Quick, I need to sell my practice!

A few years back, I was asked to assist a dentist in finding and transitioning their practice to a new doctor, and I have enjoyed helping with this process over 100 times in a short period of time. Most of these cases are doctors who have enjoyed a great career and now want to find the perfect new dentist to pass their practice on to. It is a very rewarding experience to help a seller find an enthusiastic young doctor (essentially a younger them) to walk through the door and take over their legacy. The ones I do not like are the disabled dentists, and they are coming up more and more frequently. It is not that I don’t like assisting them, but there is no excitement in helping someone prematurely end the career they have put so much time, education, and effort into. There are the ones who make it a little easier–those who have a disability policy in place, for example, and especially those with a true own occupation policy, which allows them to be employed in another profession and their disability income will not coordinate with this new income. No one expects or knows when and how they might become disabled. Most are struck down in the prime of their careers and are forced to sell very quickly as they cannot find an ideal associate and patients begin to seek care elsewhere. To be honest with you, many of my dentists are claim-eligible but are persevering through, as they would much rather practice dentistry than be on a disability claim. A ‘true own occupation’ policy means that they are able to separate from employment with any ailment that makes them unable to perform their daily chair-side dentistry without pain or discomfort. I am averaging one disabled seller every month for the past 18 months. Many of your dental school professors are disabled dentists who are collecting a tax-free disability income (with a true own occupation policy) in addition to their teaching income.