We’re asked by lawyers if FamilyAndHeirs.com completes with them.  The answer is simple:  In no manner do we compete with lawyers.  We don’t provide legal advice.  We don’t write Wills or Trusts.  We don’t evaluate Wills or Trusts.  We don’t even see our Account Holders’ Wills or Trusts.

Lawyers earn fees writing Wills and Trusts for their clients, but they make even more providing legal services to the estate when the client passes.  But to make these fees, they need to learn that their client has died and they need to make contact with the heirs and beneficiaries. 

So here’s a scenario: The lawyer writes his client’s Will or Trust, but the client lives on for 20, 25 or more years.  The Will or Trust is dutifully stored in the client’s file at the firm, which is now in the firm’s deep storage or archives, or perhaps if it's slightly more recent it is also stored digitally in a folder that is rarely viewed anymore.  When the client passes, the lawyer who wrote the Will may be with a new firm, or may be retired,  And how is an heir expected to remember the name of a firm that has merged a few times, added new partners, and changed its name three times, and then moved twice?

For the firm to re-open the file and get busy, somehow it needs to learn that its client, who now lives in Florida, has passed on.  It’s 25 years later and absolutely no one remembers if grandpa had a Will, or where it can be located, and certainly no one remembers the name of the lawyer who wrote it or even the firm’s name (which has since changed).

But if your client opened and maintained an account with FamilyAndHeirs.com, then his or her relatives will quickly learn the name of your firm, your address, and phone number, and they will call to get the process started.  In fact, when the relative sees your firm’s name on FamilyAndHeirs.com and calls your firm, that may be the first you’ll learn of your client’s passing. 

We charge only $49 to set up an account and for the first year’s service. We don’t do any auto-renewals because we want to make sure the Account Holders visit our site at least once a year to make sure all their information is up to date. And that information includes your firm’s name, address, and phone number. 

You can easily lose the business if you don’t learn of the client’s passing, and a client with a perfectly good Will may have their property distributed as if they died intestate, because no one can find the Will.  FamilyAndHeirs.com solves this problem. 

So we think it’s a great idea for estate lawyers to encourage their clients to open an account at FamilyAndHeirs.com.  It’s a “Win-Win.”  It’s good for the client and it’s good for the lawyer. 

This same concept holds true for some others, such as Funeral Directors and cemetery operators.  The client may have done extensive pre-planning with a Funeral Director, and all that info is recorded in a manila folder with the client’s name on the tab.  But now, fifteen years later, who even remembers that grandma went to a funeral director to do preplanning , and if they do somehow know that, how would they begin to know which Funeral Home he visited?  Several of the questions that the client will respond to on FamilyAndHeirs.com's pre-planning questionnaire ask if the client has established a relationship with a Funeral Director.  With this information, your client’s relatives will call or come by, and you’ll be far better off than had the death passed without a call from anyone.

The point is, it’s in your interest, and in your client’s interest, for him or her to have an account on FamilyAndHeirs.com.

We think it's smart for lawyers who write Wills and Trusts and who do Estate Planning to give their clients a Family And Heirs Gift Certificate.  It's inexpensive – only $49 – but what better and more useful gift is there?  And, as stated above, when the client passes, his or her heirs will learn to telephone your firm and set up an appointment to handle the estate's legal affairs.