(0:00:00) Welcome to the Air Search Brief. Today's question is for probate attorneys. How do you vet an air search firm before you sign with one? Jessica, this is a fantastic topic to discuss. Most attorneys vet an air search firm by referral and a quick call. That works until it doesn't. Here's the thing. The firm you hire becomes part of your case file. If their report has gaps, your file has gaps. So vetting is risk management. It is not procurement.
(0:00:24) That's a shift in how to think about it. What does a good checklist look like? Right. Eight items short enough to send in one email. Let me run through them. First, pricing. You want a flat fee paid by your firm or by the estate. Walk away from contingency or from open and billable hours. Second, conflict of interest. You want no financial relationship with the heirs the firm identifies. If the firm collects from the heir directly, it isn't your vendor. It's the heir's vendor.
(0:00:49) Norby, that seems like a big difference. Do attorneys catch it? And oddly, not often enough. It gets glossed over on the intro call. It shouldn't. Third, a sample report. It should be available without a call. If a firm refuses or gets vague, that tells you something. Fourth, source citations. You want inline citations on every relationship. A family tree summary with no sources is a walk away.
(0:01:10) Let's stay on the sample report. Why does it matter so much? Because it's the most informative thing you can get. It shows how deep the documentation goes, how the firm cites sources, what the method looks like, and how they communicate. Most attorneys ask if a sample exists, hear yes, and move on. They skip the reading, read it, fifth court testimony, will a genealogist testify if you need one?
(0:01:29) A vague promise doesn't count. Sixth, international capability. You want in-country research partners in the major immigrant source nations. If the firm treats international work as out of scope, that's a walkaway signal. Seventh, documented methodology, a standard repeatable workflow you can read, not something made up case by case. And the eighth, timeline. You want a defined timeline in writing and engagement. You can walk away from a refusal to commit or from two-week promises. That's a lot to track on a call.
(0:01:56) And you're right it is, which is why I say don't do it on a call. The biggest gap is that vetting is verbal. Questions get asked, answers don't get written down, and when a case runs into trouble, nobody remembers what was promised. So email the checklist before the first call, ask for written answers. If a firm resists or gets vague, you've learned how they'll behave once you've hired them.
(0:02:14) And if an attorney already works with a firm... Well, I would say the same checklist. Vendors change, staff changes, run it on incumbents too, then run every firm to the same question. So the answers are easy to compare. The firm that answers all eight clearly is typically the right choice. Save the answers in your vendor file. So the next case starts with a known baseline.
(0:02:33) Norby, if you had to pick the two that matter most. That's an easy question. The sample report and the pricing structure, the report shows the documentation standard. The pricing shows whose interest the firm represents. Our internal research shows our clients agree with the above two choices. Staying on internal research, how does AirPros answer the checklist?
(0:02:53) Second flat fee paid by your firm or the estate. No relationship with heirs. A sample report published openly on our FAQs page. Inline citations on every relationship in every report. A genealogist available to testify on request. In-country partners in the major immigrant source nations. A standard workflow available on request. And a defined timeline in writing and engagement. Run the same checklist on us. We'll answer in writing. And if you want to share that checklist with other probate attorneys, please do. Better vetting protects every case file, whichever firm you end up choosing.
(0:03:23) Where can listeners find it? Jessica, the full checklist is on airpros.com. Look for the probate attorney's vetting checklist for hair search firms. Norby, thanks for joining me again on this wonderful topic of vetting air search firms. To you listening to this podcast, thanks for listening to the Air Search Brief, and we hope you join us on our next episode.