Do you ever consider the benefits of leverage when you are looking for ways to increase fees?
Consider this example:
A client, Joe Smith, approaches you to advise on IHT planning – he is wealthy – personal assets exceed £5m.
After researching his family’s options you create a strategy that will eliminate the bulk of his IHT liability on his death using an appropriate mix of trusts and redrafting his Will. In the course of your deliberations you partner up with a trust lawyer who handled all the legal arrangements.
Mr Smith was very happy to accept your advice and pay your significant fee. With his cheque safely banked you close the file and return to the depressing pile of compliance work that has piled up on your desk. Sound familiar?
What a waste!
At the very least you should transfer the learning to your senior staff so they have a reference case if they come across clients or prospects in a similar situation, and you should consider one further course of action: cast your eye down a list of your wealthier clients to see if there are any you could approach to offer the same advice.
In other words, leverage the skills you have acquired to generate even more income for your practice.
Don’t let inertia and the demands of a busy practice close your eyes to the benefits of this strategy: gather winning skills; package them into discrete services (in our example “IHT planning”); share winning strategies with partners and staff; offer your new service to existing clients or prospects.
Or, close your file, have an extra pint on the way home for a job well done, and move on…
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