Financial Planning for IT and Tech 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.

An RSU (restricted stock unit) is usually a right to acquire shares, which the ATO counts as an employee share scheme (ESS) interest. The discount, the market value less any amount you paid, is assessable income.

Under a taxed-upfront scheme, it’s taxed in the year you acquire the interest. Under a deferral scheme, it’s taxed at a later deferred taxing point; the scheme’s rules or a letter from your employer should say which applies. If you sell within 30 days of a deferred taxing point, the ATO says the taxing point becomes the sale date. A later sale is generally dealt with under the capital gains tax rules.

An accountant confirms the tax on your own shares. We can plan the cash and the timing with you.

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.

There’s no single answer, and it depends on your own position. Points worth weighing:

• How much of your wealth, income and job security already depends on one company.
• What the money is for, such as a deposit, a buffer or longer-term investing.
• The tax, which an accountant can estimate, including the ATO’s 30-day rule if you sell soon after a deferred taxing point.
• Any restriction on selling set out in your plan’s rules.
• For gains accruing after 1 July 2027, indexation and a 30% minimum tax generally replace the 50% CGT discount.

This is general information, not a recommendation to sell or hold. We can look at the decision with you against your goals and the rest of your plan.

Your plan’s terms decide whether unvested shares are kept, forfeited or treated another way when you leave, so the plan documents are the place to start. For tax, the ATO says ceasing employment isn’t a deferred taxing point for ESS interests under deferral schemes, whenever you acquired them.

A redundancy can change several things at once: your income, any cover your employer provided and contributions to your super. Income protection is designed for illness or injury, so it doesn’t pay because a role has ended.

We can plan the months ahead with you, from the budget to cover and super. If bills or debts become hard to manage, the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007 is free and confidential.

A share plan’s online account is a useful tool. It can show your grants, vesting dates and what you hold, and may let you sell when your plan allows.

Advice looks at the decisions around it: what to do with shares once they vest, how much of your wealth depends on one company, and how a sale fits with a deposit, super or the household budget. An online account can show what you hold, but it may not take in your whole position or your goals.

We can work with what the account shows and help you plan what comes next.

The ATO says a business contracting with a company, trust or partnership doesn’t have to pay super for the person the company employs to do the work. So your super isn’t coming from the client, and how it’s paid through your own company is something to confirm with an accountant.

It can help to plan:

• How much to contribute, and when, around your contract income.
• Whether the personal services income rules apply, which an accountant works out.

We can plan your contributions with you across contracts and the gaps between them.

They can be. The ATO has a start-up concession for eligible employee share schemes. Where it applies, the discount on eligible interests isn’t taxed under the ESS rules, and any gain or loss when you sell is dealt with under the capital gains tax rules. The company, the scheme and the interests themselves all have to meet conditions, and an accountant can confirm whether a scheme you’re offered qualifies.

The value of start-up options can stay uncertain until there’s a way to sell, such as a sale of the company or a listing, which may never come. We can weigh an offer with you by modelling the lower salary on its own, with no value assumed for the options.

Yes. Wherever you are in a tech career, from a first role to a first vest, a start-up offer or a move to contracting, the conversation starts with your own position.

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 things to have with you: any grant or vesting notices and the plan rules, an ESS statement if you have one, a recent payslip or contract, a super statement and details of any cover you hold. We can meet in person or online.