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Phil,

The first step is asking the question by doing what you have done - seek guidance. I get asked this question frequently from folks that are just starting out and my response is usually pretty similar.  First, it is important for you to understand that in both life care planning and forensic services, you are being retained because of your expertise.  Expertise is not developed from sitting in a classroom and learning.  Expertise is evolved over time, through a combination of graduate training, certification and/or licensure, mentorship, and most importantly - experience.  There is no substitute for experience and that takes time – in some case many years.     

I am not sure what your level of experience is.  If you lack experience, I would suggest you immediately seek out mentorship either formally or informally to job shadow an LCP/FVE to see if you have the thick skin it takes to do this work.  The nature of the work is that one side or the other will always be telling you – you are wrong, or your opinion is in error – will you be able to deal with this most fundamental aspect of this work – only you know the answer, or maybe you don't know yet – that is why job shadowing is so vitally important.  Coaching and mentoring is available through IARP depending upon where you are in your career and the direction you see yourself going.  If you find this work is for you, then begin to network, and obtain the foundation training necessary to do the work that you seek.  The fact you are on this discussion group and had the courage to ask the question shows you are already in this mode of thinking.  I will not go into the training that is available as that has already been discussed in this thread.  But beyond the training – I can't overstate the importance of mentoring before, during, and after your training.  I would encourage you to work for someone else for several years before you contemplate going it on your own.  The most dangerous part of this work when you first start out, is not knowing what you do not know – that knowledge and wisdom only comes with experience and time and I believe is the root cause for developing a lot of gray hair. In this world of immediate response by email, text, or phone, we sometimes loss sight of the fact that slow and steady, with contemplation and deliberateness, will generally win over haste and urgency.

When I first started in this work, I worked for someone else for 8 years.  During that period of time, I did no forensic work for the first 4 years, and it was about 6 years into the job before I ever gave my first deposition.  Now 22 years later, I reflect back and periodically run across an old report that I had done 10-15 years ago, and I can't help but smile ask "what was I thinking – I can't believe I said that."  I have a CRC in my office that I hired last year who also wants to move in the direction of forensic work.  The employee has 10 years of public experience, and after 1 year of work with me, has yet to work on a forensically oriented case.  The employee is learning the literature, obtaining the foundation training in LCP, and learning what he/she does not know. The employee might be ready in a couple of years, but is presently making steady progress toward that finish line.