Forme Financial is launching out of beta as Earned to help physicians manage wealth

Image credit: Earned /

Forme Financial, a wealth management platform for physicians, is emerging from beta with a new name and $12 million in Series A funding.

Now called Earned, the New York-based company offers a “comprehensive wealth system” focused on the needs of physicians, which John Clendening, co-founder and CEO of Earned, said were unique and often complex, depending on the person’s career stage.

Doctors spend about 10 extra years in education, so it shortens their career when it comes to reaching retirement, Clendening explained. They leave college, often with an average of $300,000 in debt, while receiving a 5x to 15x increase in income after the residency or scholarship program.

In addition, something he has noticed over the past five years is a change in the way doctors think about job opportunities. For example, thinking more about what it means financially to take a new job, especially if they go from owning a practice to working for someone else.

“That means a significant amount of financial complexity,” Clendening said. “Doctors work an average of 70 hours a week and are never trained in financial topics. Despite being in the very upper echelon of salary earners, one in four doctors retired in the last couple of years with $1 million or less in net worth. When they want some help with this, they are faced with a system that is super one-size-fits-all. The so-called specialists or experts are completely silent, and none of them talk to each other.”

Instead, Earned’s “proprietary wealth engine” combines a physician’s career journey with predictive technology to make data-driven financial recommendations across offerings such as estate planning, taxes, debt management, insurance and investments. The company’s certified financial planners are also able to help physicians understand the implications of important career decisions, including buying into private practice or choosing from multiple job offers.

The company’s vision always included a name change at the Series A stage, but Clendening also explained that “Earned” had more resonance as it related to “the mindset of doctors who see themselves as people who really invest a lot in their careers as their no . 1 resource .”

Earned makes money in a couple of ways: by charging clients a fee based on assets under management and commission, for example, or an origination fee when clients refinance or choose to buy items like insurance.

Since its beta launch in May 2022, Earned has worked with more than 100 doctors in 24 states with 71% of users logging in weekly. They also saved an average of $77,000 in taxes, Clendening said. He declined to disclose details of the company’s revenue.

Other banks and fintechs offer banking and other financial services for physicians; for example, Panacea Financial, PhysicianBanks.com, and Laurel Road. However, Clendening said most only offer lending products and don’t look at the full perspective of doctors.

“There are some fringe competitors that have certain aspects of what we do, it’s just not enough to have the kind of impact that we’re talking about,” Clendening said. “We are purpose-built exclusively for physicians, including career counseling, and alongside that, a full-stack approach. Think of it as a toolbox: We have every tool in the toolbox needed to optimize their financial lives. We stand alone in in that connection. We also leverage deep technology to reliably deliver what we optimize economically.”

In addition to the name change, the company also announced $12 million in Series A funding, led by Hudson Structured Capital Management and Breyer Capital, with participation from Juxtapose. This latest round brings Earned’s total funding to $18 million since it began serving clients in 2022.

With this new round of funding, Clendening intends to invest in hiring and technology to add more tools and features to his wealth engine with a goal of becoming what he called “a one-stop shop for physicians.” It also focuses on client acquisition because each doctor has a unique career journey that helps Earned get more examples of what’s going on in someone’s financial life, he said.

Meanwhile, Clendening estimates that physician space wealth management is about $13 billion in addressable market annually, and remains “open in terms of competition in this space.” He is also considering expanding to other high-earning health personnel, such as dentists, and to families of doctors.

“Job one is to continue the work that we’ve been doing within the medical vertical,” Clendening said. “We want to go deeper and deeper into the medical profession with a goal of becoming, over time, the only place a doctor will go for any kind of advice regarding their financial life.”