demand generally for probate advice and assistance. However, for Will-trusts, the perceived added layer of complexity means that nearly always the executors will seek advice from the firm who drew up the Will-trust (particularly if it is still stored with the firm). That will lead to the inevitable opportunity to show value to executors of expert professional help and assistance with the estate administration.
- With ongoing Trust Work; trust administration (or trust ‘management’) is now part of the fabric of ongoing trust arrangements. Even ‘dormant’ trusts like life interests or loaned assets need a structure of proper management. Trust Registration Scheme registration (TRS) has become a requirement for all active trusts. So there is a need for expertise and advice as to proper management and compliance for trustees. If you have therefore prepared a Will-trust, it is possible you will see the financial benefit of not only dealing with administration of the estate (number 2 above) but also the ongoing relationship and trust management.
Therefore, if this is the case, a greater understanding of the use of Will-trusts is an obvious requirement for all those advising clients at your firm.
Therefore the process we like to adopt is twofold:
- Education: as to uses of flexible will-trusts; and as to proper management of them once ‘active’;
And
- How to ‘sell’ or explain with passion to clients the benefits of the use of such a structure such that they instruct for them to be prepared as part of Estate Planning and at the subsequent stages outlined in numbers 2 and 3 above.