Physician Finances: Fix Common Planning Gaps

In a recent meeting, I heard about an 80-year-old worth $25 million who recently lost his wife and realized he doesn’t have a will in place or any close family members. If he died, a distant cousin whom he never even talks to would inherit all that money.

There are many people out there who have been financially successful but still have huge holes in their financial plans. Let’s talk about a few of those holes and make sure you have them all filled.

Gaps in Your Financial Plan

An Estate Plan

The first is at least a basic estate plan. This is absolutely critical if you have minor children. A will dictates who will be their guardian and who will manage their money on their behalf until they come of age. But it also determines where your property and money go when you die. Additional useful documents may include a power of attorney, an advanced healthcare directive, and perhaps a revocable (living) trust.

More information here:

Revocable vs. Irrevocable Trust Pros and Cons

Insurance

Insurance is another gap frequently seen in do-it-yourself financial plans. If you are not yet financially independent, you likely need a disability insurance policy. While these are sometimes provided by employers, an individual policy is portable should you leave that employer and generally provides a more comprehensive definition of disability and better additional features.

If you are not the only one who depends on your income, you probably need a large term life insurance policy, too. An early-career physician will often appropriately carry a $1 million-$5 million policy. Luckily, even this amount of coverage is generally dramatically cheaper than your disability coverage and your malpractice coverage.

Asset Protection

Speaking of malpractice, it’s a good idea to think through an asset protection plan at some point. It is extraordinarily rare for physicians to lose personal assets to a malpractice lawsuit, but insurance definitely provides the first line of defense. This is true on the personal side, as well. Far too many doctors own a $1 million malpractice policy but carry only $50,000 in liability coverage on their car. Increase your home and auto liability coverage and stack a seven-figure umbrella (personal liability) policy on top of it. Unlike malpractice, personal liability coverage is actually pretty cheap. It might only cost you $300 a year to get $1 million of coverage.

Beyond insurance, recognize that some assets are available to creditors in bankruptcy in your state and some are not. It is a good idea to at least know what those are long before you are ever the defendant in a lawsuit. For example, some retirement accounts are protected in all states, and most retirement accounts are protected in most states. That is to say, if you had a judgment against you for $10 million above your policy limits and you had to declare bankruptcy, you would get to keep the money in your retirement accounts. That’s just one more reason to max them out every year.

The laws protecting your home, annuities, cash value life insurance, and belongings are highly variable by state. In my book on asset protection, fully half of it ended up being a state-by-state list of the relevant asset protection laws.

Another gaping hole in many financial plans, especially among residents and early-career physicians, is proper student loan management. On the day I originally wrote this piece, I interacted with a doctor who mistakenly refinanced loans that would have been eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (a $350,000 mistake), a two-doc couple expecting over $1 million in loans forgiven, and a Caribbean medical student facing 11.25% interest in student loans if he ever wants to become a doctor. Spending a few hundred dollars to get student loan-specific advice could end up saving you tens of thousands of dollars in the end, especially with all of the changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Choosing the right repayment plan and determining whether (and when) to refinance can be surprisingly complicated.

If you need expert-level help, check out WCI’s StudentLoanAdvice.com.

More information here:

The Ethics of Asset Protection

Retirement Accounts

The secret to having a lot of money in your retirement accounts is simple: put a lot of money in your retirement accounts. Perhaps the most important number in a physician’s financial life is their savings rate, i.e., what percentage of their gross income goes toward retirement each year. This is well worth calculating each year and comparing to past years. I generally recommend you save about 20% of your gross income for retirement.

That can be very challenging for many physicians because they don’t have any sort of written plan ensuring their money goes toward what they care about most. However, a budget should not feel constraining; it should feel empowering. Saving enough for the future while still allowing you to have a wonderful life requires a careful balance and a reasonable dose of discipline.

There is more to a financial plan than just a list of investments. Whether you use a low-cost, fiduciary advisor or do your own financial planning, make sure you don’t leave any gaping holes in your plan.

Do you have any holes in your financial plan? If so, how do you plan to fill them in? What other gaps might WCIers have?

[This article was originally published at ACEPNow.]