For Physicians and Surgeons Thirty years to earn it. Thirty more to live on it.
A late start, a narrow earning window, then capital that has to last as long as the career did. We manage it with the loss decided first, and coordinate the rest: the practice sale, the tax, the trusts, the income.
For physicians, surgeons and dentists with $5 million or more,or a practice sale that will put you there.
Earned one patient at a time. Managed one risk at a time.
The money has a different job now.
For twenty or thirty years the practice created the capital. Now the capital has to fund a life for decades, hold up through markets no one can predict, and pass to someone else, without a paycheck behind it.
The practice is being sold.
Cash at closing, rollover equity, an earn-out. The terms set the tax and the risk, and most of it is fixed once the letter of intent is signed. Bring it to us before then.
The portfolio is the paycheck now.
No more contributions. A loss in the first years of retirement costs more than the averages show.
Your wealth is one thing.
Rollover equity in the buyer, stock in the hospital system, the practice itself. The upside made you. The downside can undo decades in a quarter.
Decades in a 401(k) and profit-sharing plan.
Saved under a plan’s menu, one contribution at a time. Once it can move, it deserves a real portfolio with a real risk discipline.
A liability that can outlast the practice.
How assets are titled and held matters as much as what they earn. That is a plan, with your attorney, made before it is needed.
No time to run it yourself.
Eighty-hour weeks built the capital. Someone should be responsible for seeing the whole picture, and it shouldn’t be you at 10 p.m.
Each of these is a decision with a cost you can define and an outcome you can’t. We size the cost.
A loss, counted in years of work.
You know what it took to save the capital. A market decline can take it back in weeks, and the climb back is steeper than the fall: a 30% loss needs a 43% gain just to get even.
How many years of saving does a decline cost?
10years of saving to earn it back
On $10 million, a 30% decline is a $3 million loss. At $300,000 saved a year, that is 10 years of work to earn back, and the portfolio needs a 43% gain just to get even.
So the loss is decided first, before anything is bought.
The same returns, in the opposite order.
Once withdrawals start, the order of returns matters as much as the average. Two portfolios can earn the same fifteen returns and end in very different places, depending on which years come first.
$10 million, $500,000 withdrawn each year, and the same fifteen hypothetical annual returns averaging 6.4%, in two different orders.
A loss early, when the portfolio is largest and the withdrawals have just begun, does the lasting damage. Limiting it is the whole job.
The investments, and everything the capital touches.
Mike manages the portfolio. Christi advises the family and coordinates the professionals around it, so the decisions that usually get handled separately work as one.
| The work | Who does it | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Investment management | Mike Shell, personally. | Every position with its exit set before entry, the loss defined in dollars, and exposure rotated as the evidence changes. |
| The practice sale | Christi Shell, with your attorney and CPA. Your banker or broker sells the practice. | The terms, the tax and the rollover equity weighed before you sign, and the proceeds put to work with the same discipline. |
| Tax planning | Christi Shell, with your CPA. | Which gains to take and when, the timing of the sale, losses harvested, so the tax is a known cost before you act. |
| Retirement income | Christi Shell. | Which accounts to draw from first, the withdrawal the plan can survive, and the required distributions handled. |
| Asset protection, insurance and estate | Christi Shell, with your attorney. | Titling and structures that seek to protect what you’ve built, coverage reviewed against what the family needs now, and the trusts and documents kept current. |
If you don’t have a CPA, attorney or trustee yet, we’ll introduce you to ours.
Questions physicians ask.
Who is this for?
Physicians, surgeons and dentists with $5 million or more, or a practice sale, rollover or retirement that will put them there. Shell Capital Management is an independent, fiduciary registered investment adviser in Knoxville, Tennessee. Mike Shell manages the investments; Christi Shell advises the family.
When should we talk about a practice sale?
Before the letter of intent. The structure of the deal, cash, rollover equity, an earn-out, and the entity that receives it, sets the tax and the risk, and most of that is fixed once the terms are signed. Your banker or broker runs the sale. We advise you on the whole decision, and we put the proceeds to work afterward.
Most of my wealth is in a 401(k) and profit-sharing plan. Can you manage it?
When the plan can be rolled over, it is managed in an account in your own name at Goldman Sachs, with the same discipline as the rest. Before that, it is part of the picture we plan around.
Do you work with physicians outside Tennessee?
Yes. We’re based in Knoxville, Tennessee, and much of the work happens in writing and by phone.
What does it cost?
One annual advisory fee, a percentage of the account’s value, with no commissions to us. We go through the fee in the first conversation, and it is agreed in writing before you invest.
Who do I talk to?
Mike and Christi. Mike manages the investments. Christi advises the family and coordinates your CPA, attorney and trustee. From the first conversation on, you talk to them.
Bring us the sale, the rollover or the retirement date before it’s set.
Tell us what’s changing, and what the money has to do now. You’ll get a written reply, then a private conversation.
If you write, I’ll read it myself.
Mike Shell, Founder & Chief Investment Officer
Related: Who We Serve, Business Exit Planning, How We Manage Risk and Portfolio Hedging.