2025 Conference Speakers
Dr. Jane & Paul Healey
Navigating the Home Buying Journey—for You or Your Kids | 1:00-2:00pm EST
Objectives
How to decide when to buy and when to rent
Discuss the FHSA and the RRSP Home Buyers' Plan and how to use these for first-time home ownership
How to work with a real estate agent.
Understanding closing costs
Explore how parents can most efficiently help their children save for a future home
Dr. Jane Healey is a hospital-based paediatrician at Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga. Dr. Paul Healey is an emergency physician at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. Together they created the Physician Financial Independence (PFI) online community in 2017, which now has nearly 40,000 members. It is a space where physicians can teach each other about personal finance and happiness that does not accept any advertising and is free from industry bias. Jane & Paul are strong advocates for promoting financial literacy and reducing burnout in medicine and helped create a formal financial curriculum at UofT’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine. They pride themselves on being a neutral, non-biased source of financial information for Canadian physicians.
Conflicts of Interest: Drs. Jane and Paul Healey receive a speakers honorarium for their talk. They have no relationships with commercial interests/ financial partners.
Dr. Mark Soth
Asset Allocation ETFs: Rationale, Options, & Planning | 2:00-3:30PM EST
Objectives
Understand the rationale behind using asset allocation ETFs for a portfolio
Examine differences between the major AAETFs
Learn some ways to use AAETFs as your financial plan evolves.
Dr. Mark Soth is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at McMaster University. He led the development of his hospital ICU service into a multi-service Department of Critical Care where he served as the Department Chief for over a decade. He has mentored other developing physician leaders and supported others within his department to grow world class multi-disciplinary research and methodology programmes.
Mark has a recognized passion for education and has won numerous clinical teaching awards. He is also a leader in curriculum development and was a founding co-chair of two national courses in his field.
He has now shifted his focus to develop and deliver curriculum to improve the financial health, career development, and well-being of other Canadian professionals. He blogs about career, life, personal finance, and investing for Canadian professionals and small business owners as The Loonie Doctor at www.looniedoctor.ca and co-hosts The Money Scope Podcast at www.moneyscope.ca
Conflicts of Interest: BMO ETFs is a paying advertiser on The Loonie Doctor Blog. There is also an affiliate link to Qtrade Direct Investing and Dr. Mark Soth gets paid to speak by various physician professional associations.
Dr. Benjamin Hutten-Czapski
Optimizing Credit Card Rewards for Business Owners and Sole Proprietors | 2:00-3:30pm EST
Objectives:
Discuss the benefits of collecting credit card points and travel rewards.
Review how to optimize physician spending (e.g. professional membership fees) to attain credit card bonuses and travel points.
Review the basics of how to optimize redeeming credit card points on travel.
Dr. Ben's has long had a love for numbers, spreadsheets, optimizations and loopholes. In university it was about creating the best spreadsheets for his Chemical Engineering degree. In early practice it was personal finance, delving deep into DIY, factor tilts, and the Smith Maneuver. But these days he uses it to help physicians optimize their credit card and travel rewards, running the RewardsMD website and facebook group where he's taught hundreds of fellow physicians. While he would never be able to justify buying someone else a business class ticket, he's made it a mission to help colleagues enjoy the same positive travel benefits he now experiences regularly.
Conflicts of Interest: Partner with Amex Business Accounts. Partner with Chexy, and provides guidance on ways they can improve their offering for physicians. Network affiliate with Milesopedia. Affiliate with search tools Roame, PointsYeah, and Flightconnections.
Dr. Anish Mody
Dr. Anish Mody is a family doctor in Ottawa. where he practices comprehensive family practice in a community setting and previously worked in rural Saskatchewan. He is a lecturer with the University of Ottawa Department of Family Medicine. His commitment extended beyond clinical practice. Dr. Mody serves as President of the Ottawa Medical Society. Furthermore, Dr. Mody and his colleague started their own clinic, called Novel Health in 2021. Novel Health was the recipient of the OMD 2021 Luminary Award - Team for outstanding contribution in digital health in Ontario.
His true passion is in practice management. He is an Ontario MD peer leader where he spends time in clinic helping with EMRs and Workflows. He also develops content and presents. He is also a contributor of OMA's Practice Efficiency presentation development with a focus on patient engagement and workflow efficiency. He is interested in collaborating on health technology and helping clinicians in need.
Conflicts of Interest: Dr. Mody has no conflicts of interest to disclose, other than receiving an honorarium from the OMA for this presentation.
Tips from a Clinic Owner: Starting & Running an Efficient Practice | 2:00-3:30PM EST
Objectives:
Share a Physician-Owner experience of starting his medical clinic: why he started his own vs locuming/joining a practice, financing, renting/buying clinic space, hiring tips and choosing technology (e.g. EMRs, AI scribes)
Discuss actionable tips to run an efficient practice and workflow
Share mistakes made early in practice with contract negotiations, locuming vs joining a practice
Dr. Christian Wigmore
Disability Protecting Your Future: Disability Insurance for Medical Trainees | 2:00-3:30PM EST
Objectives
Describe the disability insurance needs of medical students and residents.
Compare key differences between association-sponsored and private disability insurance.
Evaluate essential policy features, including occupation definitions, residual/partial coverage, and riders.
Recognize common pitfalls and misconceptions when choosing coverage.
Christian Wigmore is a UBC Family Medicine resident with a background in finance, having worked in wealth management before medical school. He founded Budget Your MD to help Canadian medical trainees make smarter financial decisions. He empowers students to build the financial knowledge and confidence they need to create the career and life they envision.
Conflicts of Interest: I am the founder of Budget Your MD, a financial education platform for Canadian medical trainees. The platform offers some paid products and services, including financial tools and resources. No specific products or services will be promoted in this presentation, and the content is intended solely for educational purposes.
Dr. Yatin Chadha & Mark McGrath
& Aravind Sithamparapillai
Dr. Yatin Chadha
Yatin Chadha is a practicing radiologist at North York General Hospital and adjunct lecturer at the University of Toronto. Medical training & work have taken him from Vancouver to Kingston to San Diego to Calgary and finally to Toronto. Yatin is an advocate for financial literacy in healthcare. This is what led him to start his podcast, beyond MD. This is a financial literacy podcast geared towards healthcare professionals in Canada. Topics cover evidence-based investing, insurance, pensions, real estate, and other topics relevant to incorporated professionals. The podcast has reached as high as #23 in the Canadian business podcast category. Outside of work & his podcast, Yatin is usually enjoying time with his wife, Sima, and his 2 boys, Rohin & Zian. He's a passionate sports fan, specifically a lifelong supporter of the Pittsburgh Penguins, as well as a keen golfer.
Mark McGrath
Mark McGrath is now semi-retired, but was most recently a Financial Planner and Associate Portfolio Manager with PWL Capital.
He was a co-host of the Rational Reminder podcast, is a regular contributor to various national publications, co-author of the new book “Wealthier: The Investment Field Guide for Canadian Millennials” with NYT Bestselling Author Dan Solin, and a contributing author to FP Canada Institute’s Technical Education program, a prerequisite for students pursuing the CFP designation.
When he’s not immersed in the world of personal finance, Mark enjoys spending time with his family, playing guitar, and indulging in his love for reading and gaming.
Aravind Sithamparapillai
Aravind Sithamparapillai is a financial planner known for digging deep under the hood of complex financial structures and translating them into clear, actionable strategies. Winner of FP Canada’s President’s List award for achieving the top mark in the country on the CFP® exam, he has earned a reputation for bringing both technical depth and practical insight to physicians, incorporated business owners, and other busy professionals.
Aravind’s work that relates directly to physicians includes in-depth research on Salary vs Dividends as well as pension plans such as HOOPP. He focuses on integrated financial planning that bridges investments, corporate structures, taxation, and the overlooked impact that they all have on each other. His approach goes beyond numbers—helping clients align their finances with their family life, goals, and values. He is known for giving clients straight answers without gimmicks and doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes so they can focus on what matters most.
Away from the spreadsheets, Aravind is celebrating 10 years of marriage to his wife, Mikayla, and is the proud father of three children, ages 9, 7, and 5.
Conflicts of Interest: Aravind Sithamparapillai is a financial planner with Ironwood Wealth Management, a wealth management firm compensated primarily through providing investment management services to clients. In the course of this presentation, some of the strategies and considerations discussed may relate to services that Ironwood Wealth Management offers. While the intent is to provide educational content, attendees should be aware that these topics could also be relevant to services for which Aravind is compensated.
Panel Discussion: Living a Rich, Fulfilling Life & Retirement Products | 3:30-4:30PM EST
Objectives
Discuss what it means to live a rich and fulfilling life, and how to take the leap into early or regular retirement from a lifestyle and financial perspective.
Review retirement products (e.g. multi-employer pension plans, IPPs) commonly marketed to physicians.
Answer commonly asked audience questions
Dr. Stephanie Zhou is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto where she created the financial literacy curriculum and is the Director of Addiction Medicine at Sunnybrook Hospital.
Dr. Zhou immigrated to Canada and grew up in subsidized housing, which led to her investing in education and housing initiatives through philanthropy. She founded the annual Physicians Financial Wellness conference, a national, philanthropic conference for physicians on financial education and practice management. The ticket proceeds were used to establish The Equity Award, an endowment fund supporting students with financial need.
Dr. Zhou received Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women award and the Ascend Canada Social Impact Award for her work in improving economic mobility through financial literacy. Dr. Zhou is a nationally invited speaker on personal finance and runs a popular financial education blog on Instagram and Youtube called Breaking Bad Debt.
Moderator
Hayley Gates is a medical student with a background in physiotherapy. She previously earned both undergraduate and master's degrees before working as a licensed physiotherapist. Faced with a growing burden of student debt, Hayley became increasingly interested in financial planning and was motivated to take control of her financial future. This personal journey sparked the idea to develop a public resource aimed at helping others, particularly students and early-career professionals, access clear, practical information on financial literacy.
Student Oral Presentation