Financial Planning for Boston's Academic and Medical Community

The Greater Boston area is home to one of the most concentrated clusters of universities, research institutions, and nonprofit hospitals in the country. If you're building a career — or wrapping one up — at one of those institutions, your financial picture looks different from most people's. We built our practice around exactly that difference.

A Specialist for the People Who Work at Boston's Universities and Hospitals

Boston's academic and medical institutions employ tens of thousands of faculty, administrators, and physicians whose retirement benefits run through TIAA, Fidelity, or Vanguard 403(b) plans. These plans have their own rules, their own income options, and their own planning considerations — and most generalist advisors may not know them well enough to help you make the most of them.

 

Emeritus Wealth Management focuses exclusively on clients in the university and nonprofit hospital world. We work with professors, department administrators, and nonprofit hospital physicians across the country, and the Boston area represents exactly the kind of client community we're built to serve.

 

Institutions in the area whose employees we commonly work with include those affiliated with Harvard, MIT, Tufts, Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern, Mass General Brigham, Boston Children's Hospital, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, among others.

 

Emeritus Wealth Management is a investment advisory practice. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or a representative of any university, hospital, or retirement plan provider named on this page, including TIAA, Fidelity, or Vanguard.

What We Help Boston-Area Clients Think Through

Whether you're five years from retirement or already there, the questions we hear most often from university and hospital employees in this region tend to cluster around the same themes:

 

  • How do I turn my 403(b) into reliable retirement income — and which payout options actually make sense for my situation?
  • Should I annuitize any portion of my TIAA account, and how does that interact with the rest of my plan?
  • I have accounts at multiple institutions from different jobs. How do I consolidate or coordinate them?
  • My pension covers some of my income — how do I plan around it without over- or under-saving?
  • What does asset preservation look like for a physician with a nonprofit hospital employer?

 

These aren't questions a generalist advisor fields every day. For us, they're the core of the work.

Fully Virtual — No Office Visit Required

We operate as a virtual-first practice. Every client meeting happens by video, which means a Boston-area client gets the same planning relationship and the same level of attention as a client in Philadelphia, Chicago, or San Francisco. There's no commute, no parking, and no reason to limit your search to advisors with a local office.

 

Our team keeps things deliberately informal. You won't find a lot of corporate polish here — just straightforward conversations about your money, your timeline, and what you want retirement to look like.

Fiduciary Guidance, Not Product Sales

We don't hold contracts with any retirement plan provider, and we're not compensated by TIAA, Fidelity, Vanguard, or any insurance company for the products or plans we recommend. Our fee structure is transparent and disclosed upfront. As fiduciaries, we're obligated to act in your best interest, and our fee structure is built to support that responsibility. 


That structure means a conversation with us starts from your full financial picture, not from a menu of products tied to one provider. We'll walk through your options and explain the reasoning behind each recommendation before you decide anything.

Questions from Boston-Area University and Hospital Employees

  • Do you have a physical office in Boston?

    We don't maintain a Boston office. Our practice is fully virtual, and all client meetings take place by video. This lets us work with clients across the country — including throughout the Greater Boston area — without the limitations of a local office model.

  • Are you affiliated with Harvard, MIT, or any other Boston-area institution?

    No. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or a representative of any university, hospital, or retirement plan provider. We work with employees of many institutions, but those relationships are with individual clients — not with the institutions themselves.

  • My retirement plan is through TIAA. Does that affect whether you can help me?

    Not at all — TIAA plans are actually a core part of what we do. Our team has deep familiarity with how TIAA accounts work, including the annuity options, the Traditional account, and how TIAA income integrates with broader retirement planning. We also work extensively with Fidelity and Vanguard 403(b) plans.

  • I'm still 10 or 15 years from retirement. Is it too early to work with you?

    It's not too early. Mid-career planning — especially around contribution strategy, account allocation, and understanding your institution's benefit structure — can have a significant impact on where you land at retirement. We work with clients at all stages, not just those in the final stretch.

  • How is your fee structure set up?

    We operate on a fee-only basis, meaning we're compensated directly by our clients rather than through commissions or referral arrangements with plan providers. Our fees are disclosed clearly before any engagement begins. We're happy to walk you through the specifics during a consultation.