Are you a law firm owner putting off financial planning because you’re too busy or already have an advisor? You’re not alone. Many successful attorneys delay this critical step, and it’s costing them big time. In this post, we’ll dive into the top five reasons law firm owners hesitate to hire a financial planner and why these excuses are draining their potential for growth and wealth. We’ll also explain why an investment in professional financial planning today can pave the way for a more prosperous and stress-free future.
1. “I Already Have Advisors in Place”
Many law firm owners think they don’t need additional financial advice because they already have a CPA or a wealth advisor. However, this mindset overlooks the value of having a financial planner who coordinates and complements the work of your existing advisors.
Why It’s Costing You: Without a unified financial strategy, opportunities for streamlined tax planning, investment strategies, and long-term wealth accumulation can be missed. An integrated approach ensures all aspects of your financial life work harmoniously towards your goals.
2. “The Price is Too High”
Cost is often cited as a barrier, with many believing that financial planning services are out of their budget range. For example, if you’re paying a 1% fee on a million-dollar portfolio, that translates to $10,000 annually, which can seem steep initially.
Why It’s Costing You: Focusing solely on the cost without considering the value can be short-sighted. Professional financial planning can uncover hidden financial opportunities and strategies that significantly outweigh the initial investment. Moreover, our services can be tax-deductible as a business expense, providing more bang for your buck.
3. “I Don’t Have the Time”
A busy schedule is a common reason law firm owners postpone financial planning. However, thinking you don’t have the time for this crucial aspect can be detrimental to your long-term financial health.
Why It’s Costing You: Ignoring financial planning can lead to missed opportunities and increased anxiety. With advanced technology and a systematic approach, our processes require minimal time from you upfront, and we handle the heavy lifting, allowing you to focus on your practice.
4. “This Sounds Like a Lot of Work”
The perception that financial planning involves extensive work is another common misconception. While comprehensive financial planning does involve multiple facets, much of the work is handled by the financial planner.
Why It’s Costing You: Overestimating the effort required means you’re possibly avoiding a system designed to streamline your finances and free up both time and mental energy. The end result is a more organized, efficient, and profitable practice.
5. “I’ll Start in a Few Months When Things are Better”
Procrastination is a significant obstacle. Many law firm owners feel they’ll begin financial planning when they have more time or when their practice is more stable.
Why It’s Costing You: Waiting for the perfect moment is an illusion. Delays result in lost time that could have been spent building wealth and enhancing your practice. Starting now positions you ahead of the game when that “perfect” time eventually arrives.
Conclusion: The Cost of Delaying Financial Planning
Every day you delay engaging a financial planner, you lose potential growth, security, and peace of mind. Imagine having a dedicated team ensuring your financial house is in order, enabling you to focus on what matters most—growing your law practice.
Don’t let common excuses stand in the way of your financial success. Take the first step today by scheduling your introductory call with us. It’s time to unlock your firm’s full financial potential.
Resources:
- Book a Call with Darren
- Wurz Financial Services
- The Lawyer Millionaire: The Complete Guide for Attorneys on Maximizing Wealth, Minimizing Taxes, and Retiring with Confidence by Darren Wurz
- LinkedIn: Darren P. Wurz
Transcript:
Darren Wurz [00:00:00]:
Are you putting off financial planning because you’re too busy or already have an advisor? Let’s talk about why that could be costing you. Welcome to the lawyer millionaire, where we deliver financial planning and business insights for ambitious law firm owners so you can enjoy more time, more abundance and less stress. Even if you’re still growing your practice, and especially if you’re still growing your practice, ever feel like hiring a financial advisor is just too much work or too expensive? Maybe you already have someone handling some things for you, or you think you’ll start when things calm down. The truth is, these reasons could be holding you back from growing your firm’s wealth faster and smarter.
Intro [00:00:47]:
We are on a mission to help lawyers and law firm owners maximize wealth and achieve financial independence. Welcome to the lawyer millionaire with Darren Wurz from Wurz Financial Services.
Darren Wurz [00:01:02]:
Think about this. By the time many law firm owners realize they need financial planning, they’ve already lost years of growth and wealth and opportunity. Are you making the same mistake today, friend? We’re diving into the top excuses that law firm owners give for delaying financial planning, why law firm owners don’t hire me, and believe me, I’ve talked with many, and why those excuses could be costing you big time. Thank you so much for joining me today on this unique episode of the Lawyer Millionaire. You might think that you’re doing fine with your current setup, or maybe you’re just too busy to engage in financial planning. But the truth is, every year that you delay, you’re losing potential profit, potential freedom, potential security. Can you really afford to wait? I’ve seen this play out time and time again. Successful attorneys think they can wait until later or handle it themselves.
Darren Wurz [00:02:01]:
Or they’re waiting to grow their practice. Or they’re waiting for just the right time, only to find out too late that they’ve missed out on significant financial opportunities. You wouldn’t believe the number of times I’ve heard people, law firm owners, who are in their mid careers or late career, and they tell me, why has no one ever told me this before? Don’t let that be your story. So what are the reasons that people don’t hire me? I’ll give you a few of them here. Five of them, actually. The first one that I hear often is I already have advisors in place. Well, you know, that’s actually really, really great. We are not here to replace any of your current advisors.
Darren Wurz [00:02:48]:
We’re a value add. We compliment your existing advisors. Instead of replacing them. We will help coordinate efforts and oversee their work to make sure everything is aligned with your goals, you may already have a wealth advisor, may already have a CPA. Great, keep them. They’re there. We want them to continue doing great work. We want to be your eyes and ears to oversee the broader picture for you.
Darren Wurz [00:03:09]:
This way you get enhanced coordination across all areas, leading to better outcomes without disrupting your established relationships. This really goes back to the way we charge for our services. It’s a flat monthly fee for our services and we can custom design a planning schedule for you. I mean, maybe you have certain areas that are covered already. Great, let’s focus on those areas where you really want to hone in on. And by the way, maybe you already have a great team in place, but where on that team could you maybe use some improvement? You know, another thing way to think about this is, you know, us coming in. I was talking with a very large personal injury practice owner of that practice. I was talking with him and, you know, this is what he told me.
Darren Wurz [00:03:58]:
He already has people working in his firm who are doing these things for him. And I told him we’re not going to be the yes people. We’re coming in with an outsider’s perspective, with an objective viewpoint. We’re going to be the ones to give you the straight up truth. In a more objective, perhaps way we add value to your existing team. We’re not necessarily there to replace anybody. In fact, we find it’s great when our clients have other advisors in place, financial advisors, cpAs, business coaches, et cetera. That just makes our work that much better and that much easier because we can skip some of the basics and move to more of the advanced stuff, you know.
Darren Wurz [00:04:44]:
So it really is wonderful to have that team in place already. That’s number one. Objection. Number two, reason number two, law firm owners don’t hire me. The price is too high. It’s the classic, right? The classic price. Price is too high. Just to give you some context, currently our foundation membership is 797 a month.
Darren Wurz [00:05:13]:
So that comes out to what, $8,000 or 9000 a year? Somewhere around there. You know, we’ve priced our services really in line with the industry. But what really sets us apart is the value that we provide. Traditional financial planners will charge an average of, let’s say 10,000 a year. How do we arrive at that number? Well, let’s say you have a million dollar portfolio and the industry standard is a 1% fee. You’re paying a 1% fee on a million dollar portfolio, you’re paying $10,000 a year. I’ve actually even seen fees as high as one and a half percent on a million dollar portfolio. You’re paying $15,000 a year, and most of the time, all you’re getting with that is you’re getting put into their corporate investment model.
Darren Wurz [00:06:01]:
There’s very little customization. You’re getting a couple meetings with your advisor to review things. You’re getting a little bit of financial planning, but really you’re just getting plugged into a financial planning software with us. You’re getting proactive year round planning because we create a customized monthly planning schedule for you where we’re delivering consistent, tangible value every single month of the year. And by the way, our fee is less than $10,000 a year for just investments. Right. Another great aspect of the way that we work is because we’re providing business planning. You can make a legitimate argument for RFS to be tax deductible as a business expense, and that could potentially lower that out of pocket expense even more.
Darren Wurz [00:06:51]:
So there’s a potential incentive there. I just feel like the way we’ve built our model, we provide so much more value at actually a lower price point than you would find is common in the industry. Objection number three. Reason number three that law firm owners don’t hire me. Why do law firm owners not hire me? Well, here’s the third reason we find sometimes is a really big one. And really probably this is the most common objection. I don’t have the time. That’s it right there.
Darren Wurz [00:07:26]:
I don’t have the time. Let’s talk about time. Did you know a study in 2023 found that 71% of attorneys suffer from anxiety? 71%. There’s a one in four chance that you listening to this show right now that you are suffering from anxiety because you don’t have any time. Do you suffer from that? Do you feel that way? I often feel that way in my own business. I think it’s very common, not just among law firm owners, but among business owners in general. Well, here’s the beautiful thing about the way people see all the work that we do and they get overwhelmed. They’re like, I don’t know if I have time for this.
Darren Wurz [00:08:09]:
Well, guess what? That’s the work that we do. There’s actually very little that you have to do. We live on the cutting edge of technology with our systems, and we use technology to automate the data collection process. The hardest part is simply connecting your accounts and things to our various programs, like our cash flow and budgeting program and our financial planning programs. Once things are connected, we take it from there. In fact, we use a program called tax status, which gives us a direct link to your tax transcripts from the IR’s. You give your authorization and it’s good for three years. So our processes do not take up very much of your time.
Darren Wurz [00:08:54]:
There’s a little bit of time investment up front, but actually, by engaging with us, you’re going to be multiplying your time because you’re going to be allowing us to be your eyes and ears over your entire financial picture. We do the heavy lifting on your finances so that you can focus on your practice and improve your mental well being. I mean, how often are we just avoiding looking at our money? Because we are scared of looking at it and we know you wouldn’t have the time to look at it, so we’re just going to ignore it. Well, that just leads to a mess. Right. And let’s actually boil it down. Right. Let’s break it down.
Darren Wurz [00:09:34]:
How much time do you think you’d actually spend working with us? You know, let’s say we’re meeting once a month. In the beginning, we’re going to meet once a month for, you know, about six months to really get a plan in place. That’s 1 hour, 1 hour once a month. You can do that. That’s 15 minutes a week. 15 minutes a week to get your financial plan in order. I mean, that’s not a lot of time. A lot less time than you imagine.
Darren Wurz [00:10:02]:
But here’s the beautiful thing, right? We are focused on helping you free up more of your time. We’re going to be helping you with business planning, helping you be more efficient, more streamlined, so that you can get to that place of time, freedom and financial freedom. That’s what we’re all about helping you do. So that’s reason number three. Reason number four, law firm owners don’t hire me. This sounds like a lot of work. It kind of goes back to the previous one, right? Sounds like a lot of work. And it is.
Darren Wurz [00:10:40]:
Right? When you see the level of value that we provide, the level of work that we do, it is a lot of work. It’s comprehensive. There’s a ton of work we do. We’re going to help you set up a cash flow system and a budget and look at your historical cash flow trends. We’re going to review your tax return and prepare a tax analysis and a tax strategy and project out next year’s taxes. We’re going to evaluate and analyze your investment portfolio and assess your risk tolerance and build a customized investment plan for you. And that’s only what we’re going to do in the first few months of working together. Right.
Darren Wurz [00:11:18]:
The beauty of our system is that you don’t have to do much. You’re not doing much at all. You’re. You are, you know, receiving consultation from us in our meetings. We’re doing some coaching and some planning, some strategizing with you, but we’re going to help you implement. We’re doing all the work behind the scenes. Like I said, we’re your eyes and ears around your finances so that you can focus on running your firm. By having us handle the details, you’ll free up your time, your mental energy.
Darren Wurz [00:11:48]:
That’s really bigger, right? Time is one thing, but mental energy. Because when your mental energy isn’t there, you can have an eight hour workday and be so unproductive and just waste it. Ask any productivity, expertise. That’s the reality. It’s really the mental focus and energy. When you know that your finances are handled, your house is in order, you will have focus. So it’s really not. It’s not a lot of work.
Darren Wurz [00:12:23]:
Objection. Number five. I think this one might be my favorite. I want to start this in a few months when things are better. I want to wait until things improve in the law practice. Here’s the thing. You will never have the perfect time to start. You won’t.
Darren Wurz [00:12:47]:
And, you know, it’s kind of like having two kids. You can’t just focus on one and ignore the other. Your business and your finances, they go hand in hand. And as a business owner, your business and your finances are just so integrally related, interrelated. You can’t just focus on one and ignore the other. You just can’t. Or the other is going to be a mess. They both require your attention, so putting it off is not helping you.
Darren Wurz [00:13:18]:
Plus, there will never be the perfect moment. Most people wait for the perfect moment and then the perfect moment doesn’t arrive until they’re 65. Waiting for the perfect moment is a trap. It never comes. You will never find a place where you’ll be less busy. You will always be busy. Sorry. Sorry to burst your bubble.
Darren Wurz [00:13:38]:
You’ll always be busy. There will never be that perfect moment. We’re always just waiting out a few months. Things will settle down, things will be better. They won’t. It just won’t happen. And starting now means that by the time we get to that place where you think things will be better, we’ll already have made significant progress. So it’s so much better to get started now.
Darren Wurz [00:14:02]:
And by the way, it’s not that much work, and it’s not much time investment from you. You’re actually just letting us get started now because we’re going to do a whole lot of work for you. And here’s an observation that I see all the time. I see folks who are struggling to save money. And by the way, it’s not all about saving money. We’re not going to come in and say, oh, you got to cut back on your expenses and save a whole bunch of money. Not necessarily. We might say the opposite.
Darren Wurz [00:14:32]:
We might say you need to take on debt to invest in your law practice. And we can do that from an objective fiduciary standpoint because of our fee structure, which is a flat monthly fee. Right? So I don’t have this, this bias to get you into invest money with me because it is better for my bottom line. I’m going to make the same amount of money no matter what. You’re going to pay me a flat monthly fee to give you straight advice. Okay. But let me ask, let me tell you this. So many people struggle to save money.
Darren Wurz [00:15:03]:
I see people who struggle to save money, who make $100,000 a year. I see people who struggle to make save money, who make a million dollars a year. And the truth of the matter is, this is a psychological thing. It’s a Behavioral Thing. It is not a function of how much money you make. Because I see people who make $50,000 a year who manage to save quite a bit, and people who make $500,000 a year who manage to save nothing. If you’re not saving money at $200,000 a year in income, you will not magically start saving money at $300,000 a year in Income. You just won’t do it.
Darren Wurz [00:15:39]:
Ask me how I know, because I’ve been there and done it. I’ve been there and I’ve been ThAT person. I’ve done it in my own business. Well, when the business is making $500,000 a year, that’s when I can really start saving for my goals. It’s a trap. By getting started today, you’ll be ahead of the game instantly. You can’t do anything about the past. What you can do is what you have with the moment now.
Darren Wurz [00:16:07]:
The only time you have is the now. You don’t have the future. It’s not here yet. You don’t have the past. It’s gone. You can’t do anything about it. You can’t do anything about the fact that you didn’t start getting started on your financial planning. The best thing you can do is start now.
Darren Wurz [00:16:21]:
There’s a great slogan or phrase about this. I can’t think of it. The best time to invest. The best time to invest was yesterday. The second time. The second best time to invest is today. That’s it. That’s the one.
Darren Wurz [00:16:40]:
Think about that. The best time to invest was yesterday. You missed it, by the way. The second best time to invest is now. You can do the now, right? So there you have it, folks. It will not be better in a few months. Just wait. I’m just going to wait.
Darren Wurz [00:16:59]:
I’ve seen people wait for years, years and years and years of waiting and they never get off the pot. Right? It’s not a lot of work. It’s not a huge time commitment. The price is actually low and the value is extraordinary. And we don’t replace anybody on your team. So hey, what’s the excuse? There’s no reason not to work with us. If you are growing your practice, let’s talk. If you’re one of our favorite people who we love to work with, you’re on the fast track.
Darren Wurz [00:17:34]:
You’re busy, you’re entrepreneurial, your financials can’t be ignored. Like I said, it’s like raising two kids. The earlier you start, the more time you have to focus and build wealth effectively. And it doesn’t take as much time as you think. In reality, you only need to dedicate a small amount of time upfront. After that, we take care of everything while you focus on what matters most, your practice. So what’s holding you back? If you’re delaying financial planning because you already have an advisor, you think it’s too much work, it’s time to reconsider. Remember, putting this off doesn’t save you time.
Darren Wurz [00:18:13]:
It’s actually costing you growth and peace of mind. Take the first step today. Stop delaying and schedule your introductory call. The link is down in the show notes. You can do it right now on your phone or your computer. Wherever you are. Just go down there and click the link. Let’s set up a call.
Darren Wurz [00:18:32]:
Let’s talk about how we can get you on the fast track to wealth and success in the future. How we can grow your practice. Starting today, this has been the Lawyer Millionaire podcast. I’m your host, Darren Wurz. Thank you so much for joining me today on this journey to expand your business, maximize your profits and secure your financial future. I can’t wait to connect with you again next time. Until then, take care and keep pushing forward.