It’s tax time and the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expecting different results.    Do you feel that you are paying to much taxes but only complain to your accountant when its tax time?  A better approach to to be proactive.

Check out tips to help you stay on top of next years taxes:

IDENTIFY HOW MUCH TAXES YOU ARE PAYING – AND BE PROACTIVE ABOUT REDUCING IT

1. Don’t wait until tax time. Contact your accountant early in the year
2. Have your tax bill forecasted in advance to identify potential tax reduction opportunities
3. Set aside

Lots of baby boomers are avoiding succession planning. One can only assume that at least some of them are lawyers!

So, for today’s tip, I’ll give you 5 good reasons to stop procrastinating:

1. Proactively planning for succession allows you to minimize the risk of having to deal with it in crisis mode, should you decide to retire earlier than expected.
2. It takes time to develop a thorough succession plan.
3. It may take longer than you expect to implement your succession plan. So, you will want to pad projections for training, mentoring and hiring, in case things don’t go as planned.

In the old working model, being less human—less attuned to interactions and emotional issues—was often a competitive advantage. Messy human stuff needlessly complicated matters. But the AI revolution will reward those who are more human in their approach to services involving high value consultation and collaboration.

How long will it be before robots learn people skills? Although there have been significant advances since the development of computer-based therapists several decades ago, humans have a solid head start that we need to exploit.

Gary Klein is a research psychologist known for his pioneering work in how people make high stakes decisions …

Think about all the aspects of your job that you weren’t trained for.

Delegating

Managing people

Priority management

Developing job descriptions

Interviewing

Performance management

Leadership

Business planning

Retreats

Marketing

How much of your day is spent on this list and other such functions? How much of your energy does it take to learn and do it all?

Can you assess the impact on your success as a professional, and even on your very quality of life, if you were to improve in any of these areas, by say 20%? 30%? 40%? What about improvements to multiple areas?

You see where …

Can all grinders become finders?

The need for heads-up entrepreneurial lawyers grows as heads-down commodity “grinder” work diminishes. How can we develop more “finders” who see fresh opportunities to attract clients on a daily basis? How can we accelerate this shift in mindset? How can we use every interaction to enhance the firm’s reputation for making clients feel they are in good hands? And how can traditional rainmakers become better finders in an evolving marketplace?

While formal strategy sessions are vital to set the firm’s overall marketing and services direction, the day-to-day work of cultivating differentiated, high value consultation and …

What is a “learning experience”?

Merely “having an experience” does not guarantee how much we will learn from that experience.

Lawyers are rarely trained to excel in the most basic skill required to thrive in today’s work environment: How to learn faster in action. A widely accepted rule of thumb is that 80% of the knowledge needed to do your job is gained informally, during routine work activities and interactions. Yet developing this valuable resource is typically left to chance rather than leveraged intentionally.

A recent issue of The Economist notes, “…employers are putting increasing emphasis on learning as a …

Accountants are trained in numbers. Architects are trained in design. And lawyers are trained in words.

As a lawyer, when you speak or write, you choose your words judiciously. Am I right?

Every.

Single.

Word.

Means.

Something.

Very.

Specific. 

That is all well and good when it comes to serving clients as a lawyer. Not as well or good when it comes to developing a marketing program (and, yes, I am intentionally taking creative license with my words here for effect).

Here’s the problem…

Lawyers can write. As a result, some think they can, and in fact should, …

Today’s tip is simply to share some basic reminders for making the most of your social media this coming year.

1. There is effort in social media. Pick one or two services/platforms/techs and schedule the time to actually work them.
2. Use all tech as intended. LinkedIn was created for business networking; twitter for little bits of you; Facebook for more personal connections.
3. Any social media postings will impact your digital image and credibility. Once you start – keep going; no fits and spurts for maximum SEO.
4. Fill in your profile. Use professional head shot – you want people to know, like

Personal tax rates have changed. The tax rate on income between $45,282 and $90,563 has dropped to 20.5 per cent from 22 per cent. Conversely, on income over $200,000, the rate has increased to 33 per cent from 29 percent.

TFSA contribution limits are lower. The TFSA contribution limit has dropped back to $5,500 in 2016 from $10,000 in 2015,  If you have not maxed out your contributions every year since TFSAs were introduced, you may have up to $46,500 in contribution room.

Donation credits have changed. For those earning over $200,000, there’s now a 33 per cent donation credit …