Is Your Firm Leaving $792K on the Table Each Year?
EstateMin is delighted to partner with Ryan Kimler of Net Profit CFO. In legal practice, success depends on balancing the business of law with the practice of law. As we help firms scale, improve efficiency, and deliver a better client experience, we increasingly operate at that intersection. Ignoring the commercial realities of running a firm would be a disservice to the firms we work with, which is why this partnership with Ryan is so important.
By way of background, EstateMin is a trust and estate platform, developed from our CEO’s firsthand experience in practice, where inefficiencies, particularly around client intake in trust and estates were impossible to ignore.
EstateMin saves firms a minimum 5 hours per case by focusing on client intake and automating key administrative tasks. We streamline how information is gathered, organized, and progressed from the very beginning of a matter. Instead of relying on fragmented email chains and repeated follow-ups, clients are guided through a structured intake process that ensures all key details, assets, liabilities, beneficiaries, and supporting documents are captured accurately and quickly. By the time a file reaches the attorney, it is no longer a collection of loose inputs, but a case ready for action.
Behind the scenes, all information is centralized in one system, eliminating the need to search across inboxes, PDFs, and folders. As the case progresses, built-in workflows keep matters moving in a consistent and visible way. Clients are reminded and prompted regularly to input information, reducing delays and removing the need for constant manual follow-up.
Layered on top is intelligent automation that reduces routine admin heavy tasks and removes routine friction. Firms move to structured oversight of multiple cases. The result is a more predictable, scalable way of operating where firms can handle greater volume, maintain consistency across matters, and deliver a more modern, professional client experience without increasing hours spent working.
Running quietly in the background, EstateMin continues working long after the firm has logged off. While you sleep, it is guiding clients through intake, prompting them for missing information, organizing their responses, and preparing the file for review. By the time the workday begins, cases have already progressed, details captured, documents uploaded to Clio & 8am and next steps lined up. It’s a shift from work starting when the lawyer sits down, to work already being in motion before the day even begins.
Ryan —-As a CFO, I spend a lot of time analyzing numbers, efficiency, productivity, profitability, and cash flow.
Ryan —-As a CFO, as you can probably imagine, I spend a lot of time analyzing numbers, efficiency, productivity, profitability, and cash flow. The real key is, I have to use numbers to determine, what is working in your law firm and what isn’t. A lot of times, I look at systems and procedures and ask two questions:
1. Is it profitable?
2. Is it scalable?
From my experience, these two questions are critical. Why? Well, if it isn’t profitable, your business cannot sustain. It might take a long time, but eventually, the business will run out of funds and resources if the business is not producing a profit. Why scalable? There is an old saying, if you are not growing, you are dying. There is no sitting still. To some extent I do believe that is true, but aside from that, most law firm owners want to replace themselves for at least one of the hats they are wearing as the business owner. In order to do that, you need to scale and delegate.
Now, from this perspective, I want to really emphasize why a tool like EstateMin is so important for your law firm. I want to do this in a few sections: Client Experience, Employee Experience, and last but certainly not least Financial Impact. While I am going to tie all of these sections to a financial impact, the last section we are going to talk real case-study numbers.
Client Experience
Clio recently did a study on Law Firm Net Promoter Score (NPS). Net promoter score is a measurement of how many customers on average would recommend your service on a scale from negative 100 to 100. Negative 100 would mean that everyone would highly not recommend your services. They found the legal industry has an NPS of 25. That NPS score is similar to Airlines, Credit Card Companies and Cell Phone Companies. To put this in perspective, companies with great service and high referral rates are in the 60s or higher. Now, imagine if your firm could offer a much better customer experience using a tool like EstateMin. Everything is streamlined, your clients aren’t coordinating back and forth by email or over the phone, all the information that needs to be collected is done in the most efficient way possible. Your clients would describe this intake process as an “easy and simple” process. Think you could charge more for that? Charging more means more profitability. Not having to compete on price, you and your firm are the best in the market, you have the best experience. Think about what that does to your profitability.
Employee Experience
If you were an employee at your own law firm, would you want to be spending your time keeping track of all the data pieces that need to be collected to execute an estate plan? Or would you rather have a streamlined intake process where everything is collected all at once not requiring follow-up phone calls and emails constantly? I think for most of us, collecting and entering data is not our favorite task, and rather one that must be done. Most likely this might be a task that you and your employee’s dread.
Additionally, working in an environment without streamlined processes and procedures can be frustrating. Employees want guidance and clear direction on what steps they should be doing next. An inconsistent intake process could lead to inconsistent next steps and follow-up.
Neither one of these scenarios are strong for workplace culture or employee retention. What could a bad culture or poor employee retention be costing your firm? I have talked with many HR professionals that have stated hiring an employee on average costs around 100K. By the time you factor in time, ads, interviews, and onboarding/training.
Financial Impact
Last, but certainly not least, I want to talk about the financial impact of leveraging a tool like EstateMin to its full potential. This is my favorite part of this article. We get to put in real numbers and a case study scenario. And, I am going to leave a few blanks so you can put in your firm’s numbers and see your potential results!
Key data points for this case study are the firm is charging 4500 for single trusts and 6000 for married couples. Before EstateMin their average time per file including intake, legal work, and signing was 9.5 hours. The firm reduced their time spent per plan by 5 hours.
In one year one full time working attorney (assuming 1500 billable hours) can increase from 157 completed Trusts to 333. Even if the entire increase is Single Trusts, that is an increase of 792K in revenue. Most of that additional output is going to hit the bottom line! Our payroll cost didn’t change, the largest factors to account for would be marketing costs and the investment in EstateMin. Now use the form below to figure out what you could add to your firm!
Disclaimer :
The content provided in this article is for general informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal advice. EstateMin is a technology provider and does not offer legal services or representation. No attorney-client relationship is formed by accessing this content. While we strive to provide accurate and current information, we make no guarantees regarding completeness, accuracy, or applicability to any particular situation. Readers should consult a licensed attorney for legal advice specific to their circumstances.