Approaching Physicians to Invest in Syndications
Oxnard, CA · Member since 2016 · 44 posts · 12 votes
Approaching Physicians to Invest in Syndications
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Marc C. and Brian Adams has great advice - find out their pain points. Many doctors overspend to have a certain lifestyle but are still paying off student loans and have high overhead at the office, and are unsophisticated when it comes to investing, leaving them unprepared financially for retirement. (see http://whitecoatinvestor.com/personal-finance/) article on "why doctors aren't rich"
One idea: You might call Hospitals and speak to either the Marketing Director or Benefits/HR or COO. I did this once in marketing something to physicians. Hospitals often look for "free or almost free benefits" they can offer physicians to entice them into their systems and keep them happy. i.e. a free car detail once a year on Doctor Day, a free session with a work/life balance counselor, etc.). I have a friend who has a book company that comes to the hospital every 8 weeks and sets up displays in the lobby and sells books (a mini Barnes and Noble) and donates 10 percent to the hospitals favorite charity. You get the idea - make it sound like its a benefit to the hospital and the doctors (not you).
Ask the Benefits/Marketing person if you can offer their doctors a seminar on a "How To" that addresses their pain points and have maybe 2-3 experts so it doesn't seem overly self-promoting and more benefit-oriented (you being 1 of the speakers). For example, their pain point is that they don't have the time or knowledge to focus on a serious retirement plan that will offer better than standard returns and provide a dependable annual income with low taxes. You put on a seminar like this at a dozen hospitals. Give the seminar a catchy name such as "Get Your RX To A Happy Retirement...blah blah" or something.
Each person speaks for 20 minutes (a 1 hour lunchtime seminar) You talk about RE investing (briefly talk about college investment property, most detail about that could be provided to those who show interest during/after the seminar so don't get overly bogged down with details).
Someone else talks about dividend paying stocks (a financial planner) and why dividend paying stocks are great for retirement and how to learn which ones to buy. And someone else talks about annuities or trusts or something.
The HOSPITAL promotes the seminar for you to their doctors. You can offer it several days, different times to hit the most doctors (morning, lunch, evening, Saturdays). Ask everyone to register or sign in, so you can follow up. Provide sandwiches, coffee.
If you have a "success story" where a doctor partnered with you and is doing great with it, he/she could stand up and intro to you and say "My name is Dr. John Doe and I want to introduce my good friend and investment partner @Michael Ibarra. I've invested with Mr. Ibarra and have had a great experience with him and am enjoying excellent returns that should lead to a solid retirement with little or not interaction on my part. I'm really excited about my future now that I've been investing with Mr. Ibarra. And now Here is Mr. Ibarra..."
You should have a pro videographer film one of the seminars and edit it into a validating testimonial and informational video, for those who cannot attend a seminar but want to learn about it later. This can go on your website, in e-blasts, etc.
This is my 2 cents on how to do marketing on a shoestring and get others to do most of the work for you. If the hospitals won't cooperate, hold this seminar somewhere else - Country Club? - and mail and email announcements (handwriting an invitation gets attention, though its a pain but teenagers are cheap). Direct mail is if you want to send hundreds/thousands and just need to do a fast blitz. It can have mixed results. You can also hold a webinar. Or give a "workshop on real estate investing for medical professionals" at an industry trade show - try the smaller, local shows first to build up your reputation in the medical industry. Good luck.
34 Replies
Marc C. and Brian Adams has great advice - find out their pain points. Many doctors overspend to have a certain lifestyle but are still paying off student loans and have high overhead at the office, and are unsophisticated when it comes to investing, leaving them unprepared financially for retirement. (see http://whitecoatinvestor.com/personal-finance/) article on "why doctors aren't rich"
One idea: You might call Hospitals and speak to either the Marketing Director or Benefits/HR or COO. I did this once in marketing something to physicians. Hospitals often look for "free or almost free benefits" they can offer physicians to entice them into their systems and keep them happy. i.e. a free car detail once a year on Doctor Day, a free session with a work/life balance counselor, etc.). I have a friend who has a book company that comes to the hospital every 8 weeks and sets up displays in the lobby and sells books (a mini Barnes and Noble) and donates 10 percent to the hospitals favorite charity. You get the idea - make it sound like its a benefit to the hospital and the doctors (not you).
Ask the Benefits/Marketing person if you can offer their doctors a seminar on a "How To" that addresses their pain points and have maybe 2-3 experts so it doesn't seem overly self-promoting and more benefit-oriented (you being 1 of the speakers). For example, their pain point is that they don't have the time or knowledge to focus on a serious retirement plan that will offer better than standard returns and provide a dependable annual income with low taxes. You put on a seminar like this at a dozen hospitals. Give the seminar a catchy name such as "Get Your RX To A Happy Retirement...blah blah" or something.
Each person speaks for 20 minutes (a 1 hour lunchtime seminar) You talk about RE investing (briefly talk about college investment property, most detail about that could be provided to those who show interest during/after the seminar so don't get overly bogged down with details).
Someone else talks about dividend paying stocks (a financial planner) and why dividend paying stocks are great for retirement and how to learn which ones to buy. And someone else talks about annuities or trusts or something.
The HOSPITAL promotes the seminar for you to their doctors. You can offer it several days, different times to hit the most doctors (morning, lunch, evening, Saturdays). Ask everyone to register or sign in, so you can follow up. Provide sandwiches, coffee.
If you have a "success story" where a doctor partnered with you and is doing great with it, he/she could stand up and intro to you and say "My name is Dr. John Doe and I want to introduce my good friend and investment partner @Michael Ibarra. I've invested with Mr. Ibarra and have had a great experience with him and am enjoying excellent returns that should lead to a solid retirement with little or not interaction on my part. I'm really excited about my future now that I've been investing with Mr. Ibarra. And now Here is Mr. Ibarra..."
You should have a pro videographer film one of the seminars and edit it into a validating testimonial and informational video, for those who cannot attend a seminar but want to learn about it later. This can go on your website, in e-blasts, etc.
This is my 2 cents on how to do marketing on a shoestring and get others to do most of the work for you. If the hospitals won't cooperate, hold this seminar somewhere else - Country Club? - and mail and email announcements (handwriting an invitation gets attention, though its a pain but teenagers are cheap). Direct mail is if you want to send hundreds/thousands and just need to do a fast blitz. It can have mixed results. You can also hold a webinar. Or give a "workshop on real estate investing for medical professionals" at an industry trade show - try the smaller, local shows first to build up your reputation in the medical industry. Good luck.
- Oxnard, CA · Member since 2016 · 44 posts · 12 votes10y
@Steve D. Thank you for the input. I will keep that in mind. I have tried to ask other MDs if they would be receptive to this kind of investment. I have yet to hear from them on another forum
@Mary K. Awesome post. Great idea for marketing the idea. I should partner up with you to find the money. LOL.
- 10yDon KonipolBusiness MemberInvestor · The Woodlands TX / Avon, CT · Member since 2009 · 6k+ posts · 10k+ votes
I don't think that a simple lack of knowledge in a regulated area of business is equal to a diagnosis of a servere mental state! LOL. We do get carried away on BP.
The OP is simply not very knowledgeable about securities laws, or has heard conflicting or partial explanations.
If you simply want to talk to people about the idea of investing in real estate, the type of investments, the returns, well, that's what occurs each month at every REIA meeting. As long as your intent is not to raise capital from passive investors, then that action has nothing to do with an offering.
Without the intention of raising capital, even the discussion of a specific investment is not covered by securities law. With the intent to raise capital, even a discussion about anything is covered.
One does not need to offer a Private Placement Memorandum, Offering Documents, or anything else to have a perfectly legal offering exempt from securities registration. The Reg D offerings, which if fully complied with, offer a "safe harbor" exemption. Going this route has four main advantages
1. SEC has predetermined compliance is considered a private placement exempt from SEC registration. (You still have to file with SEC, which is much less onerous and much less costly)
2. In case of lawsuit you will have an affirmative defense
3. In case of lawsuit you will not lose your statutory defense
4. If you choose to go with a Reg D 506(c) offering you can use general solicitation and advertising and still have a legal private placement offering exempt from registration.
To have an exempt offering without using Reg D you can use the general private placement exemption that was used prior to enactment of Reg D or a intrastate (one state only) exemption from Federal Registration. For the intrastate exemption all your investors, the entity holding the property, and the property itself would all have to reside in the same state, and you would utilize that state's securities laws. To use the general exemption you would make sure that you did not advertise or solicit, and offered your investment opportunity only to those people that you had a pre existing relationship with, and only after the relationship existed for at least 90 days.
As a practical matter, the disadvantages of using the general private placement exemption are
1. If the returns to investors are not as expected you are much more likely to be sued
2. You have no guarantee that the SEC will consider your offering in compliance with its regulations or securities laws
3. You may not have an affirmative defense in court
4. Your pool of potential investors will be limited since most passive investors are used to and now require a Reg D offering before they will consider investing.
Michael,
When approaching medical professionals it is true you most likely want to have some kind of relationship with them. If you are a patient it is hard to break the patient provider relationship. There are very strict rules about talking business with a patient for nurses and physicians. Also not all physicians are high net worth, depending on the specialty and years since they have finished residency medical school loans can be a mortgage or two themselves. Even a seasoned physician with a high net worth is going to know something about investing, you have to be at least a little smart about things to become a doctor. I would suggest if you want t focus on this professional demographic to meet them outside and not as a patient. hope that helps a bit.
Wishing you the best of luck.
- Oxnard, CA · Member since 2016 · 44 posts · 12 votes10y
Thanks andrew e and don konipol
- 10yJJ ConwayPro MemberFinancial Advisor · Stephenville, TX · Member since 2016 · 163 posts · 85 votes
Great discussion above
I especially think @Mary K. ideas can be applied to a wide variety of ventures beyond just syndicates.
I'd like to echo the relationship recommendation. People invest with those they like and trust. Building a bonafide relationship with someone in the group you want to access will go a long way toward breaking in. And I'll also echo the REIA recommendation. You have a collection of people who showed up specifically because they want to invest their money. I've found my pro/VIP/etc membership in several REIAs to be well worth the membership fee.
- WINNETKA, IL · Member since 2016 · 10 posts · 5 votes9y
I'm a physician (actually a surgeon) and a real estate syndicator. I can pretty much guarantee you that anything you send will end up in the garbage if you send it in the mail. You wouldn't believe how much of this stuff I get in the mail just because of my degree. @Joe Fairless is on point. Your best best bet is spending time trying to create relationships. If you've got an advertising budget and a track record, get yourself a booth at a national physician meeting and make your case for the long haul.
- Real Estate Broker · Naples, FL · Member since 2013 · 9k+ posts · 6k+ votes9y
I posted this in another thread. I have lots of high net worth clients and have been considering the idea of syndication. These two books cover a lot of the nuts and bolts:
1. It's A Whole New Business by Gene Trowbridge
2. Real Estate Securities by Mark Levine
These are books about syndication formation, etc.
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