"My name is Ron Anderson. I've practiced law in Central Iowa for the past 32 years and I've had the privilege of being in the ARAG Attorney Network since 1995.

Our firm specializes in estate planning, wills, trusts, powers of attorney and general civil practice. The ability to participate in the ARAG Attorney Network has been a great a deal for our practice. It's allowed us to develop new clients that we would ordinarily not have had contact with. It's allowed us to provide services to people that would not have been able to obtain legal services had they not had the ARAG plan. In addition to those ARAG members, they've also referred to me family members, friends and other folks who are not ARAG members which has also brought in additional legal work. So it's as we feel a win/win situation both for the ARAG member and us as attorneys.

In the past I've done legal work for other legal service providers. Presently I've cut back on those with the exception of ARAG who I've given my primary representation to the ARAG members. The reason being is I feel quite frankly the ARAG legal services plan is just better than the others, not only for the members but for me as a participating attorney."

Ron Anderson
ARAG Network Attorney
West Des Moines, IA

"My name is Victorianne Maxwell. I've been an ARAG Network Attorney for three years and this is my story.

I would say the three biggest benefits of being a plan attorney are the referrals that you get from ARAG, the referrals from those referrals that you received initially and the ease in administration from Provider Relations. Typcially if someone is an ARAG plan member, then a lot of the people that they are associating with from work are also plan memebers so they will say, "Well I had this issue, call her." And even sometimes the plan member has family members and they'll say "well they're not covered by ARAG, but I sent them to you anyway I'm sure you can help them out."

I would say that ARAG is probably the best structure that I've seen, I've heard and I've read about - and having personal dealings with as well. Just because it's so convenient and easy as far as the access the client has, access the attorney has online - as far as what the plan member's coverage is, submittng claims, access to actual people at ARAG that are Provider Relations that can assist you with servicing the client. So I'd say it's the best plan that I've seen. My name is Victorianne and that was My Story."

Victorianne Maxwell
ARAG Network Attorney
North Carolina

"Our office has three full-time attorneys, a full-time legal assistant and a couple of part-timers occasionally. Our areas of practice are kind of a general practice with litigation and also wills, probate - that sort of thing.

One of the attorneys in our office had been working with the ARAG Group and talked to me about and said it was the best legal plan that he had worked for. That's how I got interested in joining.

By participating in the network, we have been able to build a client base without having to do any sort of print or radio-type advertising. I think the clients that you get that are members of the ARAG Group are a better quality type of client.

We've been able to be introduced to members and gotten referrals from members to their relatives and friends and build a client base because of that.

Working with the ARAG team has been a positive experience for both me and my legal assistant. We do not seem to get bogged down in administrative details with them.

I think one of the most rewarding parts of working with the ARAG group for me has been providing wills to people. A lot of the people that are new plan members join because they could get a will and they were fifty-five or sixty years old and had never had a will. This was a big relief to them.

My advice to an attorney trying to build a practice would be to consider joining a legal plan. Marketing is one of the hardest parts of providing legal services and I think a lot of people that are attorneys that are pretty good at providing legal services are not very good at marketing. My experience with ARAG is that they do a good job with marketing."

John McNamara
ARAG Network Attorney
Omaha, Nebraska

"We've had a great experience working with the ARAG Provider Relations team.

Whenever we or our staff ask questions through either telephone, in-person or the internet, we receive prompt, courteous responses from them which enable us to do our job in a better fashion.

The new system which ARAG now uses, allows us to use the computer to check coverage, check plans, do our online billing and even get electric transfer of funds for our bills. It's been a wonderful time-saver for our business."

Ron Anderson
ARAG Network Attorney
West Des Moines, IA

"I've had the privilege of being in the ARAG Attorney Network since 1995.

The advice that I've give someone that's trying to build their practice is to be responsive to their clients. When a client calls or you get an email from client, get back to them as soon as possible. Keep the client informed as to what you are doing. Keep the client informed as to where their case is and what still has to be done.

We try to provide good service to clients by making the client feel at ease when they come to see us and we try to also give prompt, efficient service to the client and always keep the client advised to what is going on in their case.

I think the fact that if you'll keep them informed that you'll find out that they'll be more pleased with you and more likely to use you again and to recommend you to other people."

Ron Anderson
ARAG Network Attorney
West Des Moines, IA

"I think of the hardest things that you have to learn about starting your practice is to realize that it's a business and you're taught how to do legal work, you're taught how to answer legal problems, but you don't have as much experience as a business person. That's one of the things that I think that ARAG has been helpful to us in is that they realize that time is money for us in that they do things that enable us to do our business of providing legal services as efficiently as possible and bill for those and get paid for those in an efficient manner."

Ron Anderson
ARAG Network Attorney
West Des Moines, IA