Financial Planning for Glaziers

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 contract. The ATO treats a contractor as an employee for super if more than half the contract’s value is for their labour, they’re paid for their labour and skills rather than a set result, and they can’t delegate the work. Having an ABN doesn’t settle it, and under a contract with your own company, trust or partnership, the business hiring you doesn’t have to pay.

On supply and fix, glass and other materials in the price aren’t labour, and the ATO says the value of each should be detailed separately. An accountant or the ATO can confirm where you stand, and we can plan your super with you from there.

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 and the work you do decide which award covers glazing work, rather than your job title. More than one award names glaziers: one takes in glass and glazing contracting and another building and construction work, so two glaziers can be on different pay. An enterprise agreement may apply instead.

Where the national award system applies, 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.

Start with the income you can rely on, then add what going out on your own changes:

• Van and rack repayments, with a broker comparing lenders and arranging any finance
• Glass you may pay for before an invoice is paid
• No paid sick leave, so savings and cover are worth weighing
• Any licence your state or territory requires, with the regulator owning the rules
• Life and TPD amounts set against the debt
• Workers compensation, where each scheme sets who qualifies

We can work through the budget and cover with you before you sign, and the insurer decides on any application.

Any licence your state or territory requires is a question for its regulator, which owns the rules. A licence can carry financial requirements, and an accountant can prepare any report the regulator asks for.

We can plan the money side with you: application fees, any training, the time involved and how a financial requirement sits beside your budget.

That depends on how you’re paid and the cover you hold. It can include:

• Sick leave, if you’re employed and have it
• Workers compensation through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme, where 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 could fit together, and the scheme or insurer decides any claim.

That cover is about the business and what it might owe others, and a general insurance broker can explain it, along with tools, a van and glass in transit.

We look at you and your household instead: money coming in if illness or injury stops you working, lump sums for debts, and how super fits. We can compare income protection, life and TPD with you from the insurers willing to consider your work, and each insurer makes its own decision on an application.

Start with the pay. A move can change your wage or income, any allowances and the hours you work, so it helps to plan from what you’d earn in the new role. Points to look at:

• Any training or course, and what you’d live on while you do it
• Your budget and super once your pay changes
• Any cover you hold: how it records your work, and how a TPD or income protection definition may read your usual work after the move

We can go through this with you and cost the move before you commit.

Yes. Your plan can take in the year you’d like to finish, whether that’s on site or in a shop, and a stage of estimating or supervising first. On an ABN, what goes into your super may be yours to plan, unless a business has to pay it.

We’d start from super and savings, then count what a van or a glass business could fetch as an extra, since 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. Apprentice glaziers, first-time subbies and glass shop owners are all welcome to talk with us.

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.

For that first talk, recent payslips or returns, your super statement, the papers for any cover you have and van loan details are useful.