#PharmacyFutureLeaders

A Pharmacist’s Financial Planner

Usually we talk with innovative new pharmacy practitioners and soon to be pharmacy graduates, but today we’ll talk to with an innovative provider to pharmacists.

Tim Baker is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and owner of Script Financial, a fee-only financial planning firm dedicated to helping pharmacists meet their financial goals.   He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy and after spending some time in the Army and in the private sector working as a logistician, he decided to pivot to the financial services industry because of his desire to work with and help people 1-on-1.  He first worked for a small independent firm before workings specifically with the pharmacy profession. 

Tim spends much of his time reading and listening to shows about pharmacy (like the Pharmacy Podcast Show!) to better understand the profession in order to provide the highest quality service to his clients.  Tim is based in Baltimore, MD, but works with clients nationwide.  

1. Everyone’s leadership road is different, let’s start with where you are today, and how you became a leader in helping pharmacists with their financial futures.

1. I lived in Baltimore from 1993 to 1997 and back again from 2001 to 2008, so I got to see two very different real estate markets, one of the first goals many people have is buying a house and you’re in the market for a home, what’s your process for evaluating homes and how it fits into your financial future?

1. You mentioned that life events tend to be a good place to sit down and find a financial professional, graduation, marriage, having a child, or in my case three children at once, can you help me better understand the process that someone would go through to evaluate a financial planner? Before I give someone my financial information, I want to trust them.

1. I think one reason people don’t go to a professional is the fear of judgment, you’ve mentioned some things in your background that I felt made you very approachable, your military service and your singular focus on the pharmacy community, you seemed very empathetic to the student loan debt and challenges students have, how do you ease a pharmacist’s concerns?

1. Can you explain the fiduciary standard of care, you had a good analogy about a suit and fit and how it looked and that there’s a professional for everyone, can you talk more about that.

1. It seemed that you meet people where they are financially, can you give me an story where you met someone at a financial place and how you helped them.

1. Normally a financial planner earns their money based on assets under management, but you created a unique way of making your client’s success tied to your success that favors good decisions like paying off high interest credit cards vs. buying securities that may have taxable dividends and lower returns.

1. Tell us a little about your use of technology for on-demand content and recordings that you provide and how you set the future meetings so your clients aren’t strapped to an appointment time as much.

A Pharmacist’s Financial Planner

Guest: Tim Baker CFP 

Twitter: @timbaker856