EVERYTHING IS READY TO MOVE FORWARD. EXCEPT THE BOND.

Getting a probate bond isn’t particularly dramatic. Until you don’t have it when you need it.

Then that bond can become the one thing holding up everything that comes next. The court requires it. Your client needs to get it. You need the case to keep moving. And now you’re explaining why everyone is still waiting on something that should have been relatively simple to take care of.

I’ve seen this happen more times than I can count. The bond isn’t necessarily the most complicated part of the matter, but that doesn’t keep it from becoming the bottleneck.

SMALL REQUIREMENTS CAN CREATE BIG BOTTLENECKS.

That’s the strange thing about a bond. It may represent only one piece of the overall legal process, but there are situations where the next step simply can’t happen until that piece is in place.

And when you’re the attorney, that creates a problem beyond simply getting the bond.

You have a client who may already be dealing with an estate, a guardianship or another unfamiliar legal situation. From the client’s perspective, you’re the person helping them navigate it. They don’t necessarily separate the bonding process from everything else happening in the case.

They simply know whether things appear to be moving.

That means a delay involving the bond can quickly become another question directed at your office: “What are we waiting for?”

THAT’S NOT A QUESTION YOU WANT TO KEEP ANSWERING.

Sometimes waiting is unavoidable. Courts have schedules. Other parties have deadlines. Complicated legal matters take time, and your clients may need help understanding that.

But there’s a difference between time the legal process legitimately requires and time lost because an administrative requirement became more cumbersome than it needed to be.

That distinction matters.

When something can be handled today, you don’t want it sitting until tomorrow because somebody is waiting for a callback. When information is available, you don’t want your staff repeatedly tracking down the status of a request. When your client has done what was asked of them, you don’t want the bond becoming the reason you still can’t move to the next step.

The best bottleneck is the one you prevent before it ever becomes a bottleneck.

THINK ABOUT THE BOND EARLIER.

One of the simplest ways to keep a bond from slowing down a matter is to address it as soon as you know it’s going to be required.

Don’t wait until everyone is ready for the next step before beginning to think about the bond. Know what is going to be required, gather the necessary information and start the process while the rest of the matter is moving.

If there’s an underwriting question or something unusual about the request, discovering it earlier gives you more room to address it. If everything is straightforward, getting the bond handled removes one more item from the list before it has the opportunity to become urgent.

That changes the bond from something you’re waiting on into something you’ve already taken care of.

MAKE “WE’RE WAITING ON THE BOND” A PHRASE YOU RARELY USE.

This is one of the reasons I’ve spent so much time thinking about how attorneys obtain probate and guardianship bonds.

The bond itself is important. The frustration surrounding it doesn’t have to be.

At Probate Bond Pros, our job is to help you get that requirement handled so you can get back to the larger matter you’re actually responsible for managing. When you submit a completed request through DARREN™, you receive my two-business-hour underwriting decision guarantee, and if the bond is approved, it can be issued immediately.

That doesn’t mean every case is identical or that every bond will be approved. Underwriting still matters, and unusual circumstances can require additional attention. What it does mean is that when we have what we need from you, you know when you can expect an underwriting decision.

That kind of certainty makes it easier for you to manage the case, your staff and your client’s expectations.

KEEP THE LITTLE THINGS FROM BECOMING THE BIG THINGS.

There will always be parts of a probate or guardianship matter that deserve your time, attention and expertise. There will always be complications you can’t predict and circumstances you can’t control.

A routine bond shouldn’t become one of them.

When you know your client is going to need a bond, get ahead of it. Take care of the requirement before it becomes the requirement everybody is waiting on.

Your client gets one step closer to where they need to be. Your case keeps moving. And you get to spend your attention on the parts of the matter that actually require an attorney.

CLICK HERE TO REQUEST YOUR BOND THROUGH DARREN™.

Darren Vermost
The Bond Guy®
Probate Bond Pros