Five Questions With: Katherine Vessenes

"I love the Ocean State. I moved here in 2011 because my son lived in Boston and my daughter in Providence. "

Katherine Vessenes is the president of MD Financial Advisors and specializes in providing financial services to physicians. Medical Economics recently named her to its “Best Financial Advisors for Doctors list.” An attorney, certified financial advisor and registered financial consultant, Vessenes started MD Financial in summer 2011, which currently serves more than 260 doctors through the U.S. and is based in Rhode Island and Minnesota.
PBN: MD Financial provides financial services exclusively to physicians, why focus only on this niche of the market?
VESSENES:
Lots of reasons. I came from a medical family and know firsthand how painful it can be for a doctors’ family when their finances get out of control. I love working with physicians because I feel like we are changing their lives every day.

PBN: You have offices in Chanhassen, Minn., and Providence, what’s the connection and how has business been in the Ocean State?
VESSENES:
I love the Ocean State. I moved here in 2011 because my son lived in Boston and my daughter in Providence. I did not know a single doctor in the entire state and had no idea if this was going to work or not. Fortunately it is one of the best business decisions I have ever made. Every day I go to work feels like a party – I get to work with great doctors and help professionals who spend all day helping others. Today we have over 270 physicians across the country, but most of them are in Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts. Our main office is in Minnesota.

PBN: In what ways do physicians’ finances differ from those of other professions and why should they consider MD Financial for their financial service needs?
VESSENES:
Doctors today face a complex set of financial problems and they need multi-layered, sophisticated solutions. With high debt, lots of school loans, potential litigation and increasing taxes, it has been more and more challenging for doctors to coordinate all areas of their financial lives.
That’s our forte. We take all areas of a doctor’s financial life, from mortgages, debt plans, practice management, investments, risk management and taxes and try to get them synchronized and focused on each doctor’s unique goals. It takes a skilled, educated and experienced team to handle these diverse issues. My background as a certified financial planner and attorney are essential to crafting solutions that work.
That’s why I say we are the personal CFO for busy physicians.
Our strategies need to take into consideration saving taxes now and in the future, all the while building wealth and protecting it at the same time. To make matters worse, many of our clients don’t finish their training until they are 35, or even older. Most of our clients want to retire at 65. That gives them only 30 years to save for 30 years of retirement, while they are paying off their own school loans and educating their own children. This is a huge challenge for most doctors. Compare that to my background. I graduated from law school at the age of 25. That is an 11-year head start on a savings plan, and I don’t plan to retire until at least 95.

PBN: Although based in two states, your have clients from throughout the country, do you have any plans to grow your physical presence and if so, where would you like to expand?
VESSENES:
My next goal is Austin, Texas. We already have a lot of clients in Texas and you can’t beat the 320 days of sunshine every year along with no state income taxes.

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PBN: What are the biggest challenges you and your company faces in this market, and how do you adjust to meet them?
VESSENES:
Frankly our biggest challenge is not apparent on the surface. We strongly abide by a fiduciary duty and only recommend what is in the client’s best interest at all times. Unfortunately, some other firms that recently started marketing to doctors in the Rhode Island area don’t share our high standards of ethics. They don’t live here and they aren’t a part of the community. I think it is hard for a doctor to know upfront if they are getting an experienced, ethical advisor or a product pusher. The difference can be huge for physicians.
One of the reasons I started this firm is I watched the unethical advice other advisors were giving doctors. It really upset me as I watched advisors lie to doctors and recommend things that were in the advisor’s interest – not the doctors. I started this firm because I wanted at least the doctors we serve to get honest, non-biased, ethical advice from someone who puts the physician first.
The way we handle this delicate issue is first, I only hire team members who will abide by the same high code of standards that I do. That way I don’t have to worry about anyone on our team not treating the clients well. Second we strive to give each doctor a “wow” experience that is above and beyond what they could get any place else. I think this strategy is working – over 70 percent of all of our new clients come as referrals from our beloved existing clients.

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