Doctors, I like to think, are fairly intelligent people. We worked hard in school, extremely hard in residency, and continue to refine our skills decades into practice. In addition to being intellectual, we are often experts in our fields. We enjoy more respect and higher salaries than most professions. Our work can be humbling and challenging, and it exposes us to the flawed nature of humans. Despite deeply understanding that …
I have been representing physicians for over 30 years, and I am still amazed by the attitude of most young physicians going into their first attending position. These are smart, accomplished, fully qualified physicians who have received some of the best clinical training in the world. And yet, many of these highly trained individuals in a field with massive shortages seem reluctant to acknowledge even the slightest modicum of self-worth.
Bear …
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Veteran attorney Dennis Hursh discusses his article “Private practice employment agreements: What happens if private equity swoops in?” In this episode, Dennis explains how private equity acquisitions of medical practices complicate the …
As a physician, you are no stranger to complexity. From the first days of medical school to the years of long shifts in residency, you make high-stakes decisions every day. Yet many doctors tell us they feel too busy, or under-resourced, to give their money the same level of care.
That is where a Personal CFO helps. Just as a hospital relies on a chief financial officer to align budgets, risks, …
An excerpt from The Savvy Physician: A Financial Wellness Handbook for Physicians and Professionals.
As a physician, helping people in need is among the greatest honors and privileges in the world. In the complex world of medicine, physicians and health care professionals have the opportunity and privilege to enormously contribute to patient well-being at a time of significant personal and/or family health crisis.
In addition, many physicians and health care professionals …
I’m going to say something controversial: the DPC community’s obsession with “purity” is missing the point. After two decades designing health care financial models, negotiating payer & vendor contracts, and building compliance frameworks, I’ve learned that most alternative payment models don’t fail because they’re impure. They fail because someone forgot to do the math.
When $1 million can’t save a bad idea
The University of Houston medical school launched a direct primary …
In Season 1 of the Wealth Planning for the Modern Physician podcast, host David Mandell, JD, MBA, sat down with Dr. Desmond “Desi” McGuire, a respected ophthalmologist and founder of Retina Associates of Orange County. Their conversation traced Dr. McGuire’s path from childhood influences and early career choices to building a thriving practice and navigating the financial ups and downs of medical entrepreneurship. For physicians seeking guidance on balancing clinical …
The gimmick of the day is to make -preneur the suffix of the year. Solopreneurs. Doctorpreneurs. Digipreneurs. Trumpreneurs. It should come as no surprise then, that leaderpreneur has appeared in your latest Google search. What is a leaderpreneur, anyway, and why should anyone care? Recognizing that there are as many definitions of leadership, entrepreneurship, and innovation as there are practitioners of those arts, here is my take:
Entrepreneurship is the pursuit …
After seventeen years of marriage, I found myself divorced, co-parenting, and facing two of life’s most daunting transitions at once: reentering the dating world and buying a new home. The reasons were many: parenting stressors, mid-life transitions, childhood wounds, and outside influences. There was no doubt that my career as a full-time, call-taking anesthesiologist also played a role. While the brutal 24-hour calls and 80-hour weeks were mostly behind me, …
Physicians who are also business owners have two jobs: treating patients and running their business. Hiring and keeping employees is one of the job descriptions of the latter. It is no surprise that choosing and maintaining employee benefits is not at the top of an exciting to-do list. Even if hospital systems are not your direct competition, they are often competing for …
Physicians dedicate years of training to caring for patients, often at the expense of their own financial well-being. While most doctors are well-versed in diagnosing illness, far fewer have the tools to diagnose the emotional and behavioral challenges that affect their relationship with money. In a recent episode of my podcast, I sat down with orthopedic surgeon Greg Gilot, MD, and financial therapist Erika Wasserman to explore the emerging field …
Remember the “before times” pre-pandemic, when most doctors had a single job that they went to every day, saw patients, did surgeries, took call for the same employer or practice?
Then in March 2020, the unthinkable happened. There was a worldwide shutdown of almost everything, including physicians’ offices, except for emergency rooms, ICUs, and other essential health care functions.
Once the realization set in that medicine was going to have to change …
An excerpt from Taking Care of Your Future: Your Simple System for a Big Retirement.
Whose plan? Is it yours or someone else’s?
Your financial plan is too important to be someone else’s. It must be yours. This book will help make it so.
It all starts with your vision.
Ever notice that when you get a new car, you suddenly see the same model all over the road and in about every …
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You spent years learning how to save lives, diagnose complex cases, and manage high-pressure situations. But nowhere in medical school did they teach you how to create a retirement plan, minimize taxes, or structure an investment portfolio.
Yet many doctors try to manage their own finances, thinking, “I am smart and disciplined; I can figure this out.” The truth? Being your own certified financial planner (CFP) often ends up costing more …
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Family physician Amir Atabeygi discusses his article “Building trust in dyad leadership partnerships.” Amir explains why trust is the foundation of successful dyads, highlighting how implicit follow-through and consistent communication turn a …
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Cardiologist Stanley Liu discusses his article “The business lesson new doctors must unlearn.” Stanley explains why the habits of being a “good soldier” during residency—such as accepting excessive workloads, never questioning compensation, …
In some careers, your job is not something you do; it is something you are. Medicine, acting, and politics are intimate, high-visibility professions that blur the lines between personal identity and professional role. You are not just executing a skill; you are bringing your whole self into the room, exposed and accountable.
When things are going well, that visibility can feel exhilarating. You are recognized, affirmed, even admired. Your face becomes …
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Attorney and wealth manager David B. Mandell discusses his article “Why physicians are unlike the ‘average’ investor,” highlighting why doctors face unique financial challenges compared to most U.S. investors. David explains the …
I’m often asked about how to pursue a physician entrepreneurial career pathway. Like Peter Medawar opined in his “Advice to a young scientist”, allow me to offer some advice:
You will not learn about innovation or entrepreneurship in medical school or residency. Medical education is designed to teach students clinical care and research methods. If you have an entrepreneurial interest, you will have to pursue it using alternative …
Medical errors happen every day, and patients are being harmed in hospitals. Despite years of tracking and reporting outcome-based quality measures, preventable harm remains widespread, prompting the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to launch the Patient Safety Structural Measure (PSSM). This measure, released in August 2024, focuses on structural and cultural root causes of harm rather than just retrospective results of quality improvement initiatives.
In our consultancy practice, we’re …
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