Estate Planning for Physicians and Medical Professionals

Physicians and other medical professionals often face a unique mix of opportunities and risks: high earning potential, ownership interests in practices and healthcare businesses, substantial educational debt early in their careers, and ongoing exposure to professional-liability claims. Thoughtful estate planning can protect families, support long-term financial goals, and address the realities of medical practice.

DiTommaso Lubin, P.C.’s High Net Worth Estate Planning & Fiduciary Litigation Practice Group works with physicians, surgeons, dentists, and other medical professionals to design wills, trusts, and succession plans tailored to their professional and personal situations.

Planning Around Medical Practices and Healthcare Businesses

Our work for physicians frequently includes:

• Coordinating with Practice Agreements. Aligning wills and trusts with practice buy-sell provisions, shareholder or operating agreements, and partnership arrangements so that ownership transitions smoothly on death, disability, or retirement.
• Handling Practice Sales and Transitions. Integrating estate planning with planned sales or mergers of medical practices, outpatient facilities, or ancillary healthcare businesses.
• Addressing Professional-Entity Structures. Taking into account professional-corporation and limited-liability entity structures, as well as corporate-practice-of-medicine rules, when planning for ownership and control transitions.
• Planning for Income Replacement and Liquidity. Coordinating with financial and insurance advisors regarding disability coverage, life insurance, and other tools to provide for families in the event of premature death or disability.

Personal and Family Estate Planning

In addition to practice-related issues, we help medical professionals:

• Prepare wills, revocable living trusts, and related documents to provide for spouses, children, and other family members in a tax-efficient and practical manner.
• Create trusts for minor children and young adults to manage inheritances over time and address concerns about financial maturity, asset protection, and education funding.
• Incorporate charitable and legacy goals, including support for medical institutions, scholarship programs, or community organizations.
• Consider asset-protection elements, coordinated with applicable law, in light of malpractice and other liability risks.

Litigation Experience and Avoiding Future Disputes

Because our firm also litigates estate, trust, and fiduciary disputes, we understand how beneficiaries and fiduciaries clash over perceived inequities, unclear language, or alleged misconduct. We bring that perspective to physician estate planning by:

• Drafting documents with clarity and an eye toward how they would be interpreted by courts and future family members.
• Addressing potential conflicts—for example, among children from prior relationships, or between family members employed in a practice and those who are not.
• Helping clients select appropriate fiduciaries and co-fiduciaries, and considering the use of corporate trustees where helpful.

Talk With Our Estate Planning Team for Physicians

If you are a physician or medical professional seeking to put a comprehensive estate plan in place, or if you are involved in a dispute over a physician’s estate or trust, our attorneys can help you understand your options.

Contact attorney Peter S. Lubin or attorney James V. DiTommaso for a free consultation.

Call 630-333-0333 or reach us through our online contact form.

This page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Contacting us does not create an attorney–client relationship. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.