We’ll spare you the New Year’s resolutions. Instead, let’s look at changes that we believe will be important for the success of your estate planning and elder law firm in 2017.
Cybersecurity. This week’s New York Times reported on a huge data breach of a number of top law firms whose emails were allegedly hacked by overseas citizens searching for insider trading tips. Law firms and accounting firms are generally considered easy targets by hackers. If the Pentagon can be hacked, your firm can too. Take steps to secure your data.
Changes to tax laws. It is reasonable to expect that there will be changes to the tax structure in 2017. Will you be out ahead of the curve, or playing catch-up? If you don’t already have news sources in place, this is the year to get yourself set up with the right sources. We had a client who used to get federal updates every Monday at 2:00 AM. He simply stayed up on Sunday nights. Not every week brought big news, but when it did, he was the first to turn it around to media contacts.
Video, video, video. Lawyer videos are growing in use because they work on many different levels, including increasing prospect comfort levels and boosting search engine rankings. If you’re not able to come to our production studios, that’s no problem: we can travel to your office.
Mobile websites. Call it responsive design or call it mobile friendly, if your website is not up-to-date with this design requirement, don’t expect anyone to find you on the web. Love or hate it, your website visitor’s mobile experience must be a great one, or you’ll lose them to your competitors.
Online payment. Millennials who are heading up households and coming to your office haven’t written a check in years, since they pay all of their bills online. This may be a big transition for many firms, but more and more of your clients will want this option.