Building a Legacy That Lasts: Why Dentists Should Embrace Succession Planning

Managing a dental practice (or practices) can leave you juggling patient care, day-to-day operations and your staff – so much so, that some of the more critical but not urgent issues such as succession planning, does not get the attention it deserves.

Here, I share some advice on getting the most out of your succession planning and leaving a legacy that lasts.

Start planning early

The first step is to work out what a successful legacy means to you. Some clients are keen to ensure their children are well educated, can afford to buy their first house and plan on spending the rest themselves! For others they want to create inter-generational trust funds to ensure the security of their financial future. Some clients have an even greater ambition to make a difference, such as improving the state of dentistry for children in the UK.

Legacy planning isn’t as simple as some people may think. Each aspect of the process comes with its own intricacies.

For example, most dentists are likely to be aware of the seven-year PET (Potentially Exempt Transfer) rules but, if you get the order of making trusts or gifts wrong, your beneficiaries could be liable for gifts made 14 years before your death.

It’s important to remember that there are many aspects, such as legal, tax, and financial security as well as issues such as the effect of inheriting wealth. Managing all these can be complex, so I’d always recommend getting started with succession planning sooner rather than later to give you, your family and staff the peace of mind that your legacy can live on.

What to consider

• The right reasons

  When planning your legacy, I would suggest returning to the ‘why?’ Any decision you make regarding your succession can then be carefully considered and built on clear goals and objectives.

• Mentorship and voluntary work

  If you mentor younger professionals or carry out voluntary work, this can form part of your legacy planning.

  Careful legacy planning could help you establish whether you can continue to do these things and still have the lifestyle you want.

• Donations

  If you regularly donate money to charity, legacy planning can help ensure these donations continue once you’re no longer around. We’ve recommended to clients that no longer need their life insurance plans to gift the proceeds to a favoured charity on their death

  At Wealthwide, we work with Pledge 1% who support companies that make giving back a priority Through this pledge, we’re able to create a legacy while supporting charities such as Dentaid, the BDA Benevolent Fund and Bridge2Aid, donating each year as well as using our time to provide volunteering support to local charities.

• Emotional struggles

  I can’t pretend that legacy planning is always an easy topic to discuss, particularly when there it involves split families and stepchildren.

  Having a trusted financial planner by your side is incredibly helpful, to provide experience, guidance, creative ideas and solutions, referrals to other professionals, a second opinion and to take away a considerable part of the stress from the process.

Enlist the help of your trusted financial adviser

Legacy planning is a serious matter, so it’s important to have impartial partners or advisers on your side.

A financial adviser can:

• Determine what’s affordable

• Guide you through unknown aspects of planning

• Help you feel confident in your planning

• Minimise tax payable by you in your lifetime, and for your beneficiaries after you’re gone

• Provide you with peace of mind

I’ve outlined some of the basics, but there’s clearly a lot more to legacy planning. If you have further questions about inheritance tax, trusts, financial security and the plethora of options you can choose from when succession planning, get in touch with us.

Reach out to us today to learn more about how we can support your financial journey – or you can score your financial confidence using Wealthwide’s brand-new Financial Freedom scorecard.

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