A Family Office for Physicians.
Your Finances Deserve the Same Attention
You Give Your Patients.
You spent a decade training to practice medicine.
You didn’t have time to learn about investing, taxes, or financial planning along the way.
Now you’re earning well—but the financial complexity is growing faster than your ability to manage it on your own.
Does This Sound Like You?
- You’re a physician earning a high income—but you don’t have a clear picture.
- You have retirement accounts from your health system, an old 401(k) from a prior employer, a brokerage account, and cash sitting in the bank earning nothing. You think you’re using all your benefit options. Nobody is coordinating any of it.
- You’re juggling W-2s with 1099s. What’s deductible? What’s not? Nobody has explained how each piece of your income is taxed.
- You’re considering a career move—from a hospital-employed position to a private practice partnership, or vice versa—and you’re wondering about the tax implications. You went from a W-2 to a K-1, or you’re about to, and nobody has explained what that means for your taxes, your retirement plan options, or your deductions.
- You know you’re paying too much in taxes, but you don’t know what you can do about it. At your income level, the tax planning opportunity is significant—but nobody has shown you what’s possible.
- You’ve been approached by financial “advisors” who turned out to be insurance salespeople. Or you’ve been sold investments—private real estate deals, permanent life insurance, annuities, or aggressive tax avoidance strategies that don’t work out the way they were described. You want someone who works for you, not someone who earns a commission by selling you something.
- Your income is lumpy—base salary plus bonuses, call pay, and consulting fees—and cash accumulates in a checking account with no plan for where it should go.
- You have a group disability policy through your employer, but you’re not sure if it’s truly own-occupation, specialty-specific, or whether you need an individual policy to supplement it. You want an independent opinion.
- You want to retire at some point. Maybe early, maybe not. You don’t know what your number is, how close you are, or what it would take to work on your own terms.
- You need someone who understands that physicians don’t just pick a day to stop working forever. You might take a sabbatical, reduce your hours, shift from the OR to teaching, or transition roles over time. The financial plan has to accommodate that flexibility.
- You’re very smart, but the best use of your time is taking care of patients and enjoying life away from work—not trying to figure this out yourself. You want a financial plan. You’ve wanted one for years. You need someone willing to spend the time explaining your options, considering the pros and cons, and offering a clear recommendation for action.
If this sounds familiar, you’re exactly who we specialize in.
The Highland Approach:
A Family Office for Physicians
We bring family office-caliber service to physician families
who would never otherwise have access to it.
One advisor who knows your entire financial picture.
One team coordinating all the pieces.
Get Organized: Balance Sheet & Net Worth
First things first. We build a comprehensive balance sheet so you can see everything you own, everything you owe, and your true net worth in one place. We compare your current investments against appropriate benchmarks to measure performance. Most physicians we meet have never seen their full financial picture laid out clearly. That clarity changes everything.
Account Consolidation & Coordination
You have accounts everywhere—old 401(k)s, IRAs, brokerage accounts, a spouse’s accounts, cash in the bank. We consolidate and coordinate the asset allocation across all accounts so every dollar has a purpose and you can see how the pieces fit together.
Tax Planning by a CPA
Highland’s team includes licensed CPAs who perform tax analysis directly and coordinate with your tax preparer. An annual letter to your tax preparer makes sure they adjust your return for the planning opportunities we’ve executed. Are you juggling W-2s with 1099s and K-1s? We help you understand how each piece of your income is taxed, what’s deductible, and what strategies are available: maximizing retirement and deferred compensation options, tax exempt income, capital loss harvesting, asset location optimization, income bracket management, IRA to Roth conversions, and more.
Tax Aware Investing
Where you hold your investments matters as much as what you hold. We design your portfolio to minimize the annual tax drag of investing by placing tax-inefficient strategies in tax-deferred or tax-exempt accounts. At physician income levels, tax-exempt income strategies—municipal bonds, qualified dividends, and careful asset location—can meaningfully improve your after-tax returns. We actively monitor your taxable portfolio for tax loss harvesting opportunities.
Proactive Cash Management
Physician income can be lumpy—base salary plus bonuses, call pay, or consulting fees. Cash accumulates in checking accounts earning nothing. We put your excess cash to work immediately through a structured approach: a foundation of liquidity and stability, then systematically investing into your long-term portfolio. Your “emergency fund” should be built into your investment portfolio and not sitting in a savings account.
Strategic Portfolio and Investment Management
Your investment portfolio should be built around your financial plan, your tax situation, and your timeline specific to you and managed on a proactive basis. We balance investments made for Growth and appreciation with those selected for Risk Reduction and stability. Adding Non-Correlated investments and alternative strategies can add diversification. We manage your investments with a disciplined approach using diversified, low-cost portfolios. Our approach looks at your entire portfolio, including employer retirement plans.
The Savings Checklist
There’s an order of operations for building wealth, and most physicians aren’t following it. Emergency fund, employer match, Health Savings Account (HSA), 401(k)/403(b) max, Backdoor Roth, taxable account, and more. Early in your career: Backdoor Roth contributions first, then max out 401(k)/403(b), then check if a 457(b) is available. We help you save in the right sequence so you’re not leaving tax advantages or free money on the table.
Employer Benefit Evaluation
Your health system benefits package is one of your most valuable assets—and one of the most overlooked. We evaluate your 403(b), 457(b), deferred compensation, restricted stock, employee stock purchase plans (ESOP), Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), and any Mega Backdoor Roth opportunities. If your employer offers it, we’ll make sure you’re using it.
When Your Career Changes, Your Tax Picture Changes
You might move from a hospital W-2 to a private practice partnership, join a specialty group, take on consulting work, or go the other direction. As a partner, your income shifts to a K-1—meaning quarterly estimated taxes, self-employment taxes, and the possibility of owing taxes on income you haven’t received yet. Your retirement plan options may also expand significantly. Highland helps you understand how each piece of your income is taxed before, during, and after the transition.
Your Path to Being Financially Independent
There comes a point where the returns from your investments exceed what you’re saving. That’s when compounding takes over and you approach escape velocity. Then there’s a second crossover—when your investment returns exceed what you’re spending. That’s financial independence. Work becomes optional. We help you figure out exactly where you are, what it takes to get there, and how close you might already be.
How Physicians Actually Retire
Most physicians don’t pick a date and stop working forever. The reality is more nuanced: a sabbatical, a significant reduction in hours, a shift from the OR to education or administration, or a gradual transition over several years. Many take sabbaticals. The financial plan has to accommodate this flexibility. We build projections that model different scenarios—not just “retire at 62” but “what if I cut to three days a week at 55?”
Asset Disbursement Strategies
Converting your investments into spending cash should first be approached as a tax problem, solving for the lowest possible tax impact. Foresight in investment planning ahead of time can help minimize the tax drag when living off your investments.
Roth Conversion Roadmap
If your income drops—between jobs, during a sabbatical, or in early retirement—there’s an opportunity to convert tax deferred assets into tax exempt assets. We build a multi-year IRA to Roth conversion plan that fills your low tax brackets, reduces future Required Minimum Distributions, lowers IRMAA costs, and may materially reduce lifetime taxes. Roth accounts are amazing gifts to leave behind as inheritance for your children or grandchildren.
Disability Insurance Review
Disability insurance protects your most valuable asset—your ability to earn a high income for decades. The right policy is an individual to you, portable to your next role, own-occupation, specialty-specific contract that pays to age 65 or longer. Your employer’s group policy is typically not enough: it often has a weaker definition of disability, may not be specialty-specific, and isn’t portable if you change employers. We provide an independent, objective review of your current coverage and help you understand whether you need an individual policy to supplement your group plan.
We don’t sell insurance.
Life Insurance & Personal Umbrella
Term life insurance is the right answer for most physicians—not the permanent policies that insurance salespeople push during residency. Insurance products are often oversold as vehicles for investing. We help you figure out how much coverage you need and for how long. We also evaluate your personal umbrella liability coverage. Umbrella policies are inexpensive relative to the protection they provide and for physicians, they can be critical. We don’t sell insurance.
Asset Protection Strategies
Physicians face a higher risk of litigation than most professionals. Beyond malpractice insurance, we help you understand how to structure your assets to limit exposure. There are options to consider such as properly structured LLCs for asset protection and confidentiality, trust structures, umbrella policies, retirement account protections, and strategic account titling. The key is using these tools correctly. This is coordination, not legal advice, and we work alongside your attorney to make sure it’s done right.
College Savings Strategy
529 plans for children first, then Roth IRAs for children, then UGMA/UTMA accounts. We help you understand the Wisconsin state tax deduction, balance education savings against retirement savings, and avoid sacrificing your future for tuition.
Estate Planning Coordination
Establish a revocable living trust, along with a will, durable power of attorney, and health care power of attorney. Title your assets correctly. Your trust should be completely customized to your family’s specific situation. As your wealth grows and you and your family changes, the documents need to keep pace. We take the time to understand you and your intentions. We coordinate with your estate planning attorney to make sure everything is aligned and implemented. We can recognize when life changes may prompt an update.
Debt Repayment Strategy
Many physicians carry significant student loan debt into their first attending position. The temptation is to immediately buy a large house and upgrade your lifestyle. We help you build a plan to pay off debt aggressively while still saving and investing—because the first few years of attending income are the most critical for building a base of wealth to compound.
What Sets Highland Apart
Fee-Only. No Commissions. No Products to Sell.
Physicians are frequently targeted by financial salespeople disguised as advisors. Commission-based “planners” sell permanent life insurance during residency. Broker-dealers push proprietary funds. Dinner seminar speakers pitch alternative investments that sound great but don’t deliver.
Highland is different. We are fee-only and a fiduciary. We don’t sell insurance, annuities, or investment products. We don’t earn commissions. Our only obligation is to you. When we recommend something, it’s because it’s right for your situation—not because someone is paying us to recommend it.
The Expert Generalist Approach
Our advisors hold the CFA, CPA, and CFP® designations. This is a rare combination of investment, tax, and planning expertise developed over years of experience. Value comes from the combination of these areas. Your advisor doesn’t just manage your portfolio—they understand how your investments, taxes, retirement plan, insurance coverage, and estate plan interact, and they coordinate all of it. A financial quarterback for your family.
Family Office-Caliber Service
Prior to founding his practice at Highland, Ryan Moran [Link to bio page] spent 20+ years within single-family offices, multi-family offices, and a private bank. He brings that level of depth and coordination to physician families who would never otherwise have access to it. One advisor who knows your entire financial picture, not a rotating team at a national firm.
The Professional Reimbursement Option (PRO Plan)
Highland’s PRO Plan provides a management fee credit to reimburse the cost of your independent CPA or estate planning attorney, up to a set limit. This means comprehensive tax and estate planning coordination at no additional out-of-pocket cost to you.
We Understand How Physicians Work
You’re busy—either working or enjoying time away from work. The best use of your time is not worrying about this stuff. We get it. We offer flexible meeting schedules, communicate quickly and clearly, and build a structured service calendar that fits how you work. We don’t need you to become a financial expert. We need you to show up to a few meetings a year, answer our questions, and let us handle the rest. But of course, we are more than delighted to discuss all of the details with you in as much depth as possible.
Boutique Independence
Highland is privately owned and independent. We are not a branch of a national firm, and we are not beholden to corporate mandates or proprietary products. You are not going to be shuffled through advisors until the only reply is from a junior associate days after your message. Our independence means we are the right solutions for you and your family and accept the responsibility.
What to Expect
Step 1: A Conversation.
Tell us about your situation—your specialty, your career stage, your family, your goals, and what’s keeping you up at night financially. There is no cost and no obligation for this initial conversation.
Step 2: We Do the Math.
We gather your financial information—accounts, tax returns, employer benefits, insurance policies, estate documents—and build a comprehensive picture of where you stand today.
Step 3: Your Plan.
We present a personalized financial plan: a balance sheet with net worth, a savings checklist, an investment review benchmarked against appropriate indices, a tax analysis, an employer benefit evaluation, a disability insurance review, and a roadmap to your goals. You’ll see exactly where you are, where you’re going, and what needs to change.
Step 4: Implementation & Ongoing Partnership.
We implement the recommendations, manage your investments, and meet with you on a structured schedule that fits your calendar. As your career evolves, your family grows, and your income changes, we adjust the plan. You’ll always know where you stand.
Ready for a Financial Plan That Works as Hard as You Do?
Schedule a conversation with Highland Investment Advisors. We’ll listen to your situation, answer your questions, and help you understand if we’re the right fit.
31 Google Reviews, 5.0 Stars
Highland Investment Advisors, LLC is a fee-only, SEC-registered investment advisor.
175 Patrick Blvd., Suite 120, Brookfield, WI 53045 | 414-755-2309
Disclaimer: All content is for information purposes only. It is not intended to provide any tax or legal advice or provide the basis for any financial decisions. Advisory services are offered by Highland Investment Advisors, LLC, an SEC-registered investment advisor.