Veterinarians

As a Veterinarian, we know that you face a bunch of issues as a business owner on top of your veterinary responsibilities, including managing the day-to-day operations of your business, covering HR, compliance, record keeping, and business cash flow management. 

As a veterinarian, you go through many stages in your career from being an associate and making the decision whether to buy into an existing practice or starting your own; as a practice owner and the decisions on incorporation and how that impacts your financial life; and as a mature veterinarian who is looking to retire and is looking into succession planning and options for monetizing your practice.

 

Our family has a deep history in the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association with my maternal great great grandfather, Dr. Andrew Smith, starting the Ontario Veterinary College in 1862. Throughout the years, our family has been involved with both the veterinary and financial services industries. This has given us a unique perspective on the challenges that veterinarians face in their business and how to help maximize your financial well-being.

 

Some of the biggest questions we hear when talking with Veterinarian clients are:

 

  • What is the value of my practice?

  • How much do I need to retire?

  • How do I incorporate my professional corporation into my personal financial plan?

  • Who am I going to sell my practice to?

  • How do I maximize the value of my corporation when it comes time to sell?

  • What am I going to do once I retire? 

How Much Do I Need to Retire?

This is a universal question that everyone faces when they are looking to transition to retirement. When you are working, you may be making your annual RRSP and TFSA contributions but do not know where this leaves you as you are getting close to retirement. Our team is specialized in helping professionals go through the transition to retirement.

Retirement is no longer a single transition, and you may want to sell your practice but continue working in an associate capacity a few days a week during the transition. One of the biggest questions facing veterinarians is "How Much Do I Need?" By creating a holistic financial plan, we can help you determine a retirement transition plan that will allow you to live comfortably in retirement and where your sources of income will come from.

How Do I Maximize The Value of My Practice?

Your practice is one of the largest assets you have besides your human capital. Selling your practice when you are looking to retire is a significant time in your career, as the opportunity to sell your practice usually only comes by once. When you are looking to sell, you must understand the variable that determines the selling multiple your practice and what changes you should make to your practice to make it more attractive to a potential buyer. You never know when you will get an offer to sell your practice, but you need to know your valuation in case that opportunity presents itself.

Furthermore, as an incorporated professional, there are many tax and investment opportunities available to you that can be used to maximize your personal wealth. An example of this keeping unused income in your corporate instead of pulling it out as income. By keeping the retained earnings in your corporation and investing those proceeds, you are minimizing your tax impact, which can have long-term benefits over your lifetime.

Am I Protected?

The biggest investment you have made is in yourself through your additional education. As an incorporated professional, you are responsible for your own insurance, whether for disability insurance, professional corporation insurance or life insurance.

Buying Insurance can be a difficult minefield to navigate as you do not want to be underinsured, leaving yourself vulnerable if something were to happen, or overinsured paying too much in premiums for insurance that you do not need.

Our team can help you select the most appropriate insurance for you and explain it to you in simple terms to ensure you are only buying what you need and not a complicated product that is not suitable for you.

Comprehensive Wealth Management

As a busy professional, you wear many hats. Being a business owner, you are responsible for the financial affairs of your practice and having to manage a team of employees while on top of your responsibilities as a Veterinarian. Our team's job is to be your professional thinking partner to help develop a financial plan incorporating all aspects of your financial life into a comprehensive plan.

A wealth plan includes not only retirement planning and investment strategies but tax planning by coordinating with your accounting advisors, risk management strategies for both you and your practice, estate planning for you and your family and transition planning when it comes time to retire, including discussions of practice valuation and selling a practice.

Finally, a financial plan is not a one-time assessment of your financial situation but an evolving plan which is continually monitored and reviewed to adapt to changes that happen in your personal and professional life.

Veterinarian Professional Lending

 

Our team works closely with a team of commercial bankers who can help with cash flow management to make your practice more efficient and help with specialized financing to help with:

 

  • Starting a New Practice

  • Buying Into a Practice as an Associate

  • Expansion of a Current Practice

  • Acquisitions of Practice

  • Equipment Purchases

Financial Planning Checklist for Veterinarians

Our team at Bongard Wealth Management are happy to help you answer these question to make sure you. We have included our financial planning checklist for every stage of your career as a veterinarian.