Does your elder law firm's marketing strategy include regularly speaking to professional groups such as financial planners, accountants or others who work with seniors? If the answer is no, perhaps it should. Recently, we spoke with three ElderLawAnswers member attorneys who regularly speak to professional groups as a way to promote their firms. All three agreed that these engagements are an effective way to generate referrals, build relationships with those working closely with seniors and develop name recognition in the elder care community.
The attorneys -- Diedre Braverman of Wachbrit Braverman PC in Westlake Village, CA, Daniel O. Tully of Kilbourne & Tully P.C. in Bristol, CT, and Joseph Karp of The Karp Law Firm, P.A. in Palm Beach Gardens, FL -- shared their insights into how elder law attorneys can locate promising engagements, the ways in which speaking to professional groups differs from speaking to lay groups, and how to make the presentations a success.
Getting Engagements
Braverman said she addresses professionals about twice a month, with the groups ranging in size from as few as seven to as many as a couple of hundred. When she first began to seek out speaking opportunities, Braverman contacted caregiver and dementia support groups and groups of professional fiduciaries, among others. She found that the groups were almost always receptive because they needed people with expertise to speak to their members.
Most of Braverman's speaking engagements now come about through word of mouth. She regularly speaks to specialty organizations such as autism or Alzheimer's groups, generalist organizations like Rotary clubs, and to groups of corporate fiduciaries. "These groups are target rich environments," she says, noting that she almost always gets at least one client from each appearance.
When Daniel Tully first began looking for professional speaking opportunities, he started with nursing home personnel as an obvious choice. Now, Tully says he speaks each year to groups consisting predominantly of fellow elder law attorneys, financial planners, accountants or health care providers. He said that the engagements are primarily booked through the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA), the Connecticut State Bar Association or through the network of contacts he has amassed in his two decades of practicing in the field. Tully has found that many nursing homes and assisted living facilities are actively looking for speakers. Elder law attorneys "just need to go out and find them."
Karp addresses professional groups about five to six times a year. He suggested that elder law attorneys speak "anywhere that [professionals] will listen," and that "most people don't know the stuff [elder law attorneys] take for granted [such as] the gifting laws or the lifetime exclusion."
Karp divides the groups he speaks to into three broad categories. The first includes professionals in the senior care business such as social workers, geriatric care managers, nursing home administrators, assisted living administrators, admissions staff and business people. When speaking to these groups, Karp is mainly there to answer their questions and those of their staff. They may understand that there are options for planning and gifting, but they may not understand the conflicts, for example, between VA benefits planning and Medicaid planning. Karp also discusses the problematic aspects of annuity sales pitches.
The second category Karp speaks to are attorneys in fields other than elder law, to whom he teaches seminars on elder law. When speaking to these non-elder law attorneys, Karp tailors his presentation to the audience's legal specialty. With personal injury lawyers, he concentrates on special needs trusts, while real estate attorneys will get a focus on homestead property rights. He also speaks to groups of criminal law attorneys and caregivers on recognizing and avoiding cases of elder exploitation.
Karp's third type of professional audience is a newer one -- small business and accounting groups of eight to 12 professionals who are generalists and not in the senior care industry. He urges them to consider "the importance of life planning versus death planning, including purchasing long-term care insurance to avoid Medicaid issues." Karp said he would like to speak to a doctors' group, but so far has been unsuccessful in securing an engagement.
How Consumer and Professional Audiences Differ
Braverman does not modify her presentation significantly between professional and lay audiences. She finds that for the most part the interests of the two are similar -- powers of attorney, health care directives, DNR's, basic estate planning and probate avoidance. The exception is corporate fiduciaries, who generally have a deeper knowledge of the issues. On the other hand, Braverman said that in her experience, it is "easier to connect [with a lay audience] because professional audiences are somewhat jaded by all of the presentations they have been to and can be more judgmental."
Noting that he was formerly Assistant Attorney General for the State of Connecticut, Tully said that he believes it is crucial "to establish your bona fides with professional organizations." But he cautioned elder law attorneys against assuming that professionals, even other attorneys, have the same understanding of Medicaid planning that they do. Tully often uses question-and-answer sessions to "lead [audiences] to the answers they are looking for."
Karp said that because professional groups have limited time to hear speakers, the presentation is not filler. They are coming because they want information that is relevant to their clients and often to their own families as well. These professionals are often the family advisors, the person to whom others in the family turn for advice. They frequently want information on HIPAA, powers of attorneys and basic estate documents. Because turnover is relatively high in the elder care industry, Karp finds the events are often an opportunity for professionals to reconnect with one another and promote their company's services.
In contrast, Karp said that with lay groups the presentation is more of a sales pitch. Karp stressed that an elder law attorney speaking to a professional group should never solicit. Nevertheless, he suggests attorneys bring pens and marketing materials to their presentation to give the participants an opportunity to sign up for a newsletter, if one is available, and also to allow adequate time at the end for schmoozing.
Tips for Success
It is important to maintain a balance between controlling the event and promoting discussion, Braverman advised. She recalled speaking to an estate planning council on the topic of "Choosing a Trustee." The topic turned out to be controversial for the group, which included corporate trustees as well as attorneys who believed that private fiduciaries are not appropriate in estate planning. The meeting could have gotten out of hand, with people talking over to each other or getting into arguments. Braverman facilitated the discussion with a heavy hand, refusing to allow any one individual to dominate and occasionally cutting speakers off to engage quieter members of the audience, and steering the group to a new topic when points became repetitive. Braverman said that she believes the compliments she received afterwards were because everyone was involved and engaged. She noted that at this particular speaking engagement, she did not do much of the speaking.
Karp believes a breakfast is an ideal site for professional audiences because many nursing home and assisted living facility employees find it difficult to leave in the middle of the day. At a breakfast meeting the participants are more willing to let the "fires" wait until they return. He noted that assisted living officials are often happy to host and provide breakfast as a way to show off their facilities.
Of course, not all events go smoothly. Karp related one nightmare story. He was scheduled to speak to a group of social workers at an assisted living facility, which was tasked with arranging the event. But on the appointed day, no one at the facility seemed to know that the event was taking place, no room had been reserved and the expected breakfast had not been ordered. Karp has not spoken there since.
Karp said that speaking to professional groups builds an attorney's confidence in public speaking while having the concurrent effect of improving the attorney's credibility with his or her peers. "When referred by a professional, I have instant credibility," he said. "Daughter's best friend is a social worker and he recommended you. It's not the neighbor." He said that it may sometimes appear that the presentations are a waste of time, and elder law attorneys will not always learn of the residuals, but this does not mean the events are worthless. He urges attorneys to consider the presentations as long-term investments in their communities and notes that he receives approximately 10 referrals a month from professionals he has never spoken to based on word of mouth.
Braverman said she has gotten clients directly from speaking engagements to both professional and lay audiences. Like Karp and Tully, Braverman said that speaking to the public enhances her credibility in the community and she notes that it gives a boost to her attorney profile on attorney ranking sites like Avvo.com.
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