Lund Life Transitions: On Relationships & Connections

“Executors, administrators and trustees, especially those who are out of town or who are in a tough situation, people who find themselves up against a wall, or who can’t get over an emotional hurdle are my prime clients. More and more attorneys these days are also finding their way to my door,” says Michael Lund of Lund Life Transitions.

Early this year, Lund chose to leave a 27-year career in software engineering to pursue the creation of a probate concierge business. “I had been studying this move for some time, feeling driven to find a more people-centric and holistic way to invest my final working years. The opportunity to assist families in overcoming logistical and emotional hurdles as they settle an estate speaks to me,” he says.

Lund’s business model is essentially a social enterprise coupled with business solutions. He cultivates relationships with a large variety of community and business services, and at no charge, introduces referral partners to the people who need their help. For example, Lund Life Transitions helped an executor stuck with a mobile home to locate licensed RBIs; connected a mother hundreds of miles away with DFW-area fine art brokers; and a helped a sister find community resources for her disabled brother who could no longer stay in his deceased mother’s home.

Attorneys in the Greater Dallas area are discovering a two-fold advantage of Lund’s business – eliminating administrative drag without increasing payroll and a referral partner.

“If an attorney has a client who is struggling or in a panic and the attorney can’t get them over the finish line, I can help them move forward expeditiously with respect and honor to their attorney-client relationship,” Lund says. “In fact, I can help facilitate better communication and cleaner reports. I will not be compensated until it’s all done. None of that is a financial burden to the attorney and in fact it helps them move forward with the case. It’s a no-cost, value-added feature, and executors have been grateful for the help.”

Lund’s considerable connections in the community make him a valuable source of referrals. Attorneys are limited by regulation in targeting specific individuals who are potential clients. “They can’t directly contact those people, but I can,” Lund says. He has extensive direct mail capabilities, he attends networking events for home healthcare, and makes connections with people in the funeral industry.

“The objective is to connect businesses that are aware of clients in specific need, so that I can be connected with these clients – sensitively, empathetically, and in a spirit of helpfulness – and from that point connect them with an attorney.”

Lund Life Transitions can also enter into a co-branding relationship with an attorney or legal firm. They can create social media content where Lund interviews the attorney in a seminar format and posts the interview. He then directs traffic to these online resources where people will see these virtual online seminars in indexed answers to common questions. This puts the attorney in a more positive light with minimal effort on his or her part.

“It’s not bald-faced advertising; it’s positioning attorneys as knowing what they’re doing,” he says. “It’s something I can do on a regular basis without taking a lot of the attorney’s time.” He schedules 10 minutes with the attorney to talk about a question and Lund does the rest.

Lund enjoys strong relationships with his attorney clients because there are similarities in provided services, he says. “I think in general, attorneys share my drive to do the best for people. They take their fiduciary responsibilities seriously. That’s what’s drawn them, like me, to their career. In a nutshell, my goal is to feel that I’ve made a difference for people who are in a hard time. That’s really what has motivated me to make this career change. If I can build a business around that, that’s my ultimate goal.”