Frequently Asked Questions
Have questions about Medicus?
If you’re looking to learn about the basics of the plan, you can find them outlined on the other pages of this site, including a summary of plan details and how it works, eligibility, how to join, governance, and more.
This FAQ page provides a deeper look at some of the questions more commonly asked by physicians like you.
You can start with the “Top 5” and then find other questions, grouped by topic below. Just click on a topic of interest to review related questions and answers.
If you have additional questions or are interested in joining the plan, you can sign up here to book a discovery meeting and speak with one of our Medicus Support Team representatives.
Top 5 frequently asked questions
The following are some of the most common questions asked by physicians.
You earn a pension benefit of 2% of your capped pensionable earnings for each year that you participate in Medicus.
That amount is cumulative year over year, so the longer you participate in the plan the more your annual pension benefit will be when you retire – and there are minimum pension payment guarantees of at least 10 years in place to make sure that your pension payments continue to your spouse or beneficiary even if you pass away shortly after retirement.
- For a personalized estimate of the pension you can expect to receive by joining the plan, try the Medicus Pension Benefit Estimator.
- For more details, please sign up to book a discovery meeting with the Medicus Support Team.
Yes. Medicus has been designed with the ability to provide cost of living increases, which can help protect your purchasing power during retirement.
Inflation increases help our plan members keep pace with the rising cost of living for years in which inflation protection is granted and maintains the value of their Medicus pension over time.
Cost of living increases may be granted, depending on the financial health of the plan. If the plan does not allow a cost of living increase in a particular year, that year’s cost of living increase will be carried forward and an increase may be granted under the plan at a future time when the plan’s funded status allows for it.
Our long-term vision includes making Medicus available to physicians across the country. Due to legislative considerations, that’s not yet possible in every province. However, we continue to work with various stakeholders to enable incorporated physicians in these provinces to participate in the future.
For a list of currently eligible provinces and territories, please check the Eligibility page.
For members who are single at retirement, the normal form of payment is a lifetime pension with a 15-year guarantee.
- If you pass away within the first 15 years of your retirement, your pension will continue to your named beneficiary, or to your estate if no beneficiary was named, until 15 years after your retirement date. After 15 years, the pension payments will cease.
For a member who has an eligible spouse at retirement, the normal form of payment for members with a spouse includes a lifetime pension for you, as well as both a 60% survivor pension and a ten-year guarantee for your spouse.
- This means that if you die within the first 10 years of your retirement, your pension will continue to your spouse until 10 years after your retirement date and your spouse will thereafter receive a 60% survivor pension until their death.
- If both you and your spouse pass away within the first 10 years of your retirement, your pension will continue to your named beneficiary, or to your estate if no beneficiary was named, until 10 years after your retirement date. After 10 years, the pension payments will end.
With guarantee periods of at least 10 years now included as part of every pension option, Medicus offers you the certainty that no matter what happens, you and your family will benefit from the financial protection built into the plan.
Yes. A pension buyback allows physicians to transfer assets into Medicus to purchase additional pension for past years of service with their participating employer (e.g., their professional corporation) before having joined Medicus.
This means you can increase the pension you’ll receive at retirement by making a one-time transfer of funds to Medicus. In most cases, your one-time transfer comes from your existing registered retirement savings plans.
To complete a pension buyback, you first need to be a member of the plan. Medicus is currently offering a pension buyback opportunity to physicians who join the plan by June 30, 2026, with a plan entry date that is on or before June 1, 2026. Join Medicus today to make sure you don’t miss out!
Stay tuned for more information on future buyback opportunities.
Some common questions – by topic
Choose a topic of interest below to review answers to some of the other common questions about the plan.
- Select a step to read
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Benefit security
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Contributions
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Fees
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Governance & Actuarial
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Investments
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Buybacks
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Plan wind-up
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Relocation
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RRSPs & Tax
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Benefit security
Each physician’s pension is backed by the assets that are held in the plan trust to pay all expected member pensions in retirement
The plan is designed with many layers of governance to help ensure that physicians are paid their expected retirement pensions. For example: The plan is registered with the Financial Services Regulatory Authority under the Pension Benefits Act (Ontario) and with the Canada Revenue Agency under the Income Tax Act (Canada). As a result, the plan must comply with applicable legislation and is also subject to oversight by the applicable regulators. The plan is administered by an Administrative Board which is a fiduciary body required to act in the best interests of the plan members. There is also an independent actuary who is hired to monitor the health of the plan for the Administrative Board and advise on corrective measures if required.
Yes, the plan will pay you a pension for as long as you live. One of the key benefits of belonging to a pension plan with other members is that it has been designed to pay pensions no matter how long each individual member lives.
If you die before retirement, there is a death benefit payable as a lump sum payment. The death benefit is equal to the commuted value of the benefits accrued in the plan at your date of death.
If, at the time of your death, you have a spouse, they may elect to receive an immediate or deferred pension payable from the plan with a value equal to the actuarial present value of the pension payable from the plan on your date of death instead of the lump sum payment described above.
- For more details, please sign up to book a discovery meeting with the Medicus Support Team.
For members who are single at retirement, the normal form of payment is a lifetime pension with a 15-year guarantee. If you pass away within the first 15 years of your retirement, your pension will continue to your named beneficiary, or to your estate if no beneficiary was named, until 15 years after your retirement date. After 15 years, the pension payments will cease.
The 15-year guarantee ensures that all participants can receive pension payments at least equal to what has been contributed to the plan on their behalf.
The normal form of payment for members with a spouse includes a lifetime pension for you, as well as both a 60% survivor pension and a 10-year guarantee for your spouse. This means that if you die within the first 10years of your retirement, your pension will continue to your spouse until 10 years after your retirement date and your spouse will thereafter receive a 60% survivor pension until their death.
If both you and your spouse pass away within the first 10 years of your retirement, your pension will continue to your named beneficiary, or to your estate if no beneficiary was named, until 10 years after your retirement date. After 10 years, the pension payments will end.
Yes. Medicus has been designed with the ability to provide cost of living increases, which can help protect your purchasing power during retirement.
Inflation increases help our plan members keep pace with the rising cost of living for years in which inflation protection is granted and maintains the value of their Medicus pension over time.
Cost of living increases may be granted, depending on the financial health of the plan. If the plan does not allow a cost of living increase in a particular year, that year’s cost of living increase will be carried forward and an increase may be granted under the plan at a future time when the plan’s funded status allows for it.
The financial health of the plan is monitored by the Administrative Board and Plan Sponsor Committee, with actuarial valuations prepared by the plan’s independent actuary to assess the plan’s funded status. If the plan’s funded status reduces below a certain threshold set by the Plan Sponsor Committee, various factors will be considered, and plan benefits may be reduced, subject to applicable legislation.
Generally speaking, pension plan income should be considered as one part of your overall income in retirement, in addition to other savings and government benefits (e.g., CPP). The longer you participate in Medicus, the larger your monthly income will be when you retire – and you will receive that amount monthly for the rest of your life.
Some considerations include your personal situation, what age you join the plan to start contributing, what other income streams you may have in retirement, and what your lifestyle needs and expectations are. Speak to a trusted advisor to discuss your overall financial picture.
Because Medicus has many members participating in the plan, the longevity of members is pooled to eliminate the risk of any one member outliving their retirement savings.
To help explain how longevity pooling works, we know that physicians who are age 65 today have an average life expectancy of 92 years.* Because no single person knows if they’ll live to be older or younger than age 92, pooling people together mitigates the risk for everyone who participates in the plan.
Keep in mind, there are minimum pension payment guarantee periods in place to make sure that your pension payments continue to your spouse or named beneficiary even if you pass away shortly after retirement.
* Life expectancy has been estimated using a standard Canadian table for public sector retirees, adjusted for the profile of the plan membership and expected future improvements in longevity. -
Contributions
Yes. Generally, your professional corporation, as the participating employer, is permitted to deduct its contributions to a registered pension plan for income tax purposes. There is no personal tax deduction for you as the member. For more information, please speak to an accountant or tax advisor.
No. Each participating employer’s contributions are pooled together in a master trust that holds all the contributions for all the plan’s members. This is different than a personal account like an RRSP.
The contribution rate is the same for all members – set at 18% of a physician’s T4 earnings. Those contributions are invested together and used to pay pensions to all plan members in retirement.
Having one master trust for all the contributions allows the Administrative Board that oversees the plan’s investments to access a more sophisticated investment regime and ensures economies of scale as the plan grows.
You earn a pension benefit of 2% of your capped pensionable earnings for each year that you participate in Medicus.
That amount is cumulative year over year, so the longer you participate in the plan the more your annual pension benefit will be when you retire. There are minimum pension payment guarantee periods in place to make sure that your pension payments continue to your spouse or named beneficiary even if you pass away shortly after retirement.
- For a personalized estimate on the pension you can expect to receive by joining the plan, try the Medicus Pension Benefit Estimator.
- For more details, please sign up to book a discovery meeting with the Medicus Support Team.
No. When you begin collecting your pension benefit in a registered pension plan like Medicus both you and your participating employer can no longer contribute to the plan.
Income tax legislation provides that a member cannot accrue a benefit (and therefore cannot contribute) to a registered pension plan while receiving a pension from the same plan.
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Fees
In a defined benefit multi-employer pension plan such as Medicus, fees are not generally charged directly to individual members.
The plan’s investment manager 1832 Asset Management has entered into a contract with the Administrative Board whereby the investment management fees are capped at 0.45% of plan assets, which is also known as 45 basis points. This fee is competitive relative to other offerings physicians may have access to, and to what other large pension plans in Canada pay to investment managers.
In a defined benefit multi-employer pension plan such as Medicus, fees are not generally charged directly to individual members.
The Administrative Board oversees and manages all fees related to the plan, which are paid by the pension fund from the contributions and investment earnings of the fund. This includes the investment management fees and other costs to run the plan, such as pension administration, plan management and actuarial costs.
In a defined benefit multi-employer pension plan such as Medicus, fees are not generally charged directly to individual members.
However, there are a few circumstances where administrative costs or penalties are charged to participating employers.
For example, penalties may be charged if contributions are remitted late. The plan may also charge an administrative fee to process the calculation and required forms upon a marriage breakdown. And should a professional corporation terminate participation in the plan, an administrative fee may be payable by the corporation to process the termination. These additional fees protect the plan from incurring disproportionately large administrative costs for any individual participating physician.
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Governance & Actuarial
An actuary is a professional accredited by the Canadian Institute of Actuaries who uses data and statistics to help predict future costs when things are uncertain. Some work for insurance companies to help set prices for life, health, auto, and home insurance. Others work with pension plans like Medicus.
For a pension plan, an actuary looks at historical data and uses it to make informed assumptions about the future, such as inflation, interest rates, investment returns, how long members will live, how their earnings may grow, and when they might retire. These assumptions help the actuary estimate how much money the plan needs today to pay every member’s pension for as long as they live.
The plan’s actuary is an independent expert. TELUS Health has been engaged by the Administrative Board and they have an actuarial team that works with the Administrative Board to monitor the health of the plan and prepare the required actuarial valuation of the plan for filing with the Ontario pension regulator and the Canada Revenue Agency.
By law, every defined benefit pension plan must have an actuary check its financial health at least once every three years. This review, called an actuarial valuation, is filed with the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario and the Canada Revenue Agency. The Administrative Board may also ask the actuary to review the financial health of the plan from time to time, for example to determine benefit adjustments such as inflation increases, and to provide advice on the effective financial management of the plan.
An actuarial valuation report is a report prepared by the plan’s independent actuary that is required by pension legislation, that determines the financial health of the pension plan at a specific point in time. Such reports are required to be conducted at least every three years and are filed with the Ontario pension regulator and the Canada Revenue Agency.
An actuarial valuation report helps the Administrative Board understand whether the plan is on track to meet future pension payments. It shows how the plan is doing today and whether any adjustments may be needed over time.
Between these formal valuations, the plan’s actuary also provides updates so the Board can regularly monitor the overall health of the plan.
The Administrative Board and Plan Sponsor Committee work together under a robust governance framework to support the long-term health of the pension plan and protect members’ interests.
As part of this framework, and as required by pension laws, the plan’s actuary reviews the financial health of the plan at least once every three years. This review compares the money the plan has today with the estimated cost of future pension payments.
If the plan has more money than needed (a surplus), those extra funds can be used to enhance benefits, such as providing inflation protection. If the plan has less than it needs (a deficit), benefits may need to be adjusted.
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Investments
The Administrative Board sets the investment strategy, selects the investment manager, and closely monitors performance.
The Administrative Board is a fiduciary body that is required by law to invest the assets in the best interests of the plan’s members, closely monitor the performance of the plan’s assets, and decide if a change in asset mix or investment manager is warranted.
The Administrative Board has engaged 1832 Asset Management, a subsidiary of Scotiabank and one of Canada's largest asset managers. This engagement provides the plan with access to diversified investment opportunities as if the pension fund already has hundreds of millions of dollars. For example, 1832 Asset Management gives Medicus access to portfolio managers both external and internal to Scotiabank who each specialize in a certain asset class that generally can’t be accessed by individual investors or small pension plans.
The plan’s asset mix is set by the Administrative Board, with advice from investment professionals, and is based on the expected investment return required to meet the plan’s pension obligations. The allowable asset classes and their respective ranges are outlined in the Statement of Investment Policies and Procedures (SIPP).
The SIPP defines the plan’s long-term target asset mix as 30% fixed income and 70% growth assets, which includes a combination of public and private investments. It is compliant with the requirements of the Pension Benefits Act (Ontario) and the policies of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA).
The Administrative Board regularly reviews the asset mix to assess performance and make adjustments as needed to ensure the strategy remains aligned with the plan’s long-term objectives.
The plan assumes an annual investment return of 5.8%, after investment fees. This is the expected return needed to help ensure the plan can pay pensions for as long as each physician lives, based on what we know today about the economy and life expectancy.
This assumed return is set by the independent actuary hired by the Administrative Board and is based on the plan’s investment mix , which is described in the Statement of Investment Policies and Procedures (SIPP).
The actuary reviews this assumption regularly and updates it if the economic outlook changes; for example if inflation, interest rates, or expected returns on different types of investments shift.
Medicus, like other registered pension plans, can invest in various types of investments such as fixed income, Canadian and international equities, derivatives that help manage risk, and alternative investment classes.
The Administrative Board oversees the plan’s asset mix and its allowable investments. Prohibited investments include any that would not be compliant with the Income Tax Act (Canada) or the Pension Benefits Act (Ontario).
In addition, the Administrative Board recognizes the potential impact environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors may have on the plan’s return and risk profile.
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Buybacks
Yes. A pension buyback allows physicians to transfer assets into Medicus to purchase additional pension for past years of service with their participating employer (e.g., their professional corporation) before having joined Medicus.
This means you can increase the pension you’ll receive at retirement by making a one-time transfer of funds to Medicus. In most cases, your one-time transfer comes from your existing registered retirement savings plans.
To complete a pension buyback, you first need to be a member of the plan. Medicus is currently offering a pension buyback opportunity to physicians who join the plan by June 30, 2026, with a plan entry date that is on or before June 1, 2026. Join Medicus today to make sure you don’t miss out!
Stay tuned for more information on future buyback opportunities.
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Plan wind-up
If the decision is made to wind-up the plan, the Administrative Board would oversee the termination of the plan in accordance with the Pension Benefits Act (Ontario).
A review of the plan’s health would be conducted at the wind-up date.
- If there are more assets than needed to pay all the pensions that have been earned, any surplus assets would go to increase pensions or would be returned to participating employers, as determined by the Administrative Board.
- If there are not enough assets to cover the pensions that have been earned, pensions would be adjusted equitably following the rules set out in legislation and overseen by the Administrative Board.
Medicus can’t “go bankrupt” because all pension assets are held in a separate trust. These funds are completely separate from the finances of any participating employer and can only be used to pay physicians’ pensions.
If the plan were ever wound up and there wasn’t enough assets to pay all earned pensions in full, pensions would be adjusted equitably following the rules set out in legislation and overseen by the Administrative Board.
The Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund (PBGF) is a fund that protects defined benefit pension plan members of single employer pension plans from reductions in their pensions resulting from the bankruptcy of their employer.
Because multi-employer pension plans have many employers, the bankruptcy of one employer does not generally have a significant impact on the health of the pension plan or the pensions of the remaining members and therefore multi-employer pension plans, like Medicus, are excluded from participation in the PBGF.
The plan doesn’t have insurance coverage. Each physician’s pension is backed by the assets held in trust for the purpose of paying the pensions expected to be paid to members in retirement.
The many layers of governance of the plan are designed to help ensure that the plan pays physicians their expected retirement pensions.
For example:
- The plan is registered with the Financial Services Regulatory Authority under the Pension Benefits Act (Ontario) and with the Canada Revenue Agency under the Income Tax Act (Canada). As a result, the plan must comply with applicable legislation and is also subject to oversight by the applicable regulators.
- The plan is administered by an Administrative Board which is a fiduciary body required to act in the best interests of the plan beneficiaries.
- There is an independent actuary who is hired to monitor the health of the plan for the Administrative Board and advise corrective measures if required.
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Relocation
Medicus is portable. If you move your corporation to another eligible province or territory, you’ll be able to remain in the plan.
If you move your corporation to a province where Medicus is not yet available, you will be able to suspend participation until that province becomes eligible, or you can decide to terminate your participation.
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RRSPs & Tax
In the Medicus Pension Plan, your professional corporation’s contributions are deposited in a single trust fund that holds all the contributions for the pension plan’s members. Those contributions are invested together and used to pay pensions to all plan members in retirement. With a larger number of physicians participating together in the plan, no one physician bears the risk of a bad investment year when they can least afford it or faces the possibility of outliving their savings, as a physician does with an RRSP.
Having a single trust fund for all the contributions allows the Administrative Board that oversees the plan’s investments to access a more sophisticated investment regime and ensures economies of scale as the plan grows.
In contrast, in an RRSP, money is invested in an individual account, tailored to the individual’s personal investment risk tolerance and time horizon. That individual’s retirement savings will depend solely on the performance of their portfolio and how long they live.
Yes, you can participate in Medicus and also contribute to an RRSP. However, the pension you earn each year in Medicus reduces how much you can put into your RRSP the following year.
If the salary you are paid by your professional corporation (or participating employer) is at or above the Medicus pensionable earnings cap for the year, you will earn the maximum Medicus pension benefit. In most cases, that means your new RRSP room the next year will be limited to about $600.
Tip: If you have unused RRSP room from previous years, you can still use it. Your past RRSP room does not disappear when you join Medicus.
For every year that you participate in Medicus, your RRSP room will be reduced in the following year by what is called a Pension Adjustment.
The formula for your Pension Adjustment (the amount your RRSP room is reduced), is equal to the amount of your contributions in any given year, minus $600. As a result, you will likely only receive $600 of RRSP room each year from the year after you join Medicus until you begin receiving a pension.