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What is in hand for 17.5 lpa?
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Do you ever regret leaving agency life?
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I don’t want to work tomorrow 🙄😤
Bowl Leader
Pro
What is in hand for 17.5 lpa?
Coach
Prior to law school, I was a paralegal for a solo estate planning attorney. He became a mentor to me and we got to talk a lot about what he liked about it. I work in C&S and finance, but I can share what he’s told me.
I think it depends on what type of from you are at. He eventually started his own firm. He really didn’t like litigating at all, so he wanted to focus only on the transactional part of estate planning — drafting wills, trusts, disability planning docs, pre and post nuptial agreements, etc.
What he loved about it was the flexibility it gave him. Eventually, his data base of clients got large and diverse enough that when he got a new client he’d just ask me: “pull a file for a married couple with x amount of children, where we did y or z thing in their plan.” Then I’d go in and change some things — draft deeds, change names, sig blocks, and all that usual stuff you have a paralegal or first year do. Then he’d go in and draft the custom language that needed to be done. He was able to do this whenever he wanted, which for him often meant late at night.
He absolutely loved that. During the day, you could catch him at the gym at 1:00pm or so. He would come into the office twice a week - Monday and Friday, just to execute documents and take intake new client meetings. The rest of the time he worked at home and when he felt like it (I could see when he last edited documents, so I can tell you it was most often the night before they were due lol). If probate issues came up, he refers them to a different firm where he is of-counsel.
Schedule “flexibility” goes both ways, though. I am a solo who handles estate planning and elder law and most of my meetings with clients are sometime between 5 pm and 7 pm or on the weekend because that’s when they (or their POA assisting them with elder law issues) are most available.
I embraced that and I do enjoy that “flexibility” because it gives me time to do normal work during the day - or to take a break since work will be done in the evening.
Once you start adding staff it gets harder to have that type of flexibility because once you open your evening up for a staff member to schedule evening appointments it’s no longer something you are choosing to schedule on an evening that you like for the week. Instead it’s “ugh, I have an evening appointment today.” I’m not saying you have to work in the evening or on the weekend, but it helps to talk to clients when they aren’t starving because they are forgoing lunch to squeeze a meeting with you in.
Estate planning can be cut and paste or highly specialized for each client. If you are considering a cut and paste factory which operates with an emphasis on high speed work, please don’t select this area.
Careful listening, investigating, consideration, collaboration, and creativity should be used. I often review wills, trusts, and advanced directives signed years or decades earlier by clients who are now incapacitated to see if the documents provide the powers and planning needed in their later years.
So many of those documents end up having critical identifying name issues, conflicting provisions, or provisions that fail to achieve what it appears were the obvious intended effects. That means guardianship, typically, because there are no “do overs” once you are incompetent.
If you are ready to dig in and work with the notion that it is an ever changing practice area where you are always studying the newest changes, trends across the country, and proposed legislation so you stay on top of it, then come on in.
If you are going to handle estate planning then please take some CLEs to become comfortable with the tax driven planning language because your low asset client today may grow wealth over time and not update their planning documents later.
Also, have some idea of the gifting (and tax!) issues that can come up if someone transfers their home outright (or transfers and retains a life estate) to their kids to draw down their assets in anticipation of qualifying for long-term care Medicaid in the future.
That’s often not the best strategy for many reasons too long to post here.
PROS: EP has great work life balance. The deadlines are usually very flexible (unless they are tax-related or the client is in poor health / wants to sign before a big vacation just in case). You have the opportunity to truly get to know your clients since you have to discuss family dynamic, net worth, etc. - building this relationship is the most rewarding part of the practice in my opinion. Unlike a deal that may be one and done, EP is more of a long-term client relationship that can even continue to the next generation.
CONS: Billables can be harder to rack up because you typically aren’t just grinding on a big deal or litigation matter all day. If you work with ultra high net worth clients, they can be incredibly demanding. Some clients will treat you like their therapist since you have to discuss family issues. The work is incredibly detail oriented (assuming you are not doing copy/paste type planning) which can be exhausting. As already mentioned, you have to keep up to date on state law and federal tax law, which tend to be in flux pretty often.
I went into T&E because I enjoy getting to know clients and am fascinated/interested by how they earned (or inherited) their wealth and what they ultimately decide to do with it.
I enjoy the tax planning aspect- digging into the code, staying up to date with proposed legislation, discovering and implementing new wealth transfer strategies… it’s a fascinating area of law. Basic estate planning can be a bit more cut and dry, but if you can join a firm with UNHW clientele, you’ll have lots of opportunities for complex work. From a more social/emotional standpoint, I find it very rewarding to work with families, especially when the relationship continues with Generation 2 and Generation 3.