For physicians
Investing for Canadian physicians
One of the people managing this fund still works in the ICU.
Dr. Lorne Porayko is a critical care physician and anaesthesiologist in Victoria, British Columbia, and a registered portfolio manager of the McElvaine Value Fund. He has practised here for 27 years and has been investing alongside doctors for much of that time. He has not left medicine for money management; he does both, and each sharpens the other.
Who manages the money
A portfolio manager who is also a practising doctor
Lorne still practises critical care medicine. He ran a fund on behalf of local physicians for almost ten years before launching The Osler Fund in 2019. That fund merged into the McElvaine Value Fund on 31 August 2026, and Lorne now manages those assets here as a registered portfolio manager, alongside Tim McElvaine, who founded the Fund in 1996 and has run it ever since.
He named his fund after Sir William Osler, the Canadian physician who insisted doctors examine the patient in front of them rather than recite from textbooks. Observe first. Diagnose second. Say plainly what you do not yet know.
That is the same discipline we apply to a business: gather the evidence, name the problem precisely, and resist the story everyone has already agreed on. It is also why our letters say openly which years we got wrong, and how.
The practical part
How an incorporated physician holds this fund
The Fund is offered by prospectus, which means it can sit almost anywhere you already keep money, bought through a financial advisor or a discount brokerage. There is no separate account to open with us.
A professional corporation holds the Fund through its investment account, the same way it would hold any other prospectus mutual fund.
Eligible for RRSP, RRIF, TFSA, FHSA, RESP and IPP accounts, as well as ordinary non-registered accounts.
FundSERV code MIT808. Your advisor or broker places the order.
$1,000 initial investment. Series F is available through fee-based advisors.
Individual pension plans
Some incorporated physicians use an individual pension plan to move more retirement savings out of the corporation. The Fund is an eligible investment for these plans.
Whether one makes sense for you is a question for your accountant or a pension specialist. If you would like the names of firms that set them up, ask us. We receive nothing for the introduction.
Where we fit
Independent, and not a bank
Most Canadian physicians already have a relationship with a full-service wealth manager. The largest is MD Financial Management, which the Canadian Medical Association sold to Scotiabank in October 2018 and which now operates within Scotia Wealth Management. Firms like it handle the whole picture: planning, insurance, banking, estate work and a range of investment products.
We are a different kind of thing, and the difference is the point.
McElvaine Investment Management is independently owned. There is no bank above us, no product shelf to fill and no sales target attached to anyone’s year.
We manage a single prospectus fund. We cannot move you into something else that suits us better, because there is nothing else.
Most of what we earn comes from a performance fee above a 7.5% hurdle. If the Fund does not clear it, we do not collect it.
Tim and Kate, and Lorne and Jen, are together the Fund’s largest investors.
A regulated mutual fund, offered by prospectus, audited annually by KPMG, with custody at National Bank and an Independent Review Committee. The oversight is the same as anywhere. The ownership is not.
The honest limit: we are not a replacement for your planner or your accountant, and a single concentrated fund is not a portfolio. We are one line on the statement, meant to sit alongside the rest.
Be clear about this
What we do not do
Nothing on this page is advice that this fund suits your situation, and we are not in a position to judge that.
Whether to incorporate, how passive income affects your small business deduction, when to take salary rather than dividends, how to structure a holding company, what to do about an individual pension plan: those belong with your accountant and your tax advisor. They know your circumstances. We do not.
What we do is manage a concentrated portfolio of undervalued businesses and write to our investors twice a year about exactly what we own and why.
Honestly
Who we would steer away
A long career with a late start and a high savings rate suits patient capital. That is the honest case for a physician looking at us at all.
But this fund is unlikely to suit you if you need daily liquidity, if you expect returns to track an index, if a concentrated portfolio sitting partly in cash will bother you between shifts, or if you may need the money within a few years.
Our letters are candid about the stretches where this approach has lagged. We would rather you read those before investing than after.
Common questions
Questions physicians ask
Can my medical professional corporation hold this fund?
Yes. Because the Fund is offered by prospectus, a professional corporation can hold it through its investment account like any other prospectus mutual fund.
Do I have to leave my current advisor?
No. Nothing needs to change. The Fund is bought through whoever already handles your accounts, using FundSERV code MIT808. If your advisor cannot place the order, we can tell you which dealers carry it.
Is this a replacement for MD Financial Management or a similar firm?
No. Those firms provide planning, insurance, banking and a full investment programme. We manage one fund. A physician would hold it as one position within a portfolio somebody else is coordinating.
Does the fund give tax advice to physicians?
No. We do not provide tax, accounting or financial planning advice of any kind. Questions about incorporation, passive income rules or holding company structure go to your own advisors.
What does it cost?
A management fee plus a performance fee that only applies above a 7.5% annual hurdle, subject to a high-water mark. The fees page sets out the whole structure, with a calculator.
Do the managers invest their own money?
Yes. Tim and Kate, and Lorne and Jen, are together the Fund’s largest investors. If the Fund does poorly, nobody loses more than we do.
Ask Lorne directly
Questions go to the people who manage the money. No call centre and no script.
Get in touch