Physicians are some of the most highly sought-after professionals in the country. They make a good living, but with that comes a lot of responsibility. Not only do they have to worry about their own financial security, but they also have to think about the well-being of their families. That’s why more and more physicians are turning to Freedom Path Financial for help with advanced planning. We offer a wide range of services tailored specifically for affluent doctors, including estate planning, tax planning, and wealth management. With our help, you can rest assured knowing that your family is taken care of both now and in the future.

The Nature of Advanced Planning

If the objective is wealth preservation, advanced planning can certainly fit the bill. Although advanced planning encompasses more than wealth preservation, we will focus our discussion on this topic. Advanced planning is a critical process that regularly results in the repositioning and restructuring of the assets of an affluent physician to preserve and magnify his or her wealth as best as possible.

As a process, advanced planning leverages tax laws and regulations, often employing tax-driven, cutting-edge strategies and sophisticated financial products in unique ways for the benefit of physicians.

When working with affluent physicians, our ability to adroitly apply the basics is a given, For a percentage of our affluent physician clients we have found that the opportunities to employ state-of-the-art advanced planning strategies are in high demand. Moreover, in most cases, if the objective is the conservation of private wealth, then it’s often essential to selectively use these sophisticated strategies.

Advanced planning for Physicians entails leveraging the legal, tax, and regulatory systems as well as the innovative use of financial products to provide one or more of four interrelated services.

• Asset-protection Planning
• Wealth Enhancement
• Estate Planning
• Charitable Giving

The four services interlock thematically and are important to varying degrees to affluent physicians, depending on each one’s individual circumstances. Moreover, when engaging in advanced planning with affluent physicians, synergies are created among the four services. And the ability to profit from these synergies can meaningfully benefit the Physician.

Asset-protection Planning

Asset-protection planning is what protects an affluent physician’s hard-earned wealth. There are a great many strategies that affluent physicians can employ to protect their wealth against potential creditors and litigants, children-in-law, and potential ex-spouses. The homestead exemption, interests in limited partnerships or limited liability companies, and the selective use of life insurance, Disability insurance, and annuities are all examples of transformation strategies.

Wealth Enhancement

There is a wide variety of advanced planning strategies that can be utilized to enhance wealth. One example of wealth enhancement includes deferred compensation programs, Advanced planners are able to enhance a physician’s wealth significantly when the physician’s practice can be integrated through dormant asset financing, synthetic equity strategies, and a number of tax-favored programs that move money and/or benefits from the practice to individual.

Estate Planning

As long as there are estate and gift taxes, as long as there are intergenerational considerations, and as long as there are interconnected practice interests, there will be a need for wealth-transfer strategies and tactics. When it comes to estate planning, advanced planners are called upon to facilitate not only the transfer of wealth in accord with the wishes of the affluent physician client but to do so in as tax-efficient a manner as possible within prescribed parameters.

Estate planning also comes into play when action has to be taken to ensure the efficient and cost-effective transfer of a practice’s ownership or assets. The forced transfer of equity in medical practices due to the death or disability of a partner proves to be a major way for affluent physicians to abrogate their wealth.

Charitable Giving

Apart from wealth and success, a strong majority of affluent physicians want to give something back. Charitable gifting is an important component in advanced planning, especially when coordinated with the other three services. When an affluent physician client of ours is strongly philanthropic, that inclination can be coordinated to produce additional wealth enhancement and wealth-transfer strategies.

Advanced insurance planning is an important step in protecting yourself and your loved ones financially. It involves carefully assessing your risk factors and identifying potential areas of financial loss, such as death, disability, or long-term care.

Aside from private foundations with their specific limitation, supporting organizations and donor-advised funds allow for the maximum immediate tax benefits timed for the benefit of the physician. Charitable remainder trusts and charitable gift annuities provide both tax benefits and income streams. The charitable lead trust can finesse the estate tax while passing wealth to future generations.

The Innovation Process

The innovation process is the cerebral side of advanced planning and is central to our ability to deliver creative and powerful solutions for the financial and selected legal issues facing physicians today. The innovation process starts with evaluating where we are today and concludes with a viable strategy specifically suited to the world of affluent physicians.

The process is in many ways a search for nuance. It is often a matter of identifying a wrinkle in the tax code and knowing under what conditions affluent physicians can benefit.

The innovative process is composed of four interconnected processes that can ensure state-of-the-art results.

Environmental Scanning

Is an ongoing systematic evaluation of the evolving legal and regulatory landscape as well as the changing preferences and requirements of affluent physicians and their practices. Also, as part of environmental scanning, advanced planners are perpetually appraising the strategies and financial products that come onto their radar screens.

Scenario Thinking

Scenarios are hypothetical futures that an affluent physician might encounter, and each scenario has a probability and a risk assessment associated with it. When applied to the innovation process, scenario thinking is used to develop a number of potentially viable strategies.

Actualization

Is turning hypothetical ideas into real strategies and products. Everything that is required to make the idea work effectively is delineated and put in place. “Selected Advanced Planning Wealth-Preservation Strategies.”

Validation

Encompasses implementing and regularly updating the innovation. Validation also encompasses two additional considerations one legal or regulatory and the other ethical.

For affluent physicians, the Innovation Process operates in the background. Nevertheless, for us, it’s perpetual and instrumental in our ability to exceed the expectations of our clients.