Adviser Expertise: Financial Planning for Doctors

As a medical professional, you dedicate your time and knowledge to care for the health and well-being of your patients. While you are an expert in your field, it’s not uncommon for busy physicians like you to not have the same level of expertise when it comes to managing your personal finances in pursuit of your personal financial needs and goals. That’s where an experienced wealth management team comes in.

Financial planning for doctors is especially important given your long hours, complex insurance needs, income level and tax implications. In this post, we’ll look at some facets of financial planning specific to your needs, and the needs of other medical professionals, and show you how we can provide physician wealth services for doctors like you.

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Should Physicians Have a Financial Advisor?

A financial advisor who has experience working with a doctor’s unique concerns and priorities can provide peace of mind—giving you the time and mental energy to focus on the things that matter most to you. In many ways, a trusted advisor is a lot like a trusted doctor, providing a human-centered relationship built on the best interests of clients. And this relationship can help you avoid costly mistakes.

There are a lot of financial advisors out there, but what sets Adviser apart is our decades of experience working with doctors like you. With our robust suite of services all under one roof— financial, tax and estate planning, investing, managing loans and more—we’re a full-service financial wellness center for physicians. And we’re always there when you need us.

Let’s look at some of the many physician wealth services we frequently manage for our valued doctor clients:

1. Managing medical school debt. It isn’t news to you that medical school is a major cost as you pursue your calling. The median medical school debt for graduates in 2020 was $200,000, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. We’ve seen how overwhelming it can be to manage this debt, especially when you’re trying to focus on launching a career and your income is just ramping up.
   
   A financial advisor can help create a reliable plan to manage your student loan debt, with options for loan consolidation, income-driven repayment plans or refinancing. A financial planner for physicians can also create a budget for optimized cash-flow management to ease decision-making while paying off student loans.

2. Tax planning and retirement savings. Tax planning for doctors comes with nuance and complexity. Given the variety of income sources, deductions and retirement savings options, there can be a lot of tax code to navigate. And as a busy physician, who has time to learn the ins and outs of optimizing your tax savings? We do.
   
   Financial advisors for doctors create strategies to minimize what you owe the IRS, taking advantage of tax-deferred retirement accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s plus health savings accounts to ease the tax burden while saving for retirement. Since doctors begin the high-income-earning portion of their careers relatively late, a financial advisor like us can provide a steady hand and experienced guidance on retirement planning, investment strategies and managing risk.

3. Diversifying assets and managing investments. With your busy schedule, you likely don’t have time to focus on managing your investments and ensuring an appropriate diversification among them as markets change and your risk tolerance evolves. Wealth managers for physicians—like Adviser—provide you with a personal advisor who knows you and understands your appetite (or distaste) for risk. When it comes to investing for doctors, we’re here to relieve you of the burden of thinking about your investments by managing a portfolio of stocks, bonds, ETFs, alternative investments and other assets that conform to your values and risk tolerance.
   
   Why diversify? As you progress in your career, it’s understandable to want to reduce risk and protect your portfolio against stock market volatility, especially as retirement starts to come into view. As financial planners for physicians, we provide ongoing monitoring and investment management, keeping a constant watch on medical professionals’ portfolios to make sure they remain aligned with their personal goals and priorities.

4. Risk management and insurance planning. Doctors and other medical professionals operate in a high-liability field. As such, financial planning requires proper management to guard against everyday risks in your personal and professional life. These will be familiar to you: Malpractice insurance, disability insurance, life insurance and numerous types of liability coverage.

   Financial advisors for doctors can help assess your insurance needs, work with known third-party professionals to find appropriate and affordable insurance, and determine the proper levels of coverage. We’re also here to help provide guidance on protecting hard-earned assets against unexpected events that can impact the path to your financial goals.

5. Preparing for major life events. When major life events occur—planning a family, paying for college, starting your own practice, succession planning upon retirement, divorce, the loss of a loved one—the value of a trusted financial advisor for doctors who knows you and your personal situation cannot be overstated. A dependable financial advisor can help doctors and other medical professionals make informed financial decisions during sudden life events or times of transition, and we can help you plan ahead to protect and grow your wealth as circumstances evolve.

Want to learn more about Adviser’s physician wealth services? Don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re here for you.