Financial Advisor for CRNAs in Columbia, SC
Your income is one of the highest in healthcare. The question is whether your financial plan is keeping up. We help CRNAs in Columbia reduce taxes, invest with purpose, and build a clear path to retirement.
Financial Advisor, 2025
No commissions. Ever.
Brett Fellows, 20+ Years
You've Earned This
A High-Income Career Deserves a High-Quality Financial Plan
CRNAs in Columbia earn between $185,000 and $215,000 a year on average. That kind of income opens real doors, but it also creates real financial complexity that most advisors aren’t built to handle.
The majority of your savings are sitting in pre-tax retirement accounts. Your income puts you near the top of the federal tax brackets. If you’re picking up locum shifts on top of a hospital position, you’re dealing with two different sets of rules, and most generalist advisors can only help with one of them. The question you’re probably asking yourself most often is some version of: how much longer do I have to do this?
Oak Capital Advisors was built around CRNAs. We’re based in South Carolina and work with nurse anesthetists throughout the country. Our planning process was designed specifically around the financial situations that come with your career, not adapted from a template built for someone else.
“At what point do I actually have enough to stop working?””My 403(b) has grown a lot. What’s going to happen to it when I retire?””I’m earning well, but I still feel behind. What should I be doing differently?””Is there a financial advisor who actually knows what a CRNA’s financial life looks like?”
If those questions resonate, you’re in the right place.
What We See Every Day
The Financial Hurdles CRNAs Run Into
After years of working with CRNAs, the same issues come up again and again. Unaddressed, they compound into retirement shortfalls worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A Retirement Account Full of Pre-Tax Money
403(b) and 457(b) balances look great on paper, until you realize the IRS has a claim on every dollar when you start withdrawing. Without proactive planning, a large pre-tax balance can push you into a high tax bracket throughout retirement, often worse than during your working years.
Burnout and the Retirement Readiness Question
Anesthesia work takes a toll. The hours, the pressure, the physical demands add up. Many CRNAs reach their early 50s exhausted and genuinely unsure whether they’ve saved enough to walk away. We help you get a real answer to that question, built around your specific numbers.
Medicare’s Hidden Income Surcharge
IRMAA adds hundreds per month to Medicare premiums for high earners. Your income during your working years directly affects what you’ll pay in retirement. The farther ahead you plan for this, the more room you have to reduce the impact.
Blended Income: Hospital and Locum Shifts
Working both W-2 and 1099 positions creates a more complex tax picture than most advisors are familiar with. The retirement contribution rules differ between the two, and getting this right requires someone who knows the details.
No Strategy for Drawing Down in Retirement
Accumulating assets is one challenge. Turning those assets into income without triggering unnecessary taxes is a completely different one. The order in which you withdraw from different account types matters enormously, and most CRNAs haven’t had a chance to think through how that would actually work.
Getting Social Security Timing Right
For high earners, Social Security isn’t just a background detail. It’s a major financial decision. The difference between a well-timed claim and a poorly timed one can exceed $150,000 over the course of retirement. This is one decision you want to get right the first time.
What We Do Together
Planning That's Built Around a CRNA's Financial Reality
No two CRNAs show up with the same accounts, goals, or situation. We build every plan from scratch around yours.
Tax Planning
We review your full tax picture throughout the year, not just in April. That ongoing visibility is where the real planning and real savings happen.
Roth Conversion Strategy
We identify the years where converting pre-tax dollars to Roth makes sense for your situation, reducing your lifetime tax exposure and giving you a tax-free income source in retirement.
Retirement Income Planning
We build a withdrawal strategy that maps which accounts you’ll draw from, in what sequence, and when, so your income in retirement is as tax-efficient as possible.
Investment Management
Portfolios grounded in evidence, matched to your goals and risk profile. No speculation, no product recommendations tied to commissions.
Social Security Optimization
We run detailed projections on Social Security claiming strategies so you can make this decision confidently, with full knowledge of the trade-offs.
Estate and Legacy Planning
We work alongside your estate attorney to make sure your assets reach the people you intend, with as little friction from taxes or probate as possible.
How It Works
Getting Started Is Simpler Than You Think
We don’t believe in pressure. We believe in fit. Our process is designed to give you a clear picture of how we can help before you make any commitment
1
Schedule Your Introductory Call
Think of it like your Pre-Op Assessment. Share your plans and your current challenges. We’ll talk about our process and see if we’re a good fit for working together.
You’ll see, at a high level, how our firm can improve your finances and help you build, grow, and preserve your wealth. To learn more about what to expect, check out our full discovery process.
2
Take a Time-Out
We’re looking for a long-term relationship, not a quick transaction. After your call, take the time you need to decide if working together makes sense. If we aren’t the right fit, we’ll do our best to point you toward someone who is.
3
Induction of Ongoing Advice
Once you decide to move forward, we get to work. We gather a full picture of your finances, build your personalized plan, and become your ongoing financial partner. You delegate the complexity. We handle it.
Why Oak Capital Advisors
A Financial Advisor Who Actually Knows CRNA Finances
Most financial advisors serve everyone. We’ve built our practice around the specific financial planning needs of nurses and advanced practice providers. That focus changes the quality of advice you receive.
Deep Focus on CRNA Financial Planning
We’ve spent years studying the tax, retirement, and income planning issues that are specific to anesthesia careers. 403(b) plans, locum work, IRMAA, burnout timelines, this is what we do, not a side specialty.
Fee-Only and Fiduciary
Our compensation comes directly from clients, never from commissions or product sales. That structure keeps our incentives aligned with yours.
Wealthtender Voice of the Client™ Award
In 2025, Brett Fellows was named a Wealthtender Highly Rated Advisor, recognizing advisors who consistently earn superior client reviews with an average rating of 4.75 or higher.
South Carolina-Based. Serving CRNAs Nationwide.
We’re headquartered in Mt. Pleasant, SC and serve CRNAs across the country by phone and video. Columbia-area clients are also welcome to meet in person.
Over Two Decades of Financial Planning Experience
Brett Fellows has been in this profession since 2005. That’s multiple market cycles, several major tax law overhauls, and hundreds of planning situations that look a lot like yours.
CFP® Certified
The CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation is the most recognized credential in financial planning. Roughly 25% of advisors hold it. Brett is one of them.
Common Questions
What CRNAs in Columbia Ask Us Most
High income doesn’t automatically mean you’re on track. It depends on your savings rate, your account mix, your planned retirement age, and what you expect to spend. Many CRNAs are surprised to find gaps even with large balances. A retirement readiness analysis gives you a real picture of where you stand and what, if anything, still needs to shift.
Maxing a 403(b) reduces your taxes now, which feels right. But it also concentrates your retirement savings in a pre-tax account that will be fully taxed when you withdraw. Depending on your situation, building a Roth or taxable account alongside your 403(b) may actually serve you better over the long run. This is a planning conversation, not a one-size-fits-all answer.
It creates tax complexity, which can either work for you or against you depending on how you handle it. The 1099 income from locum work may allow you to open a Solo 401(k) and contribute additional pre-tax dollars. But self-employment taxes and how your two income streams interact require careful coordination. Most general advisors don’t deal with this combination regularly. We do.
Fee-only means we’re paid directly by our clients, through a flat fee, a percentage of assets under management, or an hourly rate, and we earn nothing else. No referral fees, no product commissions, nothing tied to what we recommend. That matters because advisors who earn commissions have a financial incentive to recommend products that may not be in your best interest. As a fiduciary, we’re legally obligated to put your interests first.
That’s exactly the question we help CRNAs answer. We build a retirement readiness analysis that looks at your assets, expected expenses, Social Security timing, tax picture, and income needs. After that exercise, you’ll know whether you’re ready now, what you’d need to get there in two or three years, or what trade-offs you might be willing to make. That clarity is worth a lot.
No. We serve CRNAs nationwide by phone and Zoom. Columbia-area clients who prefer to meet in person are welcome to schedule time at our Mt. Pleasant office.
Take the guesswork out of your financial future.
Start with a free 30-minute call. We’ll talk through your situation, answer your questions, and show you how we can help. No pressure. No obligation.
Oak Capital Advisors
126 Seven Farms Drive Suite 160
Charleston, SC 29492 • (843) 284-0798
© 2024 Oak Capital Advisors, LLC. All rights reserved.