Report: Financial Illiteracy Rampant Among Physicians

The financial literacy community is buzzing over the recent release of findings of a national study indicating that nearly 50% of physicians report being ill-prepared for their financial future and that primary care physicians lack important financial education necessary to best handle their personal financial lives.  The national study on physicians’ financial preparedness was conducted by AMA Insurance Agency, a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Medical Association, and included 2,500 respondents spanning a broad range of medical profession specialties and ages.

Financial education studies conducted to date disproportionately have focused on population segments that have not included physicians and, therefore, the results shed light on yet another professional community in strong need of financial education, resources and tools to boost their ability to handle their budgeting, investing and other financial needs.  Among the many key findings of the report are the following:

• Roughly half of physicians surveyed indicated that they feel behind where they should be in terms of their planning for retirement;

• Only six percent of physicians feel they are ahead of their savings plan;

• Many physicians reported a high lack of confidence in their education and decisions relating to important areas of financial literacy, such as estate planning, retirement planning, life insurance and disability planning;

• Female physicians indicated a greater level of financial illiteracy than male physicians;

• Physicians reported great concerns regarding the adequacy of their retirement assets to maintain their lifestyles.

Among the respondents, 49% work in a group practice, 16% work in solo practice, and 15% work in a hospital.  These metrics underscore another important theme widely discussed among financial literacy professionals; namely, that medical groups and hospitals can take the lead in ensuring greater levels of financial literacy among physicians if financial education programs, resources and tools become more widely available in those group and hospital environments.  To read more about this national survey and its findings, you can access the complete report here.