Financial Planning for Arborists and Tree Surgeons

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.

They may. The ATO treats a contractor as an employee for super if more than half the contract’s value is for their labour, they’re not paid to achieve a set result and they can’t delegate the work. Having an ABN doesn’t settle it, but a contract with your own company, trust or partnership means the hirer doesn’t have to pay.

Saws, a chipper or other gear in your price can change the sum, as payments for equipment aren’t labour. An accountant or the ATO can confirm where you stand. Either way, we can plan your super with you around what’s being paid and what’s yours to add.

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.

Your employer’s industry, where the work is done and your duties and qualifications decide it, rather than your job title. Fair Work sets out several routes:

• A business in the gardening and landscaping industry
• A local government employer, where the national award system applies
• A business in the electrical services industry, for tree clearing for power lines
• A default award, where no industry award covers the business

Two people on one tree job can be on different awards, for example if they work for different employers, and Fair Work is the place to check yours. We can plan with you from the pay you get, so your budget and super start from your own figures.

It helps to decide before the invoices go out. A plan for storm money can include:

• A share set aside for tax, with an accountant estimating the amount
• A buffer for the time between jobs
• Repayments or repairs on your truck, chipper and other gear
• A goal of your own, such as a home deposit, your super or time off

How much goes where is your decision. We can work through it with you, so the money has a purpose before it lands.

Start with the repayments, set against the income you can rely on rather than your strongest month. Then add what it costs to run: fuel, servicing, registration and any business insurance from a general insurance broker. A broker can compare lenders and arrange any finance.

A loan also changes what anyone relying on you would be left with if you passed away or couldn’t work again, so life and TPD amounts are worth weighing against the debt. We can work through the budget and cover with you before you sign, and the insurer decides on any application.

It can come from more than one place, depending on how you’re paid and what you hold:

• Sick leave, if you’re employed and have it
• Workers compensation, through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme, and each scheme sets who qualifies
• Income protection, if you hold it, which can pay part of your income after a waiting period, subject to the policy’s terms and exclusions and the insurer’s assessment
• Savings, for the time in between

We can plan with you how these fit together, and the scheme or insurer decides any claim.

Public liability, tools, machines and vehicle cover are a general insurance broker’s work, including explaining what each policy covers.

A financial adviser looks at the personal side: income protection, life and TPD cover for you and the people who rely on you, along with super, savings and how the business pays you. We can go through options from the insurers willing to consider your work, beside any business cover you hold, and the insurer decides on any application.

Some councils ask for a diploma in arboriculture, or an equivalent, before they’ll accept a tree report, so it’s worth checking what the councils you’d work with require. Points to plan:

• The cost of study, and what you’d live on while your climbing hours change
• Invoicing, records and tax on report work, with an accountant
• Any cover you hold: how it describes your work, and how a TPD or income protection definition may read the new duties
• Professional indemnity, which is a question for a general insurance broker

We can cost the move with you while your income from climbing is still coming in.

Yes. We can look with you at how long you’d like to keep climbing, and any move into consulting or supervising along the way. If you’re on an ABN, what goes into your super may be yours to plan, unless a business has to pay it.

We’d build the plan on super and savings, with gear or a tree business sale as an addition, as a sale isn’t certain. You can read more about our retirement advice.

We’re a national service, so you can meet with us by phone or video from anywhere in Australia. We also have offices in three cities:

• Sydney: offices in Sydney CBD, Parramatta, Seven Hills, Ingleburn and Narellan, servicing areas including the City of Sydney, Eastern Suburbs, Inner West, North Shore, Northern Beaches, Sutherland Shire, Blacktown, Liverpool, Campbelltown and all surrounding suburbs.
• Melbourne: our St Kilda Road office, servicing areas including the City of Melbourne, Port Phillip, Boroondara, Monash, Casey, Wyndham and all surrounding suburbs.
• Brisbane: our Eagle Street office, servicing areas including Brisbane City, Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Logan, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and all surrounding suburbs.

Yes. A trainee on the chipper, a contract climber or the owner of a tree business can all start with us, from wherever things are now.

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 your latest payslips or tax returns, a statement from your super fund, any insurance policies you have and details of any gear loans. We can meet in person or online.