FINANCIAL PLANNING FOR APPs: An Interview with Frank Randall, MPA

We had the recent pleasure to interview Frank Randall, MPA, who is a financial planning professional that specializes in working with many APPs and other healthcare workers. His career is intertwined with APPs, given his wife is a NP and his established relationships with PA state chapters, which gives him a unique perspective. We therefore requested to pick his brain a bit, and we hope that you enjoy our first of two interviews with Frank, this one being mostly about getting to know him and what he does:

Please introduce yourself and tell us how you came to be interested in working with
APPs specifically?

Hi! My name is Frank Randall, I am a financial planner at Alliance Advisory Group, out of
Rochester, NY but am practicing almost exclusively virtual.  The relationship around working
with APPs sort of naturally developed on its own but I’d say it started because of my wife, Katie. 
At the time when we were dating, she was a RN going back to school to become a NP.  The
amount of studying, flashcards, and dedication she showed was (and still is) amazing.  What I
have learned from working with APPs is that there is minimal, if any at all, education around
financial literacy in school.  If I can help take away some of the financial stress, clutter, and
concerns that APPs experience, my hope is that they can better serve their patients, hit their
goals, have a better work life balance, and focus on what matters.  At the end of the day, I see
how busy my wife and APP clients are – so helping them free up time by not worrying about
financial planning is the most rewarding part.

How does having an APP spouse influence your working with clients?  

The first thing I have learned about having an APP spouse (and one with kids – we have
a toddler daughter and a boy on the way), is that they are busy.  The last thing they want to do
after working a 10 hour shift is to come home and think about money.  Then when it gets to the
weekend, it’s about family time and relaxing – not about updating a budget.  So getting that time
back and peace of mind is what I found to be most valuable for APPs.
Secondly, over the past few years I’ve tried to model my practice and process the same
way that I’ve learned the medical community does.  When a client has some financial concerns
in one area, I need to look at the root cause of that concern and examine everything.  Before
making a diagnosis and writing a prescription for a client, we need to collect data and fully
assess the client.  Then at that point a recommendation can be made.

What are 3 major financial mistakes that you see APPs routinely making?

The first financial mistake would be doing things out of order.  Sometimes I meet APPs
right out of college who are making extra payments on student loans and putting every
dollar they have to pay them off in 5 years.  Again, not giving advice here, as every
situation is unique.  But once you make those extra payments you can never get them
back.
The order in which we should prioritize our finances, in my opinion, should be: 1)
Protection First – for example, make sure you own the right time of Long-Term Disability
Insurance separate from your employer. 2) Become a World Class Saver – strive for
saving 15-20% of your income into wealth building buckets.  3) Save in the right places –
of that 20% it should be balanced between short and long term.  Some inside the stock
market and some outside for proper diversification.  4) Live debt free – at this time we can tackle extra debt. Full disclosure, if someone has a high interest credit card that
should be a priority but not all debt is bad debt – which goes back to my prior thought
about being too aggressive with student loans early on.
Two other mistakes would be not taking advantage of Roth retirement accounts (builds
tax free money for retirement) and over contributing to employer sponsored retirement
plans (sub-optimal investment choices and higher fees).

Can you briefly tell us about your best success story with a client?

The first one that comes to mind, let’s call him Tom, came to me for financial planning with an initial concern of not being able to save money.  He tried budgeting on his own but was never able to make
progress.  Right off the bat, to me, this was a cash flow behavior situation.  Going back to the
four rules (protection first, become a world class saver, save in the right places, tackle debt), we
came up with a gameplan around allocating his cashflow in a more meaningful way. 
Essentially, we uncovered there were some gaps in his disability insurance through work (so we
solved that), and then we set up a savings account for him to take some of his cashflow out of
his ecosystem.  For about a year we practiced and just saved that money into cash.  Now we
are at the point where we can begin to invest some of that money and the best part is he
doesn’t miss it from his lifestyle.  He is now properly protected (incase of an illness or injury),
has been practicing healthy savings habits, and now we get to deploy those savings!

Where can our audience find more information about you?

Please feel free to come say hi and engage with me over on LinkedIn to connect further, or jump on my calendar HERE.

Registered Representative and Financial Advisor of Park Avenue Securities LLC (PAS). OSJ: 600 DELAWARE
AVENUE, BUFFALO NY, 14202, 716-8177109. Securities products and advisory services offered through
PAS, member FINRA, SIPC. Financial Representative of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America®
(Guardian), New York, NY. PAS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Guardian. Alliance Advisory Group, Inc is not
an affiliate or subsidiary of PAS or Guardian. Alliance Advisory Group, Inc is not registered in any state or with
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a Registered Investment Advisor. CA Insurance License
Number – 4128184. 2023-152456 Exp 03/25

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