Picture this: a 28-year-old $400,000 in debt who has never held a job.
Would you give them a loan? Chances are, probably not. And that’s the thought taken by most banks, too.
But, just like most banks, you probably weren’t picturing a doctor — or someone who might be one in a few years.
And while the lending profile of many medical students, residents, fellows and even attending physicians can be a turn off for traditional financial institutions, their lifetime career earning potential shouldn’t be.
“Most banks and financial institutions don’t quite know how to properly engage with doctors and doctors in training,” Michael Jerkins, M.D., president and co-founder at Panacea Financial, told PYMNTS.
“In our opinion, your standard bank mis-assesses the risk of a doctor and a doctor’s practice. And part of that is because, generally speaking, doctors — when they start to make money — have lots of personal debt,” Jerkins said.
And as a doctor himself, just like his co-founder, he has had a front row seat to the round-hole-square-peg dynamic between the financial struggles of physicians and the banking products of traditional banks and financial institutions.
