Financial planning is not brain surgery… but for some it feels as challenging. Many of us do not have the skills and do not know how to maximize our earnings or plan for retirement. In an effort to increase members’ understanding of financial planning, VPSA sponsored a session recently with presenters Bernie Geiss, Warren Campbell, and Brent Bourne covering a wide range of topics and answering your questions.

Topics covered during the hour-long session included:

• Maximizing your corporate structure in 2020 and beyond
• Passive investment income problems and solutions
• Retirement tax planning – 1- to 10-year time horizon
• Retirement tax planning – 10+ year time horizon
• Minimizing insurance costs, maximizing benefits
• Dealing with capital gains tax
• Tax minimization strategies
• Insurance basics for death, disability, and critical illness
• Basic partnership agreement do’s and don’ts

Geiss and Campbell gave a brief overview of the topics from the perspective of someone close to retirement (Geiss) and from someone still 10 or more years away from hanging up their stethoscope (Campbell). You can watch the full presentation here (password: FPS2020*).

“We called the session a ‘planning potpourri’ because we were asked to cover a diverse number of areas,” commented Geiss. “We couldn’t spend too much time on any one topic but hope it provided a basic overview of how physicians can maximize their investments and minimize their taxes.”

“There are some tremendous cash savings to be realized when you have a financial plan,” said Campbell. “It’s important to determine your financial goals and then figure out which products on the marketplace make the most sense for you.”

“Everyone has a different level of understanding when it comes to financial planning and we hope we offered tips and ideas that resonated across a wide spectrum,” added Bourne.

Feedback from the attendees via the post-event survey was mixed. Some participants were very happy with the session while others made suggestions for different topics and level of sophistication for the presentation. VPSA is reviewing the feedback and in the coming weeks will decide whether to proceed with further presentations or to focus on other types of seminars to improve physician wellbeing.