The Art of Estate Planning: A Conversation with Yana Feldman

Viktoria Altman (00:00)
Hi, Yana. Welcome to Law Firm Accelerator. I’m so happy to see you here. Thank you for joining me.

Yana Feldman (00:06)
Thank you for having me. Happy to be here.

Viktoria Altman (00:08)
I’m very excited. I’m very, very excited because you are one of the people that I admire the most in this industry. And I’m really excited to learn about your low practice, what you’re doing that’s working, what you’re doing that’s not working, and kind of, you know, maybe have a little bit of an explanation for our listeners on some of the things you’ve learned and, you know, share your experience. Okay.

Yana Feldman (00:34)
Sure, sure, my pleasure.

Viktoria Altman (00:35)
Awesome. Okay. So can you introduce yourself briefly and talk a little bit about your practice?

Yana Feldman (00:42)
Sure. So I’m Yana Feldman. My firm is Yana Feldman and Associates. And we also go by New York Legacy Lawyers. And we are three attorneys based in Brooklyn, New York. And we focus our practice on estate planning for different types of clients and specifically planning for people looking at the second half of their lives.

Elder law, which is really estate planning with a focus on people as they age and issues of long -term care, et cetera. We do Medicaid planning and crisis Medicaid applications. And we also handle trust in estate administration, typically after someone has passed away, if a will needs to be probated or an estate needs to be opened or you know, trustees need some help dealing with the trust afterwards.

Viktoria Altman (01:45)
Got it, so, there’s more.

Yana Feldman (01:47)
well, I was just going to say that I’ve been practicing a little over 20 years, always in this area. And the firm has been sort of in this format for about six years now.

Viktoria Altman (02:03)
Yeah, so I know you’re very busy from working with you. I know you’re an extremely busy person. So why did you decide to start your own law firm and why did you pick this particular field of estate planning?

Yana Feldman (02:06)
Well, I’ll answer the second question first. First of all, I like the area of estate planning on a very personal level because it’s very personal. I studied anthropology in college and I studied cultural anthropology, really sort of why people create the societies that they do, right? And estate planning on some level is about the most basic things and it touches everyone.

It’s about children and families and protecting them and providing for them and aging and death, which is just part of the cycle. So it’s about families and people and relationships and power and jealousy and money. So it’s interesting, right? It’s really easy to get your teeth into and you feel like you make such a difference to people. It’s so personal. It’s not…

you know, I did a good job for a corporation and I won a lawsuit and maybe you did great legal work, but it doesn’t feel that personal and this feels so personal and so rewarding. And why did I start my firm? So I spent about 10 years working for other attorneys and I learned so much, you know, both good and bad, right?

And I got to a point where I looked at some of the other attorneys that had been working at firms for a long time. And I recognized that I was good at developing relationships with clients. And they were coming back to the firm because of our relationship. And my technical skills had gotten to a level where you know, I felt really comfortable that I could do the work. And I just thought, listen, if I don’t do this now, I never will. And I can keep, to be blunt, right, or blunt, you know, I could keep making money for other people and doing things the way they think they should be done, or I can give it a shot on my own. And…

Viktoria Altman (04:23)
yeah, that’s very true. Go ahead, sorry.

Yana Feldman (04:25)
Yeah. Yeah, no, that’s it.

Viktoria Altman (04:27)
I was just going to say that as a business owner I can relate to that because it’s like I want to do things my way because I know that I can get my clients better results than working for somebody else. And then I’m like, ugh, is this really the best way to do it? So I can really relate to that.

Yana Feldman (04:46)
Yeah, yeah. And now I joke that I’m broken. I don’t think I could work for someone else. I’m too used to, you know, I think one of my personal superpowers is that I’m really good at seeing the big picture and things that connect outside of patterns. And, you know, and when I see that you can’t unsee it. You’re like, this is the way we should do things. It’s just better.
And someone wants to do it a different way and they have their reasons. And listen, if they’re signing your paycheck, then you got to do it that way. So I took the jump.

Viktoria Altman (05:12)
Right. So speaking of, you know, doing things your own way, since we’ve started to work together, you’ve really grown in your practice. I think you’ve hired multiple lawyers and assistants and I can sometimes, I know you send me the About Us page updates regularly. There’s always new people.

So what do you attribute that growth? And it’s been, I don’t know what it was like for you a few years before, but in the past few years, you’ve really grown. So what do you think is kind of the key to that?

Yana Feldman (05:48)
Well, part of it for me has been finding the right people, you know, where I might have been. Okay, well, even taking a step back when you have a small firm and you don’t have, you know, like, well, here’s, you know, $10 million that just sits on the side. And if we have a slow month, you know, there’s no big deal, you know. So when you have a small firm, the commitment to hiring a new team member, especially someone who’s coming from another job, another position. Most of the people I hire are working someone else when they come to me because they’re good. And you take on a commitment, right? Like I’m gonna pay you and I’m gonna have enough work for you and it’s going to make sense. So as a small business owner, as a small law firm owner, that’s always a little bit scary.

And you can make it less scary by getting an understanding of what your fixed costs are and what your controllable variable costs are and how profitable you are and what are the ebbs and flows of your business. And the ebbs and flows can be scary, right? Because sometimes it’s just the phone rings an extra three times and you know, that could mean the difference between, you know, an amazing month or a stressful month. So, you know, part of my growth is, you know, finding the right people because I’m very picky about who I hire and also being able to say I’m OK with committing to this because I’m confidence that the business will flow somewhat reliably or more reliably than it did in the past.

Viktoria Altman (07:45)
Yeah, I think that’s something a lot of business owners struggle with is that faith in yourself and faith. Yes, I can do this. Even if the, you know, even if the month is bad, even if, you know, several months are bad, I’m still committed to my business and I will continue with what I know is working. It’s something I struggle with sometimes. And I think a lot of my marketing clients, when they first come to me, you know, they’ll kind of, they kind of go back and forth with confidence to not confidence, depending know how many calls they get that week. I’m like you can’t look at it that way you know it’s a long -term process and it takes time to build up and it’s the folks who kind of have a longer -term overview that tend to do really well.

Yana Feldman (08:27)
And I talk to a lot of lawyers that go out on their own and it’s just them. And they’re answering the phone and they’re printing documents and they’re doing the legal work and they’re answering the client’s questions about appointments and all of these things. And one of the first things that I tell them is you have to hire an assistant. No, you’re not, I mean, there’s always exceptions, but for the most part, you’re not running out on hiring another lawyer or a paralegal or et cetera. You need an assistant. You need someone who’s going to do the most basic, basic things. It’s not gonna cost you that much money, especially if you have a virtual assistant or someone, you know, maybe who’s overseas or whatnot, or even, you know, someone local, maybe it’s part -time, et cetera. Take those things off of your plate.

Right? And then you can do the valuable work, whether it’s legal work or networking or putting together procedures for how things should be done as you continue to grow. Don’t just do things without thinking about how you do them because it’s easy for you because you know how to do them. At some point, someone else has to do them. You need to think about it.

Viktoria Altman (09:22)
Yeah, yeah, I think if you Calculate how much you should be making an hour, you know, and then you calculate, you know, the amount of time you’re spending making copies or, you know, picking up the phone and you are, you could pay somebody, you know, a quarter or one -tenth of what you should be making an hour. Then it’s, you’re right, it’s a very, it’s a very good piece of advice to at least start with delegating some of your tasks to lower paid employees than yourself to lower qualified folks. And they will grow into the role. You just have to be a little bit patient.

Yana Feldman (10:19)
They grow into the role and they, not a lot of times, but pretty much all the time, they end up doing these tasks much better than you would.

Viktoria Altman (10:29)
Right, right. That’s the other thing, yeah.

Yana Feldman (10:31)
because they’re not worried about all of the other things that you’re thinking about.

Viktoria Altman (10:35)
Yeah, yeah, it really changed your life the first time you hire somebody and then you realize they’re better at it than you are and you’re like and you feel like you just discovered the secret of the universe, you’re like, okay, now I understand how to run a business. I remember that moment when the first time I hired somebody in one of my old companies and she was better than me and I was like, my life has changed. Okay. So you’ve done, sounds like you’ve done a lot of things right. Now let me ask you a hard question. What have you learned not to do when trying to grow your firm? Besides,

Viktoria Altman (11:10)
doing all that little work yourself, obviously.

Yana Feldman (11:12)
Sure, sure, sure. Okay. So I think, you know, I told you before we started recording that going through this list, you know, you shot me an email with an outline of what we’re going to talk about and going through this outline was actually like very kind of thought provoking and, you know, really, really made me think and crystallize things. I feel like we’re having a business therapy session. So I think one of them is inconsistent marketing slash bright and shiny object. There would be someone who’s a great salesperson and I would be convinced that I needed to sign up for this you know, sales training of, you know, how to present webinars or how to have, you know, client meetings where you’re selling professional services. And I’d get so excited about them and I’d drop a bunch of money on them. And, you know, it would all come at me like a fire hose. But I there were things I didn’t like about her, et cetera. And I here’s another one.

I didn’t build in enough time to implement these things necessarily. So I had all of this information and even if I wanted to implement them, I didn’t schedule it because it’s not just an hour here, an hour there. You need an implementation if you’re going to change a big system. So getting distracted by bright and shiny objects. Now I’m not saying that these things were necessarily bad.

Yana Feldman (12:58)
At my worst, I definitely got a lot of value from them, but I would have gotten so much more if I had maybe put it into the framework of my quarter or my year or whatever. So bright and shiny objects and inconsistent marketing. We want as business owners, as entrepreneurs, we want things to happen quickly.

Yana Feldman (13:26)
And we find a new marketing plan or strategy or vendor or whatever, and we wanna, let’s go, we’re all in, what do you need from us? We’re gonna do this, yay. And if, and then, you know, a few weeks go by or a month goes by, and first of all, you don’t even know what you’re expecting to see, right? So, You don’t know what’s an appropriate measure of success. And I say success with finger quotes because it might not initially feel like success, but it’s incremental results, right? Atomic habits, incremental results. And you’re like, well, what’s wrong? Why Isn’t, this blowing up, why am I not suddenly super duper profitable? You know, I spent money on this, I spent time on this. And, you know, you, I think the biggest thing is you need to understand what you’re looking for. You know, like, how do I judge? You need to set out at the beginning, maybe with your vendor or with the person selling you the product, et cetera, like set a metric, like what will success mean if we implement this? And kind of commit to a period of time to be able to step back and look at it and read if it’s successful. Now, I’m not saying sign up for SEO services for $20 ,000 a month and just keep blindly paying $20 ,000 a month and et cetera, but make a plan.

Yana Feldman (15:10)
So I think that’s huge, right? Like I would be like, but I hired this vendor and I bought this new software and you know, it doesn’t happen that way.

Viktoria Altman (15:13)
Boom.
Yeah, that’s a great point. That’s a great point.

Yana Feldman (15:24)
And then for me, I have built the vast part of my business through like personal networking, whether it’s in a professional organization, through my social interactions, whatever it is. And that can be very, very dangerous, right? For a few reasons. One, And this happens to me less now that I have more people on my team and I’m more thoughtful about it. But I would network, network, network, spend time developing, cultivating relationships. And then I would get busy doing the legal work and I would drop off staying top of mind, et cetera. And then…you know, I’d get done through this really busy patch of legal work and I’d come up for air and there wasn’t enough business coming in because, you know, I don’t remember what the cycle is, but someone has said to me it’s a 90 day cycle, a 45 day cycle. I’m sure it’s different in different industries, but basically if you depend on networking for your business development and you stop networking because you’re busy or you’re sick or what, you have too much work, whatever it is, it’s going to not show up the following week or necessarily even the following month. But three months later, you’re going to be in a world of hurt. And I found myself doing that.

So how do you balance your networking, your marketing efforts, and the legal work? How do you find that time, 28 hours in one day?

Yana Feldman (17:09)
I mean, I live and die by the calendar. If someone said this to me and I put on a post -it and it was on my computer for years, if it doesn’t make it to the calendar, it’s not happening. I calendar time. Sometimes I calendar to call my mother. Honestly, I do. Rarely. But if.
I feel like I’ve been really busy and crazy and I haven’t done it and I feel a certain way about it. I’ll just like grab 15 minutes and like don’t, you know, nobody fill this spot in. I’m gonna take this 15 minutes and go call my mom. You know, I calendar schedule, scheduling an appointment, right? Like I need to make a doctor’s appointment. I need to put that on the calendar. And now what I do is I put on the calendar to delegate it to someone else to make for me. That was a power move. That was a power move. Yes.

Viktoria Altman (17:58)
so I know that’s an improvement. I know that’s an improvement for you. I know that’s something you’ve struggled with in the past for sure, delegating things. And I think as type A person who is highly intelligent and used to achieving a lot, delegating is definitely something that does not come easily to us, you know.

Yana Feldman (18:07)
Yeah.It’s so hard. It’s so easy to say, it’s just easier to do it myself.

Viktoria Altman (18:27)
Yeah, and it is easier in the short run to do it yourself.

Yana Feldman (18:29)
In the short run, I try to be mindful of is this a one off or is this not a one off? So I actually developed, I have like a paper file with my assistant where she has like a lot of personal information about me and my family and doctors and insurance and stuff to do with my house, the homeowners insurance, whatever.

And the first time it’s annoying, and by the way, this applies to any delegation and any process in your business, legal, bookkeeping, intake, whatever. The first time it’s annoying to have to pull out of your brain all the things that you just naturally know and the decisions that you make when you do this thing.

Yana Feldman (19:23)
You know, but now she knows if I need to have an appointment out of the office, I prefer it to either be before 1030 or after 4pm. You know, like all of these little things. And it’s.

Viktoria Altman (19:35)
So that’s a great idea to have an assistant who actually does your personal stuff, because you can outsource a good part of your life so that you can have time to focus on the things you actually want to do.

Yana Feldman (19:47)
Absolutely. Honestly, it has improved my personal relationships because people would ask something of me and it was appropriate for them to ask it of me, right? Like it’s appropriate for my husband to ask me to schedule an eye doctor’s appointment for my daughter. And did you do it today? No. Did you do it today? No. Did you do it today? So I delegated it. And listen, when you work for yourself, you can do this. When I hired this person, I said, You know, this is a hybrid role. You know, it’s going to be maybe 20 % of personal things and 80 % business things. Are you okay with that? Are you comfortable with that? You know, and it’s worked really well.

Yeah, another big advantage of working for yourself. So how do you balance your day? How much of your time do you spend on networking and the other marketing efforts that you do? And how much do you spend on doing lawyering, law stuff?

Yana Feldman (20:42)
That’s a good question. So first of all, I use the block calendaring method for the most part. So, and it cycles every four weeks, you know, where my blocks are because I have blocks of time that are kind of outward facing and blocks of time that are like inward facing with the team and then solo.

Yana Feldman (21:08)
So that’s kind of like my three categories. And I try to make them like big chunks. So it’s usually two big blocks in the day. So unless there’s an emergency, and there’s always emergencies that come up and we can be flexible. If it’s a potential new client, they get scheduled into one of those blocks. If it’s an existing client that I need to meet with, it gets scheduled into one of those blocks. And I have certain blocks that I have for networking, recurring. And then I also budget a certain number of hours per week, kind of scattered in because it’ll depend on other people’s calendars and schedules things like that. So I would say that I probably spend probably about 40 % of my time on legal work, but a lot of that is with other people on my team. So not necessarily me sitting down by myself at the computer and doing legal work, but reviewing cases, giving case strategy, giving feedback, reviewing documents, things like that. Like this afternoon, I have a two hour block where I’m gonna sit with my estate planning team.

Yana Feldman (22:34)
And we’re going to go through a number of files and they kind of have pulled out for me, this is the area in this document that was custom drafted for this specific case and will you sign off on this or will you give us your feedback on this? So legal work. And then probably about like, let’s say 30 % of the time on meetings with new potential clients, things like that, and 30 % of the time on networking and things like that. And networking is, networking and marketing, because to be honest, you know my formal marketing is very hands off for me. Like it’s more hands off than it should be, but it’s very hands off for me. So, you know, considering what you’ve done with how bad I am at working with you. I’m sorry. You’re not that. You’re just busy. Yeah, no, I do occasionally I hear from you like once every four months. But you know, we do the work. You don’t feel guilty. Don’t feel guilty. You hired me to do the work. We’re going to do the work either way, whether or not I hear back from you.

Yana Feldman (23:45)
Yeah, but you know what I mean. I feel guilty. So, but when I say networking, it’s not about I go to events and I meet people who are going to hire me or necessarily that I meet people who are going to refer me business, right? A lot of my networking is what I think of as connecting. You know, so it’s…

Yana Feldman (24:24)
spending time in interactions that aren’t necessary, that aren’t at all bringing me business. You know, someone calls me because they know I’m a lawyer and it’s not something that I can help them with. Sometimes it’s, I don’t even know who’s the right person to help them with. And then I reach out to people I know, like to see who would be that person. And then I reach out to that person and I sort of you know, sniff them out a little bit. And then I go back and I say, okay, I think I found someone. Do you want an introduction, you know, et cetera? And by the way, I know there’s this idea of building business through referral fees, but I don’t, you know, if I’m not involved in a matter, you know, sometimes I work with someone and we share the fee because we’re both doing work. But when I do this, like I’m not doing this for referral fees, right?

Yana Feldman (25:22)
But I’m creating connections and I’m becoming someone who knows how to get things done. And in the, no, I was just gonna say, and in the long run, that is a very, very powerful thing and I think has brought me a lot of business. So I still think of that as networking.

Viktoria Altman (25:30)
You are very, very good at that. Every time I’ve asked you to help, we were doing the work in Ukraine, and I think you were the person who gave me like 30 specific people who actually had a connection to the work we were doing in Ukraine at the moment. And I was wondering how that happened, first of all, because my strength is not networking. I’m much better in front of a computer than I am in front of people. But I was also curious, actually, yeah.

Yana Feldman (26:12)
you

Viktoria Altman (26:16)
Do you feel like that actually gives you business? Because like, for instance, the stuff that you were doing, we were just doing charity work and you took hours out of your day to help out this charity and you really didn’t have to do it. And I think you did it because you’re a genuinely good person, but I am curious how you get business from that because you said you do. Is it just because you’re top of mind with people or is there something else that you’re asking for referrals?

Yana Feldman (26:43)
I mean, sure, you’re top of mind, but I think, and I mean, maybe this is a little bit of special sauce for me. The, you know, like that, the introductions that I made, you know, with Ukraine, et cetera, they were done in a very authentic way, right? I saw a situation where I could be helpful by connecting people and I wanted to be helpful in that way. I think I’m always looking for, sure I could write a check, I could put a post on Facebook supporting something, but I personally always look for how can I add value, right? As opposed to somebody else. And in that context, I’m never saying, You know, thanks so much for introducing me to this person at the State Department who went to college with your husband’s next door neighbor and is going to be able to connect someone trying to smuggle refugees out of a bombed out hospital. You know, by the way, if anyone that you know needs to get their will done.

Viktoria Altman (28:08)
Although I don’t think that would be a great way to go into it. I feel like we need to use that somewhere on your website.

Yana Feldman (28:04)
We’ll get to it. We’ll get to it. But, you know, like people observe that and they start to feel a certain way about me. You know, like, A, they see that I’m a competent person and they see that I’m a compassionate person. And that, I think, builds their level of trust and respect for me. And then when there is business to refer, you know, it’s like a pleasure for them. Right?

Viktoria Altman (28:37)
So your business plan is just to be a really good person. I mean, there is something to it though, because people will trust you if they know you’re a decent person. It just seems like a very long play.

Yana Feldman (28:40)
Yes. Yes. Well, wasn’t the Google business plan, don’t be evil, originally?

Viktoria Altman (28:56)
Yeah, but honestly, I don’t know. I don’t know how, how, yeah, I don’t know how that’s worked out for them.

Yana Feldman (29:03)
No, I mean, look, it just it adds something on, right? It just adds something on, you know, but you also, you know, I also I tell people what I do and it’s easy for me because what I do is so real to people, you know, like, you do mergers and acquisitions, you know, well, that’s only for, you know, super big companies or you’re a criminal law attorney, but no one in my family is a criminal or, you know, whatever it is, I work with families and death and taxes and money and it impacts everybody. So I make sure that I tell people what I do socially. I’ve gotten clients at the nail salon multiple, multiple times.
Cause you’re sitting at the nail salon and you’re getting your nails done and someone is complaining about their dad making them come to take them to the doctor and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I’m a little chatty as you can tell. And I genuinely, so maybe this goes back to being a good person. I genuinely share some information. Did you know that blah, blah, blah.

Yana Feldman (30:21)
And they’re like, my gosh, tell me more. How do you know this? I said, well, I just so happen to be an attorney that deals in this area of law. Yeah, but I think that’s something that’s good for everyone. You might be more specific. Your target audience might be smaller. But if people don’t know what you do, they certainly can’t refer business to you.

Viktoria Altman (30:26)
Yeah.

I think that really goes back to play on your strengths and your strength is you’re an extroverted chatty person and you’re going out there and you’re making friends, you know. I think. You know everybody kind of has their own approach to doing this. For me, I don’t know that I’ve ever spoken with anybody at the nail salon other than the person who does my nails and I go every couple of weeks. It’s just never happened to me. But you know, I have other strengths. But I think that’s, I think there’s also many ways to, I don’t like that saying with expression, there are many ways to pet a cat, let’s put it that way.

You know, and I think it’s interesting that for you, that’s your approach. Your approach is to be this personable, helpful.

Person who genuinely wants to help and as a result you end up doing well. And I also think that a big part of it is just the fact that the society where people appreciate other folks who are trying to help them. Both of us are from the Soviet Union and that’s just not the culture that we originated from. Like if a random person on the street tries to help you, you’re going to definitely be worried they’re trying to rob you or something.

Viktoria Altman (31:55)
Well, but I’m glad that we get to both participate in that culture even though I don’t talk to anybody ever. So, yeah, you speak some Russian as well, don’t you?

Yana Feldman (32:01)
What do you mean? You’re my Russian speaking friend. Yeah, no, I’m joking that like you’re one of my Soviet buddies. My one of my few.

Viktoria Altman (32:12)
Yeah, well, we’ve both been here for so long. I don’t know if we consider it Soviet anymore. So tell me, are you working on anything new, interesting, exciting? Not necessarily shiny object, but maybe something a little bit that you’ve been thinking about for longer term?

Yana Feldman (32:18)
You well, funny you should ask, Victoria. Because, well, so my newest project that I’m keeping it as dull and unshiny as possible is a podcast series. Because I have been observing that there’s a huge amount of misinformation amongst the sandwich generation.

Yana Feldman (32:57)
You know, there’s this term, the sandwich generation, people who are not quite done raising their children, but they’re also caring for aging parents or loved ones, right? They’re the filling of the sandwich and it’s oftentimes a tight squeeze. And a lot of them are on social media, on Facebook or Reddit or whatever, looking for support and also advice.

Yana Feldman (33:25)
And the advice that they’re getting is oftentimes horrible. It’s well -meaning, but it’s not appropriate based on their jurisdiction, what state they’re in, or sometimes it’s just wrong, wrong. And, you know, and that does a huge disservice to these people who are earnestly trying to take care of their family members in the best way that they can. So I am lucky that I have so many amazing colleagues that practice elder law in different states. So I am going to do a series of podcasts where I’m going to sort of set it up.

Viktoria Altman (34:10)
Yeah.

Yana Feldman (34:15)
With New York in the beginning because I know New York law and then bring in someone or two, some ones who practice in New Jersey and they can explain, you know, how New Jersey is different, you know, from other states, what are special things that stick out. And then we’ll talk to someone from Pennsylvania and Connecticut and Florida and California and all of this stuff and, you know, make this available. And this is going to be free.
Hopefully, this will help with things like SEO and stuff like that.

Viktoria Altman (34:41)
I’m sorry. I live in Brooklyn. I don’t have a private office. I’m sorry.

Yana Feldman (34:47)
That’s okay. It’s your business associates.

And provide information. And the thing is, with the work that I do, a lot of these are gonna be other states. So obviously the people that are looking for that are not going to be my clients, right? But a lot of times when I do a lot of education, I do a lot of videos and webinars and live presentations, and it’s sort of a passion of mine.

Viktoria Altman (35:14)
you

Yana Feldman (35:21)
And, you know, initially people are gathering information to try and do things on their own. And I am very honest when that’s appropriate, right? Because I don’t want to make money from people that don’t need me, right? I need to have a value add, right? But a lot of times when once they get educated, they realize that they really do need me or someone like me.

Viktoria Altman (35:38)
Great. Great.

What is the biggest mistake you would say people, what is the biggest piece of wrong information people are getting right now about the sandwich generation? Like what are they really, what’s getting to them?

Yana Feldman (35:59)
So, I mean, that’s a whole nother podcast, but a few things. I think the first one is not understanding how important advanced directives are, power of attorney and healthcare directives. And the healthcare directives, because, with these documents, if your loved one gets dementia, Alzheimer’s, becomes incapacitated, et cetera, if you don’t have them in place, you’re probably going to end up in court filing for a guardianship. And even if everyone gets along and no one is disagreeing and everyone has been acting appropriately, it’s gonna cost thousands and thousands of dollars and take time. And then the court’s gonna be looking over your shoulder with everything that you do, et cetera.

And just because you’re a spouse or a child doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to do things on your loved one’s behalf. And typically most people wanna do their powers of attorney on their own. They download something off the internet, they copy something, they get something from a real estate attorney and not having a properly drawn up power of attorney for elder law issues just handicaps you immensely when you try to take care of your loved ones, right? So that’s probably number one. Number two, a lot of people say, well, my loved one has assets, they have income, they have savings, they have a house. I’m going to have to spend it all before I can get any government assistance with paying for their long -term care.

Yana Feldman (37:47)
And that’s never the case, right? Like just off the bat in any situation, worst case scenario, you can always preserve at least roughly 50 % of someone’s assets. And then there’s a lot of other cases where you could preserve a lot more of them. And for most people, their house, their retirement, et cetera, like…

They worked really hard to put this together. And I actually, I don’t even know if I should say this, but on some level, I prefer working with the kind of real people more than the $20 million estate. The $20 million estate is intellectually very interesting for me, right? Because we’re looking at the Internal Revenue Code and tax planning and et cetera. And when you’re talking about saving millions of dollars, it becomes very interesting, right?

Yana Feldman (38:43)
But when you’re working with someone that built everything, saved everything, so they own their home and they have their 401k and maybe they have some savings and you’re able to help preserve that so that they can help their grandchildren go to college or help them with a down payment for their home, that’s so powerful for me.

Viktoria Altman (39:11)
Yeah. No, no, I agree with you. That’s actually why I prefer to work with small lawyers. You know, I could make a rich lawyer richer, or I could take somebody who has a business and help them build a company where they can employ people and pay people a paycheck. And then sometimes my clients will email me things like, I’m buying a new house and I know that they’re paying for the kids’ college education. People will tell me things like that all the time. And I’m like, I feel like I played a part in that. I contributed to it and it feels, it’s nice. It’s nice to go to bed at night knowing that. So I hear you loud and clear.

Yana Feldman (39:49)
Yeah. Yeah.

Viktoria Altman (39:51)
I think we’re running low on time, but I think I have a couple more questions. Let’s see what we can. What is, okay, what advice would you give to a small law firm that’s, you know, maybe a lawyer and assistant or maybe a lawyer and a paralegal that are looking to grow?

Yana Feldman (40:07)
I think number one like turn everything into a procedure. Like the things that you think can’t, you can, you can. And maybe one part of the procedure is attorney analyzes for legal issues and attorney does legal research and you know, attorney drafts specific, et cetera. But around that, there’s a ton of procedure.

Yana Feldman (40:37)
Right? And to take it as granular as you can. What color file folder do you use? Where do you order them from? How much are they supposed to cost approximately? Where do you store them in the office? At what point do you reorder them? Like, this sounds silly because you just do it or your assistant does it because they know how to do it. But if someone else comes in and needs to do it, and they have to be taught from zero, that’s gonna take so much time. So that’s kind of like a background thing. You can’t spend all of your time doing that because you’re trying to grow, et cetera, but I think that’s number one. Procedures for everything. And you know what, I still don’t have procedures for everything, but I have procedures for a lot. So that’s number one. Number two, I would say,

Yana Feldman (41:31)
Is narrow your practice area and narrow your client avatar. You know, if people are familiar with this concept of the client avatar, like who are your clients? Who are you trying to reach? And I remember earlier on, I was like, well, everyone, because everyone’s going to get old and die one day. So my clients are everyone. I might have even said that to you years ago, right?

Viktoria Altman (41:35)
Good advice.

Yana Feldman (42:02)
But, and it’s true, I can, I could, right? And I’m not necessarily turning people down, although I do, and I’m gonna talk about that in a minute. But when you think, I have a few client avatars, but one of them is a child of an aging senior who is starting to maybe need a little bit of help. And this child is a busy professional who respects other professionals and wants to find someone who they can trust to do a good job. Right? I love working with people like that because there’s the flip side. There’s also the child, you know, the same parent, but they’re suspicious.

Yana Feldman (42:55)
and questioning and your relationship is adversarial, right? So get rid of those clients, right? And it’s easy to say when you have enough clients, right? It’s never enough, it’s never enough. But think about it, think about an.

Yana Feldman (43:20)
Other, I know business coaches will tell you to go through every client you’ve had in the last three years and rank them above, you know, forget that, you’re not gonna do that. But think of who are some of the best clients that you’ve been able to work with in the past year. You know, try to think of three or five and then vice versa. And they will have something in common, you know. So start thinking about how you can get more of the good ones.
And less of the bad ones. And give yourself permission to say no. Give yourself permission to say no. And listen, I know very, very well that sometimes that’s hard when you’re starting your business and cashflow is not steady and you don’t have reserves. And you’re like, my God, you know, I don’t like the way this person treats me, but their money’s green and I need to pay the rent and the insurance bill, etc. It’s never enough, you’re never going to be happy.

Viktoria Altman (44:23)
See, I would say sometimes you have to put up with those clients, but you should put up with them for a very short period of time. Like if you’re struggling to pay your rent, you know what I mean? Do it. And then as soon as you’re nodding, like, my God, I’m struggling to put food on my table, get rid of that. Because when you get rid of them, a better client will take their place. And, you know, and I think a lot of us are missing that, the idea that as long as you do…really good job, the right clients will come and they will take the place of the bad ones.

Yana Feldman (44:54)
See, I have a real problem with that statement because on the one hand, on a personal level, I know it to be true, right? I will give you that. But I think it can also be a very dangerous attitude. Or maybe I just focus on a specific part. Or you said, as long as I do a really good job, the clients will come.

Yana Feldman (45:19)
And the thing is, you can do a really good job on your legal work or your SEO work or whatever your actual skills are. But if you don’t communicate the value of what you do to potential clients well, and you don’t price your work appropriately, which is another thing I wanted to mention, you know, they’re not going to come to you because they don’t know that they need to, right? They don’t understand how much value you have for them. So I think at a bare minimum.

Viktoria Altman (45:53)
Yes. Yes. I’m assuming you’ve hired me for the marketing. I’m assuming I’m taking care of the marketing for you. But yes, of course you have to let them know you’re out there. You have to. They will not get it like knocked on your door if they don’t know you’re there.

Yana Feldman (46:05)
Yeah. No, it’s beyond knock down your door. So the client is in the room with you, whether it’s Zoom or actual. And are you properly communicating your value? You know, or are you just like, so you’re something I learned, I learned this from a business coach. And he said something along the lines of How dare you have the audacity to assume you know your client’s motivations?

Viktoria Altman (46:41)
Interesting point. So how do you find out your clients motivations then? You ask? Yeah.

Yana Feldman (46:43)
Right? You ask them questions and then you shut up. All right, hard.

Viktoria Altman (46:50)
That is hard. So one last question, since we are on the topic. How are you explaining to clients your unique advantage, your uniqueness, why they should hire you rather than somebody else? What do you say? What do you do? How do you communicate that?

Yana Feldman (47:07)
so I think part of it has in the past always come very easily, which is that you can see how comfortable you already are with me. And, you know, that relationship will continue. Right. But A, that’s not something that everyone can do. And B, as the firm grows and they’re immediate, well, you know, I hope that the other lawyers that I work with also give the same confidence, but that’s not enough. So one of our unique, because we have a lot of good stuff going for us that a lot of my colleagues do well also. And I’m proud of that, that as a bar, my colleagues and I are doing better for clients.

Yana Feldman (47:59)
Things like the use of technology. People don’t email us things, they use our secure portal, so their financial information is safe. They can e -sign a lot of things if possible. We give them checklists. We kind of tell them, okay, here we’re gonna go three steps.

This is a 10 step process. If I give you 10 steps, you’re gonna get overwhelmed. So we’re gonna give you the first three steps and we’re gonna walk you through it. And then when we get, you know, so we break it up and we have handouts and materials and checklists. Many of my colleagues do this. I think one of our firm strengths and our unique selling proposition is because we handle different aspects that all come back to themselves. So We have done estate litigation. We see the effects of poorly done estate planning. As we do the actual estate planning, we are mindful of what could happen if things don’t go smoothly. We don’t just prepare Medicaid trusts, but we file Medicaid applications for clients who have had Medicaid trusts prepared. And there are a lot of attorneys who just do the one thing. We just set up trusts.

Yana Feldman (49:17)
And then if you need Medicaid, we’ll refer you to someone else. And it’s not necessarily that we do all of these things now, but we have that background. I have someone that was a litigator for 20 years at my firm. We don’t really do much litigation anymore. So I think those are our. And then on that basic level, I think my this

Viktoria Altman (49:34)
Yeah.

Yana Feldman (49:42)
I’ve had a breakthrough moment. I think this is part of my brand, you know, that were nice.

Viktoria Altman (49:49)
I like that, I like that and it’s genuinely true for you. Yeah, you are nice. And by the way, that is part of my ideal client profile. All of my clients, people tell me all the time things like, your lawyers are so tough to work with. And I’m like, no, my lawyers are actually very nice. Like they’ll be direct with me, but as a person, they are genuinely nice people. And if they’re not, then I’m sorry, it’s just not worth it for me.

Yana Feldman (50:14)
Yeah, well especially because my engagement might be for a few months, but yours are ongoing, so I imagine that would be extra hard.

Viktoria Altman (50:20)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, most of my clients never leave. So you better like them if they’re going to be in your life forever. It’s like, I think longer than any of my marriages.

Yana Feldman (50:35)
Although I do joke that I marry my clients because I have people that I did work for 15 years ago who pop up and, you know, well, and when we do planning, you know, obviously you need to update things, but, you know, I did one thing for them 15 years ago and now there’s a completely unrelated issue, but it’s a legal issue. And Yana was my lawyer, so I’m gonna call my lawyer.

Viktoria Altman (51:00)
I love that. I love that about you that you have these relationships and that’s what you really build your business on. You know, you’re a very relationship oriented person and I appreciate you sharing this with me and the listeners as well and I appreciate you coming on.

Yana Feldman (51:14)
I wanna say one thing, and this is sort of a plug for you, but you didn’t ask me to say this, but this is something that I have really kind of clearly come to understand. I have a decent sized firm, we’re 10 people now. Gross revenues are, hell, they’re a lot more impressive than I ever thought they would be. But it also costs a lot of money to run my firm, right? We’re a high touch firm.

Viktoria Altman (51:16)
Yes. Yes.

Yana Feldman (51:39)
And sometimes the difference between making everything work, covering, et cetera, and profitability, it doesn’t necessarily take a lot, right? But if you don’t have it, you really, really feel it. And I feel, and I think I’ve said this to you, but I feel like one of the differences that I’ve seen

Yana Feldman (52:06)
since we started working with you. And it hasn’t, I mean, I’m not gonna blow, pardon my French, smoke up your ass and say like, Victoria has made my business grow by 300%. But that steady amount of people that are not from networking, that are not from my be nice policy, et cetera, that come in, that wouldn’t have otherwise come in.

Yana Feldman (52:34)
You are oftentimes the thing that makes the difference and makes me say, huh, that was a good month.

Viktoria Altman (52:38)
I am so glad. I look forward to working with you longer, hopefully for the rest of our lives longer than any of my marriages.

Yana Feldman (52:48)
Until we ditch this and move to the Bahamas.

Viktoria Altman (52:54)
All right, I think we’re gonna have a party. I think there’s a few of my clients who are planning on doing the same. All right, well, thank you again, Yana. I really appreciate it. Thank you for all your wonderful advice. And I will send you an email about the marketing stuff. Okay, talk to you soon. Bye.

Yana Feldman (53:00)
Thank you.