Yes, Dr. Carolyn McClanahan has more degrees than a thermometer. But that doesn’t make her a know-it-all. Nor did it guarantee the physician-turned-financial advisor the InvestmentNews Women to Watch Lifetime Achievement award.
No, it’s the things she did with all that education that earned her that prize – and all the things she continues to do for both her clients at Life Planning Partners and the wealth management industry, such as developing tools and processes to educate advisors on the financial issues associated with aging, cognitive decline, and terminal illness.
“Early in my practice I recognized that if advisors understood some basics about health and healthcare, they could do a much better job assisting clients with these matters,” said McClanahan. “It became my career goal to educate advisors on how to help people plan for all the intersections of health and finance.”
McClanahan founded Life Planning Partners in 2004 after serving as a doctor first in her native Virginia and later in her adopted home state of Florida. She currently oversees more than $320 million in client assets, an amount she could easily double, triple, or quintuple should she choose to widen her financial practice.
But growth for the sake of growth wasn’t her goal when she originally made the switch from MD to CFP, and that remains the case to this day. She made the decision early on to limit her clientele so that she could use the time and her talents to teach others.
“Why help only 100 people when I can hopefully help millions of people?” asked McClanahan.
And helping people – medically or financially – has been her life’s work.
Her original intention when first entering the workforce was to help others through a career in physical therapy. She soon realized, however, that for the effort required to become a physical therapist, she might as well go the whole nine yards and attend medical school. Heck, it was the doctors who were giving the orders anyway – and coming from a military family, McClanahan was well versed in the chain of command.
After completing her undergraduate degree at Mississippi University for Women and medical school at University of Mississippi, McClanahan began her first residency in pathology. She then switched to family medicine, completing her residency at Virginia Commonwealth University.
After a couple of years in private practice and emergency medicine practice in Richmond, Virginia, she relocated to Jacksonville, Florida, to teach on faculty at the University of Florida.
And it was in Florida (of course) where life took a hard turn for McClanahan.
“In 2000, my husband and I tried to find a financial planner to help us decide if he could change careers. The people we interviewed were more interested in sales or investing money, and not helping with the financial planning we desired,” said McClanahan.
Never one to shy away from a challenge or the opportunity to further enlighten herself, she enrolled at the University of North Florida to learn about financial planning. And it was there she truly found her passion.
“I originally was going to be doing planning just for my running buddies and emergency department colleagues. After starting my practice, I saw a huge need for real financial advice,” said McClanahan. “At the same time, I was facing a lot of sexism in the form of unequal pay in my medical group, and that is what pushed me over the edge to fully enter financial planning.”
McClanahan’s biggest realization after making the move away from medicine was that investment management is only a small part of the job, and too many people in the industry focus on fiddling with portfolios instead of providing comprehensive financial planning. She praises the members of NAPFA (National Association of Personal Financial Advisors) for their generous help and tutelage when she started her wealth management firm.
“Coming from the dog-eat-dog world of medicine, that opened my eyes. I started paying forward all the kindness the people in NAPFA provided to me, and my heart is full with seeing how much of an impact all of this has had on the profession,” said McClanahan.
And as to the differences between running a medical practice and a financial advisory practice?
Not too many, believe it or not.
“There really isn’t much difference, except medicine is more stressful because not doing a great job can be life or death for a patient,” said McClanahan.
She modestly describes Life Planning Partners as a “traditional comprehensive financial planning practice,” serving as a fee-only fiduciary for about 100 client families. Like most advisory firms, McClanahan’s shop offers cash-flow planning and projections, budgeting, insurance advice, estate-planning advice, tax planning, and investment management.
Where it differs from the pack, however, is in its ability to deal with the finances of chronic health issues, aging, cognitive decline, and terminal illness.
Ultimately, it became McClanahan’s career goal to educate advisors on how to help people plan at all the intersections of health and finance. And now that she’s reached that goal – and all the designations that come with it – she is enjoying herself more than ever.
But she’s not done yet.
“The best part of my job is watching others achieve success – our clients, my coworkers, other financial advisors. It makes me so happy to see others achieve their dreams,” said McClanahan. “I actually think that is my superpower. I genuinely care about others and love helping them solve the problems that could get in the way of their success.”
In fact, sometimes the toughest part of her job, according to McClanahan, is stepping back and letting the people she’s trying to help “live the lives they want to lead and not push them to do things they don’t want to do.”
Perhaps there are worse things to be guilty of. Nevertheless, she says her husband keeps her grounded and occasionally pulls her back when she presses too far.
“He travels to many conferences with me. We have a butterfly and bird sanctuary, hang out with our cats, and exercise regularly. We have a good community of friends, and I love to cook for people,” said McClanahan.
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