healthcare professionals
Financial Planning for Healthcare Professionals
Your career brings financial decisions that extend well beyond your paycheck. We help physicians, dentists, and other healthcare professionals coordinate investments, taxes, retirement planning, employee benefits, and career transitions so each decision supports the bigger picture.
YOUR TIME IS VALUABLe
We organize your financial picture, research your options, and help move priorities forward, so you can use your time to make informed decisions.
Tax-Wise financial Decisions
We consider the tax implications of your contributions, investments, and compensation, coordinating with your CPA to keep your financial plan and tax strategy aligned.
clarity before big changes
From finishing residency to evaluating a new contract, buying into a practice, or preparing for retirement, we help you understand the financial implications before you decide.
PLANNING THROUGHOUT YOUR CAREER
Your Healthcare Career Comes With Unique Financial Decisions
From compensation and employee benefits to taxes, disability insurance, investments, and retirement, healthcare professionals face financial decisions that often affect one another. We help physicians, dentists, CRNAs, and other healthcare professionals evaluate their options, understand the trade-offs, and coordinate a financial strategy that reflects their careers, goals, and personal circumstances.
Compensation & Benefits
A higher salary doesn't always mean a better compensation package. Productivity incentives, retirement benefits, partnership arrangements, and other provisions can make one opportunity considerably different from another. We help you look beyond the headline numbers, understand what an offer actually means for your finances, and make informed decisions about the opportunities ahead.
Disability & Income Protection
Your ability to practice in your chosen field may be your greatest financial asset. The right disability coverage can help protect your income if an illness or injury prevents you from performing your professional duties. We evaluate own-occupation definitions, benefit limits, employer coverage, and the timing of obtaining protection to help identify gaps before they become financial problems.
Tax Planning
For high-earning healthcare professionals, taxes can take a substantial share of income and investment returns. Thoughtful planning goes beyond preparing this year's return. We evaluate strategies involving retirement contributions, investments, compensation, and future withdrawals, with an emphasis on managing taxes over your lifetime. We also coordinate with your CPA so financial and tax decisions work together.
Career & Practice Transitions
Major career changes are natural opportunities to reassess your financial plan. Whether you're becoming an attending, changing employers, buying into a practice, or preparing to retire, the decisions involved can have lasting consequences. We help you step back, evaluate your options, and make sure your financial strategy continues to support the life you're building.
Investments & Retirement
Earning a good income and building lasting wealth aren't necessarily the same thing. How much you save, where you invest, and how you manage taxes along the way can make a meaningful difference. We help coordinate retirement contributions, investment management, and tax-aware strategies around your goals, whether that means building long-term financial security or evaluating the possibility of retiring earlier than expected.
Student Loans & Debt Strategy
Student loans shouldn't dictate your financial life. Balancing repayment with retirement savings, investing, and other goals can be challenging, particularly early in your career. We help evaluate repayment strategies, refinancing opportunities, and potential forgiveness programs so you can make informed decisions about managing debt without putting the rest of your financial future on hold. Explore our Student Loan Strategy Calculator.
questions and answers
Questions Healthcare Professionals Ask Us
How is working with a fee-only advisor different?
Fee-only describes how we're compensated. Ruiz Financial Group is paid directly by our clients for financial planning and investment advisory services. We don't receive commissions from selling investments, insurance, or other financial products.
That means we can help you evaluate a disability policy, retirement account, or other financial decision without receiving compensation from the company providing the product. Our fiduciary responsibility requires us to act in your best interest when providing investment advice, including identifying and addressing potential conflicts of interest.
You'll work directly with Anthony Ruiz, CFP®, CPWA®, who brings over 12 years of experience advising individuals and families. We explain the reasoning and trade-offs behind our recommendations so you can make informed decisions.
Can I work with you during residency or fellowship, even if I haven't built significant savings?
Yes. You don't need a large investment portfolio to benefit from financial planning. Residency, fellowship, and the transition into practice involve important decisions about student loans, disability insurance, employment benefits, and how to use your income as it grows.
Our standalone SMART Planning™ service allows you to receive financial planning guidance without requiring investment management or transferring investment accounts to us. We help you establish priorities around your current circumstances and prepare for the decisions ahead.
Planning fees still apply, so we'll discuss the services and costs with you to determine whether the relationship makes sense for your needs and budget. View our fees.
Can you help me evaluate a job offer or employment contract?
Yes, on the financial side. Offers with similar base salaries can have very different financial implications once you consider productivity incentives, signing bonuses and repayment obligations, loan repayment assistance, retirement contributions, insurance benefits, and potential partnership opportunities.
We help you compare the financial components of an offer and consider how they fit your goals, household finances, and transition into practice or a new position. Understanding the full compensation package can help you make a more informed decision.
We don't provide legal advice or legal contract review. An attorney experienced in healthcare employment contracts should review legal provisions, such as restrictive covenants, termination terms, and contractual responsibility for malpractice tail coverage. We can coordinate with your attorney on the related financial considerations.
Can you help with my 403(b), 457(b), or practice retirement plan, even if you don't manage it?
Yes. Your workplace retirement accounts are part of your financial picture, even when we don't manage them. We help evaluate contribution strategies, available investment choices, Roth options, and plan features alongside your other financial priorities, without requiring you to move those accounts.
That may include coordinating a hospital's 403(b) and 457(b), a group's 401(k), or retirement savings options associated with self-employment income from moonlighting or locum work. We consider each plan's rules and limitations, including distribution provisions and, where applicable, employer credit risk.
For practice owners, we can help review retirement plan options and coordinate with your plan professionals and CPA. Across these decisions, we consider how contributions and account choices may affect taxes today and retirement income in the future.
Can you help me evaluate disability insurance if you don't sell insurance?
Yes. Disability coverage is an important part of protecting your financial plan, particularly when your income depends on performing specialized work. We help review your existing coverage, evaluate own-occupation definitions and potential gaps, and consider how much protection may be appropriate for your circumstances.
Because we don't sell insurance or receive commissions, our compensation isn't affected by whether you purchase a policy or how much coverage you choose. When additional coverage is needed, we can coordinate with an insurance professional.
I don't have much free time. What does working with you actually require?
Your main role is to help us understand your circumstances, share the information needed to build your plan, and participate in decisions about your financial future. We organize the planning process, perform the analysis, and help you identify which actions deserve attention first.
The initial process involves a series of meetings to understand your goals, evaluate your finances, develop recommendations, and begin implementation. The number of meetings depends on your needs and the complexity of your situation. Once your plan is established, the frequency of ongoing meetings depends on your selected service level and circumstances.
We offer virtual and in-person meetings, along with secure document sharing. If a financial question or important decision comes up between scheduled reviews, you can contact us rather than waiting for your next meeting.
A Gift of Financial Insight
9 Money Mistakes Doctors Make
As a small thank you to the healthcare professionals who dedicate their careers to caring for others, we'd like to share a complimentary copy of 9 Money Mistakes Doctors Make by Dr. Vicki Rackner.
The book offers practical perspectives on common financial missteps and decisions that can affect your financial future. Choose the PDF, audiobook, or both, and we'll send access directly to your email. We simply hope you find it useful, whether or not our paths ever cross professionally.
What's Next for Your Financial Life?
A new contract, your student loans, a practice buy-in, or a plan that finally ties everything together. Start with a brief conversation with us. We’ll listen, answer your questions, and tell you candidly whether we’re the right fit.