How to un-retire: Coming back can be tricky

Some physicians find they are not the retiring type and want to return to practice. There are ways to make the trip back smoother.

By Mike Norbut, AMNews staff. Jan. 3/10, 2005.

A happy, enriching retirement always makes a physician's short list of financial goals. But retirement can be a moving target, even more so for physicians than for other professionals.

A number of factors, from a passion for medicine to elusive financial security, can keep doctors working longer than planned -- or convince them to pause retired life and return to the profession.

Un-retiring is often far more complicated than seeing if the lab coat still fits. Between landing a suitable practice situation, updating your certifications and licenses, and finding a company willing to underwrite a liability insurance policy, there are many issues facing a physician trying to reenter the work force.

But it is doable. "Doctors are in such short supply, and there are plenty of specialties in demand," said Kurt Mosley, vice president of business development for MHA Group, an Irving, Texas-based collection of six companies, including the physician recruitment firm Merritt, Hawkins & Associates.

The gradual slowdown of the stock market over the last several years has forced some physicians to rethink their retirements, while others simply haven't been able to find better ways to occupy their time, consultants said. But if it's taken a few years for retired physicians to realize they want to be back in the exam room, the return can be tricky.

Your retirement funds, for example, might not wait for you to leave medicine again. If you retired and started taking distributions from your retirement account before 59½, you have to continue taking distributions for five years or until you reach that age, whichever is later, said Ron Paprocki, CEO of Mediqus Asset Advisors, a Chicago-based financial and investment advisory services company for physicians. That means your distributions continue even if you return to work.