Thanks to Kyle Lacy- my blogging mentor.

Posted on | January 23, 2009 | No Comments

Do you understand your lawyer?  How about your CPA?  Your insurance agent?  Do you realy understand the contract your lawyer wrote?  Do you know whether you bought the right insurance?  Are you sure your CPA is maximizing your tax savings and minimizing your audit risks?

For example, what is “recapture?”  Did your CPA explain it?  What is “force majeure?”  Did your lawyer explain it?  Are you covered for all likely insurable risks you might face?

Probably not.

That has been my observation as an attorney for (almost) two decades.  For 18 years as a lawyer and business coach, I’ve been amazed by how poorly other attorneys, CPA’s and professional advisors communicate.  These advisors do a horrible job teaching their clients.  Their communication skills are dreadful.  You’d think that a trial attorney, for example, would be a good communicator, but most aren’t.  A trial attorney’s job is to communicate to a judge or jury.  Yet, these same trial attorneys fail to talk to their clients in a way that enables the client to understand what the options and consequences of case strategies and tactics might be.  THE CLIENT SHOULD ALWAYS BE GIVEN A CHOICE!  It may be that these advisors are so confident in their skills and client-matter strategies that they see no value in engaging the client in what I call “teaching.”  That’s what I do-  teach.  I try to “teach” my clients so that they can make good decisions for themselves.

TEACHING-  It means, as an advisor, I do these things for my clients:

• Ask questions to get all the facts.
• Explain what facts are relevant.
• List and describe all the client’s options.
• List and describe the costs and benefits of those options.
• Help the client weigh the costs and benefits.
• Guide the client to the best possible decision.

So, ask yourself this- “Does my professional advior “teach” me so I can make good choices?  Or, is some other process going on-  one more convenient to my advisor and not so great for me- the client?

I took a class from Kyle Lacy (Just Google his name to see how big Kyle is in his field.) about blogging.  In the class, Kyle asked us (students) to consider whether we have anything of value to say.  And he warned that we better be passionate about the subject before we start blogging about it.  Having spent the past week reserching how to blog, I completely understand Kyle’s challenge.  There’s no point in blogging just to blog.  Today, there are 70 Million blogs.  My guess is that most of that is just meaningless noise.  I hope a large number of people “hear” my blog.  That will be a reflection on the value of my blog and the passion I bringto it.

The “mission” I’ve adopted in this blog has been a passion of mine for years.  My mission is to teach business people about business and the law, and, most importantly, how to get more out of their relationship with their professional advisors. 

I hope to field your questions to me about business and the law.  But, let me start this blog with a question to you-  Do you feel good about the communication between you and your professional advisor?  Are you completely confident in what your advisors are advising?  Let’s start my blog with your thoughts, experiences and questions.

Here’s your chance to talk to a lawyer for free.  Just ASK MATT.

Thanks.  And Happy Blogging.

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