SPEAKER – Dorje Gurung (Associate Wealth Consultant)
TOPIC – How Medical Financial Planning can help you
INTRODUCTION
The financial journey of a doctor is unique and complex. DPM Financial Services is a specialist medical financial advice firm that aims to educate doctors of Australia to make the right financial decisions and achieve their financial goals.
DPM Financial Services is all about getting you the right advice that suits your personal and professional needs and making sure you have confidence in your financial future.
Today I’d like to welcome to the PodMd studio Dorje Gurung from DPM.
Dorje is an Associate Consultant with over 10 years’ experience in the financial services industry. Dorje specialises in creating strategies to accumulate wealth, manage cashflow and debt, planning for retirement and creating investment strategies to help medical professionals achieve their professional, financial and lifestyle goals.
*We do hope you enjoy this podcast but please remember that the information discussed here is of a general nature and is not intended to serve as advice. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of DPM, not PodMD. This information has been provided by Doquile Perrett Meade Financial Services Ltd Financial Services License (AFSL) 239690 and is general in nature so it may not be right for your personal circumstances
DPM Financial Services recommends you obtain advice concerning specific matters before making a decision.
Interviewer: Dorje, thanks for talking with us on PodMD today.
Dorje: Thank you for having me.
Interviewer: The topic of today’s discussion is ‘Why a medical financial planner can be of benefit to you as a medical professional’
To get us started, can you briefly explain ‘What is a financial planner, and how does a medical financial planner differ from a generic one?’
Dorje: A financial planner is a professional that creates and implements strategies that help individuals and their families achieve their financial goals.
A medical financial planner does the same thing but specialises for medical professionals and their unique careers.
Medical professionals have very specific and complex financial needs that often differ from other individuals and that’s where it helps to have a specialised medical financial planner in your corner that understands your industry and profession and can provide tailored advice to you.
For example, you might be a doctor working in the public hospital and considering opening a private practise or you might be considering moving interstate for a job and not sure how these changes will impact your financial situation, a medical financial planner can factor these variables into their advice.
Question 1: Who could benefit from medical financial planning?
Dorje: If you are a medical professional progressing in your career and you want to start planning how to use your surplus cashflow and cash savings effectively to build your wealth over the long-term, then you should consider seeing a medical financial planner. As a doctor, we understand that your time is a valuable resource, and financial planning can be a very time intensive thing. Having a medical financial planner can save you a lot of time and energy, allowing you to focus your energies elsewhere.
Question 2: Can you explain the perks and process of receiving personalised medical financial advice?
Dorje: In your initial meeting, a medical financial planner will focus on understanding your personal situation and working out what your financial and lifestyle goals are. Following that, they will prepare a Statement of Advice document which will have personalised recommendations and advice to help you achieve those goals.
A financial planner can also prepare financial modelling to show the impact of your decisions on your cashflow and net investment assets over the long-term.
Let’s say for example, you’re a surgeon working full time at a public hospital, and you are considering opening a private practise or you want to know the impact of sending your children to private school in the future. We can project and analyse what your cashflow and net asset position will look like for the next 10-15 years or even until retirement to show the financial impact of making different decisions.
This modelling can be very powerful and can assist you in making those key professional and lifestyle decisions.
Interviewer: You mentioned net investment assets, can you explain the difference between net assets and net investment assets?
Dorje: It is really important to understand the difference between your net assets and your net investment assets.
Your net assets are simply the sum of your total assets minus your outstanding debts.
Whereas your net investment assets are your net assets minus your lifestyle assets (which can include your home and maybe your holiday home if you have one) because these lifestyle assets will not generate any income to meet your lifestyle expenses.
Question 3: What are the benefits of leaving the medical financial planning to the experts?
Dorje: Medical professionals generally have higher income levels compared to most other occupations. As a result, they may require more sophisticated strategies compared to others to optimise tax, protect their assets and build wealth over the long-term.
Engaging a medical financial planner will allow you to outsource all of this to a specialised expert in this area, allowing you to focus on your career. Doctors tend to have quite busy careers and so if you find yourself time-poor then outsourcing this financial work to an expert can be a wise decision.
Question 4: What happens if your personal and professional goals and circumstances change?
Dorje: That’s a very good question.
People’s goals and circumstances change all the time. As a result, previous strategies that were being implemented may no longer be appropriate for your new situation.
Let’s say for example, you decide to purchase or renovate your home, or you decide to have children. This is something you can discuss with your medical financial planner, and they will work with you to either amend or update your advice so that you remain on track to meet your financial goals and objectives as your personal and professional circumstances change.
Question 5: With the landscape of legislation and rulings in constant change, how does having a medical financial planner help?
Dorje: The financial planning industry is constantly changing, and it can be quite difficult to keep in touch with all the legislation changes and new rulings.
Medical professionals tend to have busy careers and are generally time poor. As a result, it may be very hard for them to keep updated with the current financial planning rules and regulation.
Having a medical financial planner will mean that you don’t have to worry about the changing landscape of the financial industry and can focus on your own industry.
Interviewer: Thank you for your time here today in the PodMD studio. To sum up for us, could you please identify the three key take home messages from today’s podcast on medical financial planners?
Dorje:
1. I think working with a medical financial planner can be highly effective at providing you with personalised financial advice based on your situation and goals that’s relevant to your career in its current stage, and your future.
2. Outsourcing financial planning to an expert who is a specialist at giving advice and guidance to doctors can be a great choice when compared with a more generic financial planner.
3. But if you were to take away just one thing from today, it would be to consider outsourcing your financial planning to an expert and channelling your energy to focus on your own careers rather than worry about doing everything yourself.
Interviewer: Thanks again for your time and the insight’s you’ve provided.
Dorje: Good to be here, thank you.
