Ep 1 PFFAP
Ben: [00:00:00] Welcome to the physician, family financial advisors podcast, where we turn today's worries about taxes, investing and extra money into a comfortable feeling of financial security that can last a lifetime. I'm Ben
Nate: Utley. I'm Nate Renegade. Today's question is who should listen to the physician, family, financial advisors podcast.
To get the answer. We'll talk about why we're here, who we are and how the show is. So then why are we here and why makeup podcasts?
Ben: Uh, yes, well, uh, you know, we seem to have conversations day after day with a number of physicians that we serve in our, in our financial advisor practice. And I thought it would be fun for, uh, a broader audience to hear some of those conversations and to participate in the conversations by asking us questions.
So we've, uh, put together the podcast to kind of, uh, help more people, uh, hear what we have to say and, [00:01:00] and kind of spread the love.
Nate: Yeah. And how did maybe you specifically get here the, uh, owner, president, uh, of the firm. And, um, how did you get started? How long have you been here? How long you've been listening to these same questions from physician families.
Ben: Oh gosh. Um, I think it started about 25 years ago, 20 years ago, I encountered my first physician and I'll never forget the day that that I met her. Um, I was operating out of a home office on the west side of town. I probably had maybe four or five clients total at that time. I'd just started my practice.
And my mentor sent a young female physician to me. Who's a radiation oncologist and I'll never forget the day that she sat down on the chair across from my home office desks. She was wearing a, uh, A houndstooth jacket, black and white houndstooth jacket. And one of the questions she asked me is, uh, why should I work with.
And I didn't have a good answer. So I said, well, I think you should work with me because I've never served physicians before. And so you kind of cocked her head [00:02:00] size, sideways and looked at me like what? And I said, well, you know, I think physicians get a bad rap when it comes to money. I said, I think that there's a reputation out there for physicians.
And, uh, you know, I'm a clean slate for you. I, I don't have any opinions. I've never served physicians before I said, I'm, I'm good at financial stuff. Uh, but you know, I don't know exactly what you need. So I said, if you will. Uh, if you'll be open and direct with me about what you need and allow me to kind of study your life and your finances.
I said, I will come up to speed on what you need. Uh, and she decided to join my very tiny firm. At that time. It was, it was ugly and associates and, uh, I was hourly and the associate was my dog, Emmy, who has long since passed. So, um, she married a surgeon. And, uh, boy that kind of turned my practice upside down.
I had to change the way that I did things to make him happy, but I did, uh, he referred me to a colleague who is in his practice, who is married to a female surgeon and another practice. Uh, they became happy. They referred me to [00:03:00] some other people that they knew, and it just kind of went like that for, uh, I think I traced back through, it was about 10 generations of word of mouth.
Uh, that was physicians. And so I was up to my eyeballs and doctors and I thought, well, this is pretty cool. And so when about half of my clients were physicians, I decided to rebrand and, uh, make it easier for people to find us on the internet. And I knew families were important to physicians. So I registered physician, family.com and, uh, rebranded as physician, family, financial advisors.
Then I went through a period of pretty rapid growth because, uh, I was profiled in the New York times. Uh, there was a chapter about successful financial advisors and, and a book, uh, that was, that was written about my practice. And, um, I got found so to speak. Um, and so I got to a point. Where the practice was almost growing too fast.
And I wanted to make sure that I was able to spend time with my, my young kids. My [00:04:00] girls were, uh, in elementary and middle school. And, you know, I got to see the, I got to see all the first. I got to see them say their first word first crawl, first walk, all those good things because I worked at home and it was a really a joyous time of my life, but then they grew up and, uh, they got to where they needed me less and I felt comfortable, uh, kind of growing the practice.
And so. I hired a couple of employees. One of those was Kyle Helmsley. He's still with us today. Uh, and it's been about six years and we've grown pretty rapidly. I think today there are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, there are grand total of six of us, including myself. And, uh, and we're just going. Great, great, great guns here.
So today we're serving 172. Physicians. So that's MDs and dos allopathic, medical doctors with 233 children in 28 states from coast to coast all the way from Oregon to California, to Florida, uh, not to Maine, but definitely in [00:05:00] New York, New Jersey, those, those states up in the Northeast and in many states in between, um, the questions that we're, we're getting from questions from clients typically are.
Uh, what do I do with my extra money? How much do I need to save for retirement and college also get a lot of questions about taxes. How do I, how do I tamped down and keep my tax bills in check? And of course, you know, what do I, what do I do with my investments? Uh, so we do a lot of things. And one of those things that physicians often ask for is student loans and, um, That's where that's where Nate comes in.
So Nate, tell us a little bit about why you chose to join physician, family, and, uh, what you do here and, and a little bit about how you came this way.
Nate: Yeah, it's a good question. I'll start with kind of my backstory in the industry in general. Um, my dad was a financial advisor. Uh, most of my life. I really enjoyed talking to him about personal finance.
And when I would discuss with [00:06:00] him the important things about personal finance, I just really got a lot of fulfillment out of that. That's what me and my dad did. We didn't really talk about sports. We talked about money and the fun stuff about money, you know, budgeting, maybe building a business. Um, he, he, I remember when I was really young, he asked me, uh, cause we would talk about money so much.
He said, now, Nate, would you rather, uh, love your job? Or make a lot of money and hate your job. And, um, at the time I said, I'd, I'd like to love my job. And I think he just wanted to plant that seed because he was a little worried that we talked about money too much. Uh, and I didn't realize that you could love your job and make enough money to support your family.
But, um, so that kind of spurred me to go to school for, to become a financial advisor. So for the longest time, I, I knew this was what I was going to do. Went to school for economics. Got a. Degree in, it went to the big bank, got a [00:07:00] job there and realized that at the bank, it wasn't exactly what I wanted to be doing, which was basically just being a sales person.
So from there I, I left the bank. I gave up on my dream, I guess you could say, went and worked for a big fortune 500 company. And right as I was transitioning, I found out who you were and who physician family was. And what I found out was there was other, uh, financial advising companies that, that, you know, weren't what I call now, the big evil bank.
And, and they were really out there to help people. They valued the outcome of everybody that they served, um, over maybe the process. And, um, you know, they, they, we, they didn't sell products when I realized that was there. My dream too. Join another firm started again, I guess it, I woke up and realized I didn't have to work at [00:08:00] a place like the bank where it was all about sales.
And I took all of the things I was already doing, which was you could have found me at the big fortune 500 company in the break room, scribbling on napkins, doing budgets for my friends, encouraging people to pay off all of them. Telling them how they're screwing up their taxes and talking about investments.
That's what I did.
Ben: Uh, and I got a chuckle. When you, when you said budgeting, I get to do the fun part, the budgeting, which most people hate. I mean, you are, you're crazy about budgets and you really enjoy it. Yeah,
Nate: that's right. Um, and you know, the best part is, uh, some clients like it too, but even for the ones that don't like it.
You know, I'm, I'm a big picture thinker too. So we get to go big picture or we get to go down in the details and at a place like this, um, a place like physician, family, uh, you get to meet people exactly where they're at. [00:09:00] Um, you could start at the budget or maybe they're already great at their budget. And we get to jump into investing, which is also fun.
I just didn't like the, um, the idea that it was all about investing, because I knew that there was. There were some important pieces to this personal finance puzzle. Well, before you had so much money, you just needed to know how to invest it. And that was really meaningful for me to find a place that would allow me.
Help people in all aspects of personal finance. And so I reached out to you and, um, you know, the story is essentially that as you're hiring Kyle, I reached out to a little too late, but we kept in touch. And, um, I learned more about this business. I learn more about the physicians that you serve and their families.
And, um, eventually we made it work because you, uh, you saw. This problem of student loans growing and [00:10:00] growing. And it was growing faster than I think was most expected for most advisors and the problems much worse for physicians than it is the average person. They have hundreds of thousands of dollars of student loans and a, not a ton of people out there to help them because you assume a physician, oh, they make plenty of money.
It's not a problem. Well, $400,000 student loan is. So, um, you, you brought me on and, uh, I filled that role along with filling the role for other meaningful things like budgeting and, and right now, uh, college and taxes, right? So that's, that's the story. Uh, and, and now I get to help achieve, uh, physicians achieve balance in life while still, you know, paying attention to.
The things that matter, like budgeting for their family and, and saving for their future. I think the thing that makes us qualified as a little bit different than our, than just our designation or [00:11:00] our passion, because the people that fit really well here, the clients that, that we, that really get a lot out of our services.
Aren't just physicians. Could you, could you talk about why we're qualified to serve. Uh, physician families rather than just physicians.
Ben: Part of the key here is the fact that no one on staff is a doctor. No one on staff is married to it. Um, we are outsiders. And as a result, you know, we are left to, to study very carefully the lives of physicians, the same way that I did from the very beginning.
So we make no assumptions about this, the same way that, you know, if I were, if I were married to a doctor, I might make some assumptions about. The people that are coming to us, or if I were a physician, I'd be engrossed in the physician culture, but it outsiders, you know, we, we serve hundreds of physicians and that's all we serve as physicians.
So, you know, we get, we have a whole different perspective. [00:12:00] We get the view from a thousand feet as well as the detail. So I think the thing that makes us qualify. Is the fact that we, we do study the lives of physicians and we have seen what works and what doesn't work. Um, and of course, you know, we're all certified financial planners.
So all, all, all five, six of us are CFPs. Uh, so we, you know, we have the, the knowledge that goes with that. Almost everyone on staff and you and me in particular are parents. So you're a parent of two young boys. I'm the parent of two almost college age girls. Uh, you know, Jim has a child who's in the workforce and working at a fortune 500 company.
You know, Kyle has some kids, uh, that are they're younger. And so we've kind of seen the whole gamut of parenting. And I think the thing. That makes us unique is that we do have that parenting experience. We are all financial advisors and one of the, one of the big issues that. Our clients are dealing with [00:13:00] is, uh, what, what I like to call financial parenting and specifically six-figure financial parenting.
It's, uh, they have questions about my kids started a job. I want them to save for retirement. How do I teach them to do that? Um, you know, other questions about, uh, my kid came home and asked, are we. You know, because our friend's houses are bigger than our houses, even though we're a double doctor family.
Right. So I think the thing that makes us qualified as it is the unique perspective from, uh, of being financial advisors, being parents, and having a deeply focused niche that we serve .
Nate: Yeah. And, um, that that's exactly what I was thinking is. It's the parenting aspect, it's it really is the family aspect.
Um, sometimes I can't help myself, but, but point out that it, it might feel fake that we're saying the family part, but that is actually our specialty is family families, and specifically physician families. So, um, so that brings us to the big question, which is [00:14:00] who should listen to the physician family podcast beyond just physicians.
Ben: Yeah. So, um, I think the podcast is specifically focused for a certain kind of physician and, and to illustrate that point. What I want you to do is imagine for a moment, three servers. Okay. Three golden rings, if you will. So you pick up one ring and you look inside that ring. And what you see in there is a stethoscope, a surgical suite, uh, you know, uh, uh, a table where, where a patient would sit or a meeting place for a clinical visit, um, throw in there, you know, an, a pager from the 1980s or a cell phone, that's constantly going off with texts, uh, throw in all the.
All the work and sweat and, uh, training and education that goes into practicing medicine. And I'll call that I'll call that rent practicing medicine. Okay. So now put that ring down and pick up another one. And that ring, there's a minivan. [00:15:00] And then that minivan in the back seat, there's candy wrappers, and there's Cheerios that are grounded in the carpet.
And there's a baby seat, uh, you know, in, in that ring there's there's soccer games and cheerleading practice. And, uh, in that ring there. College and boys and girls and dating, uh, in that ring, there is there's marriage and conversations between husbands and wives and all the good things that go with that.
Now put down that ring and pick up the third ring. The third ring is your checkbook. It's your budget. It's uh, your. Investments. It's thoughts about wall street. It's the sound of the radio talking about changes in the economy. It's a forecast for inflation and depression and recession and boom, and bust, and, you know, stocks going up and cryptocurrencies and you know, all the things that you think about with, with money, including, you know, [00:16:00] taxes and, uh, investment accounts and disability, insurance, life insurance, all those things.
Okay. So now what I want you to do is take all three of those rings and lay one, one over the next, such that you get a nice, almost triangle shape in the middle. Okay. That's where we're standing right now. We're standing at the intersection of practicing medicine, raising a family and managing. And our goal with this podcast in our course, our goal and our practice is to help our listeners feel comfortable in the middle of those, the intersection of those three circles to turn the worries about money, but specifically today's worries about money into a comfortable feeling of financial security, a feeling that things are going to be all right.
Who should listen to the physician, family podcast, moms and dads, physician, moms, and dads, uh, who want to feel [00:17:00] good about their money, who want to have a comfortable feeling of financial security to put down the worries, to cut through all the BS that we hear about and really know. What should I be doing?
Where should I be focused? Uh, you know, which, which ball should I have in the air right now? What should I be looking at? You know, uh, what is important? Uh, what's gonna cause me to have kids that launch, uh, kids that are responsible, what's gonna cause me to maintain my marriage. What's going to cause me to be able to have enough, not too much, certainly not too little, but enough to be able to save all the money that I need for retirement and college.
Nate: Between those three rings in that triangle you're talking about. We get a lot of, um, a lot of questions from physicians, uh, you know, at work and in our, in our daily calls with them. Uh, how can we bring in the audience and how does podcasts going to work to bring in the audience and get [00:18:00] those questions out there in front of them?
Ben: My hope is that we can get questions directly from our listeners. And, uh, we've set up three different ways for people to, to ask questions that we can, we can bring into the podcast. The first way is to visit physician, family podcast.com, which takes you to the podcast page on our website. There you can, uh, ask a question using your voice, or you can ask a question by typing.
Uh, another way would be to email us, which is [email protected]. And the third way would be to call our question line, which is 5 0 3 3 0 8 8 7 3 3. Again, that number for the question line is 5 0 3 3 0. 8 7 3, 3. So I hope that everyone who listens will feel free to ask us a question. We may not be able to answer all the questions on the show, but if you leave us your contact information, we'll certainly get back to you with the best answer that we can get.
So, [00:19:00] um, I look forward to hearing from everybody and, and, and thanks for listening. Thank you for listening to the physician, family financial advisors podcast. Is there a question you would like answered on our next show? Go to physician, family.com to record your question while you're there, sign up for our newsletter and gain access to tools you can use to turn worries about taxes, investing in extra money into a lifelong feeling of financial security.
That's physician, family.com.
