ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI – A financial lifeline for doctors and dentists, especially for graduates entering the medical profession, is now being extended in a newly-released book authored by the partners of the nation’s largest financial firm exclusively serving doctors and dentists.
Doctor’s Eyes Only: Exclusive Financial Strategies for Today’s Doctors and Dentists (ISBN -978-0-9853680-0-5, Brockport & Schoolcraft, LCC, 2012, www.DoctorsEyesOnly.com, 217 pages, $34.95) by Tom Martin, Paul Larson and Jeff Larson – partners of Larson Financial Group, St. Louis, MO.
This powerful book helps veteran physicians learn to manage risks, protect their assets, plan for retirement, enrich their family life, and productively manage their practices. It also gives graduating physicians life-changing advice they will not get anywhere else in their professional training.
“We teach young doctors and experienced physicians to live their lives by design rather than by default,” says co-author Paul Larson, founder and CEO of Larson Financial Group, a financial advisory firm exclusively for physicians that serves more than 3,500 doctors and dentists in all aspects of financial planning. “We teach our clients to ‘Begin on the
Final Page’ and once they determine where they want to end up with their finances, medical practice, and marriage we will help them get there.”
The content of Doctor’s Eyes Only is so rich and unique that the renowned Dr. Benjamin S. Carson, Sr., Johns Hopkins professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery and pediatrics, says it “should be required reading not only for young doctors but for all young professionals and people with significant earning potential. Although I became associated with excellent financial advisors later in life, I wish I had read this book much earlier in my career. It is easy to understand and very practical.”
Dr. Carson and other leaders in the medical profession agree with the authors’ description of their book as providing the missing essential financial course for doctors and dentists.
For young doctors especially, Doctor’s Eyes Only gives insightful and critical advice about contracts, disability insurance, and how to handle their cash flow to help ensure a brighter future. For veteran doctors the book gives vital warnings about protecting their money from vultures of all kinds and protecting their marriage by avoiding destructive workaholic habits.
“Many physicians make the mistake of trying to handle their own finances by chasing after ‘hot tips’ from colleagues,” says Jeff Larson, partner and regional director of Larson Financial. “That’s the most common and biggest mistake doctors and dentists make. We are told that physicians who implement the advice in our book can often acquire an additional $3 million throughout their careers by having a solid plan in place.”
The third partner, Tom Martin, is also co-host of the Doctor’s Eyes Only podcast series which gives financial and marriage advice to physicians and their spouses. Martin’s passion for this service can be traced to his early childhood where his first memory was learning of his parents’ divorce.
All three authors are personally involved in philanthropic activities through the Larson Financial Foundation including the establishment of sustainable businesses in Iraq and Sudan, and water well projects and a child care center in Kenya. “Among the critical advice we give to our physician clients is how to share some of their talents or wealth with those in great need across the globe,” says Martin. “We have a passion to equip entrepreneurs who desire to empower their communities in the process. We’ve been blessed to have many clients who want to get personally involved with these activities.”
Martin added that the authors’ personal commitments to serving those in need are closely entwined to the firm’s strategic business activities. “I am the father of an internationally adopted special-needs child with brain damage,” he explained, “and that life-changing personal experience has resulted in my specializing in serving the financial needs of several of the nation’s leading brain surgeons. I have a personal connection with these guys that few can understand as a result of my daughter’s needs.”
About the Book
Doctor’s Eyes Only: Exclusive Financial Strategies for Today’s Doctors and Dentists is one of the few books ever written to address the unique financial needs of doctors and dentists. The book took six years to research and write but now serves as the missing financial course for doctors and dentists. The three authors – Tom Martin, Paul Larson, and Jeff Larson — have a combined 30 years of professional experience and are co-partners of the nation’s largest financial advisory firm exclusively serving doctors and dentists. The book is available in hardcover, paperback, Kindle and Nook editions. The message of the book is augmented by a podcast series for physicians and their wives at www.DoctorsEyesOnly.com.
Media Contact: For a review copy of Doctor’s Eyes Only, or to schedule an interview with Tom Martin, please contact Scott Lorenz, President of Westwind Communications Book Marketing, 734-667-2090, Cell: 248-705-2214 orscottlorenz@westwindcos.com or www.westwindcos.com.
Selections From Doctor’s Eyes Only: Exclusive Financial Strategies for Today’s Doctors and Dentists
· Most physicians’ lost financial potential is not caused primarily by poor investment choices. Rather, it is a lack of coordination across all areas of their financial lives that cause most doctors to give up their greatest potential.
· Consistent studies document that the more confidence a physician has in his or her own financial expertise, the less likely he or she is to actually be correct in this assessment.
· Consistent studies show those who are generous with their time and wealth are happier, healthier, less stressed, live longer and feel more spiritually fulfilled. Therefore, when it comes to cash flow management, we believe one of the most important habits to establish early on is a consistent method of giving away a portion of your resources to passions greater than yourself.
· The remaining key is to spend the right amount less than you earn. In order to determine the right amount to properly set aside for the future, you must first begin on ‘the final page’ …. When you know what you want to achieve, you can work backward to determine the amount that you need to save today in order to make that happen.
· If you had 40 years to save for retirement, your required savings rate might drop as low as 8% of your income. Because physicians typically desire a much shorter time frame to reach financial independence, this dictates their savings rate must be greatly increased.
· Physicians fail to realize until it is too late that many insurance companies prefer to settle [malpractice] claims out of court instead of fighting them. The problem is that a settled claim shows up on your professional record. It is important to make sure that it is your choice whether the case gets settled – and not the insurance company’s, especially if you have no fault in the case.
· When using the market, a physician should focus on asset allocation, low expenses, and tax efficiency, rather than on trying to pick the hot stock or mutual fund of the day.
· Most strong investment principles are often counterintuitive. Adhering to a disciplined philosophy focused on proper diversification is not intuitive, but it is essential to long-term investment success. Many investors’ decisions are driven primarily by greed and fear.
· Tax planning is all about using legitimate and legal methods in order to pay as little in taxes as possible. Federal income tax, the main tax most people pay, climbs proportionately higher as your income increases. Physicians are often among the hardest hit by taxes as they have substantially higher incomes than the rest of the population.
· When selecting an accountant, seek one that practices proactive accounting, instead of ‘autopsy accounting’. Our experience is that many tax-professionals are trained only on how to properly fill out the forms – not on how to help you implement strategies that reduce your tax burden.
· The most important part of building a sound estate plan is to first clearly define your family values. An estate plan should be values-based, or it will never accomplish your goals …. Values-based estate planning is all about deciding ahead of time to whom you want to leave your assets, and for what purposes.
· Asset protection is not about trying to hide your assets or evade taxes. It is also not reactive. If you are already in the middle of a lawsuit, it is too late to employ strategies. Instead, asset protection is about being proactive and structuring your assets to be as safe as possible before the event occurs that causes the need to protect them …. Anything done for the sole purpose of asset protection is suspicious, and might not hold up in court.
· Without a long-term thought pattern, practices get blown about by the wind, and are distracted by everything that smells like an opportunity. It is surprising to us how rarely medical practices have a guiding mission statement or strategic vision that they can reference.
· When it comes to hiring the right people, the other key is to fire the wrong people. If someone is the wrong fit for the practice, remove that person as fast as you can. Before firing, though, realize that often the problem is not with the person, but rather with the process.
· An un-communicated expectation is usually little more than a disappointment waiting to happen.
· To put it bluntly, if you are paying for in-house staff to do your billing and collecting, you are probably wasting your money. Our experience is that an outside company that properly educates your team will more than pay for itself in the work it does for your group.
· Wasted physician time is usually one of the key phantom expenses that will not show up on your financial statements. This happens when medical care does not get handed down to the lowest cost provider of that care.
· ‘Free healthcare’ has disappeared in the workplace in every sector except for healthcare. It’s time for healthcare groups to catch up, and start sharing some of this cost with employees.
 |
| Tom Martin: Author, Financial Advisor, Partner Larson Financial |
Tom Martin is a financial specialist and partner of Larson Financial Group, host of the Doctor’s Eyes Only podcast series, and author of the newly-released book Doctor’s Eyes Only: Exclusive Financial Strategies for Today’s Doctors and Dentists.
The podcast series, which reaches out to physicians and their spouses to strengthen their families and marriages, was motivated in part by Martin’s first early childhood memory of coming home to learn that his parents were getting a divorce. That day is still vivid in his mind and helps fuel his passion to be the best husband, father, mentor, business owner, and financial advisor he can be.
Martin is a partner and regional director at Larson Financial, the nation’s largest wealth management firm catering exclusively to physicians and their families. Prior to joining Larson Financial, Tom led the medical division of one of the region’s top multi-generational wealth management firms.
As a financial specialist for surgeons, anesthesiologists, and tumor board physicians, Tom regularly conducts private briefings for some of the top academic programs, private practices, and medical associations around the country.
Tom is a Certified Financial Planner™ who earned his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University and completed his graduate education in personal financial planning at the Institute of Personal Financial Planning at Kansas State University. For his graduate work he was inducted to the Phi Kappa Phi and Kappa Omicron Nu scholastic honor societies. He is also an Accredited Investment Fiduciary and has completed advanced asset protection and tax strategy training through the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
Because of his community leadership and involvement, Tom was honored as one of Northeast Indiana’s 40 Rising Stars by Business Weekly magazine.
Tom and his wife, Rachel, are very active in their local community serving on various charitable boards and their local church. They have three children, the oldest of which is an internationally adopted, special-needs child.
Tom and Rachel are especially active with charities supporting internationally adopted children, special needs children, and medical missions. Tom enjoys spending time with his three children, traveling with his family, playing sports, reading, writing, and watching college football.
