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our thinking
June 22, 2021
3 mins

Software Doesn’t Enable Attorneys to Offer What Clients Want

Estate planning technology built for professionals is outdated, and attorneys are facing a veritable feature fatigue with current solutions that fail to provide suitable user experiences

Today’s clients want the best of both worlds; the speed of digital applications that allow them to access their financial accounts paired with the flexibility and personalization of human touch. How can you as an attorney keep up with the pace and demands of a tech-savvy client?

This scenario shouldn’t come as a surprise - we are all online customers. The real surprise is just how far current industry technology lags behind these client expectations.  Estate planning technology built for professionals is, quite frankly, outdated; and attorneys are facing a veritable feature fatigue with current solutions that fail to provide suitable user experiences.

We might know a thing or two about how to fix this, but first let’s make sure we are aligned on exactly what clients want.

Client expectations are at an all-time high. According to the latest EY Global Fintech Adoption Index 2019, direct-to-consumer financial technology adoption nearly tripled from 2015-2019. We are experiencing widespread disintermediation of financial services (banking, investing, payments, lending, insurance, and soon estate planning). These companies, born on the internet, have the ability to create convenient, personalized experiences that meet clients wherever they might be. Clients are demanding smoother experiences coupled with real-time information. Online products are attempting to meet these growing demands, attorneys are having a tougher time.

Attorneys have struggled to match these experiences and it’s not their fault. Technology created for them is not user friendly.

We can’t deliver exceptional online client experiences if our own systems don’t work for us! We’ll unpack this in a future post, but the cost to switch products is often too cumbersome and existing software isn’t intuitive because providers have rushed to pack too many features into one box.

If you are dedicated to delivering better online client experiences, here are three suggestions the next time you consider a software purchase:


  1. Focus on business problems rather than technical problems: instead of saying “I have to re-enter client information in all my systems”, think “how long do my clients take to sign an engagement letter?” or “how long does a client put off filling out my intake form?”.


  1. Look for out-of-the-box solutions that solve your business problems; put less emphasis on customizations and configurations. Customizations seem to offer an ideal future state but oftentimes end up causing more time and effort in setup, maintenance, and switching costs. Find a solution that works from day one.


  1. Think about your firm like a business. This means thinking out of the box in what your software can do. B2B businesses use software for sales, marketing, and even to deliver their services. Don’t get stuck using one system with all these functions lumped into one.

We'd love to hear about considerations your practice uses on our LinkedIn page.

Chris spent 6 years consulting Fortune 100 financial services companies on how to offer better customer experiences using technology. He learned that CRMs and moving parts of the business online don’t add enough value to your customer's experience without offering them a true end-to-end experience.

Rest is built for attorneys who want to offer unique, value-added, and personalized services to their clients that online will and trust products will never be able to compete with. We are a sales automation platform which automates the onboarding and intake process for your clients and allows them to plan online with you. We help attorneys who care about providing customer experiences that reduce onboarding time by 50% and convert potential clients at 5x the industry standard.

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