Blog

Picture a dentist who owns her clinic and suffers a serious back injury. She has a good personal disability policy, and it starts paying her a monthly benefit. But the clinic’s bills don’t stop. Rent is still due. Hygienists and front-desk staff still need to be paid. Equipment leases, software subscriptions, and utilities keep coming […]

Most new physicians and dentists are offered life insurance before they ever meet a financial advisor. It happens at the bank, on the same day they sign for a professional student line of credit. A box gets checked, a small premium gets added to the monthly payment, and it feels like the job is done. […]

Many incorporated doctors and dentists spend thirty years building wealth inside a professional corporation or holding company. They plan carefully for retirement, for the kids’ education, for the cottage. Very few plan for what happens to that corporation on the day they die. And without a plan, the same dollars can be taxed twice before […]

During residency, taxes take care of themselves. You receive a T4, tax comes off every paycheque, and April is mostly paperwork. Then you start billing. Fee-for-service income arrives with no tax withheld. For the first time, your income jumps — and nobody is setting money aside for the CRA but you. For many new physicians […]

How Alberta clinic owners can set up group health and dental benefits for staff: who qualifies, the options, tax treatment and common mistakes.

Most physicians and dentists incorporate for one reason: tax deferral. That’s a good reason. But the decisions you make in the first twelve months of your professional corporation (PC) quietly shape your taxes, your insurance, and your retirement options for the next thirty years. Many of those decisions are made in a rush, between residency, […]

Almost every new physician and dentist hears the same advice in their first year of practice: “Incorporate as soon as you can.” It sounds like a tax-saving tool no high earner should skip. But for many early-career professionals, incorporating in year one adds cost without adding much benefit. The timing matters far more than most […]

Ask ten people what “retirement planning” means and you’ll get ten different answers. Some think it’s just maxing out an RRSP. Some think it’s a number — “I need two million dollars.” Some honestly think it’s something you deal with at 60, not 40. None of those are wrong exactly. They’re just incomplete. Real retirement […]

How a financial advisor is paid shapes the conversation you’ll have with them, whether or not it’s ever mentioned out loud. Understanding the difference between fee-based and commission compensation is one of the most useful things you can know before choosing — or re-evaluating — an advisor. How commission-based compensation works A commission-based advisor is […]

Most incorporated physicians and dentists think of life insurance purely as protection — something that pays out if something happens to you. Held inside a professional corporation, it can also play a role in tax and estate planning that’s easy to overlook. Here’s how that works, and where the limits are. Why hold insurance inside […]