As a doctor running a medical practice, you face unique challenges – long hours, intense yet rewarding work and the constant pressure to achieve entrepreneurial success.
When you’re so busy, it’s easy to miss out on what’s really important in life – spending time with family and friends and enjoying the rewards of your hard work.
What matters to you?
As specialist advisers to medical professionals, Perpetual understands these universal challenges doctors face. We also know that you have unique circumstances and dreams for yourself and your family.
We take the time to understand you and your goals. We will work with you to create a tailored financial strategy and portfolio of investments to help you achieve them. With the right plan in place to protect and grow the wealth of your family and practice, you’ll have more time to spend on what really matters to you.
Whether you’re setting up your practice, growing your practice or planning for business succession, our team also has the experience to guide through the business and investment decisions you will face along the way, so you stay organised and in control.
Why Perpetual?
Perpetual has been a trusted financial adviser for doctors in private practice for decades. We think of client relationships as long-term partnerships, built on trust, with our advice both relevant and transparent. We also explain complex situations simply.
Get in touch with us today to create your blueprint for financial freedom and life-long security for your family.
Live more. Work Less
A good financial plan creates more than long-term wealth – it also gives you more time. Time to spend with your family, on your hobbies or creating life-long memories.
Our role as a specialist financial adviser to doctors is to give you the financial control you need to successfully run your practice and have more time to spend on your other priorities in life.
At Perpetual, you have a wide breadth of services and specialists available under one roof – from financial advice to insurance and superannuation. This lets us create for you an integrated financial plan that simplifies wealth generation and saves you time. It allows you to turn your income into capital without spending anxious hours on investment decisions or administrative tasks like taxation.
Protection for you, and your family
You’ve worked hard to achieve your lifestyle. Don’t let an accident put you under pressure. Whether you’re protecting your hands or body, your practice or making sure your loved ones are taken care of, the right insurance cover means one less thing you have to worry about.
Our insurance experts will create a tailored policy specifically for your circumstances and medical speciality – a policy that adjusts to your changing family and financial situation.
Retire well - succession planning for your practice
Given what you’ve put in, don’t you deserve the best possible outcome when you exit your practice? A well-considered succession plan will help you make the right decisions to protect your interests and look after your loyal staff and patients when you step away from your practice.
It can ensure the wealth you’ve worked so hard to create is:
• invested strategically to secure your ideal retirement lifestyle
• transferred to your family tax-effectively
• put to work supporting a charity or cause.
At Perpetual, we can help you get your plan in place, and with so much to consider it’s a good idea to start as soon as possible.
Live a luxury lifestyle
You may want to expand your property portfolio, create more experiences or simply enjoy the finer things in life. With a comprehensive, long-term plan you can have confidence about the future – while enjoying a desirable lifestyle today.
This is where the specialised financial advisers at Perpetual can help. We will work with you to build a personalised plan with carefully selected investments and wealth management strategies – including some you may not have heard of – to generate long-term wealth.
We’ll also help you best manage your debt, minimise the tax you legally need to pay and maximise your cash flow, so you have more to spend (or invest!) today.
Making the world a better place
You may want to give to your local community, support environmental causes or advance medical research. You know the causes closest to your heart, but do you know the most effective ways to support them?
You can donate to charities on an ad-hoc basis. Or you can give strategically – by taking into account taxation, the impact of your giving, when and how you give and whether you want your family to be involved.
With some careful planning, you can give in a way that makes a real impact on the causes and organisations you care about. You can even ensure your giving continues long after you’ve gone – so you leave more than an inheritance, you leave a legacy.
Find out more on philanthropy with impact
Client Stories
Dr Shannon Thomas
Dr Thomas came to Perpetual to devise an improved insurance strategy. After sitting down with a Perpetual adviser and insurance specialist, Dr Thomas now has peace of mind that if anything happens to his hands or his back, his new insurance will take care of him. We also helped Dr Thomas with an investment strategy that provides him with a vision and a path to help him achieve his financial goals.
Your journey
Whether you’re a recent fellow or already setting up your practice, the early stages of your career are an exciting time. The decisions you make now can make a big difference in the future. At this stage of your career, here are some of the Perpetual services which have helped doctors like you:
Strategic financial advice
Strategic advice is advice that synthesises a whole range of factors – your personal and family situation, current circumstances, your goals and attitudes to things like risk, spending and investment ethics. By working through all these issues with you, your Perpetual adviser can help you create a real financial plan – a roadmap that ensures every financial decision you make moves you closer to your goals. No more missed opportunities, no more regrettable last-minute decisions. A strategic approach to financial freedom and creating a wealthier, happier you.
Wealth, lifestyle and business protection
As a doctor you know only too well that accidents happen. We can‘t protect you from these, but as part of our ‘protect and grow’ strategy we can help protect your income and lifestyle should something go wrong.
Our insurance strategies encompass life insurance, total and permanent disability, trauma insurance and income protection. Just as importantly, we tailor those insurances to be tax-effective, to work effectively together, to integrate with your investment and superannuation strategies. We’ll also make sure the insurance you need to protect your practice is not overlooked.
Managing debt
For doctors, managing debt starts early. There are student loans to repay as soon as you transition from training to your first job – and then there’s the mortgage, potential property investments and school fees in the mix.
Whether you’re starting out, expanding or buying new equipment, debt will also play an important part in growing your practice. But what is the best way to manage your debt?
At Perpetual, we’re always careful to build debt management into your financial plan. We can also help you find the right loan, consolidate and refinance high-cost debt, and structure repayments in a way that lets you grow your practice without sacrificing the lifestyle you’ve earned.
Property investing
An investment property (or properties) can make up a large part of your portfolio and carry a similarly large burden when it comes to maintenance, accounting and tax management. Across everything from purchase, rental, management and sales our property experts can help you maximise the return and tax benefits of property investing whilst relieving you of a significant compliance and management workload.
We’ll also help you with tax-effective strategies that can enable you to own more properties sooner. Find out more on our property management services.
Strategic tax planning
Tax obligations go hand in hand with running a small business. While there’s the tax you should pay, many doctors who run their own practice pay more than they need to. This isn’t surprising, as finding the right strategy to minimise your tax bill can be complex and time-consuming.
The advisers at Perpetual can work with your current accountant, or you can benefit from the tax and accounting experts at our specialist accounting firm, Fordham. Our accounting firm Fordham, specialising in work with business owners and managers, achieved an exceptional NPS score of 75 in 2020.* Together, they can help you to understand your practice and develop a flexible, legal tax strategy that reduces your paperwork, compliance burden, tax bill and headaches!
Asset protection
The rewards of running your own private practice are enormous. As with any small business, however, there are risks and pitfalls along the way. As a registered doctor you have medical indemnity insurance in place, however this may not be enough to protect your business and personal assets, such as an investment property, if there are legal judgements against you.
Our team will help you develop asset-protection strategies including separate legal structures and other arrangements specifically to separate your business assets from your personal ones.
Investments
Should I invest more in my practice? What about shares or super? How about my property?
There’s no right or wrong answer to these questions. Just what’s right for you. You may want more income, maybe you’d like to grow the value of your practice, or simply protect your nest egg.
With a deep understanding of where you are now, what you want for yourself and your family, your attitudes to investing, risk and much more, we’ll carefully design an investment strategy that is aligned to your goals.
You may have different financial goals, or maybe your goals require a mix of investments. That’s why it’s important to have a broad array of investment choices. Our award-winning* investment team offer you multiple options to choose from or combine. These include direct shares, managed funds (including ethical options), fixed income, real estate, alternative assets and exclusive investments not normally available to individuals.
Learn more about our investment services
Superannuation
Super is the most tax-effective way to build your wealth for the future. We will help you find the right platform for your super, including setting up a self-managed super fund that lets you stay in control of your investments. We also work with you on an optimum contribution strategy to maximise your super balance.
Managing your practice
The team at Fordham act exclusively for private business owners, business managers and their families. We help you grow your practice and succeed through careful planning and strategy. As a specialist part of Perpetual, we can bring you unrivalled expertise when it comes to turning your business success into assets that safeguard the future of those you care about.
We can also advise on ways to improve profitability, simplify your administration and manage people. If you’re looking to expand or even exit your practice, we can advise on the best strategy for this too.
Perpetual was recognised as Best Alternative Investment Manager of the Year and the Perpetual Income Opportunities Fund has won Best Multi Strategy Fund two years running at the Hedge Funds Rock Australian Alternative Investments Awards held in Sydney (2018-2019).
Transition to retirement
Highly ambitious individuals don’t work one day and retire the next. However, your priorities will change as you move through career. As you begin to wind down your working hours and step back from the day-to-day of running your practice, you might want to supplement your income with a pension from your super to maintain your income. If you’re eligible, we can put in place a transition to retirement strategy that lets you do just this.
Succession planning or sale?
When considering how to exit your practice, your first big decision could be whether you want to sell your practice or set up a succession plan. Either way takes careful planning and preparation. We can advise you on what type of ownership transfer is best for you.
If you sell, we can advise on the right way to go about it, such as trade sale, management buy-in / buy-out, initial public offering (IPO), private equity, gift or orderly wind down? Different forms of sale have different advantages and we will work out which best suits your circumstances.
We can also help with tax management, timing of the sale and even ways to retain equity for the future.
Estate planning
It’s understandable, but untrue, to think that estate planning conversations are about death. They’re about how you can help the people and causes you love after you’ve gone. When you’re not there to help them in person, that job passes to the legal and financial structures you create. Think about it that way and you can see that wills, estate plans, powers of attorney and trust structures are how you extend a helping hand long after you’ve gone. At Perpetual, our job is to help you do that as easily, efficiently and fairly as possible.
Learn more about our estate planning and administration services.
Our financial advisers – in their own words
"Doctors spend so many years training – that makes a financial plan right throughout their career even more important. At Perpetual and Priority Life, we follow doctors’ careers and provide the financial education and guidance they need – whether they’re training, getting into a program, starting a fellowship or even going into private practice. Every stage is a huge milestone and I love being a part of it." – Bradley Gecelter, Partner, Priority Life
"Over the last 30 years I have been privileged to work with hundreds of medical specialists, enabling me to build a thorough understanding of the unique challenges they face. Putting in place a tailored financial plan to achieve lifestyle and financial goals is just one way we help our clients - a really satisfying part of my role is helping doctors build the financial knowledge they need to have a true understanding of the investment, superannuation and insurance programs they have in place. It’s very rewarding to watch doctors who have the right planning and financial education achieve their goals, whilst at the same time doing what they do best – helping others!" – Phillip Hines, Partner, Perpetual Private
Meet the team
Why Perpetual
WE UNDERSTAND DOCTORS
From what our clients tell us the only constant in the career of a medical professional is an unwavering dedication to patient care. Everything else is in a constant state of flux – learning to run a practice, earning higher incomes, acquiring bigger homes and debts, more responsibilities and complexity. That’s why your financial strategy needs to evolve with you.
We understand your life
Making considered decisions early can ensure your high income is optimised throughout your career. Many of our medical professional clients benefit from advice on tax-effective ways to convert their income into growing capital, how to protect their family and assets, getting their practice ready for sale and managing their super so they can carry their current lifestyle into retirement.
We understand the shifting challenges you face as a medical professional – whether you’re commencing your practice, at your career peak or preparing for life after work. A tailored financial strategy that builds and protects your wealth takes time and planning. But the benefits can be significant and life changing – and Perpetual would be happy to help you.
All the services you need for your practice
Do you need help with:
- staff contracts?
- legal support when taking on another partner?
- billing?
- managing and balancing accounts?
EARNING YOUR TRUST
Perpetual is an ASX-listed, diversified financial services company which has been serving Australians since 1886 when it was established as a trustee company by a group of businessmen including Sir Edmund Barton, later to be Australia’s first Prime Minister. That trustee heritage – and the culture it created around putting clients first – is what makes Perpetual unique.
We have been earning the trust of our clients for more than 130 years and pride ourselves on our long-standing client relationships – some of which span five generations.
Trust is earned, every day.
Watch as Perpetual's CEO Rob Adams talks about how trust has to be earned every day. And introduces a telling true-to-life example.
OUR INVESTMENT PHILOSOPHY
Our investment philosophy is to protect and grow your wealth by carefully selecting suitable investments that reflect the level of risk you're comfortable with, as well as your investments objectives. To achieve this, we diversify risk across asset classes, within asset classes, across countries and fund managers. We take a long-term approach to investing because we believe quality investments yield benefits in the long run. Our advisers and investment specialists have a high duty of care in developing portfolios and ensuring Perpetual’s stringent quality investment filters are met.
Visit the Investment Management page for more in-depth information and insights.
The Private Practice
As an Educational Partner of The Private Practice, one of Perpetual’s focus areas is providing financial advice for doctors – whether you’re a trainee, recent fellow or a consultant – to help you transition smoothly into private practice.
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We also help doctors who aren’t running their own practice build long-term wealth.
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Ramaciotti Foundation
Perpetual are proud to be the trustee for the Ramaciotti Foundations.
The Ramaciotti Foundations are collectively one of the largest private contributors to biomedical research in Australia and have granted over $61 million to research projects since 1970.
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Priority Life
In late 2019, Perpetual acquired Priority Life – a specialist risk advisory firm for doctors and business owners. The team of experts at Priority Life have a deep understanding of the complex insurance needs of doctors and can help you with the insurance you need to protect yourself, your family and your practice.
FIND OUT MORE AT PRIORITY LIFE
TAKE YOUR FIRST STEP - CONTACT US ON 1800 631 381
Or please submit the form below and a specialist adviser will contact you. 97%* of Perpetual Private clients are happy with the quality of their financial advice. *Perpetual Net Promoter Score Survey (research conducted by Woolcott Research).