Whether retirement is on the near horizon or you’re planning for the distant future, having an exit plan in place for your plastic surgery practice is crucial to a smooth transition for yourself, your employees and your patients. While every physician’s retirement goals and preferences will vary, understanding your options now can help to make your retirement — however you may envision that to be — much less stressful.
Traditional Plastic Surgeon Exit Strategies
When the time comes to start planning for retirement, many plastic surgeons feel a bit pigeon-holed into either selling their practice to a local competitor or colleague or bringing on a younger partner who may gradually take over the practice. While these more traditional options might make sense for some, not all plastic surgeons wish to completely step away from their practice or hand over the reins, so to speak, just yet.
In addition, both options have some serious downsides. Selling off your practice upon retirement in most cases will get you pennies on the dollar for what all the goodwill and patient history you’ve built in the community is worth. Bringing on a partner or junior associate to keep the practice going may sound great on paper, but the reality is much more complex. You have to carefully construct any partnership agreement, spend time grooming that new associate, and ensure alignment regarding your business sense and customer service approach. It’s not an easy road, and many plastic surgeons find that the effort does not pay off the way they’d like.
How Private Equity Can Be a Part of Your Retirement Plan
A newer and often more attractive exit strategy is to partner with a private equity firm, giving you the freedom to continue running your practice on your own terms while planning a long-term retirement plan over time. This option can also act as a financial safeguard in case life circumstances arise that might necessitate an earlier-than-expected exit from your practice, as you will already have a plan in place.
Joining a surgeon group backed by private equity funding, like Prime Aesthetics Group, can help you take the first step on a solid exit strategy. Prime Aesthetics Group is the nation’s most elite network of plastic surgery practitioners, and to find out how we could help you with your practice’s exit strategy, please fill out our secure online contact form.
