Where Will You Be in Five Years? The Four Futures Facing Every Practice Owner
Five years from now, you land in one of four places: a plan you designed, security, insecurity, or a mess. Doing nothing is drift. Here is how to change course.
By Tim McNeely, CFP®, CIMA®, CEPA®, CPFA® | LifeStone
Five years from now, you will be standing somewhere.
The only question is whether you picked the spot, or drifted into it.
Here is one way to picture it. Look at where you are today, then look five years out. There are four places you can land: the future you designed on purpose, solid security, insecurity, or a mess. Doing nothing does not keep you where you are. It moves you, slowly, away from the best one. And today is the cheapest day you will ever have to change course.
The four futures
1. The future you designed. Your money is arranged on purpose. Your investments, your taxes, your heirs, your protection from lawsuits or divorce, and your giving all point the same way. Your wealth funds the life you want after dentistry, and the people and causes you care about.
2. Security. Not everything went to plan. You made a few mistakes. But you built a strong practice, and you are still pretty secure. Comfortable, if not quite what you hoped.
3. Insecurity. Things you meant to handle never got handled. The security you expected is thinner than you thought.
4. A mess. Something blew up. A lawsuit, a partnership gone bad, a deal that fell apart, a health scare with no backup plan. Five years out, you do not have the assets to support the life you want.
Nobody chooses the third or fourth future. People drift into them.
A great practice is not a great plan
You probably know a dentist who ran a busy, profitable office and still came up short on the personal side. Strong production. Loyal patients. A full schedule. And somewhere along the way, the money outside your practice never got the same attention as the money inside it.
That is the trap. Your practice gets your best hours every day. Your personal plan gets whatever is left on a Sunday night. A good business does not guarantee a good personal outcome. It just makes the stakes higher.
What drift looks like in a dental career
Drift is quiet. Nothing breaks. You are just busy, and the decisions wait.
- Your associate. You hired them to buy back a day. A few years later, nobody has decided whether they are your future buyer, a future partner, or a great employee.
- Your building. You own it, or you lease it, and the terms were set years ago. Nobody has asked what happens to it when you sell.
- Your entity and taxes. Your structure made sense when you opened. Whether it still fits your exit is a question for your CPA, and it has not been asked yet.
- Your estate plan. It was written for a dentist who owns a practice. It may not say much about what happens when you do not.
- Your exit window. You have a rough idea of when you want to step back. Every year you wait, that window gets a little narrower, and fewer choices stay open.
Each one is small. Together, they are the difference between the first future and the third.
Why today is the cheapest day
You will never be closer to the best outcome than you are right now.
Wait five years and the picture changes. The future you designed may be out of reach. Getting back to it may be expensive. Or you may feel pushed to take bigger risks to catch up, at exactly the age when you want to be taking fewer.
Change course today and the fixes are usually smaller. Decide about your associate while you still have time. Look at your building before a buyer does. Ask your CPA about your structure while there is still runway. Update your estate plan before your largest asset changes shape.
The gaps live between your advisors
Most dentists already have good people. A CPA. An attorney. Maybe a broker for later. Each one does strong work in their own lane.
The gaps usually sit between those lanes. Your CPA sees the tax return. Your attorney sees the documents. Your broker or a qualified appraiser looks at what your practice may sell for. Nobody is holding the whole picture and asking where it is drifting.
In The Winning Edge, a 2024 CEG Insights study I helped underwrite, business owners with $5 million or more of net worth expected more from their primary advisor than they received in every service it measured, from tax planning to estate planning to business succession. My work is the coordination. I keep your CPA, attorney, and broker working from one plan, with your goals at the center.
When I look at a dentist's plan for the first time, the biggest gaps are usually between advisors, not inside any one of them. No one holds the entire picture. No one sees you.
The answer to drift: the Dental Exit Stress Test
Drift ends the day you look at it honestly.
The Dental Exit Stress Test is a complimentary 25-minute call. You leave with a one-page written gap analysis showing your biggest gaps across the five areas of wealth management: investment consulting, wealth enhancement, wealth protection, wealth transfer, and charitable gifting.
It names your gaps. It does not promise a plan or a fix. That part is up to you, with the right people around you.
Book your Dental Exit Stress Test and see where you are drifting while every option is still open.
Five years from now, which of the four futures do you want to be standing in?
Sources
- CEG Insights, The Winning Edge (2024), p.10, N=809. Research I helped underwrite.
This article is for educational purposes only and is not tax, legal, or investment advice. Consult your own qualified professionals about your situation.