Protect your practice. Preserve your wealth. Plan with confidence.

Often yes — based on local licensing, insurance, and liability requirements. For example, California law requires dentists to operate as a Professional Corporation (PC) rather than a standard LLC. Washington also mandates professional entities (like PLLCs or PCs) for dental practices, to ensure all owners are licensed professionals. We help determine the best structure for your practice and jurisdiction to maximize legal protection and tax advantages.

Through careful succession planning and buy-sell agreements that specify who takes over and under what terms. We establish contingency plans (for events like disability or death) so that a trusted colleague, partner, or pre-chosen buyer can step in. This keeps patient care uninterrupted and preserves the value of your practice during transitions.

Yes. Expensive dental equipment, real estate (your office building), and other appreciable assets can significantly increase the value of your estate over time. This growth can push your estate above certain tax thresholds, triggering taxes. For instance, Washington’s estate tax exemption is about $3 million (from July 2025), so a thriving practice with property could face a state estate tax. California doesn’t impose a state estate tax, but large estates still encounter federal estate tax. We use valuation discounts, trusts, and other strategies to minimize estate tax exposure and keep more of your wealth in the family.

We often implement lifetime gifting and structured trust arrangements. By gradually gifting shares of your practice (or using family limited partnerships and trusts), you can transfer value to children or junior partners in a tax-efficient way. We balance these transfers with regulatory compliance and proper valuation to avoid IRS challenges. Every plan is tailored to your goals – whether you aim to retire and pass the practice to a colleague, or slowly give ownership to family members while retaining control during your career.

Absolutely. Charitable giving can be structured to support causes important to you and provide tax benefits. For example, setting up a charitable remainder trust or donor-advised fund could allow you to donate an interest in your practice or direct a portion of your estate to charity at death, yielding current income tax deductions and future estate tax reductions. We help dentists design charitable strategies that fulfill philanthropic goals while also maximizing tax relief at both the state and federal level.

Not at all. Even smaller practices benefit from structured estate and business planning. If you own any practice – large or small – proper planning reduces risk and uncertainty. For solo practitioners, having a plan is crucial to avoid chaos in a crisis (who will treat your patients or manage the office if something happens to you?). For any size practice, planning ahead means you control what happens to the business you worked hard to build, rather than leaving it to courts or default laws. In short, advanced planning provides peace of mind and protection no matter the size of your practice.