Financial Planning for Medical and Health Professionals
We Help Medical and Health Professionals Build Prosperity and Freedom
A health career can bring income from more than one source, along with decisions about cover, super and tax at each stage. We help you bring them into one plan that can adapt as your career changes.
Our Financial Advice Team Is Here to Help You
We Can Help You
- Plan around tax on your salary, billings and any locum work, with your accountant
- Understand the salary packaging options in a public health role
- Set income protection cover that suits where your career is
- Understand whether Division 293 may apply to your super
- See where your professional indemnity cover ends and personal cover begins
- Balance practice and equipment finance alongside the mortgage
- Review any super accounts your rotations left behind
- Plan the move from employee to practice owner
Who We Help
- Registrars and trainees early in a career that will keep changing
- General practitioners in practice, whether salaried or billing their own
- Specialists in private practice with income that moves month to month
- Dentists building a practice and a life at the same time
- Nurses and midwives in public roles with packaging options to understand
- Allied health professionals working solo or in a small partnership
- Pharmacists employed now and thinking about ownership later
- Locums and contractors arranging super, cover and tax for themselves
What we advise on
How Our Advice Works for Health Professionals
Tax & Wealth Strategies
We’ll help you understand how tax applies as your clinical income changes, alongside your accountant.
Clinical incomes can reach higher marginal rates, and Division 293 may reduce the concession on super contributions above a set income threshold. Your accountant advises on tax and structure, and your solicitor on legal documents. We coordinate with both so your plan and tax position are considered together.
Together, we’ll work through:
- How tax applies as a clinical income moves through the marginal rates
- Division 293 once private billings lift your income, and how it may affect contributions
- Practice structure options, such as a company, trust or personal ownership, with your accountant
- Work costs such as registration, indemnity, colleges and training, and which may be deductible
- Whether a service entity arrangement may suit your practice, with your accountant’s advice
- Income from public appointments, private billings and locum work, taxed together
- When a practice purchase, sale or service-entity change lands, and its tax timing confirmed with your accountant
- What your accountant handles, and where a tax question becomes a strategy question
Personal Insurance & Protection
We’ll help you consider cover for a career that depends on your skills, health and registration.
Professional indemnity insurance responds to claims about your work rather than replacing your income. Income protection set up on a trainee salary may not reflect later earnings, so we can review it as your income changes, subject to the policy’s terms and any increase options.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Whether own occupation cover is available, and how it defines your specialty compared with any occupation
- How a policy may respond if you can no longer operate but could still consult
- How income from public, private and locum sources is assessed at claim time
- Professional indemnity and personal cover, and the different risks each one is designed for
- The benefit period, and whether it runs to an age that fits your retirement plans
- Applying for cover during training, and how your health history and occupation may affect the terms
- The definitions used by any cover in your super fund, compared with cover held outside super
- What a needle-stick, a hand injury or a registration issue would mean financially
Financial Planning & Advice
We’ll build one plan for a career that arrives in distinct stages.
Training, fellowship, a first consultant year and possibly a practice can each change your income, tax and risk at the same time. We bring those decisions into one plan, so each step is considered alongside the others, and revisit it as your career moves on.
Together, we’ll work through:
- A plan built for a career arriving in distinct stages rather than one climb
- Training, fellowship, first consultant year and possibly a practice, each planned for
- How the years of training may affect savings, and what later earning years could change
- How much of the plan can run on public work alone, if private slows
- Where the practice sits in the plan, if you own or buy into one
- What a fellowship year or time working overseas does to the projection
- Planning conversations arranged around your roster and commitments where possible
- What to reassess at the end of each training year or contract
Property Investment Advice
We can help you weigh up ownership options for an investment property, alongside your accountant and solicitor.
Practitioners may weigh asset protection when deciding whose name a property is held in, but that choice can affect tax deductions, and moving a property later may trigger duty and capital gains tax. We consider the trade-offs with you alongside your accountant and solicitor, and take your indemnity cover into account.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Whose name the title may be held in, and how that could affect the value of deductions
- How professional indemnity cover and ownership structure each relate to the risks you carry
- Land tax, which is generally assessed on the combined land you hold in one state
- How combined land values may reach a land tax threshold sooner than single valuations suggest
- The possible duty and capital gains costs of moving a property into another name
- The rooms your practice works from, held outside super, and who else is on title
- What a partner leaving the practice does to a jointly held premises
- House and land packages sold by a firm that also arranges your finance and your return
Superannuation
We can help you review any super accounts left behind by a run of rotations.
Public health, private practice and locum work may each pay into a different fund. Consolidating can make sense, but closing a fund may end any insurance inside it, and replacement cover depends on your health and the insurer’s assessment. We check before anything moves.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Any accounts left behind by years of rotations, and which one may be worth keeping
- Whether a public sector scheme has terms that may not be available again once you leave
- Division 293, if your income reaches the threshold, and what it may change
- Lower-contribution registrar years, and whether that unused cap may be available once consultant income starts
- Any cover inside each fund, and how insurers may rate your specialty
- Contributions timed around a year with locum income or a practice distribution
- Which fund suits a career that moves between public and private work
- How the balances compare if a partner also works clinically
Cashflow & Financial Wellbeing
We’ll help you run a household on income from more than one source.
Where money arrives fortnightly from one role, monthly from another and irregularly from a third, the household budget may not match any single pay cycle. Any tax instalments or study debt repayments add their own timing, so we help you plan for each.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Income arriving fortnightly, monthly and irregularly, run as one household position
- What the household needs each month, set against the most reliable of those sources
- Money set aside for tax on private billings as each invoice is paid, with your accountant
- Managing the training years on a modest income, with a realistic budget and buffer
- What a locum block or an extra list may add to your income after tax
- How a fellowship year or a period of unpaid leave is funded in advance
- Keeping practice cash and household money separate, so each is easier to track
- A budget structure that can adapt when the roster changes at short notice
SMSF
We can help you weigh up whether holding your practice rooms in an SMSF suits you.
A self-managed fund can hold the premises a practice trades from, if strict conditions are met. An SMSF also brings costs, administration and trustee responsibilities, so we compare it with other super options before recommending anything.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Whether the rooms your practice operates from could be held inside your own fund
- Whether the rooms still qualify when part of the space is shared with other practitioners
- A market-rate lease from the fund to the practice, documented with your solicitor
- What the purchase does to liquidity if most of the value sits in one property
- How co-ownership with practice partners would work inside a self-managed fund
- Trustee duties measured against a working week already full of clinical hours
- What happens to the arrangement if you move practices or reduce your list
- Whether the fund still suits you if you later sell into a group
Retirement & Aged Care
We’ll show you how your career’s timing may shape your retirement plan.
Years of study can mean super contributions start later, and some practitioners choose to keep working part-time for longer. Both can change what your plan needs to provide and when, so we model the timing with you rather than assume either end.
Together, we’ll work through:
- How a later start to contributions and a possibly longer career affect the projection
- Any years of part-time practice you may choose after the usual retirement age
- Whether the practice is an asset to sell, or simply a job that ends
- How any defined benefit from public sector work fits alongside the rest of the plan
- What reducing to two days a week does to the date and the drawdown
- When registration and indemnity costs may no longer suit the work you’re still doing
- How aged care planning for parents overlaps your own timeline
- A projection that assumes the finish is gradual, not a single day
What We’ll Work Through Together
Tax on Your Next Dollar
Your marginal rate, and what it does to a contribution before you make it.
Cover as Your Income Changes
Review cover as your income changes, subject to policy terms and eligibility.
Indemnity vs Income Protection
Understand the different risks professional indemnity and income protection are designed for.
Public, Private and Locum Income
Plan a household budget around income that arrives on different cycles.
Salary Packaging in Public Roles
Understand the packaging options your public role may offer, and how they affect you.
Super Left Behind by Rotations
Find any old accounts and check what consolidating may cancel before anything moves.
Carry-Forward From Training Years
Check whether unused contribution cap from lower-income years may still be available.
Buying Into a Practice
Consider how buying in may affect your income, tax, risk and cover.
Proactive, Holistic, and Experienced Financial Planning
A career in health is built on looking after other people, often before yourself. The hours can be long, the training longer, and your own finances can easily become the thing that waits. We can help with that part: understanding what your income is doing, what cover may suit the work you do and how much you could be putting aside for the years ahead. We’ll work through it at a pace that fits around your working week.
Careers in health rarely run in a straight line. Registrar years, a move into private practice, a stretch of part-time work around family, sometimes a change of specialty altogether. We’ll help you build a plan that can adapt through those changes, and we can review it with you as each one arrives. The aim is for the work you do for everybody else to also support the goals you have for yourself and the people you care about.
Every financial decision impacts the next
Your Financial Life Is Connected
Great advice starts with understanding the bigger picture. Every stage of life presents new opportunities and challenges, from buying property and changing careers to growing your family, planning for retirement and protecting what matters most. At Ryker, we help connect every piece of your financial world into one clear strategy.
Your
Wealth
- Property & Investing
- Career & Income
- Tax Strategy
- Insurance & Protecting Your Family
- Super & SMSF
- Wealth & Investments
- Life Events & Changes
- Business & Wealth
- Legacy & Future Wealth
- Retirement Planning
Frequently Asked Questions
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.
Public health, private practice and locum work may each pay into a different fund, and an employer may open another account if you don’t nominate an existing one.
Consolidating can make sense, with the usual checks first: what cover is attached to the accounts you’d close, any exit costs and which fund you’d want to keep.
Some public sector schemes may have terms that aren’t available again once you leave, so we check that before anything is rolled over. We can then look at how contributions and investment options fit 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.
The policy definitions can matter as much as the price, particularly when your work relies on specific skills. Three areas to understand:
- Own occupation or any occupation. If you could no longer operate but could still consult, the wording may decide whether a claim is payable.
- How the policy treats income from more than one source, including private billings.
- Whether cover continues if you work overseas or take extended leave.
Cover held inside a super fund may use different definitions from cover held outside it, so we compare the terms with you before you rely on either.
It’s possible in some circumstances, and it’s one of the reasons a practitioner might consider a self-managed fund.
A fund can hold business real property and lease it to your practice at a market rate. The rent is then paid to your fund rather than an external landlord, and fund earnings are generally taxed at concessional rates.
The conditions are strict, the lease must be on commercial terms and documented, and borrowing inside a fund adds cost, risk and complexity. It suits some practices and not others, so we can model it with you, alongside your accountant and solicitor, before anything is committed.
Association cover can be competitively priced, and it may be a reasonable option to hold. It’s a standard offer rather than personal advice, though, and it’s generally designed for a membership rather than for you.
Advice can look at how the disability definition treats your specialty, whether the benefit period suits your plans, how it interacts with cover already inside super and what may happen if you leave the association or change roles.
Comparing options is worthwhile. We can help you understand what you need first, then look at the options with you.
Training can be a good time to start, and the early decisions are often simple ones.
Useful steps may include reviewing how many super accounts you hold, considering whether income protection is suitable and building a habit of saving what you can.
Cover is the one where timing can matter. Premiums and terms are generally based on your age and health when you apply, so it’s worth looking at before your circumstances change. We can help you decide what to look at first.
Certainly, and nothing needs preparing beforehand.
There’s no cost for the initial conversation. Tell us where your income comes from, any cover you hold through a fund, a college or your employer, and what you’d like the next few years to look like.
We’ll explain how we work with health professionals and the details we’ll need from you.
Who We Help
Advice for All Stages of Life
From first job to retirement, we help you build wealth, protect it, and live well.
Starting Out
First jobs, first home, first super, HECS debt, budgeting and more.
Growing Families
First home buyers, new parents, school fees, single incomes, young families and more.
Medical & Health
Doctors, dentists, pharmacists, allied health, nurses and more.
Professional Services & Tech
Lawyers, accountants, brokers, engineers, consultants and more.
Trades & Business Owners
Electricians, plumbers, builders, sole traders, franchisees and more.
Corporate & Executive
Executives, senior managers, directors, board members and more.
Public Sector & Defence
Police, firefighters, paramedics, ADF personnel, teachers and more.
Approaching Retirement
Pre-retirees, transition to retirement, Age Pension, aged care, estate planning and more.
Other Stages
Any income, any stage, career changers, separation, second opinions and more.
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Grow & Protect Your Wealth Today
Whatever’s on your mind, we’re here to help. You’ll speak with an authorised financial adviser who’ll listen first and get to know what matters to you.
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