I recently spoke at Jim Dahle, MD’s White Coat Investor’s Conference in Phoenix, AZ. Jim is the author of The White Coat Investor: A Doctor’s Guide to Personal Finance and Investing which sold 75,000 copies. He hosts an annual event and invited me to speak. There were roughly 500 in person and 500 virtual attendees.
Jim is a doctor who loves helping other doctors with their finances from pre-medical school to the grave. He has a strong following of roughly 75,000 members for his podcasts, books, emails, Facebook group, etc. He really delivers excellent content in his email communications, podcasts, books, and workshops. He put together a lot of excellent speakers in an idyllic setting in Phoenix.
Other than Jim Dahle, I was the only speaker to have both a keynote and a breakout session talk. My first talk covered Roth IRA conversions, the best estate plan for doctors, and some specialty estate planning techniques including Who Gets What? — the charitable technique that encourages IRA and retirement plan owners to leave money to charity from their IRAs as opposed to their after-tax dollars.
Since I genuinely love answering questions and wanted to give the attendees as much value as I could, I answered questions for five straight hours after my talk! With one exception, all the questions were regarding Roth IRA conversions and backdoor Roth IRA conversions.
The doctors, most of them financially sophisticated, knew that going from the taxable environment (IRAs and other traditional retirement plans) to the tax-free environment (like Roth IRAs) was the right long-term strategy. The questions I received demonstrated a better than average understanding of taxes.
Given the level of interest and basic understanding, I revised my second talk to include a lot more material on Roth IRA conversions and backdoor Roth IRA conversions. While revising my second presentation, additional ideas regarding the backdoor Roth IRA conversion came to mind, and I incorporated those ideas into my webinar.
My upcoming May webinars include a two-hour session on Roth IRA conversions and backdoor Roth IRA conversions. If you would like to attend my next Roth IRA workshop, please register to attend at https://PayTaxesLater.com/Webinars. Please see pages 2 and 3 of this newsletter for more details.
A few other observations about the conference…
It was interesting to get a personal insight into how doctors feel about their jobs and careers. For instance, doctors—at least the ones I met and had dinner with—hate being limited to 20-minute appointments when they know many appointments should be longer. And one survey, conducted by Jim Dahle, indicated that even upon reaching their financial goals, most doctors would keep working, but would give up being on call. Being “on-call” was something that practically all the doctors I spoke with disliked.
Furthermore, they are well aware of the mess our health care system is in. In fact, one of the talks was titled How Doctors Can Save the Medical System, not the Government. They predict a massive crisis in health care infrastructure stemming from insufficient resources and a lack of medical professionals to treat the burgeoning demand for care.
They also are voracious readers. I was on a Jim Dahle podcast, and 1,700 doctors ordered my last book, Beating the New Death Tax. Many of the doctors I spoke with not only read that book, but also at least one other book that I wrote. Like the rest of the population, they don’t necessarily love lawyers.
If you would like to learn more about The Whitecoat Investor, please go to https://WhiteCoatInvestor.com.
To learn more about Roth IRA conversions and backdoor Roth IRA conversions, please register to attend my upcoming Roth IRA workshop on Tuesday, May 3rd from 1–3 p.m. (EDT) at https://PayTaxesLater.com/Webinars.