I estimate that 80% of doctors need, want, and should use a financial advisor and/or an investment manager. Some investment gurus such as William Bernstein, MD, think my estimate is way too low. At any rate, if you want to use an advisor temporarily or for your entire life, there is no reason to feel guilty about it—just make sure you are getting good advice at a fair price. On this page I list vetted, recommended firms that I think offer good advice at a fair price. See the bottom of the page for more details on the vetting.
Scholar Financial Advising
At Scholar Financial Advising we help physicians and individuals with complex financial needs by providing financial advice that they can implement on an hourly project or monthly retainer basis. Our advisors hold at minimum a Ph.D. in Finance and Stephan Shipe, the firm’s lead advisor, is also a CFA charterholder and CFP® Professional.
Our Services
Hourly Fee Financial Plans: For a DIY investor looking for us to pull the financial pieces together to create a custom strategy and financial plan that you can execute with periodic check-in meetings.
Fee: $350/hour
Signature Client Program (Monthly Retainer): For clients with ongoing and complex financial advising needs we offer virtual family office services so that you can take back the time you have been spending on your own financial planning while maintaining control of your accounts.
Minimum Requirement: Income >$1mm or investments >$10mm
Fee: $15,000 for initial plan then $3,000-$10,000 per month
Wealthkeel’s specialty is financial planning and investment management for you, Gen X & Gen Y physicians and your family. Together, we will navigate the complexity of everyday life by crafting a streamlined financial plan that is agile for your evolving needs. We will help you utilize your wealth to free up time and energy to focus on your family, your practice, and what you love most.
Chad Chubb is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) and Certified Student Loan Professional (CSLP®). He has been quoted by Medical Economics, American Medical Association, and CNBC for his work with physicians. He founded WealthKeel LLC to simplify and organize the financial lives of physicians across the United States by custom-crafting financial plans centered around their goals and values. WealthKeel is recognized by The White Coat Investor as one of a few select firms labeled as “a good financial advisor at a fair price,” for their flat-fee subscription model and also their capped fee structure.
Retirement Income Experts. Single Fixed Flat Fee ($9,500) for All.
Collaborate with us if:
You’re retired or will retire in the next 7 years
You have a total portfolio of $2M+
You’re concerned about generating & protecting income for life
You want to manage the 10+ key retirement income risks more proactively
You don’t like problematic fee structures (% of assets, flat but tiered, commissions)
We’ll build you a custom Income Floor. Your Growth Portfolio will be simple, very low cost & highly tax efficient (you can keep some legacy securities if wanted).
Hillcrest Financial Group (formerly Botto Financial Planning and Cornerstone Financial Group) provides advice for a reasonable fee. We can help you create a savings and investment plan so you know where to put your extra income. We can also help with various aspects of your financial life including debt management (student loan planning), tax planning, and investment strategies. Our goal is to determine the most efficient and flexible way for clients to reach their financial goals and build wealth.
Physicians have unique financial issues that can sometimes feel overwhelming. As residents, fellows, and early-career physicians, you deal with crushing student loan debt and competing financial goals like starting families and buying homes. As mid to late-career physicians, you need to invest to grow your wealth, navigate retirement decisions, and implement complex tax strategies.
At Personal Choice Financial, we help you take control of your finances and make informed decisions. For over 30 years, our team has been guiding our clients from their first job to a worry-free retirement.
Like all vetted advisors on White Coat Investor, we work in your best interest. Our people, processes, and systems are what set us apart. We work with physicians in-person and virtually throughout the country.
We invite you to schedule a no-cost, no-obligation Learn-More Call to help you get to know us and determine whether we are the right advisor to assist you on your journey.
Clint Gossage CFA, CFP®, CPA, has been married to a Surgical Oncologist for the past 15 years and has experienced first-hand the ups and downs on the journey from undergrad to becoming an attending. After helping friends in medical school, residency and fellowship with their finances, he left a high-paying job, managing the investments at a multi-billion dollar family office, to start CMG Financial Consulting. He has been helping physicians and medical professionals ever since to get out of student loan debt, save money, invest in tax efficient strategies, manage and protect their assets and give them back their most scarce resource…time.
PHYSICIAN MOMS & DADS… Turn today’s worries about taxes and investing into enough money for college and retirement .
Get The Tax Breaks you Deserve: Put an end to nagging fears of missing out. Newly-minted attendings and self-employed specialists nearing retirement can relax knowing we’ll keep your income tax bill in our sights.
Do The Right Thing With Your Investments: Skip sneaky asset-based charges and keep more of what you earn. Your $625 monthly membership buys easy access to advice from our fiduciaries who can help with all your accounts, no matter where you invest.
Put Your Extra Money To Work: Cut through the overwhelm of doing everything yourself. Let our multi-specialty team of Certified Financial PlannerTM professionals make a plan to save every dollar you’ll need for retirement and college.
At Wrenne Financial Planning, our passion is helping physicians use money to live better lives. Sure everybody wants that. But how do you get there? Financial planning is the key and we’re here to help you work through the process! Through conducting thousands of meetings with physicians all across the country, we’ve gotten pretty good at it.
Of course you are 100% capable of doing this yourself, but you don’t have to! Our pricing is transparent and the service is customized to your needs. Whether you’re a new attending ready to start off right and grow your knowledge of finance or established in practice and looking to save time while being efficient with finances, we would love to partner with you.
Disclosure: White Coat Investor “WCI” is not a client of Wrenne Financial Planning “WFP”. WFP and WCI have an advertising agreement in which WFP pays WCI an annual flat fee for the endorsement. Neither WCI nor its principals are clients of WFP. More information can be found here.
Latest WCI Podcast Appearance:
Integrity Wealth Solutions
Integrity Wealth Solutions (IWS) is a tiered flat-fee asset management and financial planning firm focused on helping physicians, dentists, high-net worth individuals and small business owners in a transparent and equitable manner. We adhere to low-cost, tax-efficient portfolios based on the client’s comprehensive financial planning goals. We have helped numerous client’s in all stages of life and are a great solution for those that don’t want to do it themselves or pay the high cost of hiring a traditional financial advisor. Our wealth management fees range between $1,250 to $3,750 a quarter for the typical client and includes both investment management and financial planning. (Please note we do not provide stand-alone financial planning engagements.)
We are excited to see how we can help you! Please contact Justina Welch or Clint Thomas for a complementary consultation.
At Aptus, we have witnessed the incredible shift to Do-It-Yourself financial planning and investing by the physician community and have built a service to support people on varying points of the DIY continuum. We believe most people can DIY their finances, which not only mitigates fees but also instills a greater sense of control and leads to better decisions and outcomes. Aptus starts with a comprehensive, guided planning process for most clients or a more limited review for experienced, confident DIYers who want to validate their current plan. Aptus has designed hundreds of financial plans for physicians and is well-versed in their unique planning needs, including student loan repayment strategies, cash flow prioritization, and risk management. Once a solid plan is in place, we teach our clients to invest on their own with our ongoing support and guidance. Aptus’s pricing is designed to eliminate conflicts of interest and foster transparent, objective advice from planners who are highly educated, experienced and credentialed. For clients who would like to learn more about Aptus, we conduct free introductory calls.
The advisors/firms on this page are all paid advertisers, however, I did not list them (nor accept money from them) until they passed my vetting process. Prior to November 2015, this vetting was a review of their website, their ADV2, and a few emailed questions to clarify how they did business. Beginning in November 2015, I require an application (see bottom of the page) that you can review to help you decide who to hire. The application also helps me to standardize the approval process. The vetting process continues after the advisor is listed here as white coat investors who use their services let me know about their positive and negative experiences. Why do I charge a fee to be listed here? Two reasons:
The vetting process takes time and energy and only about 1/3-1/4 that I go through the trouble to vet actually ends up listed here and
This page of the site, like the entire rest of the site, is a for-profit business. If you want to start a website where you vet and list recommended financial advisors for free, be my guest.
You should be aware that although there are many good advisors and good firms, I have yet to find a perfect advisor and deciding who can and cannot be listed here is one of the most difficult things I do on this website. I have turned down a number of advisors that I consider well above average. (I routinely turn down most of the advisors that apply to advertise on this page.)
Remember that financial planning and investment management is expensive stuff and you should expect to pay thousands per year for it, although many of the advisors on this page are some of the cheapest options out there.
How to Choose a Financial Advisor from This List
Some readers have asked me what is the best way to choose an advisor from this list. Rest assured that there are no bad choices here. All of the advisors listed here give good advice at a fair price. The first ten firms have purchased premium listings, that is why they are listed at the top of the page and their listings have more bells and whistles. That doesn't necessarily mean that I endorse them over other firms on the list. All of the firms have passed my vetting process. Financial planning and investment management is a lot “squishier” than a more simple one-time transaction such as purchasing an insurance policy, refinancing your student loans, getting a mortgage, or having a contract reviewed. Although some of the advisors here will do a one-time second opinion or cover some limited questions for a one time fee or at an hourly rate, most are far more interested in a long-term relationship helping you to reach your financial goals. As such, a good fit between you and the advisor is essential.
I recommend you read through the descriptions of each firm and pick a handful that seem to be offering what you are looking for. Spend a few minutes on each of their websites and read through their linked application if available. If what you are reading sounds good to you, shoot them an email or call them up and schedule a time to meet with them in person or virtually (as all the advisors on this page will take any client in any state.) If you have a particularly good or bad experience, I would love to hear and incorporate your feedback on this page.
Advisors – Would you like to be included on this list?
Fill out the Advertising Partner Application. Contact the Director of Sales at [email protected] with any questions. Expect the application to be available to readers if you are approved and purchase a listing. We'll get back to you with an approval decision and pricing.