Wealth Strategies for Today’s Physician: David Mandell, JD, MBA, Shares Insights from New Playbook

As an attorney, author, and partner in the wealth management firm OJM Group, David Mandell, JD, MBA, met with Dermatology Times to discuss OJM Group’s latest publication, Wealth Strategies for Today’s Physician: A Multi-Media Playbook. The combination of written content along with more than 90 video and audio clips provides dermatologists with 7 key wealth-building strategies. You can receive a copy on OJM Group's online bookstore or by texting “DERM” to 844-418-1212. For more information, Mandell can be reached at 877-656-4362 or mandell@ojmgroup.com.

TRANSCRIPT:

Mandell: Hello, this is David Mandell. I am an attorney. I'm an author, as we'll talk about with our newest book. I'm the principal of the wealth management firm, OJM Group. I'm a frequent and regular contributor to Dermatology Times. And I'm excited to tell you about our latest book and how you folks can get it.

Dermatology Times: Could you summarize OJM's latest publication, Wealth Strategies for Today's Physician: A Multi-Media Playbook?

Mandell: So I'm extremely excited about this book. Depending on how you define it, it's our 12th or 14th or 15th book since 1998. I wrote a book called The Doctor's Asset Protection Guide in 1998 and every 3 or 4 years we do a new book. And my partners are key people on that. But this is our latest and greatest. It's based on 7 strategies that impact a physician's bottom line. The goal, just like when we help clients in our firm, is to help them build and protect wealth while reducing taxes and to meet their financial goals. And the book is all about that through 7 different strategies, which we'll discuss in a minute. But what makes this book really unique is what's mentioned in the subtitle, a multimedia playbook. It is a hard copy book. You can see this. It's got about 280 or so pages of written material, most of it new since our last book in 2020. But what makes it totally unique, and the first one we've done like this in 25 years, is throughout the hard copy, there are QR codes every couple of pages. In the eBook, if you get a PDF version, it's a link. But we have QR codes and links that take people to about 90 different videos and audio clips. And so, it really is multimedia. If you're someone who is more of a video watcher or a listener than a reader, you can really focus on those. In fact, we actually created in the back of the book, a glossary that has just all the QR codes in each place. So if someone didn't want to read it all, just go there. They can go to all the videos and audio, but I think most people will use both. And what that does,is not only give you different ways to learn, but because those audio and video clips come from our podcast and other things we've done. It's not just us, the experts at OJM Group, the advisors, my background as an attorney, one of my partners is a CPA, we have insurance people, we have investment people and CFPs, etc., but the videos and audio also go to a host of 10s of other experts that we've interviewed in my podcast to help people learn, and fellow physicians. So there's a lot of learning from fellow doctors telling their war stories of things that have gone well or have gone not so well in the areas of wealth planning so really valuable. I don't think I've seen anything else like it for docs, and we're extremely proud of it.

Dermatology Times: How does the multi-media aspect of the book best serve busy physicians?

Mandell: Well, I think it really gives physicians/readers a choice on how much they want to read and how much they want to watch and how much they want to listen. You know, you can imagine docs. I know this from my podcast and working with over 1000 physicians in my career. They may want to absorb some of this information when they're working out or when they're driving on a commute, and so they could get to a page in the chapter that's going to take them to, let's say a tax strategy that Carole's discussing in a podcast, and they can kind of earmark the page in the book and then click their phone to it when they're in the car. Now they're listening for 25 minutes, and that's time that they normally wouldn't be able to read the book. I think it gives people the choice to use some of that multimedia capability in a way that again, I haven't seen done effectively in a wealth book for docs before.

Dermatology Times: What are the 7 core strategies covered in the book?

Mandell: The first one is kind of long-term planning for younger docs. So, we kind of start with what younger docs would need. And then there's insurance planning. So we get into life insurance, disability insurance, long term care. What are the best products that you should be considering? Or how to evaluate the products and how insurance agents work and what you need to be aware of...term versus whole life and permanent insurance, and all this kind of stuff. That's under insurance. Then investing. So it's risk tolerance and how to choose an investment advisor, and what a fiduciary means, and all the, what we think, are key successes in approaching investing. Then there's asset protection, which is a discipline involving protecting assets from potential liability, which is something I've been helping dermatologists with for 30 years, first as an attorney and then as part of OJM Group. So we get into why it's important, what kind of state tools there are, what kind of exemptions...what are trusts? How do they work? Limited partnerships, limited liability companies, etc. Then a section on tax. And I've never met a dermatologist who didn't want to save taxes. So this is going to be a key chapter or key strategy for everybody. Carole really led that, and she's a CPA with 30 years of tax experience, so we dig into lots of different tax ideas personally, on investing, on ways to reduce taxes, use tax diversification, dig into that concept for long term, etc. Then there's a section on retirement planning, which is by far the #1 goal for most docs financially, is to get to retirement on their terms. That could be like my father, who worked until he couldn't anymore as a radiologist, or like my brother, who's a cardiologist who probably wants to retire soon and play golf, right? And every dermatologist watching this is somewhere in between, and every doc is somewhere in between, every person is somewhere in between. And our goal is to help them at OJM Group. And this chapter is about what you should be thinking about, how to be planning long term. And then when you get to the retirement red zone, which is kind of a football term, which means, when you're close, 5-10 years out, what you should be doing. You need to be changing some of your portfolio. You need to be worried about sequential risk returns. And then what do you do when you're in retirement? Because many dermatologists may be in retirement for decades, especially if they're married and their spouse survives them. So it's not retire, have a couple of years of income, and then die. We typically got to plan a lot longer than that. So there's some key factors there. And then the final strategy is for practice owners and what we call "Doctor-preneurs." Many dermatologists, as opposed to other specialties, still own their own practice, or are partners in a practice. Other specialties have really been more absorbed into health systems and hospitals. And even the derms who might be watching this, who are interested in the book, who are employed, a lot of people are doing kind of side hustles. We talk about that on the podcast a lot, and we get into that in this strategy. So this could be doing locums work. This could be doing some kind of product, like an aesthetic product. This could be a med spa. Lots of different businesses, even if you're an employed doctor, that you might get involved in, certainly if you have your own practice. So we get into a lot of success factors; how to build value in that practice, how to save taxes in that practice, how to build retirement plans in that practice or business, and that's the last strategy for practice owners and Doctor-preneurs.

[Transcript has been edited for clarity.]

Disclosure:

OJM Group, LLC. (“OJM”) is an SEC-registered investment adviser with its principal place of business in the State of Ohio. SEC registration does not constitute an endorsement of OJM by the SEC nor does it indicate that OJM has attained a particular level of skill or ability. OJM and its representatives are in compliance with the current notice filing and registration requirements imposed upon registered investment advisers by those states in which OJM maintains clients. OJM may only transact business in those states in which it is registered or qualifies for an exemption or exclusion from registration requirements. For information pertaining to the registration status of OJM, please contact OJM or refer to the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website www.adviserinfo.sec.gov.

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This article contains general information that is not suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized legal or tax advice, or as a recommendation of any particular security or strategy. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this article will be appropriate for your particular circumstances. Tax law changes frequently; accordingly, information presented herein is subject to change without notice. You should seek professional tax and legal advice before implementing any strategy discussed herein.