Top 10 reasons to Hire a Certified Financial Planner for Medical Professionals…
1. MED SCHOOLS DON’T TEACH DOCTORS ABOUT PERSONAL FINANCE.
Doctors are pretty much forced to learn financial planning and investing the hard way since there’s no other way to develop the skills and experience to feel confident when managing their personal finances. A good financial planner, particularly one who likes to educate their clients, can tell you everything you need to know exactly when you need to know it, which saves you time and headaches.
2. “SEE ONE, DO ONE, TEACH ONE” DOES NOT APPLY TO FINANCIAL PLANNING.
Every doctor and every family has a different financial situation so there’s no way to get good at doing your own personal financial planning without making a whole bunch of mistakes. As a financial planner, I have learned everything I can about financial planning for medical professionals, written many financial plans for doctors and I can teach you what you need to know in order to achieve financial security for your family.
3. IT TAKES A DOCTOR TO KNOW A DOCTOR.
And the same logic applies to financial professionals. As a medical practitioner, you’ve got a network of specialists to call upon when you’re out of your depth. But when you’re doing your own financial planning or when you’re using a financial advisor who doesn’t specialize in financial planning for medical professionals, you lose the benefit of that network. As financial planners for medical professionals, I have a deep network of experts including attorneys, bankers and insurance agents who we rely on when our clients need guidance that goes beyond the scope of our practice.
4. SURGEONS DON’T OPERATE ON FAMILY MEMBERS…
…and they shouldn’t operate on their own portfolios either. When it comes to investing, you only get two emotions: greed and fear. When the market’s going up every day, you regret not buying more (greed) and when the market’s going down, or sideways, you feel like you’ve made a mistake (fear). Even if you’re a “white coat investor,” you’re still human and your emotions can make you your own worst enemy. A solid financial advisor can help you make a plan and stick with it so you’re more likely to have a positive outcome.
5. YOU ARE ALREADY LATE TO THE FINANCIAL PLANNING PARTY.
Physicians usually start making “real money” in their mid-30’s, just about the time you needed to buy a house, pay off student loans and cover the cost of childcare. A good financial planner for doctors can help you start earlier and save more so that you don’t find yourself burned out and wishing you had put away more money earlier in your career.
6. FINANCIAL PLANNING TAKES TIME AND YOU DON’T HAVE ANY LEFT.
When you’re not sleeping, or eating, or doing procedures or rounding on patients, you might want to spend some time with your kids or even your spouse, unless of course you are on call or dangerously behind on your dictation. When all that’s done, do you really want to sift through the financial news, read over your insurance policies, tackle your estate planning and manage the minutiae of student loans? A financial planner for doctors can do all that for you, giving you some energy to enjoy what’s left of your free time.
7. MAKING THE WRONG FINANCIAL MOVE IS MORE EXPENSIVE THAN HIRING THE RIGHT FINANCIAL PLANNER.
Everybody in your practice knows the doctor who made a huge financial mistake. He’s the one standing in the O.R. long after he should have retired. We’ve heard them say, “I wish I had met someone like you when I finished residency.” Guess what? You just met me!
8. THE BREAK ROOM TELLS ONLY SIDE OF THE STORY.
From the outside, it looks like your colleagues are brilliant financiers. They’ll brag about all the money they’ve made in the market but they won’t say a word about the huge losses they racked up in the process. A financial planner for doctors can help you make better decisions and prevent the mistakes your colleagues have made.
9. YOU COULD USE A FINANCIAL SCAPEGOAT.
Now that you’re a doctor, there’s a lot of pressure around money. Your mom and dad need help buying a house. Your brother-in-law wants you to invest in his restaurant. Your colleagues are pressuring you to pay way too much to buy into the medical office building. And while you want to “do the right thing,” you know that might not be right for you. When you have a financial advisor (and everybody knows it), you can say, “My financial advisor said no.” It makes your financial planner the bad guy, not you.
10. YOUR FAMILY IS COUNTING ON YOU.
You may be the only one in your household who understands the money situation. If something happens to you, your family may have a tough time taking on the task unless you have a financial advisor who can help them pick up where you left off. And if your wife/husband is not involved with the personal finances, a financial planner can help you work together to become financially stronger as a couple and even model good financial habits for your children.
SO WHAT’S THE ONE REASON NOT TO HIRE A FINANCIAL PLANNER?
It’s simple. You should not hire a financial advisor unless you actually intend to follow their advice because the best advice—like the best medicine—won’t do you a bit of good unless you actually take it as directed.
Shore Financial is a fee-only, tax-focused financial planning firm located in Monmouth Beach, NJ.
Joseph Vecchio CPA, CFP®, MBA is the firm’s President and has dedicated his professional life to the finance and accounting professions.
Joe believes that people are being exploited by financial salespeople who are merely motivated by quotas, product sales and commission-based income! Shore Financial Planning was founded to provide peace of mind through conflict-free, value-added advice.
When you work with Shore Financial Planning, the financial advice we provide is ALWAYS in your best interest.
As a Certified Financial Advisor, NAPFA Professional, and Fiduciary Advisor, Joseph Vecchio offers unbiased and conflict-free financial advice & retirement planning services.
Levi Armstrong
You made a good point when you said hiring a financial planner is beneficial because it would be much more expensive to make a wrong financial move than hire one. My husband wants to invest our savings and retirement money in the stock market soon. I’ll talk to him tonight about hiring a financial planner to ensure that heat invests our money in the right accounts. Thanks.