Connor McCullough - Northwestern Mutual

Connor McCullough - Northwestern Mutual Consultant and Advisor to Entrepreneurs, Pre-Retirees, and Established Families

Experience the personalized touch of a boutique firm, backed by the strength of a Fortune 500 powerhouse.

The blueprint is simple, just follow the steps and get the financial confidence you deserve.
09/03/2026

The blueprint is simple, just follow the steps and get the financial confidence you deserve.

A physician group came to us 18 months before a planned sale to private equity.Eighteen months felt early to them. It wa...
09/03/2026

A physician group came to us 18 months before a planned sale to private equity.
Eighteen months felt early to them. It was almost too late.

The tax structure of that sale — rollover equity, QSBS eligibility, timing of the close relative to the calendar year — had to be built in advance, not negotiated in the final term sheet. Every month closer to the deal, the fewer levers we had left to pull.

We ended up saving the partners a combined seven figures in tax exposure, purely through timing and structuring decisions made before the deal was final. None of it was aggressive. All of it required lead time.

If your group has had informal PE conversations, or even just rumors — that's the moment to start planning, not the moment the term sheet lands.

"Real estate is the only thing that's actually made me money."I hear this from physicians constantly, and I understand w...
09/02/2026

"Real estate is the only thing that's actually made me money."

I hear this from physicians constantly, and I understand why — it's tangible, it's talked about at every hospital happy hour, and everyone has a cousin who "did great" with a rental property.

Here's what's usually missing from that story: the years of vacancy, the roof replacement, the tenant who stopped paying, the 20 hours a month of management that never gets counted as a cost. Real estate can absolutely work. But most physicians are comparing their best real estate story to their worst market year, and drawing a conclusion from a sample size of one property.

We ran the actual numbers for a surgeon who was about to put $400,000 into a second rental. Once we factored in his time (worth more per hour than most property managers), vacancy risk, and what that capital would do in a diversified portfolio matched to his timeline — the math wasn't even close.

He bought the diversified portfolio instead. Cleaner, faster, and no 2am calls about a water heater.
Real estate isn't wrong. But "it worked once" isn't a strategy — it's a story.

Markets have been supported by resilient growth and enthusiasm around artificial intelligence, but the policy backdrop m...
09/01/2026

Markets have been supported by resilient growth and enthusiasm around artificial intelligence, but the policy backdrop may be changing. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company Chief Investment Officer Brent Schutte explains why sticky inflation, higher debt costs and uncertainty around where AI-related gains ultimately land make diversification especially important. http://spr.ly/6184B1fvpr

A cardiologist emailed me last week. Household income: $650,000. Net worth: barely moved in three years.This isn't rare....
09/01/2026

A cardiologist emailed me last week. Household income: $650,000. Net worth: barely moved in three years.

This isn't rare. It's actually the median story for high-income physicians in years 3–7 of attending life. The income shows up fast. The net worth doesn't, because nothing forces it to.

We went through his last 12 months of spending together. Nothing reckless — a bigger house, two cars replaced early, private school deposits, a home renovation. Each decision made sense in isolation. Together, they'd absorbed the entire raise from his last three years of income growth.

The fix wasn't a budget. It was automating the gap: every future raise, 50% goes to investments before it ever touches his checking account. He never sees it, so he never adjusts to it.

A year later his savings rate is up 22 percent and he says he hasn't noticed a change in how he lives.

Has your spending kept pace with your income — or grown alongside it without you deciding that on purpose?

The best financial plans can weather even the worst economic storms. I can help you overcome uncertainty with confidence...
08/31/2026

The best financial plans can weather even the worst economic storms. I can help you overcome uncertainty with confidence. http://spr.ly/6188B1xVWn

An orthopedic surgeon came to us with a buy-in offer: $340,000 for a 20% partnership stake, financed by the practice ove...
08/27/2026

An orthopedic surgeon came to us with a buy-in offer: $340,000 for a 20% partnership stake, financed by the practice over 7 years at 6%.

Everyone around her said "just sign it, it's standard." We ran the numbers against her actual income trajectory, not the practice's pitch deck. The financing terms would have cost her $61,000 more in interest than a business line of credit she already qualified for through her existing banking relationship. Even better, we showed her a box loan option using her non-qualified account which saved her even more.

She used our numbers to renegotiate. Saved $61,000+. Took us a few hours to come up with the strategy.

I'm not telling you this to say "hire us for buy-ins." I'm telling you because most buy-in and buy-out terms are written by the practice's accountant, for the practice. Nobody is running the numbers for you unless you ask them to.

If you have a buy-in offer sitting in your inbox right now — has anyone actually modeled it against your alternatives?

08/26/2026

Looking for peace, calm, clarity and more? It all comes with the right financial plan, and I can help you get started.

The economy remains resilient, but rising interest rates and pressure on consumers could create challenges for markets. ...
08/25/2026

The economy remains resilient, but rising interest rates and pressure on consumers could create challenges for markets. Here’s why diversification remains important in today’s environment. http://spr.ly/6187B1sRr7

"Whole life insurance is trash. Everyone knows that."I've heard a version of this from a few of the physicians I've spok...
08/25/2026

"Whole life insurance is trash. Everyone knows that."

I've heard a version of this from a few of the physicians I've spoken with, usually before we've even talked about their actual situation. It's become a reflex for some — absorbed from a podcast, a forum, a colleague who got burned by a bad policy in residency. And often, that instinct is right. Most of the whole life sold to young physicians is oversized, poorly timed, and sold before the fundamentals are in place.
But "always" is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

A surgeon I work with had already maxed his 401k, his backdoor Roth, and a taxable brokerage account. He had a real emergency reserve. He wanted one piece of his portfolio that wasn't tied to the market — something with guaranteed, non-correlated growth he could lean on for estate liquidity and later-life flexibility. We modeled it against bonds, against just holding more cash, against doing nothing. For his specific numbers and goals, a modest, carefully sized permanent policy was the better tool. And guess what, he loves that sleeve of wealth.

The difference between his case and the one that gives whole life its bad reputation isn't the product. It's the order: fundamentals first, size matched to an actual need, and a decision made after comparing alternatives — not a policy sold to a second-year resident because a friend needed a client.

"Always bad" and "always good" are both the wrong lens. The right question is whether it's the right tool for your specific situation, compared honestly against the alternatives.

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