HOOPP opens pension plan to self-employed Ontario doctors for first time

Starting in January 2025, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) will extend membership to self-employed doctors, offering incorporated physicians and their staff a new opportunity to secure defined-benefit retirement income through one of Ontario's largest pension funds.This change comes after years of advocacy by physician groups and will make tens of thousands of doctors eligible to join. Previously, incorporated physicians were excluded from HOOPP because they acted as both employer and employee within their practices, complicating the traditional contribution structure.The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) has been advocating for HOOPP to include incorporated physicians for years, OMA CEO Kimberly Moran told the Globe and Mail. The association represents over 43,000 physicians, medical students, and retirees, including 26,000 incorporated doctors who will soon be eligible to join.“We’re expecting a lot of interest in this,” Moran said. “I think doctors are going to appreciate that they have another way to have more certainty for their retirement.”HOOPP’s size“With over 460,000 members and 670 participating employers in Ontario’s healthcare community, we know the value that members and employers receive by being part of HOOPP,” said Rachel Arbour, HOOPP’s head of plan benefits, design and policy, in a press release.HOOPP originally served Ontario’s hospitals and has gradually expanded to include hundreds of smaller healthcare employers as care increasingly shifts to community clinics and practices. Today, the Globe and Mail article notes, HOOPP manages nearly $113 billion for over 670 employers and 460,000 members, including nurses, medical technicians, and housekeeping staff, as well as salaried physicians at HOOPP-affiliated employers. Until now, however, doctors with their own practices were ineligible.The move to include doctors gained momentum last year when HOOPP conducted research and consulted physicians and financial advisers on structuring eligibility. Soon, medical professional corporations (MPCs)—a common structure for incorporated physicians— \will be able to join HOOPP as employers.Physicians who opt in, including those running private practices, working in clinics, or providing hospital services, will need to contribute both employer and employee portions to the plan. Staff employed by the MPC, such as nurses or administrative personnel, will also have the option to join.Because HOOPP pensions are based on a member’s highest five years of income, the plan needed to ensure self-employed doctors couldn’t inflate their pensions by artificially increasing their income for a few years while taking lower salaries in others. To address this and maintain fairness for all members, HOOPP will establish a physician’s baseline employment income when they join. For pension calculations, income changes will be capped, though doctors can earn more than the limit in reality.‘Younger people’ The Globe and Mail interviewed a physician with 34 years of experience about his perspective.Dr. Nick Voudouris has built his retirement savings over the years through disciplined contributions to his registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) and tax-free savings account (TFSA), alongside benefits from real estate investments. “I went on the assumption that no one was going to help me and I had to do it myself,” he told the Globe and Mail.Dr. Voudouris is one of 10 physicians at Thornhill Medical Centre in north Toronto considering joining the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), though they are awaiting further details. For Dr. Voudouris, who is 64 and has no immediate plans to retire, joining likely won’t be practical. “For the older physicians, like me, we missed the boat on this,” he said. “Would I have loved to have had a defined-benefit pension plan? Oh my gosh, would I love that, sure,” he told the newspaper.For younger physicians, however, Dr. Voudouris sees immense potential. The youngest doctor at the Thornhill clinic is 30, and he believes HOOPP could transform how early-career physicians view family practice. “This is the wave of the future,” Dr. Voudouris. “For the younger people . . . this could really transform people’s view of being in family practice, could mean more people wanting to stay in family practice because they have a nice benefit plan,” he said. “I think it’s a great thing.”Dr. Voudouris also highlighted the broader benefits of HOOPP membership, particularly for smaller practices. A stable pension could help attract and retain top talent, such as nurses and support staff, he noted. For doctors, it allows you to focus on your work without worrying about your financial future, he added.

HOOPP opens pension plan to self-employed Ontario doctors for first time

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