Financial Planning for Physicians
Your medical training prepared you to take care of patients, not navigate student loan forgiveness, backdoor Roth strategies, or disability insurance fine print. SLP Wealth is a fiduciary financial planning firm built to help physicians make confident financial decisions from residency through retirement.
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Fiduciary Advisors
Your best interest drives every recommendation
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Physician Specialists
Financial planning tailored to every stage of a medical career
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Student Loan Experts
Built on Student Loan Planner®, so loan strategy is in our DNA
Why Physicians Need a Specialized Financial Advisor
Physicians earn more than most professionals, but they also face a financial landscape that looks nothing like anyone else's. The combination of delayed income, six-figure student debt, high tax brackets, and significant liability exposure creates a set of challenges that most general financial advisors aren't equipped to handle.
Consider the math: the average physician finishes training around age 30 to 33 with over $200,000 in student loan debt and has spent a decade earning a fraction of their eventual salary. Meanwhile, peers in other fields have been saving, investing, and building equity for years. That compressed timeline for wealth-building means every dollar — and every decision — matters more.
Then there's the complexity. Physicians regularly deal with financial questions that don't come up in a standard planning engagement: Should I pursue Public Service Loan Forgiveness or refinance? How does my employer's 403(b) interact with a solo 401(k) from my side gig? Do I need an umbrella policy on top of malpractice, and how much is enough? Is it worth forming an S-corp for my 1099 income?
The wrong answer to any of these can cost tens of thousands of dollars — or more. A financial advisor who works with physicians day in and day out already knows the landscape, the trade-offs, and the strategies that matter most at each stage of a medical career.
That's why working with a physician financial advisor isn't about getting generic advice with a medical spin. It's about partnering with someone who understands physician contracts, the residency-to-attending income transition, the nuances of physician-specific tax strategies, and how student loans interact with every other part of your financial plan.
What a Physician Financial Advisor Helps You With
Financial planning for physicians touches nearly every corner of personal finance, but a few areas require especially careful, physician-specific attention. Here's where a dedicated financial advisor for doctors adds the most value.
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Student Loan Strategy
The repayment path you choose can swing your total cost by six figures. We help you evaluate whether PSLF, income-driven repayment, or aggressive refinancing is the right play — and how it fits your broader financial plan. At SLP Wealth, student loan planning is woven into every engagement, not treated as an afterthought.
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Tax Planning
The gap between good and great tax planning can be worth tens of thousands per year. We help physicians take advantage of backdoor Roth IRA conversions, mega backdoor Roth contributions, HSA optimization, and donor-advised funds. Dual-physician households benefit even more.
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Retirement Planning
Between 401(k)s, 403(b)s, 457(b) plans, solo 401(k)s, and Roth IRAs, physicians have access to multiple savings vehicles. We help you build a retirement plan that accounts for a later career start and compressed savings timeline.
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Asset Protection & Insurance
High-earning physicians are uniquely exposed to litigation risk. We address own-occupation disability insurance, term life, malpractice coverage, umbrella policies, and how your assets are titled for an additional layer of protection.
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Cash Flow & Budgeting
The jump from a $60,000 resident salary to $300,000+ is one of the most financially dangerous moments in a physician's career. We help you set up a spending framework that lets you enjoy your income while keeping your savings rate on track.
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Estate Planning
Physicians with families and significant assets need at least the basics: a will, beneficiary designations, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, and for some, trust structures. We coordinate with estate attorneys to make sure your plan fits.
Meet the Physician financial planning team
Hey there! I’m Sim Terwilliger, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® and Certified Student Loan Professional and Chief Tax Officer and Partner at SLP Wealth. A Philly native, I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2013 with a B.A. in Modern Middle Eastern Studies and minors in Political Science, History, and Nutrition. I consider myself a lifelong learner and intellectually curious.
While working for my alma mater’s financial aid office after graduation, I was also planning my wedding. I spent more time in my spreadsheets figuring out the financial pieces of paying for my wedding as a young 20-something rather than the day’s logistics. Circumstances conspired, and I decided to go into financial planning.
I’m a passionate advocate for my clients in all stages of their financial life plans. Whether it is empowering you to take that sabbatical, helping you figure out how soon you can retire, or how much house you can afford, I’m with you every step of the way. These choices are personal, so your plan should be too.
Outside work, I enjoy spending time with my twin boys and husband, Paul, hiking, traveling, or cooking. My guilty pleasure is watching reality tv, and I am also an avid reader.
Angie spent over a decade in education as a high school teacher and career advisor for undergraduate and graduate students. In addition, she spent a year teaching English in the Palestinian Territories and has worked closely with non-profits and service organizations all of her adult life.
Angie fell in love with personal finance while her family paid off $280,000+ of debt from graduate school. Her husband, a pediatrician, had gone to medical school on a partial scholarship. However, even with a modest amount of loans, by the time he finished residency, the loan balance had ballooned to a quarter of a million dollars. This, plus Angie’s graduate school debt, made them feel like they could not think about any other life goals — financial or otherwise — until the loans were paid.
In the process of figuring out how to pay the debt, Angie discovered the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement, where she binged on financial podcasts and blogs and developed a financial strategy to pay off their debt. She felt empowered by what she learned and became passionate about equipping others with the same knowledge. She decided to change careers and become a fiduciary financial planner to help Gen X, Millennial and Gen Z clients with the unprecedented financial issues affecting these generations, like student loans.
Angie enjoys spending time with her husband and their five children in the Monterey Bay area of California, where they live. She swims with her local Masters swim team several times per week, just completed her first marathon, and is actively involved in her church. She also enjoys travel, backpacking, reading and giving back to the community.
Ben Lacomis is a Certified Student Loan Professional (CSLP®), consultant to Student Loan Planner since 2022, and financial planner at SLP Wealth since 2023. His niche specialty is working with physician-households to design student loan repayment and financial plans that align with their lives during career and family transitions. With a deep respect for the medical community and other impact careers like teaching, Ben found that student loan planning has been the best path to help people who help others! It’s his way of giving back.
When he isn’t working with someone to crush their student loan debt, Ben enjoys his time outdoors in Pittsburgh with his Australian shepherd Pippin and golden retriever, Piper.
Jared approaches financial planning from his background in mentoring and coaching. After time spent in the nonprofit world working alongside families experiencing homelessness and first-generation college students, Jared pursued financial planning to combine his passion of helping people identify, prioritize, and reach their goals with his passion for personal finance. With years of experience working with working professionals, business owners, and retirees, Jared aims to help clients align their finances with their values to live a fulfilling life. Navigating student loans with his wife, a pediatric resident physician, Jared immersed himself in the research and strategy of optimizing federal student loan management to help others incorporate efficient student loan planning into their financial life.
Jared lives in West Hartford, CT with his wife, Lauren, and black lab, Wrigley. When Jared and Lauren aren’t going on family walks in their neighborhood, trying a new international recipe, or soaking up live music, they pursue their wanderlust together, enjoying extended time in Ghana and Rwanda, among many other adventures elsewhere around the world.
Financial Planning for Physicians at Every Career Stage
Your financial priorities change as your career evolves. Here's how we approach planning for physicians at each stage.
Medical Residents & Fellows
During training, income is low but the decisions you make carry long-term weight. Choosing the right student loan repayment strategy now, like IDR vs. refinancing, PSLF-eligible employment vs. private practice, can save or cost you hundreds of thousands over the life of your loans.
We also help residents get the right disability insurance in place while rates are low and your health is typically at its best.
Early-Career Attending Physicians
The first few years as an attending are all about building momentum. You're likely negotiating your first real contract, choosing benefits, deciding how aggressively to pay down loans, and setting up retirement accounts. This is also when tax planning starts to matter in a big way — your first full attending-year tax bill is often a shock. We help new attendings create a cash flow plan, prioritize competing financial goals, and make sure you're not leaving money on the table with your employer benefits.
Mid-Career Physicians
By mid-career, you've likely built significant income and assets — and the planning gets more sophisticated. This is where conversations around investment management, advanced tax strategies (like mega backdoor Roth or S-corp optimization), college funding, and practice ownership decisions tend to take center stage. Your net worth is growing, and the stakes of getting things right keep rising with it.
Pre-Retirement Physicians
As you approach the end of your clinical career, the focus shifts from accumulation to distribution. How will you draw down assets tax-efficiently? What does your healthcare coverage look like before Medicare kicks in? Should you do Roth conversions during lower-income bridge years? We help physicians nearing retirement stress-test their plan and make sure the transition from earning to living off your portfolio goes smoothly.
How SLP Wealth Is Different
There's no shortage of financial advisors who say they work with physicians. Here's what actually sets SLP Wealth apart.
✅ Fiduciary financial advisors.
We charge transparent fees for financial planning and investment management with no hidden costs. When we identify a need for insurance or other products, we refer you to vetted professionals, and that referral relationship is always fully disclosed.
🎓 Student loan expertise built in.
SLP Wealth grew out of Student Loan Planner®, the largest student loan advisory in the country. Student loan strategy isn't a side offering — it's part of our DNA and a core component of every physician financial plan.
🌐 Virtual and nationwide.
We work with physicians everywhere. No need to find a local office. Your advisor is a video call or message away, which means you get access to a specialist instead of settling for whoever happens to practice nearby.
🩺 Physician focus, not lip service.
Our team advises hundreds of physicians, dentists, and other high-income professionals. We know the nuances of physician contracts, the quirks of hospital benefit plans, and how to build a strategy that fits a medical career's unusual timeline.
💲 Transparent pricing.
Our fees are published right here on this page. No hidden costs, no vague “depends on your situation” answers. You know exactly what you're paying before you commit.
Financial Planning
- First Month 50% Off ($99)
- Financial Planning
- Cash Flow Management
- Insurance Advice
- Retirement Savings Planning
- Student Loan Advice
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Add Additional Services:
We manage your portfolio so you don't have to. Tax-loss harvesting, diversified investments, and low fees, with your goals driving every decision. See our brochure for additional pricing info.
Tax planning, filing*, and services for:
- Individual W-2, K-1
- Single member LLC or Sole Proprietorship
- Amendments for student loan strategies
- Married filing separately included!
*Please visit slpwealth.com/tax-agreement for complete details
1For a limited time, just $199/month for financial planning and we’ll waive your set up fee ($0 instead of $1,000). Those fees are not locked in forever (thanks inflation), but once you sign up, we’ll keep you locked into that monthly rate as long as we can!
Testimonials / Endorsements
Abdulhadi
Physician“As a physician, I really appreciate incorporation of student loan planning and the knowledge around this; I like how familiar you all are with physician clients and the kinds of financial issues we deal with (high income but student loan debt, feeling a bit behind after years of training, PSLF, etc.)”
Michael
Physician“The extra mile everyone puts in to answering our question's and helping us with our financial journey. As a whole, everyone’s been a joy to work with.”
Lauren
Physician“Working with people who understand the complications of student loans + PSLF and the salary differences pediatric providers experience when compared to adult providers.”
Julie
Physician“I like being able to run things by someone I trust before making decisions.”
Vishaka
Physician“We can cover a variety of topics slowly over time. Great to have a trusted professional to ask about our own research or methods and bounce ideas.”
Disclaimer:
These testimonial/endorsement statements were provided by current and former clients in response to client satisfaction surveys. Clients who completed surveys were eligible to participate in a drawing for a gift card awarded to a survey participant chosen at random, not based on survey responses. No compensation was given, and no conflict of interest exists between the client and SLP Wealth.
Financial Planning for Physicians — Frequently Asked Questions
Financial advisor fees vary widely. Commission-based advisors may appear “free” but earn money by selling products. Fiduciary advisors like SLP Wealth charge transparent fees. Our financial planning starts at $199/month with a $0 enrollment fee, investment management starts at 0.25% of assets under management, and we also offer personal tax services for an additional $199/month. When we refer you to an outside professional for insurance or other needs, we always disclose that relationship. You can see our full pricing above.
The earlier the better — but especially during major transitions. Starting residency, signing your first attending contract, getting married, having children, or coming into a significant income jump are all inflection points where the right guidance pays for itself many times over. Even during training, decisions around student loan repayment and disability insurance can have six-figure consequences.
A fiduciary is legally required to act in your best interest — not sell you products for a commission. Given the complexity of physician finances — and the number of financial product salespeople who target high-income doctors — working with a fiduciary provides important protection. At SLP Wealth, every advisor acts as a fiduciary, and when we do refer you to outside professionals for insurance or other needs, that relationship is always transparently disclosed.
The terms are often used interchangeably, but there's a meaningful distinction. A financial planner typically creates a comprehensive plan covering budgeting, taxes, insurance, retirement, and estate planning. A financial advisor may focus more narrowly on investment management. At SLP Wealth, we do both — comprehensive financial planning and investment management — under one roof, so your strategy is always coordinated.
Physicians face a unique set of financial challenges: delayed income from long training periods, high student loan balances, elevated malpractice and liability risk, complex employer benefit structures (403b, 457b, HSAs), and compressed timelines for building wealth. A financial advisor who specializes in working with physicians understands these dynamics and builds plans around them — rather than using a generic template and hoping it fits.
Absolutely. SLP Wealth is a fully virtual firm serving physicians in all 50 states. Most of our client meetings happen over video, and our planning and investment management platforms are accessible from anywhere.
