Once you turn the age of 50, it is highly recommended that you do pre-death and disability planning to assure your family of the stability of your practice and it’s value.

In the event of a sudden death or a permanent disability, the value of a dental practice declines quickly.  Understand that the most valuable asset to the dental practice is the doctor.  Without anyone in the office to treat the patients, the revenue will decline and the practice risks the likely potential and inevitability that patients will leave for treatment.  In fact, it is our experience that if a practice isn’t sold within two months of a death, even with some doctor 'coverage' for patients, it will sustain potentially between 20% to 40% of its original value.

With this in mind, it is important not to waste valuable time in interviewing and deliberating over the broker.  We recommend that you have your pre-death and disability practice plan in place in order to remove the difficult decision of a spouse to make, especially given the crucial time period involved and the state of mind of your spouse.

Accordingly, the following is the structure that should be in place:

1. Current appraisal of the dental practice.

2. Select the Broker that you will be using and leave a directive with your Will.
   
   No one is better able to quickly get your practice valued and sold than a broker who is familiar with your practice and the market and able to maximize the exposure  of your practice as to a vast number of buyers.

3. Directives to your spouse/family with regard to your dental practice. We supply you with a directive to your family regarding your practice disposition. Have a Memo of Direction on file with your estate attorney and the transition specialist/broker to facilitate a quick sale of your practice. This document, executed by the dentist and witnesses, makes it clear who should be contacted in the event you are not able to make decisions about the sale of your practice. A short, proactive meeting will give the broker some insight as to your wishes, and you will know what services he or she can provide.
4. Periodic updates of your appraisal are available at your discretion.

Appraisals may be updated periodically at  doctors discretion. Updates are at the fee of $395 per each year.   Appraisals use the latest three years of tax returns.

Alternatively, simply provide us with your tax return at the end of every year and we will store it so that if an appraisal needs to be done quickly, we will have the most current financial information.  There is no charge for this.