Financial Planning for Council Outdoor Workers

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 the rules where you work and on the break between the two jobs. In some states, service with one council can count towards long service leave at the next, provided the gap between jobs stays within the period the rules allow. A move outside local government may be treated differently.

Before you sign, ask the new council’s HR team to confirm in writing how your service and leave will be treated, and check any enterprise agreement that applies to the role.

We can plan your leave, super and cover around the answer with you, so the move fits the rest of your plan.

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 in the Fair Work system and, within 3 months, take much the same role with the contractor taking over your work, your council service counts towards most entitlements, though the contractor might not have to recognise it for redundancy, annual leave or long service leave. Councils in some states sit outside that system.

Super already in your account stays yours. If you hold a defined benefit, Moneysmart notes you can usually stay in the fund while you’re eligible, some funds offer benefits you may lose if you leave, and you generally can’t rejoin. Changing employer can affect that eligibility.

This is general information, not a view on accepting a transfer. We can set out with you what each choice could mean for your leave, super and budget.

It depends on how the leave is paid. When you take long service leave and your employer pays it, the ATO counts it in the earnings your employer pays super on. Unused long service leave paid out when you leave a job, whether you resign, retire or are made redundant, isn’t counted, so no employer super is paid on it.

That makes the timing of any large balance part of your retirement plan, not only your holiday plans. Taking some leave before you finish can change what reaches your super.

We can weigh the options with you, with an accountant confirming the tax on any payout.

A redundancy calculator can give a quick estimate from the service and pay you enter, which is a useful place to start. Under the National Employment Standards, where they apply to you, the minimum is worked out on your base rate for ordinary hours, without loadings, allowances, overtime or penalty rates, and an award or agreement may set more.

Advice looks at what the payment has to do: the household budget until the next income, any leave paid out, cover that may end with the job, and your super and retirement plans. An accountant confirms the tax.

The National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007 offers free, confidential help if bills or debts start to build. We can plan the months ahead with you.

Generally, yes. The ATO counts allowances paid for adverse conditions, such as working at heights, in confined spaces or in the cold, wet or heat, in the earnings your employer pays super on. If an award covers you, it may pay an allowance for outdoor and other adverse conditions, and an enterprise agreement may set its own.

Overtime is different: where your ordinary hours are clearly identified, it generally doesn’t count, so a storm clean-up or weekend call-out paid as overtime doesn’t add to your compulsory super, though an award or agreement can add its own super obligations.

Your payslips and fund statements show what’s been paid. We can check them with you and plan any contributions of your own.

Outdoor work doesn’t rule it out on its own. When you apply, the insurer asks about your occupation, your duties and your health. For council crews, duties can include heavy lifting, mobile plant, work near traffic or at heights, and long days in the sun. Since 5 October 2021, the duty when applying for consumer life cover is to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation, which means answering the questions asked with reasonable care.

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 options with you before you apply.

Yes, at every stage, from a first season on a council crew to your final years before you finish.

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 payslips that show any allowances, a leave statement with any long service leave balance, your super statements, including any defined benefit statement, details of any cover you hold, and any restructure or job offer letter.