The Dentist's Network #29, Dental Practice Management, Orthodontic Practice Consulting, Team Building, Business Consulting, New Dental Practice Startup Consulting, Practice Appraisals, Transitions


	Wills & Financial Plans Online Back up

Sally McKenzie, CEO
McKenzie Management
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Two Must Have ‘Safety Nets’ for You and Your Family

When you’re busy managing a demanding practice, trying to remain current on best clinical procedures, and caring for a young family, finding time to plan for the future is one of those things that just never seems to get done. Understandably today’s known obligations and concerns are far more pressing than tomorrow’s possible worries. Unfortunately, however, that often means that planning for the future remains on the “things I need to get to someday” list indefinitely.

Understandably, we don’t like to dwell on our own mortality or the chance that we’ll be affected by a career ending disability, even though we know that the possibility of such an event is very real for all of us. What if the unthinkable happens and tomorrow doesn’t come. Will your family be taken care of?

Certainly, financial planning and decisions about wills can feel both uncomfortable and overwhelming. However, if your focus is on preparing for the future and thinking about what you want for your loved ones, the process can be far less intimidating as you are actively taking steps to ensure that if you become deceased or disabled those closest to you are provided for as you would want them to be.

The process can begin with you and your financial advisor assessing your current fiscal circumstances. In other words, examining where you are now in terms of money - your net worth, which is the total value of everything you own, minus the debts you have to repay, your budget, your monthly income and spending patterns. It can be very eye opening to have a snapshot of how much money flows in and out of your pocket each month. In addition to assessing where you are now, you also want to consider projections, anticipated expenses, and your investment and insurance plans.

Next, sit down and answer a few questions about what you want for your family. For starters, what kind of lifestyle do you want your loved ones to have? Will they have other sources of income, such as their own career earnings, government income, or other family inheritance? What financial obligations would they need to assume, such as mortgages, car payments, healthcare expenses, school/college tuition, etc.? If you have aging or disabled family members what special care arrangements would they need? Next consider what would be a realistic financial goal to establish to ensure that your family would be well provided for.

The questions become a starting point for developing a plan to ensure that those closest to you are protected financially in the event you are no longer able to provide for them. Once you’ve considered in practical terms what it is you want for your family you can better define you financial plan. If you know where you want to be, or in this case where you want your family to be, you and your financial planner can identify the necessary steps you’ll need to get there.

Having a financial plan is a huge stress reducer for you and your loved ones because you are prepared and planning for the future, whatever it may hold.

In addition to a financial plan, the next essential step in ensuring that your loved ones are provided for in your absence is a will. Without a will, the state in which you live has specific guidelines for how property is distributed and this may not be appropriate for your family’s needs. In addition, expenses increase for the family because a court appointed administrator must be appointed, yet the cost of preparing a will in advance is minimal and can cost as little as $50 to $100.

Update your will every time there is a major change in your life (such as the birth of a child, adoption, and divorce) or changes in the lives of those mentioned in your will. Another time to review a will is if you move to another state. Laws that govern the probate process and asset transfers differ from state to state. A minor change to a will can be accomplished through language known as a codicil. Otherwise, a new will is drafted that revokes and replaces all prior ones.

Wills and financial plans are essential in ensuring that loved ones, significant others, and charitable organizations receive anything that you’ve intended for them.

Sally McKenzie is CEO of McKenzie Management. a nationwide dental management, practice development and educational consulting firm. Working “on-site” with dentists since 1980, McKenzie Management provides knowledge, guidance and personalized systems that have propelled thousands of general and specialty practices to realize their potential. Sally can be reached directly at 1.877.777.6151.

Interested in speaking to Sally McKenzie about your management concerns? Email her at Sally@thedentistsnetwork.net

Dr. Lorne Lavine
Dental Technology Consultants
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A New Look at Backup

For offices that are using practice management software and digital imaging, the need to have a proper backup protocol in place is absolutely critical. Few offices would be able to easily recover from the loss of their most important data, so making sure that your data is safe should be the highest priority for every office. While I’ve talked about backup in a previous issue of The Dentists’ Network newsletter, I have recently changed my mind on the best solution based on the feedback I get from dentists and their staff.

In the past, I’ve recommended using external hard drives, as these provide an inexpensive and easy way to backup and restore data. However, after working with close to 900 offices over the past five years, I’ve come to realize that another solution may be more ideal. The backup must be removed from the office each night, and I have seen many offices that are too busy to remember to do this every night. I have recommended that offices rotate an external drive out each night, but some offices found it difficult to remember which drive was which, so they ended up with all of their data on one drive rather than spread out over two drives. I also have seen many damaged and destroyed drives as they cannot survive a fall of more than a few feet.

My best recommendation for dental practices is to consider a managed online backup. While there are many inexpensive or free online backup services, few if any of these would meet the needs of dental practices. To have a proper online backup service, you should look to meet the following criteria:

The backup needs to be automatic and easy to use. Most offices want a true “set-it-and-forget-it” solution and if they work with a company that will manage this for them, all the better. All of the backup services allow an office to do set up the backup by themselves, but I recommend working with a company that has experience in providing this service: your data is too important to not be 100% sure it’s being backed up adequately.
The backup must be HIPAA compliant. The main ways to meet this are to have encrypted data on the company’s servers, and to have a 48-key encryption key that only you have access to. Don’t lose this key: without it, you would not be able to restore your backup.
You want a system that can handle open databases, such as the ones you’ll find with Open Dental, Eaglesoft, Dentrix Image, and many other dental applications.
Look for a company that offers redundant servers: your backup will be located in a minimum of two physical locations, preferably hundreds in not thousands of miles apart.
You’ll want a service that can keep multiple copies of your files that extend back as far as you want to go. Having one copy of your data doesn’t do much good if that data is corrupted. Since most services charge based on the amount of data storage you have, I recommend keeping about 7-10 days of your most important files.
A good service will also allow you to restore just the files that you need to restore, rather than the entire drive which can take a very long time.
Finally, an online backup service should be able to generate reports through email each day informing you of the status of your backup.

As a result of years of consulting with dental practices and back up issues, I have created an online backup service called DataSecure .

As offices put more and more of their data on the servers, they need to make sure that the data is protected and backed-up. Whether it’s local, online, or a combination of the two, offices must take the time to reevaluate if their current backup protocol is truly securing their data.

Lorne Lavine, DMD is the Founder and President of Dental Technology Consultants. Dr. Lavine holds two prestigious certifications, the A+ Certified Technician designation and the Network+ Certified Professional. These designations demonstrate proficiency in computer repair, operating systems, network design and installation. Dental Technology Consultants provide dentists a full range of services relating to the implementation of technology.
Dr. Lavine can be reached directly at 1.866.204.3398.

Interested in speaking to Dr. Lavine about your technology concerns? Email him at Drlavine@thedentistsnetwork.net
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