Planning for retirement

Movement toward retirement can bring up a lot of feelings. You’re facing the end of your career, which can be scary and exhilarating. It’s also a chance to see your career as a whole. You started as a student, unsure of yourself. You’ve ended as a seasoned professional, still probably sometimes unsure of yourself. But in the interim, you’ve spent thousands of hours holding space for your clients. The summative value of your impact is huge, and that’s an important legacy to protect. We’ve got some recommendations for making your moves into retirement as smooth as possible. You can work with a Time Well Spent expert to make your plan, but you can also do this work yourself. You may not need a professional administrator, but it can be helpful to have someone to assist you with the closure of your practice.

Some of the things you’ll want to plan for include:

• How to manage client communication before and after closure, who will take custody of patient records and store them for the legally required amount of time, and and who will notify insurance companies, contract holders, and the state board.

• Who will contact clients and refer to additional providers as needed?

• Who will keep you calm and focused as you move through the process?

• Manage digital and written communication (emails, social media, websites) to reflect the closure of the practice.

• Clean and close your physical office spaces and arrange for final bills to be paid.

• Coordinate with legal and financial professionals (eg accountants, tax professionals, payroll providers).

• How to feel confident that your clients are cared for, records are secure, and you are really be retirement ready.