Charting Your Path: Understanding Your Career Transition into Retirement

Transitions in Medicine, Session 1

Get a practical snapshot of what your transition could look like.

We’ll walk through the key pathways - phased retirement, emeritus status, two-year post-retirement contracts, and advisory roles, so you know exactly what’s available and how each option works. This session is designed to answer your burning questions, clarify timelines and eligibility, and give you the context you need to start planning your next steps with confidence.

Session Highlights

Session contributors:

• Dr. Karen Kroeker, Director, Wellness, DoM – Facilitator
• Dr. Winnie Wong, DoM Professor Emerita
• Dr. Shane Kimber – Participant (sharing personal retirement experience)
• Francois Bouman, DoM Academic Department Manager - Resource contributor
• Ashley Bosch, DoM Academic Staff Compliance Specialist - Resource contributor
• Kaitlyn Haug, DoM Clinical Academic Staff Compliance Specialist – Resource contributor

Key Topics

• Overview of relevant policies and emeritus eligibility requirements.
• Guidance on key retirement considerations
• Options for concluding clinical practice while maintaining academic responsibilities

Resources

• Transition Retirement Checklist (3–5 years, 1–2 years, 6 months–1 year)

Websites

Alberta Medical Association

• Retiring from practice
• The Physician’s Guide to Closing a Practice in Alberta
• Your guide to retirement planning

UAPP Universities Academic Pension Plan

• Online Information Seminar (YouTube)

U of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine

• Late Career Transitions & Retirement Planning Reading List. Collection of policies, checklists, peer stories; can serve as adaptable models.

Videos and Webinars

• The 4 phases of retirement | Dr. Riley Moynes | TEDxSurrey. By interviewing hundreds of retirees, Dr. Moynes has discovered a framework that can help make more sense of this challenging chapter of our lives…one that, for many, could last for 30 years or more.

Books

• The Four Phases of Retirement: What to Expect When You're Retiring
  Based on the research and his own personal journey, the author explores and explains the Four Phases of Retirement almost everyone experiences. If you're not yet retired, this handy guide will show you what to expect.
• The Doctors’ Guide to Smart Career Alternatives and Retirement (Cory S. Fawcett)
  Advice on repurposing a clinical/medical career and exploring alternatives to full retirement.
• The Three Stages of a Physician’s Career: Navigating from Training to Beyond Retirement (Baum, Blau, Moskowitz). Covers all phases of a physician’s career; includes late-career and retirement considerations.
• Next Years, Best Years: Taking Your Retirement to the Next Level (Harry Agress Jr., MD, AMA). Focuses on emotional and lifestyle preparation for transition.
• Rescuing Retirement / How to Retire with Enough Money (Teresa Ghilarducci). Covers financial planning and understanding what "enough" means.

Journal Articles / Reports

• Life Beyond Medicine: The Joys and Challenges of Physician Retirement (book review by Donald Kollisch, 2020)
• Conversations in cardiology--When to tell an interventionalist to retire. Morton J. Kern MD, 2019
• Financial planning and satisfaction across life domains among retired emergency physicians in the United States.
• Is It Time to Retire? W. Levinson and S. Ginsburg
• The Occupational Medicine Physician: Planning for and Transitioning into Retirement. WN Burton, GM Stave, CM Baase, RJL Heron, R Thirumalai. J
• Planning for retirement from medicine: a mixed-methods study. M. P. Silver and L. K. Easty. CMAJ open.
• Retirement: An idiosyncratic vade mecum. R. I. Rudolph. Clinics in dermatology.
• To Retire or Not? That Is the Question. M. L. DeBard. Annals of emergency medicine.

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