Financial Planning for Construction Labourers

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.

It depends on how each employer paid your super. When you start a new job, your employer generally pays into your existing super fund unless you choose another; a default fund applies only if you have no fund. Accounts opened in earlier jobs can still be sitting in your name.

ATO online services in myGov lists your super accounts, finds lost ones and flags any account that has insurance included. No single fund suits every construction worker, so the account to keep is worth choosing on fees, investment options and cover, not just on the largest balance.

We can go through the list with you and compare the accounts before anything is combined.

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.

If you’re a labour hire employee, the labour hire business is your employer. Fair Work says labour hire employers are responsible for providing their employees with their pay and entitlements, and that includes your super, not the builder you’re placed with.

From 1 July 2026, super is generally on time if your fund receives it within 7 business days after payday, or 20 business days for a new employee’s first payment. You can see your employers’ contributions in ATO online services through myGov and compare them with your payslips. If a payment is missing, you can raise it with your employer and then report it to the ATO.

We can set up a simple routine with you for checking super at each new placement.

It depends on the policy and the insurer’s assessment, not on being casual alone. Moneysmart notes that some policies only cover you if you work a minimum number of hours each week, and that income protection usually bases the benefit on your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury, so hours that vary can matter.

An application can be offered on standard terms, with a premium loading, with an exclusion for a named condition, deferred for a period, or declined. The insurer decides.

We can compare suitable policies with you on how they treat your hours and duties, and look at any cover you already hold through super.

Combining through ATO online services is quick, and it’s worth knowing how to use it. Advice looks at the decisions around the move: which account to keep, what cover each account holds, whether another fund would give you the same cover, and where your contributions go afterwards.

Moneysmart suggests you don’t just transfer everything into the account with the highest balance. Default cover inside super can usually be issued without medical checks, though it may carry pre-existing condition rules set out in the fund’s PDS, and increasing it is usually underwritten like any other application.

We can work through those questions with you before anything is rolled over.

If the award covers you, an adult apprentice is someone 21 or over when they sign the training contract. Your ordinary hourly rate won’t drop if you worked for the same employer immediately before: in general building and civil work, that means at least 6 months as a full-time weekly or daily hire employee, or 12 months as a part-time or regular casual employee.

Otherwise, you’re paid the lowest classification rate or the rate for your year of apprenticeship, whichever is greater. An enterprise agreement may set different terms, and Fair Work can confirm what applies to you.

We can budget the move with you before you sign up.

They’re separate questions. Where the award covers you, a casual is paid a loading instead of entitlements such as annual leave, notice and redundancy benefits, while the industry redundancy scheme applies to weekly and daily hire employees.

Long service leave works differently. Fair Work says workers in the construction industry can qualify for long service leave based on service in the industry, rather than with just one employer. Each state and territory runs its own scheme, and its rules set who is covered, including whether casual work counts, so the body where you work can confirm your position.

We can plan any balance you build up into your longer-term goals.

Yes, wherever you are in construction work, from a first white card to years on site.

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 recent payslips from each employer or labour hire business, the list of super accounts from myGov or your fund statements, and details of any cover you hold.