Annex Wealth Management and physician student loan planning for practice owners

What problem does physician student loan planning solve for a practice owner?

Physician student loan planning keeps school loans, a practice loan and a mortgage from peaking in the same years as tuition or a slow year at the practice. Doctors and dentists who started saving around age 40 often carry all three payments at once. The interest rate is rarely the biggest danger. Stacked payments are, so each payoff date gets set against those years.

Does a single private loan ending within two years need a planner?

Usually not. If the loan ends before any big outflow and the payment fits your month, keep autopay running, since many lenders discount the rate for it, and put your effort into retirement accounts. A resident or new attending on federal loans should send each income recertification on time and keep the employment certification forms. That alone protects most of the options.

Six steps Annex Wealth Management takes from loan statement to payoff date

Annex Wealth Management opens every loan review by looking at your month. The loan's rate comes later. We don't price a payoff schedule until we can see what each year looks like through year five. The portfolio is second in line, because its job is to pay for that month.

The work runs like this.

• 1. You send the latest statement for each loan.
• 2. Annex records the loan type (federal or private), rate, payment and payoff date.
• 3. Annex lays those payments onto your monthly spending plan for the next five years, next to tuition, the practice loan and retirement contributions.
• 4. Annex prices three schedules: the current one, one accelerated to end before a set date, and one stretched. Each shows the monthly cost and the total paid.
• 5. Annex marks the months where two big payments overlap.
• 6. You pick a schedule and arrange it with the lender. Your CPA checks the tax side; most physicians earn too much for the student loan interest deduction, so check the current IRS limit.
• 7. Annex rechecks the plan when a statement, rate or due date changes, and again when the first tuition bill arrives.

Does a first tuition bill or a practice loan renewal change the payoff date?

Yes. If a loan's scheduled end date falls after a known big expense begins, such as tuition, a buy-in or a spouse's income stopping, price a payoff that ends before that date. Prepay only if the extra monthly amount fits the spending plan without cutting retirement contributions.

Take Farid and Siobhan (hypothetical), 51 and 49. He's a general dentist who owns a four-chair practice set up as an S corporation; she runs the front office. They still owe about $103,000 on his dental school loans, refinanced privately at 6% and paid at $2,000 each month with five years left. Their child starts college in three years, so two years of loan payments would land on top of tuition.

A 36-month payoff costs about $3,150 each month, which is $1,150 more than now. That's $41,400 extra over three years ($1,150 × 36). In return, the $2,000 payment disappears for the 24 overlapping months, freeing $48,000 ($2,000 × 24). Total paid falls from $120,000 ($2,000 × 60) to $113,400 ($3,150 × 36), a saving of $6,600. Still open: whether $1,150 each month fits without trimming their retirement contributions.

The answer flips in the end-of-year-3 row, when the loan is gone and tuition begins.

Following 'refinance to the lowest monthly payment' too literally backfires. Stretch the same $103,000 at 6% over ten years and the payment drops to about $1,140 each month. But the total reaches about $137,000, roughly $17,000 more than the current schedule, and payments run until Farid is 61.

Planning can't lower a lender's rate. Money used to prepay a loan also can't be borrowed back at the same rate if the practice later needs equipment or cash, so a household with thin reserves may do better keeping the extra $1,150 each month in savings. Investments can lose value, while the interest saved on a loan is certain.

Other events make the work urgent: a move from private practice to a 501(c)(3) hospital (check PSLF before refinancing any federal loan, because private loans never qualify), a practice loan renewal or buy-out date, or turning 50, when the 2026 catch-up of $8,000 competes for the same dollars.

Check the payoff date on your latest loan statement against your next big bill

If a loan's end date falls after a tuition start, a practice loan renewal or a planned cut in hours, the planning is worth doing now. Send the request form with your loan statements and an estimate of what you spend each month. The first conversation is online or by phone. Annex Wealth Management puts its fees in a signed agreement before starting, and new clients need $500K in investable assets.