It Might Never Happen... But Just in Case

“And so it stays just on the edge of vision,
A small, unfocused blur, a standing chill
That slows each impulse down to indecision.
Most things may never happen: this one will.”

Says Philip Larkin in his poem ‘Aubade’. He is referring to death but he could just as readily have been referring to the onset of old age. That, too, will happen (for most of us, anyway).

There is nothing we can do to defer it or stave it off, but we can plan ahead for it and prepare for the worst: that worst being, dementia. Of course, that may not happen. Many elderly people remain mentally acute until their dying day. But, as the population ages, it is statistically certain, that the incidence of dementia will increase.

Dementia robs you of your ability to manage your own life and means that someone else has to perform those functions for you, such as paying bills, dealing with investments and balancing budgets. A loss  of mental capacity leaves the sufferer helpless in the world and very vulnerable, unable to do even the trivial things that we all take in our stride and do several times a day.

Yes, that is a bleak outlook and until medical science produces a cure to this dreadful condition, the only thing that we can do to ensure that our affairs remain in order following the onset of dementia is to make a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA).

A LPA is a legal instrument which allows you to appoint someone that you trust to run your affairs for you if you become unable to run them yourself. It allows you to set conditions on how that person should act and the kind of decisions that they can make on your behalf. Really, it is a kind of insurance policy and it is far better to have one and not need it, rather than need one and not have it.

We put off activities which force us to think about our inevitable future, such as preparing for death (with a will) or senility (with a LPA). Insurers Sun Life Direct recently carried out their annual survey which found that 26 per cent of people had made absolutely no plans for later life, and 87 per cent had made no care or living arrangements should they lose their independence.

Whilst this impulse to put off these unpleasant tasks is understandable, it should be resisted. If you do not have a LPA, then if you lose mental capacity the only alternative is for someone to make an application to the Court of Protection for Deputyship of your affairs – a process that is complex, expensive and over which you will have no say.

You have the power at your disposal today to make decisions in advance and protect yourself, as best you can, against the worst that tomorrow can bring.

High Street Lawyer provides fixed price Lasting Powers of Attorney from £350. For more information on Lasting Powers, visit our Frequently Asked Questions.

By David Carr of High Street Lawyer Hampstead

Is the High Street really dying?

Two reports have been published this week discussing consumer habits and whether consumers prefer to buy online or locally. The more publicised High Street Review by retail guru Mary Portas concluded that the High Street as a shopping location is dying and needs local government intervention to resuscitate it. Whilst Mary is undoubtedly right, and as her TV projects have shown, this is unlikely to surprise anyone who has visited many of Britain's High Streets recently. Government research also published this week confirmed that one third of High Streets are degenerating or failing. The overriding conclusion is that customers are increasingly shopping at big brands at out of town locations or on-line.

The other report is a YouGov survey into Conveyancing. YouGov had been commissioned to enquire how consumers choose their conveyancer, their attitude to risk and their confidence in using big brands such as retailers or banks compared to local solicitors. In this report the conclusion was that big brands would not provide the best service to housebuyers and using someone with local knowledge was the most frequently mentioned reason for choosing a particular conveyancer. Only 3% of respondents to the survey said that they would use an on-line conveyancing service.

Why is there such a difference in the requirements of consumers in these two reports and why do they appear to contradict each other? After all, the consumer polled by YouGov about conveyancing is the same shopper deciding whether to venture to the High Street, go to a shopping centre with free parking or stay at home and buy online.

Whilst legal services such as conveyancing have become commoditised and price sensitive, buying a house is still the most expensive and stressful transaction for many people. Having a local specialist on your team and a named expert to advise you is more important than the convenience of using an online service. The YouGov report also found that most consumers do not want to be dictated to by banks as to which legal provider to use but were generally happy to rely on recommendations from estate agents and especially from friends.

Reading deeper into the comments following Mary’s High Street report, many shoppers express delight when they do venture into the High Street at the level of knowledge, expertise and customer service that they experience from shopkeepers and professionals who have managed to remain local. At this point, the contradictions in the two reports start to diminish and the common theme of customers valuing expertise and experience over convenience and price shine through.

Perhaps the High Street as we know it does need a kiss of life but its purpose as a place for the public to obtain good advice, great service and good quality products is beyond doubt.   

Other HighStreetLawyer news: 
HighStreetLawyer.com doubles in size

HighStreetLawyer builds national network

For a profile of our MD Gary Yantin in City AM click here:http://www.cityam.com/business-features/legal-industry-shake-business-opportunity

Second Life After Death

Watching Mark Zuckerberg on Sunday’s ‘Inside Facebook’ (BBC2) got me thinking. Facebook now extends from ‘before the cradle to beyond the grave’. Recently, my online friends’ status updates have announced the happy news of pregnancies (complete with scan photos) and sad news about the loss of a loved one and the funeral arrangements. How much do Facebook’s 800 million users really want to share, and what kind of digital mark will they leave when their physical selves cease to exist?

Perhaps BBC’s ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ will become obsolete in a few generations’ time. Internet-savvy genealogists will simply be able to log onto Facebook, YouTube or Twitter where their ancestors’ lives will be pristinely documented from birth to death.

What actually happens to your digital footprint when you pass on? Most users have probably never even considered it.

Each of the online communities have their own ways of dealing with the death of their users- Facebook gives your survivors the option to close down your account, or curiously to ‘memorialise’ it, creating a digital epitaph on which all your online ‘friends’ can pay their respects. Twitter allows your ‘digital executor’ to download a copy of your public tweets before closing down your account. YouTube allows your heir or power of attorney control of your account and all its content. But perhaps most disturbing is Hotmail’s deceased user policy - once the executor produces a copy of the death certificate and proves their connection to the deceased, they will be sent a list of their existing contacts as well as a copy of all the email messages stored on the account.

Whilst access to the deceased’s contacts may be required to inform people of the bereavement, something about this worries me. Access to somebody’s email account differs intensely from opening your loved one’s post to administer their affairs. Would your email contacts be happy with somebody other than you being privy to your correspondence? Would you be comfortable with your next of kin probing your password-protected emails?

This is something to consider when you appoint the executor of your will or your power of attorney or to include in the document itself. As well as burial plans and bequeathing your property, you should make sure to consider what you want to happen to your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and email accounts to make sure that the digital mark you leave reflects your wishes.

HighStreetLawyer.com doubles in size

Legal franchising brand HighStreetLawyer.com has doubled in size by signing up five new firms. The venture, launched in September last year, aims to have around 100 members by the end of 2012, founder Gary Yantin told the Gazette.

Yantin, a commercial lawyer, said that the network is aimed at local high street firms with three to four partners and an ‘entrepreneurial outlook’. Firms pay a membership fee, giving them the right to use the brand, back office and marketing support, access to referrals, and member services through a ‘buying club’ offering special deals on products including searches, title insurance and software.

Recent sign-ups include Ciampa in Bedford, Kingswell Berney in Gosport, Leicester firm Halborg & Co and Brown & Co in Croydon, Yantin said. He declined to name the fifth firm.

Yantin described the scheme as a ‘brandchise’, saying: ‘It’s more about branding and licensing than a franchise.’ He likened it to the operating model of brands such as Interflora, Best Western Hotels and independent electrical supplier Euronics.

Michael Vaughan, senior partner at Kingswell Berney, said: ‘We are pleased to join HighStreetLawyer.com because that is exactly what we have been for 75 years for people and businesses of the southern counties.

‘By joining this national network, we can continue and extend our services to be the complete personal high street lawyer with confidence in the brand.’

Yantin said he was not daunted by recent announcements of new funding raised by larger rival QualitySolicitors, or by the Co-operative’s decision to offer family law services. He said: ‘We view our competition not as the Co-op, but as everyone providing legal services. It’s great that QualitySolicitors has raised money because it shows that people want to invest in the industry.

‘But these two ventures and the fact that others might have a deeper war chest doesn’t affect our ambitions or plans. It shows there’s room in the market for legal brands, independent firms and non-lawyer brands like the Co-op.’

This article first appeared in the Law Society Gazette and on the Gazette's website on Thursday 21 November

Other HighStreetLawyer news: HighStreetLawyer builds national network

For a profile of our MD Gary Yantin in City AM click here:http://www.cityam.com/business-features/legal-industry-shake-business-opportunity

HighStreetLawyer builds national network

HighStreetLawyer.com (HSL) has added five new firms to its nascent national legal network after its successful pilot phase, Legal Futures can reveal.

HSL is also relaunching its website today as part of the ambition of founder Gary Yantin to reach 100 branches by the end of 2012.

The new firms are located in Bedford, Leicester, Croydon, Tyneside and Hampshire, adding to existing members in Newcastle, Sheffield, Manchester and London, where there are two.

Target firms are around four to five partners in size, and retain their own branding under HSL. However, they advertise themselves as part of the HSL network.

Mr Yantin, a commercial solicitor, claimed no other network offers the trio of key elements that HSL does: vetted referrals through its website, the right to use the HSL branding with central marketing support, and a back-office buying club. Among the providers signed up to offer HSL members services are Completion Monitor, Direct Law, Finders, First Title, Jennings, Litigation Protection and SearchFlow.

Firms pay a referral fee for every case which leads to payment, plus a monthly membership fee. HSL does not seek a percentage of turnover.

Mr Yantin said he was “not convinced by the power of TV or above-the-line advertising for legal services because they are not desire-led” – rather they are distress purchases. “We’re going down the route of being in a referral network and being where the consumer is,” he explained, building relationships with the likes of financial advisers, accountants and finance directors.

HSL firms do have to commit to fixed fees and Mr Yantin acknowledged the difficulty of having work priced the same whether in London or Newcastle. “We have to be brave enough as a brand to know that’s a massive challenge, but it’s a challenge worth having.”

London firm Carr & Kaye was one of the pilot firms, and partner David Carr told Legal Futures that unlike most referral schemes he has experienced, HSL has “referred quite a bit of business to us that’s been of good quality”. He added: “HSL asks to work with us; we don’t want to be taken over.”

One of the new members is Kingswell Berney of Gosport, Hampshire. Senior partner Michael Vaughan said HSL offered the chance to grow with the help of a network while retaining the firm’s independence and not being subsumed by a brand. With new competition looming, “to do that all by ourselves would be almost too much of a challenge. We need a brand and need to band together”.

Scott Halborg of Halborg & Co in Leicester, another new member, added: “HSL is emerging as a strong brand attracting quality clients to the quality law firms which HSL is targeting. We see this as adding further reach to our marketing strategy, and it allows us to preserve our independence whilst remaining part of a respected network of firms.”

Mr Yantin said: “We are now confident that we have law firms across the country able to respond to consumers’ legal needs and provide an excellent quality service through a number of delivery methods, including online and in person.

“We have formed relationships with some of the key providers of services to law firms and our holistic approach to creating a legal brand means that we can now concentrate our efforts on the task of customer acquisition for our lawyer members.”

This article first appared on Legal Futures 21 November 2011

For a profile of our MD Gary Yantin in City AM click here: http://www.cityam.com/business-features/legal-industry-shake-business-opportunity

Ahead of the curve or your head in the sand?

Earlier this week I was lucky enough to be invited to the Legal Futures conference "New Ways to Practice Law" as a panel speaker alongside the other emerging legal brands. Six months earlier I had attended as a delegate and heard from the regulators and industry commentators. This time the majority of the speakers were speaking about their business models either launched or planned. We heard from Rocket Lawyer - a legal document and lawyer locating service part owned by Google Ventures. In their domestic market in the US, Rocket Lawyer has sold over 30 million legal documents. A similar company, Legal Zoom, claims to be well known by 50% of the American consumer market. We also heard from Legal 365's founder Ajaz Ahmed. A self proclaimed shopkeeper perhaps better known for creating and then selling Freeserve, he brings a very fresh approach to consumer legal services, even though he refused to reveal how his business model plans on attracting new customers. An existing industry provider, Epoq, told the conference that the days of the small local firm is doomed and that the consumer market will be dominated by brands. More than one speaker confirmed the death of the partnership as viable business model.

The delegate list was indeed impressive and although the organisers claimed to have over 100 lawyers in the room, it appeared to me that the majority of attendees were either suppliers or advisers to lawyers, new market entrants themselves or industry commentators. I found myself asking, and tweeting too, whether it was worrying that there weren't more lawyers in the room listening to those very people who will be their threat or opportunity in the post Legal Services Act world. One response was that the lawyers were at work and knew everything they needed to know. A more concerning response is that the traditional suppliers are still playing a waiting game to see if the planned new providers actually enter the market and cause an upset. There is an excellent argument about doing due diligence and not jumping too soon. However, these businesses have either already launched or will be doing so soon so maybe the wait is over.

The one thing that the delegates and speakers had in common is that they now know what the market might look like and are already one step ahead of those who don't think the LSA will affect them. Well done to Legal Futures for another excellent conference and a great line up.

Legal industry shake up is a business opportunity

THE Legal Services Act has just come into force and it threatens to decimate high street legal firms. For years, in legal seminars across England and Wales, high street lawyers have been crying out against it. The new law hopes to create competition, but many have warned it could squeeze out smaller firms who lack the marketing muscle of the giants.
But Gary Yantin has come up with a plan to save the little known lawyers in your town. “I was sat in this seminar a few years ago, listening to a talk about how the Legal Services Act was going to be very scary for small high street firms and I thought there has to be another way.” Indeed, there was. It was then and there that Yantin hatched the idea for his business, High Street Lawyer.
“I thought there has to be a way of protecting the consumer and keeping high street lawyers in work.” He had been happily working in high street and in-house legal teams since 2000. “I got home, spoke to my wife about it and thought if I don’t do it, I’ll kick myself.”
The idea was simple. Create a brand that hundreds of small law firms can sit under, one that offers the same products at the same standards, at the same price. “It’s a bit like Interflora, where a bunch of Mother’s Day flowers look and cost the same from whatever Interflora shop you buy them from. Basic legal services can be offered in the same way.” For instance, simple will services can be bought from High Street Lawyer for £200.
GETTING STARTED
To get started, Yantin went about forging partnerships and gathering money from friends and family. It wasn’t long before he had strong team of investors around him and half a dozen high street firms. He took the plunge, working full time on the business from July 2010.
“I was nervous, but I think nerves are a good thing. The business has huge scalability so it keeps me motivated.” This attitude seems to have done the trick. He’s on track to hit his 100 law firm target by 2012.
“I’ve had to learn loads of things fast, but my investors have been great – they bring so much knowledge and expertise to the table.” Yantin’s investors have backgrounds in franchising, retail, finance and professional corporate services. Yantin says getting great investors are an “invaluable” and highly recommended resource for anyone planning to start a business.
But what’s the toughest challenge yet? “Sticking to your original concept and not getting distracted by what other people in your field are doing. We’re had couple of sweaty moments, but I know we’re doing the right thing.”

This article first appeared in CITY AM on 10 October 2011. See the full article on http://www.cityam.com/business-features/legal-industry-shake-business-opportunity