Financial advisor for nurses
Financial planning for nurses in Calgary and across Canada. Your defined benefit pension is likely your largest asset, and Kaetyn St. Hilaire, CFA, builds the rest of the plan around it: RRSP and TFSA, insurance, and when you can retire.
Financial planning for nurses
Most nurses are employees with a defined benefit pension, shift premiums and overtime, and group benefits. The plan starts with the pension and fills the gaps around it.
Start with the pension
A defined benefit pension pays a set income for life based on your salary and years of service. Because it never shows up as a balance you can spend, it is easy to undervalue: a full career of accrual can be worth well over a million dollars in portfolio terms.
Overtime, shift premiums and tax
Overtime and premiums are taxed at your marginal rate, and a big overtime year can push part of your income into a higher bracket. An RRSP contribution is worth more in that year; in an ordinary year the TFSA often comes first.
Two incomes, one plan
When a household has two incomes, and sometimes two pensions, spousal RRSPs, pension income splitting and who holds the non-registered savings all change the tax you pay together, today and in retirement.
Nurse practitioners and independent practice
Nurse practitioners and nurses in independent practice may bill as self-employed, pay both halves of CPP and deduct business expenses. Whether they can practise through a professional corporation depends on the provincial regulator, and a corporation that serves what is really an employer is a personal services business.
Pension plans for nurses
Nurses in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario usually belong to a large public sector defined benefit plan. The plan rules decide your retirement date as much as your savings do.
Alberta: the Local Authorities Pension Plan
Nurses employed by Alberta Health Services and many other Alberta health employers generally belong to LAPP. It pays a lifetime pension based on your salary and years of service. Your annual statement shows your service, your projected pension and your earliest unreduced retirement date.
British Columbia and Ontario: MPP and HOOPP
In British Columbia, nurses with the health authorities generally belong to the Municipal Pension Plan. In Ontario, most hospital nurses belong to the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP). Both are defined benefit plans with their own rules for early retirement and bridge benefits.
Retiring early with an unreduced pension
Defined benefit plans set an age for an unreduced pension and often allow it earlier once your age plus service reaches a set total. Leaving a few years before that point can mean a permanent reduction, so model the dates before you choose one.
Leaves, buybacks and part-time years
Unpaid leaves and part-time years reduce the service you earn. Many plans let you buy back eligible service, and the cost can sometimes be paid with RRSP savings. Compare the cost with the pension it adds.
RRSP vs TFSA for nurses
A pension changes the usual RRSP advice, because it shrinks your RRSP room and lifts your retirement income.
“Wealthy Canadians do not treat the TFSA as an emergency fund. They treat it as a precision tool to control exactly how much taxable income they report each year.”
Kaetyn St. Hilaire, CFA, in Paying Too Much in Taxes? Here's How Wealthy Canadians Legally Pay Less
The pension adjustment
Each year your pension accrual reduces your RRSP room through a pension adjustment, shown on your T4. A nurse with a full-time pension can have little new RRSP room each year.
Why the TFSA often comes first
If your pension will give you a retirement income close to your working income, an RRSP deduction today may save tax at about the rate you pay on the withdrawal later. The TFSA, with $7,000 of new room for 2026, grows tax free and its withdrawals do not affect OAS.
Nurse retirement planning
The pension sets the floor. The rest of the plan decides how comfortable the years above it are.
“The question is never whether you'll pay tax on your registered accounts. The question is what rate you'll pay and whether that decision is yours or the government's.”
Kaetyn St. Hilaire, CFA, in Paying Too Much in Taxes? Here's How Wealthy Canadians Legally Pay Less
Pension income splitting
Up to half of eligible pension income can be allocated to a spouse on your tax returns. Defined benefit pension income qualifies at any age, which helps nurses who retire in their late fifties.
CPP and OAS timing
CPP can start at any age from 60 to 70 and OAS from 65 to 70, and each year of waiting raises the payment. With a pension covering the early years, delaying CPP can make sense, but it depends on health and other income.
Survivor options
At retirement you choose the form of your pension, including how much continues to a surviving spouse. A larger survivor pension lowers the monthly amount, and the choice usually cannot be changed later.
Insurance for nurses
Group disability coverage through your employer is a strong start, but check how long it pays and how it defines disability. Life insurance needs often fall as the pension and savings grow, since the pension usually continues to a survivor.
The window before 71
The years between retirement and 71, before RRIF minimums, CPP and OAS stack up, are often your lowest-income years. Drawing RRSP savings on purpose in that window, at a lower rate, can mean far less tax later and a full OAS.
Health benefits after you retire
Group health and dental coverage usually ends with employment. Some retiree associations and plans offer coverage after you leave, so price it against private plans before your last day.
Kaetyn St. Hilaire, CFA
Kaetyn is a Calgary-based financial advisor who works with high earners and medical professionals. He focuses on actionable strategies: the salary-dividend mix inside a professional corporation, RRSP and TFSA contributions, pensions and a long-term investment plan that spans the corporate and personal sides.
Designations
CFA, CIM, CIWM, FCSI, CEA
Questions from nurses
Honest answers to the questions we hear most often. Other careers: financial planning for professionals.
The pension covers part of retirement. The decisions around it still matter: RRSP or TFSA, buybacks, the commuted value if you leave, CPP timing, survivor options and pension splitting. Several of them are one-time choices that are hard to undo.
It depends on your health, your other savings and how much the lump sum would have to earn to replace the pension. Part of a large commuted value can be paid out in cash and taxed, because only a capped amount can move to a locked-in account. The choice is permanent, so compare both before you sign.
Many defined benefit plans allow a pension from 55, but it may be reduced unless your age plus service reaches the plan's threshold. Retiring at 55 also means funding the years before CPP and OAS begin.
With a defined benefit pension, the TFSA is often the better first dollar, because your RRSP room is small and your retirement tax rate may be close to your working rate. An RRSP still helps in high-income years.
We generally work with clients who have $500,000+ in investable assets or a household income of $200,000+. That said, we're happy to have an introductory conversation regardless. Sometimes the right time to start planning is before you've accumulated significant wealth.
Kaetyn works with clients across Canada. Meetings can be held in person in Calgary or by video anywhere in Canada.
Book a free wealth review
A complimentary, no-obligation conversation about your pension, your savings and your retirement date, and a clear explanation of how we can help.