Financial Planning for Defence Force Members

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.

If you joined the ADF on or after 1 July 2016, your super goes to a fund you choose, and Defence currently pays a rate above the minimum employers must pay. When you enlist, Defence generally pays into your existing fund unless you choose another; a default fund applies only if you have no fund.

Reserve days work differently. Pay for Reserve days is tax free, and Defence doesn’t pay super on it. Reservists on continuous full-time service do receive super from Defence.

If you joined before 1 July 2016, you may be in an older Defence scheme with its own rules. We can look at your fund and contributions with you, including any extra contributions through salary packaging.

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.

It can. Many life insurance policies carry war and war-like exclusions, and the activities a policy treats as war-like can include military exercises or training in Australia. Wording differs between policies, so it’s worth reading the exclusions in any policy before you rely on it.

Some cover may also need to be in place before you receive a notice of deployment. Where an insurer charges a higher premium because of your duties, rather than where you’re serving, Defence may reimburse some or all of the extra, up to a yearly limit, if you’re eligible.

We can read the terms of any policy you hold or are considering with you, and compare suitable options. The insurer decides what it offers, and assesses any claim against the policy’s terms.

It depends on your plans and the property. Points to weigh:

• For capital gains tax, a former home you rent out can generally be treated as your main residence for up to 6 years, as long as you don’t treat another home as your main residence in that time, confirmed with your accountant.
• From 1 July 2027, negative gearing on residential property is limited to new builds, though property held on 12 May 2026 is exempt.
• Selling costs Defence may reimburse generally need a sale contract signed within 2 years of your next posting order, among other conditions.
• Rent and running costs, set against your housing costs at the new posting.

We can weigh up each option with you, with your accountant on the tax.

It can. Rent allowance, a subsidy towards a home loan, meals on base and some leave travel can be fringe benefits. If their total taxable value in a fringe benefits tax year is above a set amount, Defence reports it to the ATO, and the reported amount is grossed up.

That reported amount is used in income tests for the Medicare levy surcharge, child support, Family Tax Benefit, Child Care Subsidy and HELP repayments, so it can affect what you receive or pay, even though it isn’t extra cash in your pay.

Your income statement shows any reported amount. Your accountant can confirm the tax side, and Services Australia handles the payments. We can plan your budget and goals around it with you.

Defence’s pay and conditions guides are a sensible place to start. They set out the rules for pay, allowances, housing support, super and leave in plain terms.

Each guide explains one set of rules. Advice can bring them together: how housing support may affect family payments, whether to keep a home when you’re posted, how much cover you’d want beside any cover Defence provides, and what a bonus could mean for your super and tax.

Reading the guides first is worthwhile. We can then work through them with you, alongside your own payslips and goals, and turn them into one plan.

Start with what needs to keep running while you’re away. Points worth working through before you go:

• Any personal cover, read for war and war-like exclusions, since some cover may need to be in place before a notice of deployment.
• Bills and account access set up, so household payments can continue while you’re away.
• Deployment pay, which can include allowances outside your regular pay. Some overseas deployment pay may be exempt from tax, and a plan for what it does can be agreed before it arrives.

We can plan the financial side with you before you leave, and review it with you when you’re home.

Start with your plans for the years it covers. A retention bonus is generally paid upfront and a completion bonus after an agreed period of service, and you may have to repay some or all of a bonus if you don’t complete that period.

Bonuses are part of your taxable income, and some offers let you salary sacrifice part of the amount into super, which counts towards the contribution caps. A bonus can also affect HELP repayments and government payments.

Whether to accept is your decision, and the terms of each offer are Defence’s. We can look at what the period of service means for your other plans, and how the money could be used, with your accountant on the tax.

Yes, whether you’ve just finished recruit training or have served for many years.

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.

Bring what you have to hand: a recent payslip, your super statement, your income statement if you receive housing support, any policy you hold and any posting order you’re planning around. If a deployment, a bonus offer or a block of full-time service is coming up, tell us, and we’ll start there.