Finance Your Life
Section Editor: Eugene W. Ng, MD, MBA
How to Rate Your
Life Managers
What financial planners, estate planners, bankers, and lawyers should they be doing and how
to know if you are receiving topnotch service
By Eugene W. Ng, MD, MBA, and Gog Boonswang, MBA, CFA
W
orking with top professionals is integral to achieving financial success. In this article, we outline the
key financial advisors that every successful surgeon
should have and what role they should play in your financial
life. We also share some tips on how to choose and structure your advisors in order to ensure top service.
Defining Key Advisors
The primary advisors for a successful financial life include a
trust and estate attorney, wealth manager, and insurance provider. Although each has his or her own area of expertise, each
should also be aware of the planning the other is doing.
The trust and estate attorney should structure your estate
to optimize the value of your assets while you are alive, if
you become incapacitated, and when you pass on. The top
trust and estate attorneys are holistic thinkers who can help
advise you and structure your estate such that your goals are
achieved and your assets are optimized regardless of what
turn your life takes. The best attorneys should be able to
explain the pros and cons of each strategy and structure they
recommend. Be wary of those who recommend strategies
or structures you do not understand and at the same time
charge high fees.
The primary goal of a top wealth manager is to help
structure your accounts so that they are optimized from a
tax point of view (eg, retirement accounts and education
accounts) and to invest your assets to optimize long-term
purchasing power on an after-tax, net-fee basis while taking into account your risk profile. When working with a top
wealth manager, you should never wonder how your assets
are invested and you should never feel too stressed because
of the volatility within the market. Communication from
your wealth planner is paramount.
The insurance professional should work hand in hand with
the trust and estate attorney and wealth manager to manage
risk in order to protect you and your family. Disability and
life insurance are integral pieces of a well-structured financial
plan. Insurance should be put into place only after understanding the long-term goals of the individual and how an
estate is structured.
Sourcing Key Advisors
As in any profession, there are trade groups of which top
professionals are members to ensure legitimacy. Unfortunately
there are no definitional designations for each professional that
ensures a top-quality professional, but background checks on
schools attended, professional designations, and references
from professionals who have situations similar to your own are
imperative. Attorneys should have attended top law schools
and worked at highly rated firms in their early years. Wealth
managers should hold a Masters of Business Administration
(MBA) from a top school, or a Certified Financial Analyst (CFA)
or Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation to show dedication and mastery. Likewise, insurance professionals should
have a CFP, Chartered Life Underwriter (CLF), or Chartered
Financial Consultant (ChFC) designation to show mastery and
dedication of his or her traits.
Once these “boxes” are checked, identifying professionals
who are experienced, but still hungry to build their practice
is ideal. This ensures that you will retain an individual with
good experience, but who is still willing to actually work
directly on your account and provide excellent service (even
if you are not his or her biggest client). Those who are new
to their profession may be eager and come at a more affordable price, but you could pay for it in lack of experience. It
bears repeating that nothing replaces experience and references from professionals in situations similar to your own.
Alternatively, senior partners have the most experience, but
charge the highest fees and likely will not focus on your situation unless you are one of their top clients. Be sure to ask
what type of practice the professional has, how many clients
he or she has, the profile of a typical client, and who performs the direct work on the accounts. It also may not hurt
to ask if a prospective professional enjoys his or her work.
Structuring Key Advisors
Once you identify the right professionals, then you have to
have them work together in such a way so that they check and
balance one other. Because I advocate a structure of checks
and balances, it is important to have each of your advisors only
execute 1 area and not 2 or more. For example, although it is
Summer 2012 . New Retina MD 13
Finance Your Life
important for an attorney to understand insurance and wealth
management, he or she should only strategize and draft documents to set up your estate. Likewise, your wealth manager
should understand how your estate is organized and the type
of insurance you hold, but should only manage your assets.
Finally, although your insurance professional should have an
understanding of your estate and how your assets are managed, they should be uniquely focused on providing best insurance solutions and risk management advice.
The 3 professionals should know each other and all 3 should
be kept in the loop with regard to what the others are doing.
Having an email list that includes all 3 will ensure that all transactions are transparent. Because these advisors are experts in
their field, it is safe to assume that they work with many other
professionals in the field—when selecting these professionals,
it may prove prudent to ask who a candidate enjoys working
with and whether they have recommendations for individuals
with whom they work for existing clients.
This system of checks and balances is the best way to
ensure you receive top service. If you have this structure and
spend the time identifying and choosing your professionals
with background checks and references, you will optimize
the results from your financial professionals. n
Eugene Ng, MD, MBA, is a vitreoretinal surgeon.
He is the founder of his solo private practice in
Hawaii. Dr. Ng holds an MBA from Harvard Business
School and previously worked as a lifescience investor at several investment management firms. He
currently advises biotechnology firms and buyside
investors on strategic and investment projects in lifescience and
healthcare. Dr. Ng is a New Retina MD Editorial Board member
and may be reached
at 808 266 0577; or via email at [email protected].
Gog Boonswang, CFA, has been advising high-net-worth families and foundations for 10 years. Boonswang was a Founding
Principal with Summit Rock Advisors, a multifamily office that
advises families with $100 million in investable assets. Prior
to joining Summit Rock, Boonswang advised wealthy families working in the Private Wealth Management Groups at
Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Morgan Stanley. Boonswang spent 3
years as a world-ranked tennis player on the ATP/ITF tours. He
sits on the board of the Princeton Varsity Club and is a trustee
of the Albert G. Oliver Program, which focuses on the education
of high potential, underprivileged children. Boonswang holds an
MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Princeton
University.
Feature Story
(Continued from page 11)
Dr. Kwun: Although I never took a marketing class in college, I learned some important principals from my father,
who was in sales. Regardless of whether you are treating a
patient or selling to a client, you have to understand that a
commodity is being purchased and so customer (or patient)
satisfaction is very important. Physicians must remember
that it is not only important to treat patients, but it is also
important to understand their worries and fears and address
these as directly and completely as possible to help ease their
anxieties.
What separates good doctors from outstanding doctors,
in my opinion, is how they interact with their patients. Good
doctors make great clinical decisions; outstanding doctors
also make great clinical decisions, but they do so in an environment where they truly understand their patients.
Are there advantages to teaching, participating in
clinical trials, and publishing manuscripts in addition
to treating patients?
Dr. Freund: It depends what you want out of your career.
There are some people who are part of high-volume practices
and who are great doctors but choose not to teach or participate in research. That’s just their choice. It actually can be
said that teaching and doing research makes one less efficient
because you tend to spend more time on minute details.
That’s the great thing about retina: there are different paths
to choose and one is not necessarily better than another.
14 New Retina MD . Summer 2012
What advice would you give newer attendings as far
as important steps to take to ensure a robust career?
Dr. Freund: Always focus on what’s best for your patients.
This will build your career more than anything else. Your
best marketing is the care you provide to patients who are
referred to your practice—take the time to understand
your patients and explain every situation to them. Patients
appreciate the time and effort spent on their care and when
a patient goes back to the referring doctor praising you for
this, that doctor will be your friend for life.
Additionally, avoid criticizing another physician or retina
specialist to your patients—it is rare that anything good will
come from this.
Dr. Kwun: When you finish fellowship, you may think
you know what you want, when in fact, you do not. All
programs teach clinical and surgical skills, but often fellows
are not provided with the information to choose between
academic and private practice, or a combination of both.
It is really about finding the balance you find personally
important. Initially, I thought I would be happiest in an
academic setting, but I found a different path in private
practice that allows me to balance family, personal, work,
and research time in a way that I did not find possible in
academia. n
K. Bailey Freund, MD, can be reached at [email protected].
Robert C. Kwun, MD, can be reached at [email protected].