Dr. Armin Feldman, like many medical professionals, is driven by a passion to help the sick and injured. After selling his rehabilitation clinics more than a decade ago, he knew he wanted to continue helping others but in a less time-consuming way than as a practicing physician.

The answer: consulting attorneys as a traumatic head and brain injury medical expert. This path made sense based on Dr. Feldman’s expertise in this field, which had developed over nearly 40 years from a personal injury lawyer who sent him head-injured clients. Dr. Feldman realized his knowledge of these types of injuries was invaluable. 

“I have testified as an expert witness, as a medical expert, really more times than I want to remember on behalf of my patients who were either being cut off of their medical care or being offered some pittance of a settlement,” he says. “So I thought, based on all of that, well, maybe what I could do is consult attorneys on any kind of medical question that they had in a case. And that turned out to fill a niche that hadn't been filled — and now, 13 years later, has developed into a new subspecialty of preventive medicine.”

In this episode of the Prosperous Doc ^®, our host Shane Tenny, CFP^® welcomes Dr. Feldman, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, to discuss this career transition into consulting work. Besides explaining his system for consultations and how he approaches every new case, Dr. Feldman shares how he’s expanded his business to coach other medical professionals who want to start their own consulting work.

He also offers a sneak peek of his upcoming virtual Medical/Legal Conference, covering various topics about medical legal consulting, like how to operate and market your business.

💡 Featured Expert 💡

Name: Dr. Armin Feldman 

What he does: As the owner of MD Business Consultants, Dr. Feldman consults attorneys in the Denver area on medical questions that arise in their cases and helps other physicians around the country run successful medical/legal consulting businesses. 

Company: MD Business Consultants, LLC 

Words of wisdom: “The way that I have advised physicians over the years is to do an informal survey of your colleagues. Determine what you think is the average fee per hour for doing medical expert [work] in your community. … Once you get that average, as a medical consultant, you're going to come in maybe half to two-thirds of what the experts are charging.” 

Connect: LinkedIn

💰 On the Money 💰

Top takeaways from this episode 

★    An option for doctors who no longer want to practice medicine. We probably don’t need to tell you that medicine is no walk in the park, which is why plenty of medical professionals want to step back from being a clinician at some point. When doctors are done practicing or want to take a step back before retiring, Dr. Feldman suggests looking into medical consulting. It offers doctors an opportunity to continue helping sick or injured people, but with a lower time commitment — you can work as little as 8 hours a week.

★    Consulting requires a great deal of homework. Dr. Feldman admits he doesn’t have a business degree, so much of his business is built on learning from his mistakes. Since 2006, he’s been researching medical cases and working with lawyers. Based upon that experience, he’s able to help other medical professionals perfect the three steps to any consultation work: talk to the attorney, review the medical records, and interview the client.

★    Good consultants teach others to do the same work. Like most medical professionals, Dr. Feldman has a passion for helping others. That’s why he started a coaching business to train other doctors how to make money from consulting. Right now, he’s preparing for his 2021 virtual conference to help as many professionals as possible.

⚡ Prosperous Insights ⚡

[01:56] How it all started: Dr. Armin Feldman explains how he got into medical consulting 15 years ago and what the job actually entails.

[05:53] Consulting by the numbers: Dr. Feldman breaks down several numbers associated with his job, such as how many types of services he provides (spoiler: more than 16) and how long the typical consultation takes.

[08:17] Do your homework and you’ll reap the reward: Dr. Feldman gives an in-depth example of a case in which he helped a plaintiff receive a larger settlement after taking three important steps: talking to the attorney, reviewing the medical records, and interviewing the client.

[12:59] Profiting off of knowledge spreading: Dr. Feldman explains how he turned his full-time consulting work with attorneys into an additional business of training other doctors to do the same thing.

[19:08] You can do it too: Dr. Feldman breaks down what you’ll learn from the Medical/Legal Consulting Conference (April 24-25, 2021) and what you’ll get, including lessons on how to market your business and operate it on a day-to-day basis.

[22:47] Learning by doing: Because he doesn’t have a business degree, Dr. Feldman explains how he built his business by figuring out what worked and what didn’t.

[24:47] The perks of working with attorneys: Asked about liability and insurance, Dr. Feldman explains how it’s very hard to get sued even if an attorney doesn’t like your opinion.

💵 Financial Wellness Tip 💵

Do you have a financial junk drawer? It’s full of things you don’t know where else to put — a 401(k) from an old job, an insurance policy from a college roommate, bank accounts you opened to get a car loan but never use, etc.

The more products, accounts and policies you have, the harder it is to create a centralized vision of — and make progress towards — your financial goals. If you need help organizing your finances, click below.

★    Download our Financial Checklist to get started.  

Disclaimer: Prosperous Doc podcast by Spaugh Dameron Tenny highlights real-life stories from doctors and dentists to encourage and inspire listeners through discussions of professional successes and failures in addition to personal stories and financial wellness advice. Spaugh Dameron Tenny is a comprehensive financial planning firm serving doctors and dentists in Charlotte, NC. To find out more about Spaugh Dameron Tenny, visit our website at www.sdtplanning.com. You can also connect with our host, Shane Tenny, CFP at shane@whitecoatwell.com or on Twitter.

Compliance code: CRN202303-280119