Integrity Marketing Solutions Convenes Summit on AI Shake-Out for Law Firms

AI Search Is Rewriting Client Acquisition for Estate Planning Law Firms — and the Referral Pipeline Is Next

United States – July 13, 2026 / Integrity Marketing Solutions /

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO — July 13, 2026 — The way American families find and hire estate planning attorneys is changing faster than most law firms can adapt, according to Integrity Marketing Solutions (IMS), a legal marketing firm that has served estate planning and elder law practices for 31 years.

Prospective clients now research their questions through AI assistants before contacting a firm, and the search results, referral pipelines, and word-of-mouth channels that built most practices are weakening at the same time.

Industry data supports the shift. In SE Ranking’s study of legal search queries, nearly 78 percent triggered a Google AI Overview — the highest rate among the high-stakes categories the firm examined — meaning many prospective clients receive an answer before they ever see a law firm’s website. A Pew Research Center analysis of real browsing behavior found that users clicked a traditional search result in just 8 percent of visits when an AI summary appeared, versus 15 percent when it did not — nearly half as often. Gartner has projected that traditional search engine volume will drop 25 percent by 2026 as AI chatbots and virtual agents absorb queries.

The disruption extends beyond search. Traditional referral sources are increasingly keeping estate planning in-house: a WealthManagement.com survey found that 39 percent of financial planning firms now offer trust and estate planning internally, with more than half of those planning to expand the service in 2026. AI-powered platforms such as Wealth.com, Vanilla, Trust & Will, and Snug are giving financial advisors more tools to support estate planning conversations, document workflows, and client implementation — Trust & Will alone reports more than 20,000 financial advisors on its platform.

As a result, the prospects who do call a law firm often arrive pre-informed, more skeptical, and more price-sensitive than the clients firms are accustomed to serving.

IMS says the pattern is already visible across its work with more than 150 estate planning and elder law firms, where client acquisition now depends less on being found once and more on building trust across multiple channels before a prospect ever schedules a consultation.

“For twenty years, a good estate planning firm could coast on referrals and a decent website. That era is over,” said Jennifer Goddard, CEO at IMS. “The firms that treat this as a temporary dip will be shaken out. The firms that adapt will find the field wide open.”

In response, IMS is convening the Great Shake-Out Growth Summit, a three-day working event for estate planning and elder law firm owners, October 12–14, 2026, in Colorado Springs. The summit is organized around the three areas where the firm says practices are most exposed: client acquisition, lead conversion, and internal operations. Attendees complete a structured self-assessment in each area and leave with a single prioritized roadmap for their firm.

Sessions are led by the IMS team, including Goddard, Chief Growth Officer James Campbell on intake and conversion, and Director of Video Productions Michael Campbell on video as a client-acquisition and trust channel. Operations consultant Bryan Woulas of Infinite Ops leads the operations curriculum.

Goddard’s opening keynote draws on her own recent experience. She returned to the agency in 2025 after nearly a year away for cancer treatment and found the industry transformed, forcing IMS to rebuild its own playbook alongside its clients.

“We are not presenting a theory. We are presenting what we had to learn under pressure, in this exact market, with our own agency and 150 client firms,” Goddard said.

Registration and event details are available at grow.imsrocks.com/growth-summit.

About Integrity Marketing Solutions

Integrity Marketing Solutions is a legal marketing firm specializing in estate planning and elder law practices. Founded in 1995, IMS provides integrated digital marketing, content, video, and growth strategy to law firms across the United States. The company hosts The Marketing Lawcast, a podcast on law firm growth, and works with more than 150 active client firms.

Media Contact:
Jennifer Goddard, CEO
INTEGRITY MARKETING SOLUTIONS
jennifer@estateplanningpartners.com