About Beyond The Practice

Why a practice only for physicians and dentists?

Because the problems are specific, and a generalist sees each of them a few times a career while a specialist sees them every week. Four of them account for most of the difference in outcomes.

The professional corporation. 68% of active Ontario physicians are incorporated (medRxiv 2025). The corporation is where most of the planning happens, and it is governed by rules that do not apply to other businesses: CPSO and RCDSO allow only members to hold voting shares, a holding company may not own the corporation, and the tax on split income taxes dividends to family members at 53.53% unless a narrow exclusion applies (Siskinds; MD Tax). Advice written for an ordinary small business owner is wrong for a physician in ways that are expensive and hard to undo.

Association plans. OMA Insurance and CDSPI are the default for most physicians and dentists, and they are reasonable products. They are also group contracts: OMA Insurance's disability rates and terms can be changed for the whole group and the plan cannot be corporately owned (Protect Your Wealth review). Knowing exactly when the association plan is the right answer, and when an individual non-cancellable contract is, is a large part of the work.

The passive income grind. A corporation with more than $50,000 of investment income in the prior year loses $5 of its $500,000 small business limit for every $1 over (BDO; CIBC). $50,000 is roughly $1 million invested at 5%, which many physicians and dentists reach in their forties. The planning around it (asset location, salary versus dividends, exempt insurance, pensions such as an IPP or HOOPP) is the core of the Extract pillar.

Practice sales. Dentists have a saleable business and usually use the $1,275,000 lifetime capital gains exemption (2026); physicians rarely do. A sale needs two years of preparation, and the insurance and investment decisions made a decade earlier affect whether the exemption is available at all.

What we do, and what we do not do

We do four things. We publish educational content, written by Amalan Mahendran and reviewed by Amy Tong, with every figure sourced and dated. We give insurance advice and implement it as licensed life insurance advisors of AT Financial Group: disability, life, critical illness and office overhead cover, personally or corporately owned. We prepare written plans that cover extraction, investing, retirement and estate questions, and we review them annually. And we coordinate with your accountant and lawyer, who remain the authorities on your tax filings and your will.

We do not do everything. AT Financial Group refers investment implementation to a registered dealer. We do not prepare tax returns or draft wills; we refer to a CPA and a lawyer, who bill you directly. Real estate services are provided separately by Amalan Mahendran, Sales Representative, The Agency, Brokerage, and are described on bettercallamal.com, not here.

The team

Amalan Mahendran and Amy Tong are the advisors. Amalan writes the site's content and leads client work in Durham Region; Amy is President of AT Financial Group, reviews every advice page before it is published, and leads the disability and critical illness planning work.

Amalan Mahendran

Meet Amalan

Amy Tong

Meet Amy

How we work

Read. Before any recommendation we read what you already have: every policy, the group plan booklet, the last two years of corporate statements, the shareholder register and any illustration you have been given. Most first meetings end with a one-page summary of what you own and what it does.

Assess. We put a number on the gap. For insurance, that is the income and capital your family or corporation would be short. For the corporation, it is the tax you are paying now against the alternatives, with the trade-offs stated.

Plan. A written plan, in plain language, that says what to do, what it costs, what the downside is and who does each part (you, us, your CPA, your lawyer). Nothing is implemented until you have read it.

Annual review. Every January we refresh the figures on the site for the new tax year; every client's plan is reviewed on its anniversary, or sooner when something changes: a corporation, a practice purchase, a child, a new appointment.

AT Financial Group

AT Financial Group is a financial planning and insurance brokerage based in Richmond Hill, Ontario, founded by Amy Tong. The firm has served dentists and other healthcare professionals and is the licensed entity behind every insurance recommendation on this site. Beyond The Practice is its physician and dentist practice, not a separate company.

Where we work

Durham Region first: Pickering, where the practice is based, then Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa and Clarington, with most meetings at the client's clinic or hospital office. Then Toronto and the rest of the GTA, including Scarborough, Markham and Richmond Hill, mostly by video or at the client's practice.

Meeting options: at your clinic or practice, before or after clinic hours; by video; or in Pickering. Every meeting is booked; there is no walk-in office.