As a Physician, It’s Never Too Early to Start Estate Planning
By Jared Andreoli, CFP®, CSLP®
Physicians face the realities of life and death in their daily work, yet many can shy away from contemplating their own mortality. Nevertheless, it’s crucial for doctors to consider this inevitability and to strategically plan their estate. An estate plan gives you control over who inherits your money and property if you die or who can make medical or financial decisions on your behalf.
While physicians face some unique legal challenges, like safeguarding against malpractice claims, their career stage and age should not be barriers to initiating estate planning.
No one would fault you for not thinking about the end of your life just as it’s getting started. But estate planning is more than what you leave your heirs—it also spells out your funeral arrangements, includes medical care provisions if you become incapacitated, designates care for your minor children, and more.
I think we can all agree that being prepared for the unexpected is important at any age. Working with a financial advisor at Simplicity Financial can help you start estate planning and update your documents every three to five years or as your life unfolds with new jobs, relationships, children, and travel and retirement plans.
What Is Estate Planning?
Whether you’ve just started working or have been in the game for some time, estate planning can seem complicated. However, it’s really just a series of tasks that prepare your family and others to carry out your wishes when you’re gone.
Everything you own (including your business, real estate, vehicles, jewelry, and art) is part of your estate. As you well know, these items can hold both monetary and sentimental value. With estate planning, you decide how to divvy it up instead of leaving it up to the State or a probate judge after your death.
Your estate also includes your bank accounts, retirement savings, stocks, bonds, and mundane but meaningful items like your watch, favorite guitar, or collection of books.
You might start with just a will at 18, but as you age and your assets and circumstances change, your estate planning must go deeper. Your plan can perform all of the following functions:
Naming a guardian for minor children
Designating a power of attorney
Naming a healthcare proxy
Creating a living will
Establishing trusts
Naming or updating beneficiaries
Arranging your funeral or burial
Tax planning
Estate planning can help you carry out your wishes for your loved ones, unburdening your loved ones and allowing your property to avoid probate court, the state bureaucracy, and tax collectors.
How to Do Estate Planning Right
Estate planning requires a good deal of work, regardless of whether you have just a few assets or a few too many to keep up with. However, once you get through the initial phase, you’ll have an easier time updating your documents as your life changes with marriage, divorce, birth or adoption, and retirement.
First and foremost, you must take inventory of your possessions and assets. Write each item down and attach a value to it. You also need to decide who gets what.
After recording your assets and possessions, you can begin the various tasks that make up estate planning.
Create a will that names an executor, appoints guardianship over your minor children, and establishes trusts if desired. You can then name and update beneficiaries, assign a power of attorney and healthcare proxy, and detail your preferred funeral arrangements. Have all key documents notarized and store them in a safe place.
It’s possible to complete many of these tasks on your own. However, a financial advisor from Simplicity Financial can provide estate planning guidance. We work with your attorney and accountant to create documents that meet all legal requirements and maximize your estate tax efficiency.
Start Your Estate Planning Journey Today
Through a comprehensive estate plan, physicians can manage their assets during their lifetime, provide for themselves and their loved ones in case of disability, dictate the distribution of their assets according to their wishes, and help minimize tax liabilities, court expenses, and professional fees.
If you’re ready to take the first step toward transforming goals into reality, our Simplicity Financial team can help.
Get started by scheduling a free consultation, or reach out to us by emailing jared.andreoli@simplicityfinancialllc.com or calling 414-207-6473.
About Jared
Jared Andreoli, CFP®, CSLP®, is president and financial planner at Simplicity Financial, a fee-only RIA dedicated to helping early-career physicians conceptualize their financial picture and achieve their financial goals. Jared specializes in devising individualized financial road maps for clients, and he loves nothing more than a full day meeting with clients who value his partnership to solve problems—big and small.
After college, Jared spent six years working as a mutual fund administrator for a large company. While he learned an immense amount about the financial world, he was missing the personal connection of working with individual clients. Combining his passion for finance and personal connection, he established Simplicity Financial in 2017.
Jared has a degree in finance with a concentration in financial planning from Western Kentucky University, along with the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) and a Certified Student Loan Planner (CSLP®) certifications. Outside of work Jared enjoys cooking and traveling. He played baseball in college and still coaches occasionally. He and his wife recently welcomed a daughter, who occupies most of their time. To learn more about Jared, connect with him on LinkedIn.