A big part of retirement planning is knowing exactly where you want to end up in terms of economic assets, which includes your practice. But often overlooked in that process is measuring where you are now in relation to that end, and discovering how to uncover the additional value you will require to meet that goal.

For that you need an appraisal. Of course, you would eventually have to get a complete appraisal done by a qualified independent professional (any prospective buyer will insist on it), but I also recommend getting a comprehensive estimate of your practice's value years before your exit for the purposes of planning. This is not something you want to guess at, and it's not something you should do yourself. There are a number of rules of thumb out there for assessing practice value, but for the most part they are too generalized to be of much help – you're simply not going to get an accurate reading by applying a simple one-size-fits-all formula.

Then there's the fact that dentists are, understandably, not that objective when it comes to evaluating their own practices and the untapped value that lies within them.

It's a simple fact that the marketplace defines the ultimate value of your practice. And practices that are growing and vibrant, that also have good participation history and effective teams, are of course going to command a higher value. It makes sense to see where a marketplace specialist thinks you stand now, so you can work on optimizing that value the rest of the way.

Building value in the practice with transition strategies is a topic I have been passionate about for a long time. It's one the most overlooked opportunities in dentistry, which is why it was one of the first areas I focused on for our Digital Campus – you'll find a large selection of lessons there on all aspects of value transitions, including the appraisal process. I urge you to take a look now even if you have many years left in the practice. Because this is not just about retirement – it's about getting the most from your practice every step of the way.


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