The care-professional referral system for elder-law firms
Discharge planners, home-care agencies, facilities, and placement advisers meet families at the moment they need an elder-law lawyer. A firm that gives them something worth passing along, stays in front of them, and counts which of them send signed clients turns those referrals into a system.
I'm Joshua David Little. I've run my own consulting firm since 2004, I've helped attorneys prepare complex cases for trial, and I ran the first family-law ad on ChatGPT, before the platform allowed legal-services ads.
Who sends families to elder-law firms
The elder-law lawyers we've heard talk about their marketing in public lean on the care system. One Certified Elder Law Attorney names home-care agencies, long-term-care facilities, and hospital discharge planners as his referral sources. A Dallas elder-law solo says much of his work comes from people in the elder-care industry. His marketing person holds a master's in gerontology and is active in a social workers' society, and he sits on the board of an association of senior-living placement advisers.
The AI answers point the same way. When we asked ChatGPT how elder-law firms get new clients, its list of referral sources included estate lawyers, advisors, and CPAs, and also geriatric care managers, social workers, and hospital discharge planners. Google's AI named social workers beside CPAs, financial planners, real estate agents, and insurance brokers.¹
So the referrals are there. What most firms don't have is a system behind them: something useful for each kind of partner, a reason to stay in touch, and a record of which partners send families who sign. I build every referral system on the same idea. Give the people who share your clients resources and tools that help them do their own job, and sending a family your way becomes the natural thing to do.
What they want to hand out
Care professionals are glad to have something useful to hand a family, and it reflects well on them. A discharge planner with a family in front of her and a discharge to arrange can't walk them through Medicaid or guardianship. What she can do is hand the family something clear and point them to someone she trusts.
What a firm can make for each kind of partner:
- For discharge planners and facility staff: a one-page sheet of the questions families ask when a parent is leaving the hospital for a nursing home, co-branded with the facility or the hospital if they're willing, with your firm named as the place to get answers.
- For home-care agencies and placement advisers: a page on your site written for them, on when to send a family to an elder-law lawyer and what happens after they do.
- For financial advisors: a short brief on long-term-care planning they can use with their own clients.
- For personal-injury lawyers: a one-pager on when a settlement needs a special needs trust.
Each piece has to be useful whether or not the partner ever sends you a family. That's what makes it worth passing along.
Staying in front of them
A partner still has to remember you on the day a family needs a lawyer. The Dallas solo credits a steady newsletter and blog for keeping him top of mind with the care professionals who refer to him.
A partner page on your site. A page written for care professionals, separate from the pages written for families, so a social worker who looks you up finds something meant for her.
Talks for their groups. Gerontology societies, placement and home-care associations, and hospital social-work teams hold meetings of their own. A talk that answers their questions puts you in front of a room of referral sources at once.
LinkedIn. When we searched LinkedIn for elder law and social workers, most of the posts we found came from care businesses that want to send families to elder-law lawyers, or be sent families by them. Your lawyers share the material they've made with the care professionals in your market and keep up those conversations.
Financial advisors: distrusted, and needed
An advisor may know a family for years before the crisis comes. Some elder-law lawyers keep their distance anyway. One elder-law coach finds distrust common on both sides, and by his reckoning the lawyers who work without an advisor are leaving money on the table.
The way through is the same as with the care world: give before you ask. A long-term-care brief an advisor can use with a client, and an invitation to co-host an event for the clients you share, start the relationship on useful ground.
Personal-injury lawyers and settlement trusts
When an injured client is now disabled and relies on Medicaid, the settlement often needs a special needs trust. That makes the PI lawyers in your market a referral source worth approaching. A one-page brief for them, on when a settlement needs a trust and how fast your firm can set one up, is a small piece of work with a clear audience.
Counting who sends signed clients
Some firms that measure their referral work count activity. One Certified Elder Law Attorney sets his nursing-home liaison a quarterly goal for the number of visits she makes. One California estate and elder-law firm said in a 2018 review of its agency that it still had no hard numbers on conversion.
Visits and calls tell you how busy the liaison is. They don't tell you which facility, planner, or advisor sends families who sign. The count that answers that runs from the referral source to the consultation, to the signed client, to the fee.
That starts with recording the source of every new inquiry, on your contact form and in your intake notes, and reading it every month beside your other marketing. Then you can see which partners are sending you families, which have gone quiet, and where your liaison's time and your lawyers' talks will do the most good. A source that sends plenty of families who never sign may be telling you something about the fit, or about what happens at intake, and that shows up in the numbers too.
As your Fractional CMO, I build the materials, the partner page, the talk plan, and the count, and I train your liaison and staff to run it. Your lawyers own the relationships, and we build what they bring to them.
Joshua David Little is a Fractional CMO for law-firm owners and the founder of Aquila Law Firm Marketing. He has run his own consulting firm since 2004, and has done hands-on work helping attorneys prepare complex litigation for trial in family law, medical malpractice, personal injury, and unjust enrichment cases. He ran the first family-law ad on ChatGPT, before the platform allowed legal-services ads.
¹ Aquila's elder-law research: the question "How do elder law firms get new clients?" put to ChatGPT and Google's AI.