Most medical professionals I talk to consider investment performance — annual returns — the most important element of their retirement portfolio. That’s an important consideration, of course, but of even greater consequence is lowering portfolio risk. Those who expect to be financially secure at retirement typically harbor some misconceptions…

For decades, investment brokers, analysts and other members of Wall Street’s largest investment houses have duped the investing public into buying what they had to sell, rather than what their clients should have.

They have churned out a continuous stream of investment advice that is not only flawed, but more often than not, antithetic to the best interests of their clients. Their strategy plays on basic human emotions of fear and greed, and is self-serving at best, corrupt at worst.

Over the years, I have discussed investment strategies and their relationship to retirement planning objectives with thousands of medical professionals. Inevitably, they want to focus the conversations on investment returns. And while investment returns are certainly important, I suggest a more immediate, and ultimately a more critical consideration, is lowering portfolio risk. The concept of lowering risk without disturbing returns may initially appear to be a secondary consideration, but the retirement planning process can be little more than an exercise unless investor and asset manager agree on a strategy to lower the potential for big portfolio losses.

Most physicians who expect to retire comfortably are headed for a rude awakening. It’s going to take a lot more money than you think to retire at the level you had intended. Not only will living expenses cost more than you think, but your assets probably will not grow as fast as you would like.

If you are like many of the healthcare professionals I have talked with, you may be in for a rude awakening in your financial future: Comfortable retirement is going to require a good deal more money than you imagine.

How much? At an after-tax annual return of 3 percent to 5 percent, it may take from $5 million to $6 million in investable liquid assets for most doctors to retire comfortably. This amount excludes residences and other non-liquid assets that tend to be included when calculating “total net worth.”

You’ve probably thought about how much you’ll need to retire comfortably. But if you haven’t done the calculations, you’ll likely be shocked at the actual amount. Most physicians need $5 million-$6 million in investable, liquid (cash) assets to retire comfortably based on a 3%-5% after-tax annual return.

Most doctors expect to do a lot better than 5% after tax on their portfolios. But most doctors to whom I’ve spoken at investment seminars tend to overestimate what they will earn in the markets.

Podiatrists have a unique perspective on the medical products and technology they use in their practice. This knowledge might provide an unexpected benefit: the potential for above-average investment returns.

The strategy—Collaborative Investing—combines the two most important components of successful investing: product information (from the physician) and financial analysis (from the professional money manager). It’s a unique way for podiatrists and other doctors to share their expertise with a professional money manager partner in selecting high quality, long-term investments.

Many otherwise savvy investors do not understand the difference between risk and volatility. Their perception is that an investment with above-average volatility must be accompanied by above-average risk, which isn’t necessarily true. Being able to distinguish one from the other is important.

For example, like most people, you probably consider government bonds risk-free. After all, the US government has never defaulted on its debt. Buy a 10-year Treasury bond today and you are guaranteed to get your money back in 2010. No risk, no volatility, right? Wrong.

Collaborative Investing® is a style of fund management created by The Abernathy Group in 1989.

Essentially, it is uniting the knowledge base of industry experts — practitioners in specific industries with a working knowledge of products — together with the financial expertise of the money manager. To solidify this concept, one must also make the industry expert a co-investor in order to align their interests with the money managers.

This concept allows for the development of more in-depth research, which leads to better-informed investment decision and a more thorough product understanding, which in turn reduces risk.

The rather pedestrian 2.2% rise in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index in the third quarter this year was a big letdown for most investors, coming as it did after the benchmark’s 14.9% second-quarter moon shot. Hedge fund managers, however, aren’t complaining. Unlike mutual funds, hedge funds can sell stocks short, as well as buy them, so they tend to do better when the broad market wanes. Short sellers borrow shares then sell them in the hopes of making a profit by buying the share later at a lower price.