Who should be on your dental team? An accountant, a banker, an attorney and an insurance agent should be on your team. Each of them provide valuable insight that will help your dental practice find financial success. Our dental transition specialist Matt and Joe provide more information about the importance of a strong dental team.
Matt Scherer: Hello and welcome. My name is Matt Scherer with PMA Practice Transitions. I assist dental professionals in buying and selling practices in Ohio and Western PA, and my colleague…
Joe Gordon: I’m Joe Gordon. I do the same thing, but I do it for Indiana and Northern Kentucky.
Matt Scherer: Our topic today is Assembling Your Dental Team. What do you think is the most important top of the list when you’re thinking about buying a practice or starting a practice and assembling your team? What do you think is on the top of that list at the top of that list?
Joe Gordon: Well, the top of the list, and I’m biased, is going to be your accountant.
Matt Scherer: And I’m biased only because that’s who it should be, is your CPA.
Joe Gordon: That is who it should be, and that’s probably one of the first places you want to be acquainted with. Find out who in your area is what I would call a dental-specific accountant. They’ve got a great concentration of clients in the industry. They understand the industry because the value of any CPA is not doing a tax return. Monkeys can do tax returns. It’s not that difficult. What the value is, is having that tax return reflect what you want it to reflect and help make your goals. They also need to understand the industry to look and see how your practice is performing versus industry standards and give you advice on that on a regular basis.
Joe Gordon: So ongoing, that should be something that they offer. That’s really the value that they bring to it, and then they should be able to help you with transition and walk you through all the steps, all the important parts, from the asset allocation to setting up however you’re going to keep your books… Most people use QuickBooks nowadays, who’s going to do it, what your internal controls are going to look like-
Matt Scherer: set up your corporation, right?
Joe Gordon: Yeah. Everything. Talk to you about the tax structure, how you’re going to hold the entity. If you’re buying real estate, if we need a separate business for that. So, that’s your first point of contact right there.
Matt Scherer: And your second person on the list should be some near and dear to my heart, would be a banker. Why is a banker important to you-
Joe Gordon: Because they have the money.
Matt Scherer: That’s right. Yeah. One thing you can do is get in touch with a… we call them dental lenders. A lot of the dental lenders throughout the country have… banks have segments that just specifically handle dental practice professionals… or dental professionals, excuse me. So you got to watch local banks. You have to remember that most banks are asset lenders, and if you didn’t know, dental practices’ assets aren’t worth whole lot.
Joe Gordon: No, they aren’t worth anything.
Matt Scherer: Right. So banks will struggle lending on what we call air.
Joe Gordon: Yes.
Matt Scherer: It’s Goodwill. Goodwill is the most important thing that they’re lending against, and Goodwill is air essentially to a bank. A good dental lender can get you pre-qualified, and be careful between… from what I’m saying, pre-qualified, not pre-approved. There is no such thing as pre-approval when you’re buying a dental practice. It’s not like buying a home. Every dental practice is unique and cash flow is king and every bank’s going to look at every single practice as an individual and make sure it works for you. So be careful with those words, pre-approved and pre-qualified. They get you pre-qualified. If somebody tells you they can get your pre-approved, better run, run fast.
Matt Scherer: The third person, I think, or team member, if you will, on the list is probably your insurance agent and-
Joe Gordon: You’re going to need to contact the insurance agent. You’re going to have, obviously your physical facility, you’re going to have to have all of that covered, work with comp insurance. You’re going to need someone on the insurance side that you can work with. You may be required to carry life insurance on yourself-
Matt Scherer: That’s right, and disability.
Joe Gordon: … and disability. Life insurance may be assigned to the lender.
Matt Scherer: That’s correct.
Joe Gordon: We need to get somebody who can get you favorable rates, really understands. There are some people who make a lot of money selling what I would call inappropriate life insurance policies, but let’s get somebody out there that people trust me, and again, that comes from your team.
Matt Scherer: Yeah.
Joe Gordon: The last person that we think is very important is your attorney.
Matt Scherer: Yeah, and I would even sprinkle in before the attorney is maybe if, depending on the practice you’re going to buy, many of them are PPOs, but maybe have a credentialing company that’ll help you get credentialed with the insurance companies [crosstalk 00:05:00] that the selling practice uses, and then the attorney.
Matt Scherer: There’s probably some others that you can sprinkle in there, like financial advisors and things like that, but that’s who we feel are probably the most important players in a transaction. And, certainly, if you need assistance with contact… names and numbers of dental-specific CPAs and attorneys and such, don’t hesitate to call Joe or I. We can certainly help you and direct you and guide you in the right-
Joe Gordon: We would love it.
Matt Scherer: … the right direction.
Published by Matthew Scherer on October 15, 2019