Financial Planning for Business Owners

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.

That depends on how the business is set up. If you’re self-employed as a sole trader or in a partnership, you don’t have to pay compulsory super for yourself, so any contributions are yours to plan. If your company pays you a wage as a director, it may have to pay super on it, as it would for other eligible employees.

An accountant or the ATO can confirm where you stand. From there, we can plan with you how much to contribute, when in the year, and whether to claim a deduction, which needs a notice of intent to your fund first.

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.

Each one moves money to you differently, and which ones you can use depends on your structure.

• A wage from your company is paid through payroll, taxed to you and may carry super.
• Drawings come from a sole trader or partnership business, and you’re taxed on the profit, not the drawings.
• Dividends are paid from a company’s profit after company tax, often with franking credits.
• Trust distributions follow the trust deed and the trustee’s decisions each year.

If your company pays or lends you money in another way, the ATO says it can be treated as a dividend under Division 7A, and an accountant can work through that with you. We can model the options with you, and an accountant advises on the tax.

Income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period if illness or injury stops you working, subject to the policy’s definitions and the insurer’s assessment. Without a payslip, an insurer generally looks at tax returns and financial records, so a year with lower profit may affect the amount.

Time off can also reach the business itself:

• Fixed costs such as rent and interest on business loans, which a business expenses policy may help with
• The work you do, and who could do it for a while
• What the household would live on

We can work through all three with you, and the insurer decides on any application.

Getting a price quickly is what an online quote does well, based on the questions it asks, and it’s a useful place to start.

Advice adds context for an owner. That includes how a policy defines your income when it comes from a business, whether business expenses or key person cover is worth considering, the waiting period your savings could support, and how it fits with any cover through super.

We can help you understand what you may need, then compare suitable options with you from a wide range of insurers. The insurer decides on any application.

The ATO lists four: the 15-year exemption, the 50% active asset reduction, the retirement exemption and the roll-over. They can reduce, disregard or defer some or all of a capital gain on an active asset used in a small business, and every one has basic conditions to meet first. All except the active asset reduction have extra requirements.

For gains accruing after 1 July 2027, indexation and a 30% minimum tax generally replace the 50% CGT discount, and the four small business concessions continue.

An accountant can confirm whether you’re eligible. We can plan with you what the proceeds could do for your super, debts and retirement.

Yes. We can start with when you’d like to step back and the life you’d like after the business, then build a plan on super and savings rather than on any future sale price. If you’re self-employed, contributions are yours to plan, so stronger years can be a chance to add more within the caps.

A sale, a family handover or a wind-up can each be planned in, with an accountant on tax and a solicitor on the agreements. 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. Whether it’s your first year of trading, a practice with a team or a business you’re getting ready to sell, you’re welcome to start with us. If you run a trade business, our page for tradies covers trade work too.

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.

Useful to have on hand: recent tax returns or financial statements, a super statement and the terms of any insurance policy or business loan.