Medical & Legal Professionals
Financial planning for physicians and attorneys
You earn well, but you started late after years of training and debt, your income is heavily taxed, and your work carries real liability. We build the plan around all of it: catching up on retirement, keeping the tax bill in check, and closing gaps in your coverage.
What we solve
You earn a high income, but you started later than most, after years of training and often six figures of student debt. The years you might have been saving went to becoming good at your profession.
Now the income is heavily taxed, and it is easy to assume retirement will be cheaper. Without planning it often is not, because taxable withdrawals later can push you right back into high brackets.
On top of that, your income depends entirely on your ability to keep working, and your work carries liability. A gap in disability or the wrong coverage is a risk to the one asset everything else rests on.
How Wealth Habits helps
We work with you through one integrated service: financial planning and investment management together, with tax planning built into both.
We build the catch-up plan around your real numbers: aggressive but tax-efficient retirement saving, a clear decision on student debt versus investing, and use of every tax-advantaged account available to a high earner. The aim is to keep your tax bill in check now and keep it from climbing in retirement.
We review your insurance against your income, with particular attention to disability, since your earning power is the asset everything else depends on, and we flag gaps or overpriced coverage. Your portfolio is managed in low-cost index funds and ETFs, and if you own your practice, your core plan keeps its eventual sale in view along with the retirement plans you can run through it. When the sale gets real, that dedicated transition engagement is scoped separately, with the fee agreed in advance. Estate and trust work is done with independent attorneys.
Our financial planning fee is a flat $9,500 a year; investment management is billed separately by asset tier, and your first $1,000,000 carries no management fee.
Frequently asked questions
High earners often assume taxes drop in retirement, but without planning the opposite can happen, because retirement account withdrawals are taxable and can push you into higher brackets. We plan the mix of accounts you save into now, and the order you draw from later, so your tax bill stays as low as possible both while you are working and once you retire.
Your income is your largest asset, and it depends on your ability to keep working, so disability coverage matters more for you than for most. We review your existing policies against your actual income and obligations, look for gaps in disability, life, and long-term care coverage, and flag where you are underinsured or paying for coverage you do not need.
Starting real income in your thirties after years of training is normal in medicine and law, and it does not mean you cannot catch up. It means the plan has to be deliberate: balancing aggressive retirement saving against paying down debt, and using every tax-advantaged account available. We build the catch-up plan around your actual income and loan balances.
It depends on the interest rate on the loans, whether you are on a forgiveness track, and what you would earn by investing instead. We compare the guaranteed return of paying down a loan against the expected return and tax benefit of investing, and give you a clear split rather than an all-or-nothing answer.
A practice is both your income and, often, an asset you can eventually sell. Your core plan keeps the sale in view, along with the retirement plans you can run through the practice in the meantime. When you are ready to sell or wind down, a dedicated transition engagement covers the tax treatment of the sale and how the proceeds fund your retirement, scoped separately with the fee agreed in advance, so the transition out is planned well before you have to make it.
Build a plan that fits a high income and a late start.
Book a free intro meeting to talk through catching up, cutting taxes, and closing coverage gaps.