About Us
My name is Ronald Morton and I have practiced law for nearly 30 years. Around 25 years ago I shifted what was a general law practice to one exclusively in the areas of Estate Planning and Elder Law. I developed legal technical expertise, eventually even earning a Master of Laws in Taxation and recognition as a Certified Elder Law Attorney. I was doing good work and accomplishing great things for my clients, but growing my practice and obtaining new clients was a struggle at first. While I was effective at acquiring clients through direct response marketing through seminar and client education offerings, those clients were expensive to obtain which stressed profit margins at the firm and limited growth. While I tried to develop relationships with referral sources, I was never very effective at it. Then I decided to try providing education to ancillary professionals - CPA's, CFP's, Insurance Advisors, Enrolled Agents, and other financial professionals. That decision transformed my practice. Through that education I was able to meet hundreds of advisors in my local area, and throughout the state. At breaks I was able to get a feel for which advisors were just there to get some hours, and which ones really understood the value of the information and how it could help their clients. I was able to vet hundreds of advisors, at scale, and pursue further relationship development with those that were likely to become good referral sources.
That decision resulted in annual education events, and a group of alumni around the state that understand the work I do for my clients, and the results I can obtain for their clients. Many attend every year. And, most significantly for my practice, many refer their clients to my firm. Referrals that I receive from those advisors provides well over one hundred thousand dollars in revenue to my firm every year. They are on my mailing list to receive updates on the law. On more than one occasion I have been in an attending advisor's office and seen my seminar binder on their bookshelf. Whenever that happens I just grin, because I know that binder is a constant reminder of the work that I do and how I can be of service to their clients. When they see an estate planning problem with their clients, they know exactly where my contact information is - right on their bookshelf. The time spent delivering professional education has, and continues, to pay dividends, and provide my firm a steady stream of clients, at very low acquisition cost.
From conversations that I periodically have with other lawyers when I speak or attend bar meetings and do committee work, attend CLE's, or just in the interaction I have with attorneys through the course of client representation, it has become all too apparent to me that far too many lawyers are not experiencing the marketing success, and they do not enjoy their practices. I genuinely enjoy the work that I do, the interaction I have with my clients, and the satisfaction that comes from helping families. I am reminded that my practice was not nearly as enjoyable 10 years ago when I was running my marketing they way that they are.
I’m not the only one that notices either. It is not uncommon for other lawyers to say something along the lines of, “I need to do that." or “Can you show me how to do that.” The unstated question in my mind was always "What's stopping you?" But it is easy for me to forget that doing the work to develop education materials was not easy, and was not fast. I did it at a stagt in my practice where I had available time, and while the materials and content change every year, it always builds incrementally on the work that I started nearly 15 years ago. So, at the request of so many of my peers, I decided to make make my education materials available to firms wanting to also provide professional continuing education in their markets.
I now offer these slides, marketing materials, training, and coaching to lawyers seeing to implement education-based marketing into their practices. But, my main job remains practicing law. Unlike other marketing solutions, I am a real lawyer that applies these solutions in my own practice and have done so for nearly two decades. My practice becomes your laboratory, testing out different digital solutions and recommending those whose results justify the effort. I actually do this stuff. If you are interested in providing education to professionals in your market, I strongly encourage you to do so. If you have the time to invest, the best approach is always to develop your own materials. You will be much more comfortable presenting your own material. But, if your practice is at a stage that you just don't have the time to invest, I'm happy to provide a turn-key solution - Advisor's Bootcamp. Either way, if you are an estate planner and have not added advisor education to your marketing toolkit, I encourage you to do so now. Either way, I am always happy to help.
