Making House Calls

An Interview with Michael Bailey of Michael Bailey Law Offices

While it’s true that doctors don’t make house calls anymore, that’s not the case for every industry- estate planning has a unique business in Michael Bailey’s mobile estate planning firm.

Michael Bailey is a mobile estate planning attorney that offices in our Broomfield office. His mobility in his business is what drew him to Office Evolution. We sat down to talk with him about his business and his time officing with Office Evolution.

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About Michael Bailey

My name’s Michael Bailey, I am an estate planning attorney. I built my practice on being a mobile estate planning attorney, which means I will go visit people where they are. I have a lot of clients that are aged and elderly, so they end up not wanting to come see me in my office.
I do wills and trusts and power of attorney. I do some V.A. planning, some Medicaid planning, and all these technical things that are really wonderful and all; but, really I try to help people plan for their future and the unknown to make it a little less scary.

How do you differentiate your business?

There are a couple different things:

  1. The mobile aspect where I will make the house calls;
  2. I am a small firm, I am a solo practitioner, and I have a part time assistant who works for me. But really you get me.
  3. I always tell people, pick an attorney who you get along with, who you can match personalities. If you don’t like your attorney, it’s not gonna end well. I try to build relationships with clients that end up more as friendships than relationships.

How has the industry changes in the last 10 years

Well in the 10 years that I’ve been doing it things have changed significantly. It used to be the estate tax limit was $1,000,000. Now the estate tax limit is $5.45 million, most people fall below that. So we’re a lot less concerned about estate tax planning than we are with income tax planning. Estate tax is not the only thing, a lot of people put their money in IRA’s and 401k’s. They put money in these tax advantage products, and then if they die, the income tax ramifications of passing those on to people is huge. It becomes very difficult, so there’s new protections and new ways we have to do things to make sure that we can carry out your wishes and not somebody else.

How do you make your business understandable?

My job is to understand everything up here and all of the code. I’ll write a trust for somebody that’s an irrevocable trust or a Medicaid plan. I’m writing around 7,000 pages of code. I can say ‘here’s what you need to do, here’s the steps you need to take to satisfy this.’ They don’t need to know or care about all the technical requirements, I don’t need to quote them the statute numbers or anything like that- that’s not what’s important to individuals. But, that’s a huge part of my job is take what’s so complex and turn it into ‘okay, here’s what you need to know.’ So, there’s different strategies that fit each individual person or family situation.

What are Your Best Business Tips?

Business Tip #1- Always Be Open to Helping Someone Else

Always be open to helping somebody else. You learn that I can’t possibly know everything. I can’t possibly do everything. So if I form relationships with other professionals…if you build that network you become a trusted advisor to your client; more than just a guy who’s going to do one thing [for them] and let them go.

Business tip #2- Everyone is Your Most Important Client

It sounds cliché, but treat everyone like they’re your most important client. My wife is a fan of saying ‘people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,’ and my wife also said ‘nobody remembers what you told them, they remember how you made them feel.’ So, if I can make my clients feel more at ease about life or if I can make them feel like they’re important, you create an emotional connection even beyond a business connection.

What has been your experience with Office Evolution?

I really liked how Office Evolution is set up. As a mobile attorney I can drive to where my clients are. I set up all my appointments on this side of town today so that I’ve got everything here. I have a professional place to meet people that’s convenient for them while I go accomplish what I need to elsewhere. It works out very well for me and I love the convenience and the professional setting of being an Office Evolution member.

For more information about Michael Bailey and his Mobile Law Office – contact him through his website at https://michaelbaileylawllc.com/.

For more information about Office Evolution and how we can help you get an office for your business, visit our website at https://www.officeevolution.com/locations/broomfield/office-space/ or call 720-897-1296.