The Elements Group at Morgan Stanley

Retirement planning: As a physician, your retirement dynamic may be different than a typical professional. Generally speaking, you start earning money later, carry more student debt, have a shorter career and need to expedite your savings. Your financial plan should take these considerations into account, and use the appropriate strategies to help you achieve your desired retirement outcome.
Ownership considerations: Owning a medical center may provide opportunities to generate greater income than simply being a physician employed by a hospital system. But it also increases your responsibilities with extra considerations such as managing employees and handling payroll. Also, when you retire, move into a part-time role or sell your business, the ownership aspect creates added complexities that must be addressed.

Relative value unit (RVU) issues: With over 100 physician clients, we understand your business and speak your language. For example, we realize that getting paid a pre-determined dollar value per procedure or appointment can add complexity to your practice management and increase the demand to see more patients. Many financial advisory teams may not be aware of these types of complexities you face as a physician.

Insurance reviews: The premiums for own occupation disability, malpractice and life insurance can be excessive. By conducting thorough insurance reviews, we may be able to identify unnecessary, overlapping or inefficient coverages.

We frequently consult with healthcare executives, including those employed by large hospital systems and leading pharmaceutical companies.

Many executives simply don't have the time or background to maximize the benefits of their equity compensation plan. Determining the appropriate time to liquefy stock holdings or diversify can be especially challenging. Complicating these matters are considerations such as the regulatory challenges—including blackout periods—you might face when accessing the assets within your corporate equity compensation plan, along with issues like restricted and control stock limitations. We can help provide clarity about these situations to seek the most value from your plan.

Concentrated stock positions provide additional opportunities to generate wealth, but they also pose significant risks. Through advanced, tax-management strategies, we can seek to diversify your risks and mitigate the impact of selling so you can retain more of your wealth.

Additionally, we can create a customized financial plan that aligns with your needs, provide access to exchange funds, private equity and hedge funds when appropriate, and help manage your estate planning strategies and philanthropy efforts.

While some may consider your company to be a "small" business, there's nothing small about the challenges you face as a business owner. Through our team members directly or the Firm's network of specialists, we can built a team around your business.

Business succession planning: Creating a sound exit strategy for your business involves a number of considerations — beginning with understanding the true value of your business — that may be too complex, overwhelming or time-consuming to tackle on your own. Part of your strategy depends on your priorities. For example, do you want to have a clean exit with the proceeds of your sale? Would you prefer to stay on with your business for a couple of years? Do you want to reward or protect your current employees? You have a lot options, and it's best to evaluate them now rather than when you might be forced to sell.

Employee retirement plans: These can be tailored and implemented to facilitate a variety of your goals, including attracting and retaining high-quality employees or creating more value for your business.

Business growth strategies: Is your company ideally positioned for near-term growth and long-range sustainability? As a business owner who's consumed with the daily operations of your company, it can be challenging to accurately assess this on your own.

Tax-advantaged strategies: It's difficult to overstate the importance of tax-efficient strategies in regard to income tax and estate planning purposes. A range of tax incentives exist, such as the Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) exclusion from Section 1202 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Designed to encourage investment in small businesses, this provision enables taxpayers selling their QSBS to avoid capital gains taxes up to the greater of $10 million or 10 times the adjusted basis of the stock, depending on the taxpayer's acquisition date with respect to the shares Issuing corporation and shareholder must meet specific requirements to take advantage of QSBS benefits.

Personal financial planning: Business owners tend to be so dedicated to their company they neglect their personal finances—which can be detrimental to the financial well-being of themselves and their families. A customized plan that complements your business plan can enhance the control, organization and discipline of your personal financial life. Doing so may create greater confidence about your future, and allow to better focus on doing what you do best – managing your business.

We're adept at navigating professional athletes and performers through the financial planning challenges associated with the sports and entertainment industries. This includes considerations such as the potential for compressed careers, sporadic periods of income, peak earning years coming early in life, sudden or premature career endings, and the complexities associated with charitable foundations. While planning for the unexpected is important for all our clients, it's especially critical for those working in these industries due to their volatile nature which can lead to a wider range of outcomes.

Additionally, our clients will have access to the extensive resources available through the Morgan Stanley Global Sports & Entertainment division which can provide additional support for growing your platform, managing your reputation, evaluating endorsement deals, caring for loved ones, giving back to favorite causes and other things that matter to you professionally or personally.