Fee-For-Service Financial Planning for Physicians and Incorporated Professionals in Canada

Fee-For-Service Plans

A fee-for-service financial plan is the foundation of everything I do. It answers your biggest financial questions with a clear, data-driven roadmap built specifically for your situation, whether you're a physician, another incorporated professional, or a business owner.

You may also see this called a fee-based plan. Both terms mean the same thing here: a flat fee for the plan itself.

If you have existing investments or insurance, reviewing those is part of the plan. Where relevant I'll make recommendations, and you can choose to implement them wherever you'd like.

Why Financial Planning for Physicians Looks Different

Most financial advice available in Canada is built for people earning a T4 income, not for physicians and other incorporated professionals billing through a corporation. That distinction changes almost every question that comes up.

Once you're incorporated, income lands in the corporation first. From there, decisions about how and when to pay yourself, how much to retain inside the corporation, and how to invest it in a tax-efficient way all come before questions like RRSP vs. TFSA even make sense to answer. That's true whether you're a physician with a Medical Professional Corporation or another incorporated professional running your practice through a similar structure.

This is why generic financial planning content, including a lot of the popular advice that comes from American sources, often doesn't translate. Financial planning for doctors in Canada, and for incorporated professionals more broadly, has to start with the corporation, not end with it.

What a Financial Advisor for Physicians Actually Does

Not all financial advisors work the same way, and the differences matter more once you're incorporated.

As a Certified Financial Planner, I'm held to a code of ethics. The first principle of the CFP code of ethics is that a client's interests come first. That's different from advisors who are compensated primarily through commissions on the products they sell, where the incentive to recommend a particular product can create a conflict, even unintentionally.

Working with a financial advisor for physicians and incorporated professionals means working with someone who understands the mechanics of a professional corporation, passive income rules, and how to coordinate corporate, personal, and retirement accounts as one system rather than separate decisions. That coordination is often where the most value gets created, and it's frequently missed when advice is given piecemeal, one product or one account at a time.

How it works

1. Book a Discovery call

First, let's find out which path makes the most sense for you. During our half-hour call we'll discover how best to move forward.

2. Values and Vision Meeting

Every good journey starts with the end in mind. In this meeting you paint your goals in vivid colour and get to the heart of what's most important to you in life and in money.

3. Data review

In this meeting we get clear on the milestone markers and resources for your financial journey.

4. Presentation of findings

Here we lay out the entire roadmap based on the information we've gathered and the conversations we have. We also make sure all your top questions have been answered.

Questions your financial plan will answer

  • When can I retire?

  • Am I making the most of my corporation? How can I maximize it?

  • Am I on track for retirement?

  • What can I do to optimize my investment and insurance strategies?

  • How do I make the most of investing in my corporation, TFSA and RRSP?

What is included in a fee-for-service financial plan

A financial plan for physicians and incorporated professionals typically includes:

Retirement Planning Strategy

A clear picture of when you can retire, what that looks like, and what needs to happen between now and then to get there, built around your corporation rather than a generic retirement calculator.

Insurance Review and Strategy

An honest look at what insurance you actually need, including whether products like whole life insurance make sense for your specific situation, without the pressure to buy something you don't need.

Investment Management Strategy

A tax-efficient approach to investing across your corporate, personal, and registered accounts (TFSA, RRSP), coordinated as one strategy rather than separate decisions made at separate times.

Education Savings Strategy

A plan for saving toward your children's education in the most tax-efficient way available to an incorporated professional.

Corporate Investment Strategies

Guidance on how to structure investments held inside your corporation, accounting for passive income rules and the different tax treatment corporate investments face compared to personal ones.

Estate Planning

Making sure your corporation, investments, and insurance work together to accomplish your goals for what happens to your estate, not just during your lifetime.

Once your plan is finalized, you can implement the recommendations yourself or with whomever you’d like.

Book a Free Discovery Call

Fee-For-Service vs. Commission-Based Financial Planning

There are a few ways financial advisors get paid in Canada, and it's worth understanding the difference before choosing a fee-for-service financial planner.

Fee-for-service

You pay directly for the plan itself. The price is agreed upon before the work starts and depends on the complexity of your situation. Because the fee isn't tied to any product, there's no incentive to recommend one investment or insurance product over another, or to recommend a product at all if you don't need one.

Commission-based

The advisor is compensated by the companies whose products you buy, which means the plan and the product recommendation are often bundled together, whether or not that particular product is the right fit.

Fee-for-service financial planning for physicians and incorporated professionals means you know exactly what you're paying for and exactly what you're getting, with the plan itself as the deliverable rather than a product sale.

Here's what clients have to say:

  • “Galen has in-depth knowledge of corporate planning and helps us utilize tax-efficient strategies to get us to our goals faster. I can trust Galen to provide me with advice that will serve my family and our goals and be informed of changes and the best way to adapt to them."

    Dr. Sina Sajed, MD

  • "I'm currently located in Vancouver, BC, and Galen is Ontario based. This was a non-issue and working together online turned out to be greatly to our advantage... He has taken the time to educate me and spend the time needed to ensure I am making good decisions. This was AFTER he first invested in me and what I am about."

    Jennifer Pereira, Business Coach

  • "Galen has spent several hours teaching me about the financial world... He is great at explaining things and is great at creating visuals for visual learners. He has helped me think about my future financial goals and make realistic action plans to achieve them."

    Erfan Vafaie, Entomologist

 Frequently Asked Questions

  • Fee-for-service financial planning, sometimes called fee-based planning, means you pay a flat fee for the plan itself, agreed upon before any work begins.

  • I work with physicians and business owners across Canada who:

    • Want someone on their team who knows how to problem solve and make complex ideas simple

    • Want to work with someone they can trust

    • Want to work with someone who understands the reality of physician and incorporated professionals finances from the inside

    • Want to work with someone who cares deeply about their financial success

    • Want individualized corporate planning

    I also work with business owners across Canada who are looking for the same level of personalized, data-driven financial planning.

  • • What’s important to you and what worries you the most about finances?

    • What do you expect from a financial planner?

    • What do you want to accomplish by working together?

    • What caused you to reach out to me?

    • We'll discuss next steps for working together.

  • When you sign up for a fee-for-service plan, you pay me to create that plan. The price is agreed upon before I start the plan and depends on the complexity of the plan.

  • First I get a very clear picture of what you would like to accomplish and what you are afraid of getting in the way. Then I meet with my team and map out the most efficient way to get there.

    If you have a corporation, I do a deep dive on how to maximize it to get the results you want.

  • Because you probably didn't go into medicine, or start your practice or business, so you could become an expert in financial planning. I love the idea of freeing you up to focus on your work and your health, and not lose sleep over your finances. I also grew up watching my dad, a physician, struggle for years to get good advice, and now I take what I've learned helping people just like him.

  • Yes. You can speak to the clients I have had for years and they will attest to the fact that I care about my clients and put them first.

    I am a Certified Financial Planner. The first Principle of the code of ethics is: “Client First, A CFP professional shall always place the client’s interests first.”

  • If you live near beautiful Belleville, ON, we can meet here. If not, I meet with clients all over Canada via video call. I have clients across the country as far west as Victoria, BC and as far east as Halifax, NS, and many cities in between.

  • Yes. I have access to expertise in cross-border financial planning for physicians and incorporated professionals who are planning to leave the country. If that's your situation, book a discovery call and we can talk through what that looks like.

Ready to see the full picture?

Book a free discovery call and find out if a fee-for-service financial plan is the right fit for your situation.

Book a Free Discovery Call