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How much money does a physician really need to retire? And once a physician has a retirement savings goal in mind, how should that number influence the decisions they make about work, family, and life today?

This episode was originally recorded more than two years ago, when we were beginning to publish the podcast more consistently. Since then, the audience has grown, and we’ve continued to hear interest in the ideas discussed here.

In this episode, Lauren Oschman, Partner and CEO of Vestia Personal Wealth Advisors, discusses an aspect of physician financial planning that can be easy to overlook when the focus is primarily on retirement savings, investment portfolios, and net worth.

A retirement number can be useful. Physicians need to understand what they are saving toward and how their financial decisions may affect their future options. But Lauren believes those calculations are only part of the conversation.

Financial planning also involves understanding what physicians want their money to make possible while they’re still practicing medicine.

Lauren recalls meeting with a physician and her husband. He wanted to stay healthy, enjoy life, and have the flexibility to coach their daughter’s soccer team. She was preparing to start her own practice and wanted more control over her schedule and how she practiced medicine.

Lauren also reflects on growing up with an interventional cardiologist for a father.

She remembers how hard he worked when she was young. As she approached the end of high school, he began making a conscious effort to spend more time at home. Instead of regularly filling his afternoons with additional cases, he made more room for family.

Physicians spend years working toward demanding professional goals. They become accustomed to pursuing the next achievement, whether that’s completing training, advancing in their careers, earning more income, or building additional wealth.

Lauren believes that drive also raises an important financial question.

If you’re already making progress toward your financial goals, what would earning more money actually allow you to do?

Later, Lauren describes another conversation with a family who had accumulated additional savings and was considering whether to invest the money.

During their discussion, the family shared that their daughter would be leaving for college in a few years. They had places they wanted to visit and experiences they hoped to share before that chapter of family life changed.

That led to a conversation about how their savings could support those priorities alongside their longer-term financial goals.

At Vestia Personal Wealth Advisors, this perspective is part of what we mean by Wealth That Matters®.

For physicians, building wealth may involve preparing for retirement, managing the financial implications of a demanding career, and making decisions about how much to work along the way. Those considerations are connected, and the right balance will look different for every family.

The central question isn’t simply how much money a physician needs to accumulate.

It’s what that money is meant to make possible.

Investment advisory services offered through Vestia Personal Wealth Advisors, Vestia Retirement Plan Consultants, and Vestia Advisors, LLC, a Registered Investment Advisor with the SEC. Securities offered through Ausdal Financial Partners, Inc., 5187 Utica Ridge Rd, Davenport, IA. 52807 (563)326‐2064. Member FINRA/SIPC. Vestia Personal Wealth Advisors, Vestia Retirement Plan Consultants, Vestia Advisors, LLC and Ausdal Financial Partners, Inc. are independently owned and operated.

This material should not be construed as legal or tax advice and is not intended to replace the advice of a qualified attorney or tax advisor.

Click the link below to schedule your free 30 minute call!

https://www.vestiaadvisors.com/contact/

What actually happens when a physician has disability insurance and needs to use it?

In this episode of Doctors Eyes Only®, Vestia Partner and CEO Lauren Oschman talks with Dr. Alex Parikh about his experience going from a practicing surgical oncologist to filing an own-occupation disability insurance claim and moving into a different role within medicine.

Dr. Alex Parikh spent more than two decades as a surgeon specializing in liver and pancreas surgery. He trained at MD Anderson, spent about 12 years at Vanderbilt, and later served as head of cancer surgery and surgical oncology at the Mays MD Anderson Cancer Center in San Antonio.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Alex Parikh purchased individual disability insurance. As a surgeon, he thought about what might happen if a physical problem kept him from operating.

Years later, he began experiencing pain in the CMC joint of his right thumb. He was diagnosed with stage three CMC arthritis and eventually underwent surgery. After returning to the operating room, the arthritis progressed into another joint in his thumb. Operating became painful, and even moving toward robotic surgery did not solve the problem.

After talking with his hand surgeon about his options, Dr. Alex Parikh began considering what it would mean to stop operating and what he could do next.

That is when the disability insurance he had purchased years earlier became part of the conversation.

Lauren and Dr. Alex Parikh discuss the difference between group disability coverage and an individual own-occupation disability policy, including how the definition of a physician’s occupation can affect a claim.

Dr. Alex Parikh also walks through his experience filing a disability claim. He discusses gathering medical records, documenting his responsibilities as an academic surgeon, the in-person evaluation, the elimination period before receiving disability income, and the timing of moving into a new role.

Today, Dr. Alex Parikh is a full-time instructional professor and director of career advising at Texas A&M’s School of Engineering Medicine in Houston. His new role allows him to continue working in medicine without operating.

Lauren and Dr. Alex Parikh also discuss why he is glad he obtained disability coverage earlier in his career. As he explains, disability can carry different financial implications depending on when it happens, how much a physician has accumulated, the income needs of the household, and how many working years remain.

But this conversation is about more than an insurance claim.

Dr. Alex Parikh is candid about the psychological side of leaving surgery after spending decades building a career around it. He talks about missing the operating room and the challenge of giving up work that had been an important part of his professional life.

His new role has given him another way to use that experience. He now teaches medical students, advises them on their careers and brings more than two decades of clinical experience into the classroom.

For physicians, Dr. Alex Parikh’s story offers a look at a situation many hope never happens: needing to use the disability insurance they have been paying for.

Instead of discussing disability insurance only in theory, this episode follows the experience of a surgeon who purchased a policy earlier in his career, developed a physical condition that affected his ability to operate, filed a claim and then had to decide what his work would look like going forward.

Click the link below to schedule your free 30 minute call!https://www.vestiaadvisors.com/contact/If you are a physician who has built a medical device, technology company, practice, or other business and think you may eventually sell it, the work that happens before the sale can matter just as much as the transaction itself.In this episode of the Doctor’s Eyes Only® podcast, Lauren Oschman, CFP®, CDFA®, co-founder and CEO of Vestia Personal Wealth Advisors, and Vestia Partner and President Brad Quick are joined by Travis Ernst, Operations Manager at NuVescor, to talk about investment banking, business valuation, mergers and acquisitions, and preparing a medical technology business for an eventual exit.Travis explains what an investment banker or M&A advisor actually does when a business owner is ready to sell. That process can include understanding the business, developing a defensible valuation, identifying potential buyers, creating a market for the company, comparing multiple offers, negotiating deal structure, and helping navigate the transaction through closing.The conversation also looks at a recent medical device transaction involving a third-generation business built around an ostomy product. The owner was not simply looking for a buyer. He wanted someone who would continue serving the patients who relied on the product. That meant evaluating potential buyers based on more than purchase price alone.Lauren, Brad, and Travis also discuss how buyers may evaluate a medical technology business. Profitability, growth, repeatable sales, intellectual property, customer relationships, the ability to scale, and whether the company can operate without depending entirely on the founder can all become part of the conversation.For physicians who may want to sell a company in the future, Travis explains why preparing several years ahead can be valuable. Clean financial records, current legal documents, protected intellectual property, a strong management structure, and understanding what a potential buyer will see when they evaluate the business can help an owner prepare for a future transaction.They also discuss why receiving an unsolicited offer is different from creating a process involving multiple potential buyers. When only one buyer is at the table, that buyer may have more leverage. Creating a market can give the seller the ability to compare price, deal structure, fit, and what will happen to the business after the transaction.Lauren also raises another part of exit planning that can be easy to overlook: the physician’s personal financial plan. Waiting until a multimillion-dollar check has already arrived may limit some of the planning decisions that could have been considered before the sale. Thinking about taxes, charitable giving, what comes next, and what the money is ultimately meant to accomplish can begin well before the transaction closes.If you are a physician, medical device founder, or business owner considering an eventual exit, this conversation offers a look at how valuation, buyer selection, deal preparation, financial planning, and the goals of the seller can come together before a business is sold.Investment advisory services offered through Vestia Personal Wealth Advisors, Vestia Retirement Plan Consultants, and Vestia Advisors, LLC, a Registered Investment Advisor with the SEC. Securities offered through Ausdal Financial Partners, Inc., 5187 Utica Ridge Rd, Davenport, IA. 52807 (563)326‐2064. Member FINRA/SIPC. Vestia Personal Wealth Advisors, Vestia Retirement Plan Consultants, Vestia Advisors, LLC and Ausdal Financial Partners, Inc. are independently owned and operated.This material should not be construed as legal or tax advice and is not intended to replace the advice of a qualified attorney or tax advisor.