Doctors Eyes Only

Welcome to this week’s episode of the Doctor’s Eyes Only podcast brought to you by Vestia Personal Wealth Advisors, where our mission is to help the highest caliber physicians achieve Wealth That Matters®. In this engaging conversation, Vestia Partner, President, and COO Brad Quick and Mike Lee, DPM, take us through Mike's unique journey in foot and ankle surgery, his entrepreneurial spirit, and evolving views on what it means to achieve Wealth That Matters®.

Mike shares how a college friendship led him to podiatry school and how his residency experience at Western Pennsylvania Hospital shaped his career. After working in Iowa and joining an orthopedic group in Des Moines, Mike became deeply involved in consulting and product development, co-founding SDI (Surgical Design Innovations). This venture, focused on creating foot and ankle implants designed by surgeons, brought valuable insights into assembling the right team, the long-term commitment of entrepreneurial ventures, and navigating the medical device industry. You will especially love when Brad and Mike talk about the “Fab Five” and also the moment Mike decided to bet on himself and his SDI Partners instead of listening to outsiders.

Mike's reflections on wealth have shifted over time. He now prioritizes relationships, being a good father and husband, and leaving a positive mark on others over pure financial success.

Key Takeaways:

Thank you for watching and listening, and be sure to subscribe and follow Doctor’s Eyes Only for more insightful episodes released every other week. And don’t forget to leave a review—let us know what you loved most about this episode! 

www.vestiaadvisors.com

For more information about Mike and SDI see links below.

https://surgicaldesigninnovations.com/

linkedin.com/in/michael-lee-a1671314

[email protected]

#orthopedic #surgeons #doctor #physician #entrepreneur #consulting 

Welcome to the Doctor’s Eyes Only podcast!

In this week’s episode, Vestia Partner and CEO Lauren Oschman shares valuable insights on how credit scores work specifically for doctors and what to keep in mind when taking out credit. Lauren breaks down the five key factors that influence your credit score, including payment history, credit utilization, credit mix, length of credit history, and new credit inquiries.

Lauren emphasizes the importance of using credit responsibly, such as making on-time payments to maintain a strong payment history. She also highlights the need for regularly monitoring your credit to spot any potential fraudulent activity, like new accounts opened in your name without your knowledge. To protect yourself, she suggests freezing your credit with the major credit bureaus.

Additionally, Lauren offers useful advice on credit utilization, explaining how the ratio of your available credit to your debt impacts your overall score, and how maintaining a low balance can work in your favor.

Be sure to subscribe and follow Doctor’s Eyes Only for more insightful episodes released every other week. And don’t forget to leave a review, let us know what you loved most about this episode!

Links to the 3 different credit bureaus mentioned in the podcast: 

www.equifax.com

www.experian.com

www.transunion.com

#Doctors #physicians #wealthmanagement #investments #creditscore 

Welcome to the Doctor’s Eyes Only podcast and in this episode Vestia Partner and CEO Lauren Oschman is joined by her business partner and Vestia President and COO Brad Quick. Lauren and Brad  discuss the topic of how doctors can find and engage a financial advisor, with expertise from Lauren who gives some awesome tips to help doctors ask the best questions to find the best fit for their financial future. Lauren and Brad discuss the comprehensive services a financial advisor should offer, beyond just investment management. They emphasize the importance of finding an advisor who understands a client's goals, values, and aspirations, while acting as a family CFO for all financial matters. As Lauren discusses, it is important to qualify a financial advisor, including their experience working with doctors, credentials (such as CFP or ChFC), independence from product affiliations, and transparency in their fee structure. Both Brad and Lauren stress the importance of finding an advisor who specializes in serving physicians and understands the nuances of their financial lives.

Thank you for tuning in to the Doctor’s Eyes Only Podcast. Be sure to follow and subscribe where ever you find your favorite podcasts. As always, the information in this podcast is a general over head view, and we suggest meeting with your financial advisor and your accountant before making investment or tax decisions based on your specific situation. If you do not have an advisor or would like a second opinion, you can reach out to us at [email protected], and an advisor will be in touch soon! 

#financialplanning #doctor #physician #wealththatmatters #womenphysicians #orthopedicsurgeons #financialadvisor 

Welcome to the Doctor’s Eyes Only podcast, and today Vestia Partner and CEO Lauren Oschman talks about ways to potentially demystify tax brackets for physicians. Lauren explains the difference between flat tax rates and graduated tax rates, while using examples to illustrate how graduated tax rates work, with only the income above a certain threshold being taxed at a higher rate. An example of a flat tax, could be some state taxes which are a fixed percentage of your income. A graduated tax however would be one that stair steps up as you make more money. 

After delivering some general information about the different ways your income could be taxed and clearing up some misconceptions, Lauren then explains how things can get complicated for physician clients when there are two incomes in the household. When considering graduated taxes, doctors typically have high incomes which already has them in a higher tax bracket. And even though certain percentages taxed  only cover certain portions of that income, a spouses full income could be taxed at the higher rate when filing jointly. This becomes an issue if your spouse doesn’t have enough taxes withheld at their employer. 

As Lauren explains, there are many tax strategies that can be implemented to help ease some of the burden, and especially to prevent a huge tax bill. It may be a good idea to run a projection in September or October so there is no potential surprise on April 15th. 

“I think it's a smart idea, around September or October of the year to pull a year -to -date pay stub for each one of you (when filing jointly). And this is even if you're a single physician household, this is something that can make sense if your income tends to vary. If you get productivity pay, maybe you got an extra bonus, you cashed out some investments, things that would hit your tax return during the year that maybe you didn't plan for in the beginning of the year. Get all of that on the table so to speak with your accountant, with your financial advisor, and have a projection run to show, based on what you expect to happen in the last few months of the year, and based on everything that's already happened in the first two thirds of the year. You have the opportunity then to either adjust some withholdings for the last few months of the year,  for the option of paying in some money each quarter if you discover that you might be underpaid, or just to have your eyes wide open as to what that April 15th number is going to look like.”

Thank you for tuning in to the Doctor’s Eyes Only Podcast. Be sure to follow and subscribe where ever you find your favorite podcasts. As always, the information in this podcast is a general over head view, and we suggest meeting with your financial advisor and your accountant before making investment or tax decisions based on your specific situation. If you do not have an advisor or would like a second opinion, you can reach out to us at [email protected], and an advisor will be in touch soon! 

#doctor #physiciansfinancialcheckup #podcast #taxrate #financialadvisor #taxes #taxbrackets #physicianwealth 

Welcome to the Doctor’s Eyes Only Podcast!

In today's episode, Vestia Partner and CEO Lauren Oschman delves into strategies for doctors to maximize tax benefits through charitable giving. Lauren will guide you through:

“So here's strategy number one that you could consider. If you are in the situation where you don't have enough in the itemized column to be able to get additional tax benefit from your charitable giving, you could consider using what's called a donor advised fund. You fund this account and it's essentially the charitable version of you. So if I set up a donor advised fund, I have the Lauren Oschman charitable fund, I actually give that money to charity from the IRS's perspective when I put it in the donor advised fund.”

“We transfer the stock to the charity's investment account. The charity sells the stock, they're a nonprofit, so they don't have to pay tax when they sell the stock. I still get the benefit of that additional deduction on my itemized deduction column, plus I saved the capital gains tax that I otherwise would have had to pay at some point in my life when I decided I was going to spend out of that stock account.”

Join us as Lauren Oschman shares practical and impactful strategies to make your charitable giving more tax-efficient. Be sure to follow and subscribe where ever you find your favorite podcasts. As always, the information in this podcast is a general over head view, and we suggest meeting with your financial advisor and your accountant before making investment or tax decisions based on your specific situation. If you do not have an advisor or would like a second opinion, you can reach out to us at [email protected], and an advisor will be in touch soon! 

#doctor #podcast #charitablegiving #wealththatmatters #physicians #financialplanning

Welcome to a special Wealth That Matters® edition of the Doctor’s Eyes Only Podcast where Partner and Advisor Cameron Heasley interviews Dr. Lee and Lori Wilbur, the founders of the nonprofit, Divine Mercy Health Center. Lee is an emergency medicine physician, Lori is the family CFO and COO, and they both share a passion for serving others through their nonprofit. Divine Mercy Health Center was inspired by the ways the Wilburs found the healthcare system to lack accessibility to marginalized communities. They discovered that social determinations of health such as transportation, housing and education were key reasons that some didn’t get proper healthcare, and as a way to join their proffessional, personal, and faith lives, the Wilburs set out to bring health care to those communities. In providing free healthcare services, Divine Mercy Health Center allows patients to go through various stations such as biometrics, consultation with a physician, and motivational interviews where they are empowered to set goals for better health. In this amazing podcast episode, listeners are able to learn about a non profit mission that is fueled by faith, and powered by church populations in the communities they serve, an idea that came about from the challenge of starting in a Hispanic community and not being bilingual, as Lori talks about in the episode. Because of the success they have had in the communities they have served, Dr. Lee and Lori currently have plans to open a clinic that will offer primary care, mental health services, and substance abuse counseling to Southwest Little Rock Arkansas. To fund the clinic’s construction, hire staff, and establish an endowment for future growth and expansion, a capital campaign has been launched called ‘Have Mercy Give Health’. Through this campaign Dr. Lee and Lori Wilbur have goals to reach communities in marginalized areas throughout the entire state of Arkansas. As is said in the podcast episode, any help is appreciated whether it be a financial donation, volunteerism, or consulting in areas such as business or marketing. To find ways to get involved be sure to visit the website below. The Doctor’s Eyes Podcast would like to thank Dr. Lee and Lori for sharing their Wealth That Matters® with our audience and we can’t wait to check back with them in the future to hear more about their progress and success. 

https://divinemercyhealthcenter.org/

#doctor #nonprofit #wealththatmatters #community #physician 

Welcome to the Doctor’s Eyes Only podcast, and today Vestia Partner and CEO Lauren Oschman talks about ways that doctors can minimize a potential tax burden for their heirs when transferring wealth. At the time of this recording, the threshold that needs to be met to qualify for estate taxes is so high that many physicians don’t consider taxes when doing  estate planning. There are some things to consider in relation to the type of accounts that house your retirement funds, and the tax benefit you received while accumulating assets could cause a potential tax implication for the heirs who inherit those assets. 

“We talk about how these assets are probably your highest tax burden in retirement just because there's so much accumulating that no one's ever paid taxes on and all of it’s taxed as income tax when you retire. What happens when you pass those assets onto your heirs? It actually gets even worse. So if you are to leave an IRA, a 401k, things like that to your kids, under current tax law, your kids have to withdraw those funds within 10 years of receiving them and they're all taxed as income when they pull those out because none of that has ever been taxed before.”

At a recent conference, and something that helped inspire the message delivered in this episode, a speaker said to think about leaving taxable things to tax free people or entities, and tax-free things to taxable people or entities. One of the ways to do this is by considering your charitable interests when electing beneficiaries on your IRA or 403B. Non-profit charities don’t pay income taxes, so what could cause a tax implication for your kids, would potentially not be taxable to your favorite charity. There are things to avoid, and as Lauren explains in the podcast, just because it is stated in your will that you want a certain amount of money to be paid to your favorite charity, does not mean that those funds will come from your IRA. 

“The other thing to think about here, and I see this in estate plans with physicians quite a bit. I’ll have charitably inclined physicians, and what they'll do is they'll put in their will or in their trust document that at their passing, they'd like either a certain dollar amount or a certain percentage of their estate left to a charity or a number of charities. So this is actually decently common for me to see with physicians. When you do that, that's automatically coming out of those step up and basis assets. Why is that? Because the IRAs and 401Ks have a beneficiary on the accounts. They pass outside of your will, and they're often not owned in your trust.”

A lot of information has been shared in this podcast and Vestia Personal Wealth Advisors are here to help should you have any questions. Send us an email at [email protected], and one of our trusted expert Financial Advisors will be in touch. Thank you for tuning in!

#wealthtransfer #taxes #IRA #401K #403B #doctor #physicianwealth #orthopedicsurgeons #doctor #financialadvisor #personalwealthmanagement #womenphysicians 

Investment advisory services offered through Vestia Personal Wealth Advisors, Vestia Retirement Plan Consultants, and Vestia Advisors, LLC. Securities offered through Ausdal Financial Partners, Inc., 5187 Utica Ridge Rd, Davenport, IA. 52807 (563)326-2064. Member FINRA/SIPC. Vestia Personal Wealth Advisors, Vestia Retirement Plan Consultants, Vestia Advisors, LLC, and Ausdal Financial Partners, Inc. are independently owned and operated.

This material is intended for informational purposes only. It should not be construed as legal or tax advice and is not intended to replace the advice of a qualified attorney or tax advisor.  This information is not an offer or a solicitation to buy or sell securities.  The information contained may have been compiled from third-party sources and is believed to be reliable.

Welcome to the Doctor’s Eyes Only podcast where Vestia Partner and CEO Lauren Oschman delivers some very time sensitive important information regarding the IDR Waiver for Student Loan Forgiveness, the June 30, 2024 deadline, and why doctors should potentially act now if they believe they can qualify. Lauren takes a deep dive into what the Income Driven Repayment (IDR) waiver is and how it could potentially help doctors who previously were not able to take advantage of loan forgiveness programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). 

“Doctors historically have had trouble qualifying for loan forgiveness because a lot of them don't have qualifying loans, and qualifying repayment plans often don't make sense for doctors. So what is the IDR waiver, and why are we talking about that today? The IDR waiver is a one -time adjustment that can be made to your loan account that is going to take all of your historical payments, whether or not they were qualifying payments at the time, and are going to count those as qualifying payments toward loan forgiveness… So this could be a game changer if all of a sudden all of these payments that did not qualify before now qualify for potential loan forgiveness.”

With other things to consider such as the potential benefits of consolidating loans, the process of submitting employment verification, and whether or not physicians should switch their current loans to an income-driven repayment plan are just a few of the topics covered in this podcast. Every individual is different so doctors are encouraged to not only act fast, but to get help from a qualified advisor for how to navigate their specific situation. 

“Your paperwork, everything has to be submitted online by June 30th with dates before June 30th if anything had to be signed and dated. You don't actually have to have any of these things granted before June 30th. In fact, you probably won't. There's quite a backlog in the student loan system and so I would expect you won't hear anything for months after you get everything submitted.”

A lot of information has been shared in this podcast and Vestia Personal Wealth Advisors are here to help should you have any questions about the IDR Waiver or whether you could potentially take advantage of Student Loan Forgiveness. Send us an email at [email protected], and one of our trusted expert Financial Advisors will be in touch. Also make sure to share this information with colleagues who may be eligible for the IDR waiver, particularly those working at non-profit hospitals or academic institutions. 

#IDRWaiver #studentloanforgiveness #publicserviceloanforgiveness #pslf #doctor #physicianwealth #orthopedicsurgeons #doctor #financialadvisor #personalwealthmanagement #womenphysicians 

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Doctor’s Eyes Only podcast where Vestia Partner and CEO Lauren Oschman delivers Part 2 on Spring Cleaning for your Finances. If you are tuning in to part 2 and you haven’t listened to part 1 yet, be sure to go back and listen there first so as to not miss some good tips on ways to declutter your financial life. In part 2, Lauren discusses reviewing beneficiary designations on accounts, and checking credit reports for accuracy and locking credit to prevent potential fraudulent account openings. 

“First tip for today, review the beneficiaries on your accounts. Retirement accounts through work, IRA accounts, life insurance policies, these are all things that have beneficiaries on them. A beneficiary is the person who would get that account if something happened to you and you weren't around anymore to have the account.”

Another tip Lauren provides is to verify homeowner’s insurance coverage for rebuilding costs. This is very important in our current economic environment because home prices and the values of homes have been rising so fast as of recent. This has not only created a lot of equity for the home owner, but also created a gap in what home owner’s insurance will pay to rebuild the home compared to the cost of rebuilding it. 

“There are a lot of policies out there. that actually cap what the replacement value of the home is based on the value or what it would have cost to rebuild that house when you initially got the policy. So if that was a while ago, and again, construction costs have all increased over the last few years, that may not be enough money to rebuild the same home today in 2024.”

There are many other great tips regarding spring cleaning for your finances in this episode, so be sure to follow and subscribe where ever you find your favorite podcasts. As always, the information in this podcast is a general over head view, and we suggest meeting with your financial advisor and your accountant before making investment or tax decisions based on your specific situation. If you do not have an advisor or would like a second opinion, you can reach out to us at [email protected], and an advisor will be in touch soon! 

#doctor #physicianwealth #orthopedicsurgeons #doctor #financialadvisor #personalwealthmanagement #womenphysicians 

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Doctor’s Eyes Only podcast where Vestia Partner and CEO Lauren Oschman delivers Part 1 of a 2 Part series on Spring Cleaning for your Finances. As Lauren mentions in the podcast, the idea of spring cleaning is a cleansing, de-stressing activity to allow you to move forward confidently with more focus. This is in relation to your home, however it can be a very similar feeling after doing some spring cleaning for your finances. A great example could be if you have multiple brokerage accounts with different companies or advisors. Many times physicians who don’t have a specified advisor will invest extra cash in different accounts because of a special being offered or because they heard good things about a certain company. 

“Well, imagine how hard it is to keep track of four accounts. Number one, you have to remember they all exist. You have to have the credentials to actually get access to all of those accounts. You have to make sure you have four different tax forms to give to your accountant to report the same kind of activity, because again, it's the same type of account…”

The second tip Lauren shares for physicians looking to do some spring cleaning for their finances is to check the interest rates on savings accounts. As everyone knows the interest rates for getting a home loan have risen dramatically and it has impacted the real estate and lending industries. Something that many physicians have not considered is that the rates have also risen on savings accounts.

“Here's what I'm observing when I am meeting with doctors who are not currently working with an advisor or who haven't had time to look into this. They have money sitting in say their bank savings account where they're getting maybe 0 .1% interest.. According to the FDIC the national average on bank savings accounts or on savings accounts is 0.47%. So that's the national average. There are platforms where you can open up a high yield savings account. Often these are online platforms so you can set up an online savings account that is high interest.. Most of those are at like four to 5% interest.”

There are many other great tips regarding spring cleaning for your finances in this episode and even better than that, there is a part 2 that will release later this week, so be sure to follow, and subscribe where ever you find your favorite podcasts and check back soon for part 2. As always, the information in this podcast is a general over head view, and we suggest meeting with your financial advisor and your accountant before making investment or tax decisions based on your specific situation. If you do not have an advisor or would like a second opinion, you can reach out to us at [email protected], and an advisor will be in touch soon! 

#doctor #physicianwealth #orthopedicsurgeons #doctor #financialadvisor #personalwealthmanagement #womenphysicians