Financial Planning for Allied Health Professionals

We’re invested in your long-term success. What we do is personal, and we take it personally.

Your financial decisions connect, so we consider the parts of your financial life that are relevant to the advice you need:

• Property & Investing
• Career & Income
• Tax Strategy
• Insurance & Protecting Your Family
• Super & SMSF
• Wealth & Investments
• Life Events & Changes
• Business & Wealth
• Legacy & Future Wealth
• Retirement Planning

This is how we help you make decisions today with your longer-term goals in view.

Everybody’s situation is different, so we listen first, understand what matters to you and explain your options clearly before we make a recommendation.

You may. When more than half the value of a contract is for your own labour, the ATO says the payer generally has to pay super for you, whether or not you hold an ABN. Whether a clinic that pays you a share of billings is in that position depends on the contract and how the work is done.

If you contract through your own company, trust or partnership, the clinic generally doesn’t owe you super. An accountant, the ATO or a workplace lawyer can confirm where you stand.

We can then plan your contributions, cover and money held for tax around that answer.

List what each one pays for. A salaried role generally comes with employer super and paid leave, and you may hold default cover through your fund. A contract paid as a share of billings may need to fund your own leave, quiet weeks, professional indemnity, registration, professional development, equipment and any cover, and super too unless the clinic has to pay it.

Points to check in the offer:

• What the split is calculated on, and how cancellations are treated.
• Who pays for rooms, administration and consumables.
• Notice periods and any restraint on where you work next, read with a solicitor.

We can set both offers side by side with you, on what each leaves you to fund.

Your accountant and financial adviser bring different expertise to the same decisions. Your accountant can advise on tax reporting, structures and consequences; we help you plan how cashflow, debt, super, investments and protection work towards your goals. We can coordinate before important decisions.

What an accountant does

• Prepares and lodges tax returns, BAS and financial statements
• Advises on tax structures such as companies, trusts and partnerships
• Manages bookkeeping, payroll and ATO compliance
• Provides tax advice on the consequences of a transaction

What a financial adviser does

• Sets a long term strategy across retirement, investing and cash flow
• Builds wealth from early in a working life, starting with cash flow, a first home and super
• Recommends specific super funds, investments and personal insurance
• Operates under an Australian Financial Services Licence, which is required to give personal advice on financial products
• Handles retirement planning, Centrelink and aged care strategy, and estate planning considerations

Professional roles and authorisations matter. We provide financial advice within our authorisations and work with your accountant for specialist tax advice and lodgements.

Where they work together

• Tax position. Your accountant confirms your marginal rate, deductions and carried forward losses, which shapes decisions on super contributions, investment structures and the timing of asset sales.
• Business and entity structures. Your accountant advises on the structure itself and your financial adviser works within it for investments, insurance and succession planning.
• Cash flow. Your accountant’s figures can help us understand what’s available for debt repayment, protection and longer-term goals.
• Before key decisions. We can coordinate with your accountant on contributions, asset sales and other material choices in time to consider relevant tax consequences.

When you work for yourself, super is your own decision, because no employer is contributing for you. Moneysmart suggests first checking that your fund accepts contributions from self-employed members. You can then contribute in the way that suits your cashflow, such as a set amount from each payment or a larger sum later in the financial year.

To claim a tax deduction, you give your fund a notice of intent in the approved form and receive its acknowledgment, generally before you lodge your return. Deductible contributions count towards your concessional (before-tax) cap, which is indexed. An accountant can confirm whether a deduction suits you.

We can set an amount with you that fits your plans.

It depends on your fund. Moneysmart suggests checking whether a move from employee to self-employed affects the insurance cover through your super, as terms and conditions vary from fund to fund.

Workers compensation from a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme may not cover your own injury once you’re self-employed. Checking before your last day as an employee gives you time to compare options.

We can review what you hold with you, and the insurer decides the terms of any new cover.

Practice software reports can give you a clear record of billings, cancellations, takings and busier and quieter periods, and they’re worth keeping up to date.

Advice uses those figures as a starting point. It connects them with what the practice or contract has to fund, what you pay yourself, super, cover, money held for tax and the goals you’re saving for, at home as well as at work.

Bringing a few months of reports to a meeting is a useful start. We can then build them into one plan with you.

Alongside the business plan, it helps to plan the household side. Points to work through:

• What the household needs while the practice builds its patient list, and how long savings can cover it.
• Lease, fit-out and equipment costs, with any finance arranged through a broker and the lease read by a solicitor.
• Structure, tax and any state or territory payroll tax on contracted practitioners, with an accountant.
• Income protection, life cover and super, now that they’re yours to arrange.
• What you’ll pay yourself, and from when.

We can build the household plan with you alongside that advice.

Start with how the work is funded. The NDIA sets price limits for therapy supports and reviews them each year, and travel and short-notice cancellations are claimed under their own rules. Payment can come from the NDIA, a plan manager or a participant, so timing varies, and a participant’s plan review can change how many sessions are funded.

The NDIS pricing arrangements and any plan manager can confirm the rules for each invoice. We can build a budget with you that holds part of each payment back for tax, super and leave, and allows for a change in price limits or bookings.

Yes, whether you’re in your first graduate role or weighing up a practice of your own.

There’s no cost for the initial conversation. Any advice after that is a paid service, with its scope and fee agreed with you in writing first.

It helps to bring a recent payslip or a few months of contract statements, your latest super statement, details of any cover you hold and any contract offer you’re considering. We’ll start with how you work now and the decision in front of you.