Each year, the WCI Financial Educator Award is given out to a doc who is helping their colleagues and/or trainees get a fair shake on Wall Street. There are A LOT of you out there trying to serve docs by providing financial information and inspiration. This is the eighth year we've given out this award, and the past winners include:
The Nominees
We received 28 nominations this year for 14 different docs. The nominees include:
- Alex Merkulov
- Danette LeBaron
- David Cantu
- David Wells
- Gayle Galleta
- Michel Evans
- Brandon Trivax
- Fadi Antaki
- Liza Herzog
- Shyamal Asher
- Sidney Winford
- Jeffrey Janowicz
- Marcos Aranda
- Matthew McLaughlin
While you can be nominated every year for this award, you can only win it once. Winners must be practicing docs, and they can't be financial advisors, for-profit financial bloggers, or podcasters.
Mostly, these docs are giving formal and informal lectures to peers and trainees, developing curriculums, publishing papers, and running little personal finance ministries to help physicians and similar high-income professionals become more financially literate and disciplined. We want to encourage this behavior, so in addition to this award, we even offer slides to help you give presentations:
The slides were all updated this year. Feel free to use them, personalize them, and pass them around to anyone you think could benefit from them.
Congratulations to all of the nominees (several of whom have been nominated for multiple years). Thank you for what you are doing for your colleagues and trainees.
Honorable Mention
While they did not win, it seems appropriate to give some additional mention to several of the nominees. Gayle Galleta was nominated twice this year, and she has now been nominated three years in a row.
“Dr. Galletta gave medical students at UMass a talk on improving financial literacy . . . she was able to empower us on the matter in two hours . . . Her talk walked through her personal career in medicine and real, honest stories about lessons in finances she learned along the way. She made topics like traditional vs. Roth IRA, considerations of owning a first home, disability insurance, things I’d heard of but did not understand, very digestible . . . Seeing a physician modeling a strong grasp of her own finances was great to see, and I will be working to emulate this.”
Brandon Trivax also deserves an honorable mention:
“For five-plus years, Dr. Trivax has voluntarily created and led a year-long financial education curriculum for our residency program. Each year, he develops and delivers a monthly one-hour lecture for our 16 residents covering the financial topics physicians are rarely taught during medical training but urgently need to understand. He lectures on disability/life insurance, investing principles, student loan management, physician contracts, asset protection, retirement accounts, the basics of tax code, and financial considerations surrounding subspecialty or career decisions. What makes this effort particularly remarkable is that the entire curriculum is self-built and purely voluntary . . . Dr. Trivax has designed every lecture and slide deck, carefully constructing educational material that is practical, balanced, and evidence-based, without compensation or formal recognition. He dedicates his time because he understands how vulnerable physicians in training can be to poor financial advice and how transformative financial literacy can be early in a medical career. He provides his own insight and also intentionally presents multiple perspectives on financial topics, including viewpoints that differ from his own, so we can learn how to critically evaluate financial decisions rather than simply follow one approach. Beyond the lectures themselves, Dr. Trivax’s true impact comes through mentorship.”
So does Liza Herzog:
“Dr. Herzog has a strong drive to share her knowledge and learn together with other early-career physicians. Over the past few months, she has started a biweekly ‘Money Talks' program with a group of other women (mostly physicians she has met throughout medical school, intern year, and residency along with some additional friends from college). She created an in-depth course extending throughout the coming year covering a broad range of financial topics including retirement accounts, how to build a budget, investing, and how to manage debt.”
Our Winning Nomination
Our winner this year, Dr. Alan Anzai, received the most nominations (six) and what we felt was the strongest nomination. The nominator wins a WCI course of their choice—which, frankly, is probably an even more valuable prize than the winner received! This year's best nomination was written by Ryan Carver. He had this to say about Dr. Anzai—who will receive a nice certificate, an entry for the CV, and a $1,000 cash payment. Here is the nomination:
Alan Anzai
“Dr. Alan Anzai is an exceptional nominee for The White Coat Investor Financial Educator Award because of his long-standing, truly genuine commitment to helping physicians understand money in a practical, unbiased way. Over the years, he has given more than 200 financial education talks, reaching and educating several thousand doctors about investing, retirement planning, and the financial realities of medical practice—often when they most needed clear, trustworthy guidance.
Dr. Anzai’s passion for financial education started early in his career, when he realized just how unprepared most physicians were to make big money decisions. As a resident, he was bothered by how frequently doctors were targeted with ‘free dinner' seminars that quickly turned into pitches for expensive, commissioned products like whole and universal life insurance. Rather than ignore it, he decided to do something about it. He began teaching his peers the basics of personal finance, relying on straightforward, evidence-based resources such as Eric Tyson’s Personal Finance for Dummies and the writing of John Bogle. His motivation was simple and sincere: help doctors understand enough about money to avoid bad outcomes.
While serving nine years in the US Air Force, Dr. Anzai saw the same issues affecting military physicians and service members. Once again, he stepped in to help. He taught fundamentals like saving early, the power of compound interest, and low-cost index investing. When the Thrift Savings Plan became available, he made a point of teaching colleagues how it worked and why it mattered, helping them see how small decisions made early could lead to much greater financial security down the line.
After joining The Permanente Medical Group in 2004, Dr. Anzai noticed that physicians were still being approached by commissioned salespeople, often during work hours. In response, beginning in 2007, he created a three-part ‘Personal Finances for TPMG Physicians' series that covered saving, investing, spending, taxes, and estate planning. He personally delivered these sessions across multiple locations and later co-led annual three-hour workshops that were so popular they routinely filled as soon as registration opened. Over nearly a decade, hundreds of physicians attended each year, many later sharing how these talks reshaped their approach to investing and retirement.
Dr. Anzai has also made a point of reaching physicians early in their careers. Every year, he teaches approximately 120 new doctors about their pension and 401(k) plans and how to use them effectively. By addressing these topics at the outset, he helps physicians avoid common and costly mistakes before they ever take root.
In addition to his educational work, Dr. Anzai has extended his impact through leadership of TPMG’s Retirement Program Committee. In that role, he has consistently supported financial literacy by promoting low-cost investment options, clear communication, and participant-friendly plan features—all with education at the center of every change.
What truly sets Dr. Anzai apart is his integrity. He sells no financial products, receives no compensation from the finance industry, and is explicit about avoiding commissioned advice. His work closely reflects the core White Coat Investor philosophy: helping doctors gain the knowledge and confidence to manage their own financial lives. Through hundreds of talks and years of steady teaching, Dr. Anzai has helped thousands of physicians move from uncertainty to clarity, and from anxiety to confidence, about their financial futures.
Thank you for considering Dr. Anzai for this award.
Ryan Carver, MD”
Congratulations to Dr. Anzai and Dr. Carver!
What do you think? What more can doctors do for their colleagues and trainees in this regard?