Life Insurance and Income Protection for Hospitality Business Owners
Income Protection for Hospitality Business Owners and Their Families
Your drawings or pay, any rent, wages or lease and any cover in super all come into your options. We can help you find and apply for cover, review any cover you hold and lodge claims.
Financial Advice for Life Insurance and Income Protection
Who We Help
- Cafe owners running the counter and the books
- Restaurant owners with staff, suppliers and rent to plan around
- Publicans and bar owners serving behind the bar as well
- Owners who cook as part of running the kitchen
- Owners who run the floor and look after service themselves
- Partners in life and business relying on one household income
- Company directors of a venue paid through their company
- Bakers and caterers and takeaway or food van owners, as a sole trader, partner or company
- Franchisees running a food or drinks business
- Owners who left a job for a business of their own, and want to read any cover from that time
We Can Help You
- Set out cooking, floor, bar and office duties as they are on a cover application
- Ask each insurer with you which income it counts for a hospitality business owner
- Test a waiting period against the savings and cash you could reach
- Show with a household budget how much income protection you’d like in place
- Go through whether business expenses cover is available and suitable for you
- Read which business costs a policy lists, including rent and staff costs
- Count your lease obligations and any home loan when weighing life and TPD amounts
- Look at both owners’ cover if you run the business as a couple
- Talk through cover when you’re buying, selling or stepping off the floor
- Lodge a claim with you and gather the business records an insurer or fund may ask for
What we advise on
How Each Cover Works Around a Hospitality Business
Income Protection
At home, what could help if illness or injury took you away from the business for a while?
After a waiting period, income protection can pay part of your income, subject to the policy’s terms and exclusions.
Together, we’ll compare income protection with you around your duties and the income you take as an owner.
Income protection can pay a share of your pre-tax income while you can’t work, usually based on earnings in the 12 months before. Each policy defines disability in its own way, most offer a waiting period between 14 days and two years, and exclusions can apply, including to occupations or activities. An insurer usually looks at your job and duties when you apply, and this can affect whether cover is offered, the benefit periods and the amount. The insurer decides.
What we look at with you on income protection:
- Profit rather than takings, as some policies count a self-employed owner’s income after their share of business expenses
- A quieter 12 months before a claim, and how the earnings a policy looks at could reflect them
- Material and substantial duties, the wording some policies use to test whether you can do your usual occupation
- Back doing the books before you’re back on service, and what some policies pay for working at reduced capacity
- Later wording in some policies, which can look at work you’re suited to after a set time, read with your management experience in mind
- Handing shifts to a manager, which could lower your hours, read against any minimum hours term in a policy
- A household budget showing what you’d want coming in, separate from the share of earnings a policy could pay
- Income that stops through quiet trading, job loss or shutting the doors, which savings can help with, as this cover is generally for illness or injury
- Payments that go to you rather than to the business’s bills as such, with rent and wages looked at separately
Life Insurance
If anyone relies on you, what would any debts from the business leave them with?
Life cover can pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries, which they could put towards debts and everyday costs.
Together, we’ll size life cover from your debts and anyone relying on your income.
Life cover can pay a lump sum if you pass away, and some policies include terminal illness cover. Moneysmart says people who rely on your income can use it to pay the mortgage, clear debts and cover everyday costs. If you haven’t named a beneficiary, your estate or the super trustee decides where the money goes, and insurers usually ask your age and job when you apply.
What we weigh up with you on life cover:
- A personal guarantee, which a lawyer can explain, counted in the amount beside your other debts
- Mortgage repayments at home, if you have them, added to what your drawings pay for each week
- Fit-out, oven or coffee machine repayments, and whose name each contract is in
- If you run the business with a partner, what they’d want in place to carry on or wind things up
- A super payout and who it can go to, set beside who’d take on the business
- Life and TPD sold together, where one payment could lower what’s left toward debts from the business
- A sale of the business, which could change your debts and the amount you’d want
- Life insurance that may still sit in super accounts from before you ran a business, found through old statements
TPD Insurance
Could your plans for home and the business still go ahead if you could never work again?
As the policy defines it, being unable to work again can lead to a TPD lump sum towards debts and plans.
We can explain how TPD definitions read the experience that running a hospitality business builds.
An own occupation definition looks at the job you were working in, while an any occupation definition looks at any job suited to your education, training or experience. Moneysmart says own occupation cover is usually only available outside super. Some definitions look at everyday activities instead of work, and a TPD payment may also reduce any life cover packaged with it.
What we compare with you on TPD:
- Whether an insurer would test you against your usual work, the own occupation approach, which generally sits outside super
- Rosters, ordering, supplier dealings and training staff, and whether these could count toward other jobs under any occupation wording
- Definitions across funds, compared one at a time with you, if a TPD benefit sits in your super
- An earlier job still on a fund’s file, compared with running a kitchen, floor or office today
- Some policies’ tests of dressing, moving around and similar activities, rather than a return to running a business
- What a personal guarantee could leave you owing, with a lawyer reading the document, beside the payout you’d choose
- Owner duties that mix cooking, service and management, and how a definition may read them as one job
- Coming back to the business later versus never working again: income protection and TPD each have their own role
Trauma Insurance
A serious diagnosis can mean treatment and time away from the business: what could help with the costs?
If a listed condition meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded, a lump sum can be paid.
Together, we’ll read what a policy lists and how a lump sum could sit beside income protection.
A trauma policy lists the conditions it covers, each with its own definition, and Moneysmart notes that medical definitions can be different between insurers. New trauma cover can’t be held inside super, which has been the rule for policies written since 1 July 2014.
What we read with you in a trauma policy:
- Medical wording for each listed condition, gone through with you because insurers can define each differently
- Lower payouts in some policies for a condition at an early stage, compared with what rent and bills would need
- New trauma cover sitting outside super, so premiums come from drawings or wages you’ve planned for
- Rent and supplier bills that fall due before any income protection pays, weighed against what a lump sum could meet
- Paying someone to run service while you’re in treatment, if you’re self-employed without paid leave, as one use of a payout
- Trauma sold as an add-on to life cover, where a payout may leave less life cover for business debts later
- Keeping or replacing any existing trauma policy, read through with you before you sign a new one
- Using a lump sum to repay debts, with an accountant on any tax question
Cover in Super
How does any cover in a fund from before the business suit you now?
Reading each fund before anything changes can show what it holds and what it costs you.
We’ll read the cover in each fund with you before anything changes.
Moneysmart suggests checking whether moving from employee to self-employed affects any insurance cover you have through your super. Cover in super can end or change, for example if your balance is too low, you change fund or you reach an age limit. Default cover inside super can usually be issued without medical checks, though it may carry pre-existing condition rules set out in the fund’s PDS, and increasing it is usually underwritten like any other application.
What we check in each fund with you:
- Funds from your employee years, each listed with its cover, if you worked for someone before the business
- Your super balance since leaving wages, and what a low balance could mean for cover, which is worth asking your fund
- Terms that vary from fund to fund, read again after moving from employee to self-employed
- A past job title sitting on an old account, which Moneysmart suggests raising with that fund if it’s incorrect for hospitality work
- Health history terms in a fund’s PDS, looked at ahead of counting that fund’s insurance in your plan
- Yearly insurance charges on an old account, compared with anything you pay in from drawings or wages
- Merging old accounts into one, once you’ve read each one’s insurance, because a move may lose what’s attached
- Business debts beyond what a fund’s default amount would meet, where raising it is usually assessed as a new application
Rent, Wages and Your Own Income
Which costs would keep running in the business if you couldn’t work for a while?
Rent, wages and your own income aren’t all looked at by the same cover, so it helps to separate them.
We can separate with you what income protection and business expenses cover each look at.
Income protection can pay part of your income, not the business’s bills as such. Business expenses cover is a separate type of cover for fixed business costs. Some policies limit it to people working full time who are self-employed, in partnership or working directors. Whether it’s available and suitable for you depends on your situation and the insurer.
What we separate out with you:
- Income protection for you: part of your income, paid to you, with the amount based on your earnings
- Business expenses cover for fixed costs, and whether it’s available and suitable for the way you run the business
- The costs a policy lists: some policies include rent, power, business insurance premiums and equipment leases
- Staff costs, where some policies list employees who don’t generate income and leave out those who do
- Someone replacing you on the floor or in the kitchen, and whether a policy’s staff or locum wording would count that cost
- Your own pay, which some policies leave out of business expenses, read beside the income protection you’d want
- A limited benefit period, which a policy states, set against how long you’d want fixed costs met
- Waiting periods for each cover set side by side, weighed against savings and cash in the business
- Loan costs as a policy lists them: some include interest on business loans and leave out repayments of principal
- Business interruption cover, a separate insurance that a general insurance broker can explain
Cooking, Floor and Office Duties
How could setting out your work help your cover fit the way you run the business?
A clear description of what you do gives an insurer part of what it needs to assess your application.
Together, we’ll write down your duties as they are for any application.
Running a hospitality business can take in cooking, service, bar work, ordering, rosters and the books, and the mix can change from one year to the next. When you apply, insurers usually ask about your job. 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.
What we write down with you about your work:
- Kitchen work, if you cook or prep, with the share of your week it takes
- Floor and bar service, named separately from management, so the application shows both
- Deliveries, stock and cellar work, set out as tasks you do, if they’re part of your week
- Rosters, ordering and the books, counted as work even when they happen outside trading hours
- Hours in each part of your work across a usual week, written down from your own diary or rosters
- More than one location, and how your time and duties split between them, stated plainly
- Duties a franchise agreement sets, if you’re a franchisee, and how they shape your usual day
- A change in your mix of work, such as a new manager, as a good reason to look at these notes again
When to Review Your Cover
What might a change in your business or at home mean for any cover you hold?
Changes in the business or at home can be a good reason to go through your cover.
We can go through what you hold, if anything, beside how you run the business and your life at home.
A hospitality business can change hands, add a location or move to a new structure. Default cover through super is for a set amount, so it might not match your needs. A change like this is a good reason to book a conversation, and we can read a policy or fund statement with you. The insurer decides on any new application.
Situations worth raising with us in a conversation:
- Resigning to run a hospitality business, and what your employer or fund says about any insurance tied to that job
- Signing or renewing a lease, and whether any life and TPD amounts reflect what you’d owe
- A second location, and what the extra debt and changed duties could mean for life and TPD amounts
- Moving from sole trader to company, and how your income and job would then be described
- A manager taking over the floor, and how your changed duties would be set out if you apply for cover
- Selling the business, and how your income, duties and debts change for the cover you’d want next
- Buying a place to live, starting a family or separating, and the amounts your household might want afterwards
- Premium costs climbing with age, as they generally do, weighed against the amounts you’d like to keep in place
Making a Claim
Would someone beside you for the forms and follow-up help if you needed to claim?
Someone beside you for the paperwork and follow-up can make a claim easier while the insurer or fund assesses it.
Together, we’ll lodge any claim and follow each step while the insurer or fund assesses it.
Moneysmart says to speak to the person or company you bought the policy from. At claim, an insurer can ask about your work duties, including physical requirements, the hours you work each week and your pay records, which can mean financial statements if you’re self-employed. The insurer, or the fund for cover in super, assesses the claim, and a complaint goes first to the insurer or fund, then to AFCA.
How we help with a claim:
- The first call: the person or company you bought the policy from, or your fund, which we can find with you
- Kitchen, floor and office work as it ran before you stopped, written up with your usual week’s hours
- Tax returns and financial statements, or payslips if you’re paid wages, gathered with an accountant’s help if you use one
- Doctor’s reports an insurer requests, which can cover cooking, service or office tasks
- Who kept the business running while you were off, set out plainly if an insurer asks how the work was covered
- An injury during service or prep, where each workers compensation scheme sets who qualifies and makes its own decision
- Payments from other sources while you’re away from the business, which can reduce a benefit under a policy’s terms
- Disagreeing with how a claim ended, taken up with whoever decided it and then AFCA, with your business records ready
Health Conditions & Illnesses
Could a health condition change the cover an insurer offers you?
Our guides explain what insurers may ask about common conditions, and a health condition doesn’t necessarily rule out cover.
We can help you prepare an application when you have a health condition or a past illness.
Underwriting is how an insurer assesses an application and decides whether to offer cover, on what terms and at what price. Possible outcomes include standard terms, a higher premium, an exclusion, a request to apply again later, or a decline.
Guides by health condition:
- Cover with a health condition: where to start
- Autoimmune conditions
- Back or joint conditions
- Blood conditions
- Cancer history
- Diabetes
- Digestive conditions
- Eye or hearing conditions
- Heart conditions
- HIV or hepatitis
- Kidney conditions
- Mental health conditions
- Neurological conditions
- Respiratory or sleep conditions
- Weight, smoking or alcohol history
- Women’s health conditions
Your work and your cover
How Your Work Shapes Your Cover
What We’d Look At Together
- Cooking, floor or office work: Insurers usually ask about your job when you apply. Running a hospitality business can mean cooking, serving, ordering or doing the books, so it helps to set out the mix in your week as it is.
- Hours across the week: Some policies only cover you if you work a minimum number of hours. Your hours can change as you hire or step back, so a clear picture of what you work now is a useful start.
- Profit rather than takings: Income protection usually works from your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury. Some policies count a self-employed person’s income after their share of business expenses, so it’s worth asking each insurer what it starts from.
- Drawings, wages or distributions: How money reaches you depends on your structure. Some policies leave out income that doesn’t come from your own work, such as dividends, so it’s worth asking how yours would be treated. An accountant can help keep your records up to date.
- Rent and fixed business costs: Income protection can pay part of your income, rather than the business’s bills as such. Business expenses cover looks at fixed costs, and whether it’s available and suitable depends on your situation and the insurer.
- A lease guarantee: A lawyer can read a lease guarantee and explain what it could mean for you. We can then count it beside your other debts when weighing life and TPD amounts. Cover doesn’t change what the guarantee says.
- Two owners, one household: If you both work in the business, one illness or injury could affect the household’s income and the work itself. Each person applies in their own right, with their own duties, hours and income set out.
- Back on light duties for a while: Some policies pay a partial benefit when you work in a reduced capacity and earn less than before. Other payments may reduce an income protection benefit, so the wording is worth reading with you before you apply.
This list isn’t complete, and nothing on it decides anything on its own. We start by learning about your situation, and any decision on cover is the insurer’s.
Your options
Why Work With a Financial Adviser for Your Personal Insurance?
| A Ryker financial adviser | Directly from an insurer | An online broker or comparison site | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type of advice | Personal advice Personal adviceAdvice tailored to you. Like most financial advice, it’s given under an Australian financial services licence.Personal, not general. General advice is a recommendation or opinion that doesn’t consider your circumstances. Personal advice is tailored to your objectives, financial situation and needs.In your best interests. When we give you personal advice, the law requires us to act in your best interests.In writing. You’ll usually receive a Statement of Advice that explains the strategies and cover recommended to you, and why.On the public register. Financial advisers who give personal advice on life insurance, super and investments must be on ASIC’s Financial Advisers Register. See our financial advisers on the register:Ray RegmiRicky (Rajiv) RegmiJack OinezaDean DesoukeyRyker’s financial advisers are authorised representatives of Synchron Advice Pty Ltd, AFSL 243313. | Usually general advice | Usually general advice |
| Advice that considers your health, family, work and goals | Yes, as part of your advice | Not with general advice | Not with general advice |
| Choice of insurers | A wide range | That insurer’s policies only | A panel of insurers, side by side |
| Help preparing your application | Yes, alongside you | The insurer’s own process | Varies |
| Advice on holding cover inside or outside super | Part of your advice | Not with general advice | Not with general advice |
| Support if you need to claim | Yes, we’re in your corner | The insurer’s claims team | Varies |
| Cost of advice | 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. Choose: | No separate advice fee | No separate advice fee |
Type of advice
- Ryker financial adviser
- Personal advice Personal adviceAdvice tailored to you. Like most financial advice, it’s given under an Australian financial services licence.Personal, not general. General advice is a recommendation or opinion that doesn’t consider your circumstances. Personal advice is tailored to your objectives, financial situation and needs.In your best interests. When we give you personal advice, the law requires us to act in your best interests.In writing. You’ll usually receive a Statement of Advice that explains the strategies and cover recommended to you, and why.On the public register. Financial advisers who give personal advice on life insurance, super and investments must be on ASIC’s Financial Advisers Register. See our financial advisers on the register:Ray RegmiRicky (Rajiv) RegmiJack OinezaDean DesoukeyRyker’s financial advisers are authorised representatives of Synchron Advice Pty Ltd, AFSL 243313.
- Direct from an insurer
- Usually general advice
- Online broker or comparison site
- Usually general advice
Advice that considers your health, family, work and goals
- Ryker financial adviser
- Yes, as part of your advice
- Direct from an insurer
- Not with general advice
- Online broker or comparison site
- Not with general advice
Choice of insurers
- Ryker financial adviser
- A wide range
- Direct from an insurer
- That insurer’s policies only
- Online broker or comparison site
- A panel of insurers, side by side
Help preparing your application
- Ryker financial adviser
- Yes, alongside you
- Direct from an insurer
- The insurer’s own process
- Online broker or comparison site
- Varies
Advice on holding cover inside or outside super
- Ryker financial adviser
- Part of your advice
- Direct from an insurer
- Not with general advice
- Online broker or comparison site
- Not with general advice
Support if you need to claim
- Ryker financial adviser
- Yes, we’re in your corner
- Direct from an insurer
- The insurer’s claims team
- Online broker or comparison site
- Varies
Cost of advice
- Ryker financial adviser
- 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. Choose:
- Direct from an insurer
- No separate advice fee
- Online broker or comparison site
- No separate advice fee
Your Cover as a Hospitality Owner, Worked Through Together
Owner Duties Set Out
Kitchen, floor, bar and office work described as it makes up your week on any application.
Owner Income Laid Out for an Insurer
Drawings, wages or distributions set out, with each insurer asked how it works out income.
A Budget for Income Protection
What you’d want worked out with you from household spending, while any payment depends on earnings and the policy.
Business Costs and Cover Looked At
Which costs some policies list, and whether business expenses cover is available and suitable for you.
Personal Guarantee in Cover Amounts
Any personal guarantee, read by a lawyer, weighed with your other debts in life and TPD amounts.
Both Owners’ Cover Read
Each owner’s cover, if you hold it, read side by side for a couple in business together.
Each Fund’s Cover Read
Cover and the occupation on file in each fund, from employee years to now, read with you before anything changes.
A Hospitality Owner’s Claim Lodged With You
Your duties, hours and financial records set out with you while the insurer or fund assesses any claim.
This has really changed our lives
Ray and his team has been incredible, they look after my entire family including my brother in law. Over the years he has helped us with investments, tax and other advice. This has really changed our lives.
Read moreDean Desoukey is changing lives!!
From the very beginning he was warm, patient, incredibly knowledgeable, and genuinely cared about helping us make the right decisions for our future. The positive impact they've had on our family financially and the peace of mind he's given us has been huge.
Read moreI felt heard, understood, and respected
I can't speak highly enough of the service I received from Dean Desoukey. Financial conversations can often feel overwhelming, but he created a space where I felt heard, understood, and respected. He took the time to really listen, explained things clearly, and never rushed me through decisions.
Read moreKnowledgeable, patient and caring
I cannot recommend Ray highly enough. He is an exceptional financial adviser: knowledgeable, patient and caring. From the very beginning, he took the time to truly understand my goals and helped me to create a clear structured financial plan. I never feel rushed or pressured.
Read moreThank you Ray for protecting me and my family
Ray has been my trusted financial adviser for over 12 years. He is highly knowledgeable and passionate about making sure his customers have the right insurance to secure them and their family. I was recently sick and Ray was there right away when needed most.
Read moreHe went above and beyond
I recently dealt with Ricky Regmi at Ryker Capital, and I couldn't be more satisfied with the service I received. Ricky was incredibly patient and supportive throughout the entire insurance process. He went above and beyond, coordinating with my accountant and doctor to ensure everything was in order.
Read moreIt never feels transactional
We've been working with Jack for the past two years, and it's been an incredibly positive experience. He takes the time to build genuine relationships and really gets to know his clients beyond just the numbers. It never feels transactional; it feels like he truly cares about our wellbeing.
Read moreImmensely professional and diligent
Ray has been immensely professional and diligent in my most recent SMSF restructure and insurance review. He not only tweaked it to make it work more for me and my future goals but recommended future strategies to help build my wealth. Cannot recommend him enough.
Read moreHolistic and Experienced Financial Advisers for Hospitality Business Owners
People come back to what you’ve built: for the welcome, the food and drink and the feeling of being known. Few of them see the work behind it, and we’d like to. We start by getting to know you, what the business means to you and what you’re working towards. From there, we’ll help you shape a plan that suits how you’re paid, with room for the life you’d like outside the business.
What you’ve built at work can do more for you at home. Good stretches can go towards a home, time with the people you love, another venue or the freedom to hand over the keys one day. Your own savings and super can be part of the plan too, so there’s something beside the business that’s yours. We can review the plan with you each year, so it stays with the goals you’ve set.
If illness or injury kept you from running your hospitality business, income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period, subject to the policy’s definitions, exclusions and the insurer’s assessment. Personal cover can also include life, TPD and trauma cover, each with its own terms. We can advise on cover alone, without a full financial plan, explaining each one in plain language and comparing cover from a wide range of insurers with you. The insurer decides on any application.
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.
Learn more about Financial Planning and Advice for Hospitality Business Owners
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
Ryker’s financial advisers are licensed to give personal advice under Synchron Advice’s Australian financial services licence (AFSL 243313). We start with you: running your hospitality business, your family, work, income, assets and goals. Then we recommend the types and amounts of cover that suit your life.
Running a hospitality business can mean kitchen, floor, bar or office work, in different business structures. Each can affect how an insurer assesses an application and how a policy’s definitions read a claim, so your duties, hours and income are what we look at.
With a financial adviser, you also have:
- Access to a wide range of insurers, who can assess the same health details differently
- Help preparing your application and answering the health questions with care
- Advice on whether to hold cover inside or outside super, and the trade-offs
- Annual reviews of your cover through ongoing advice, with your health, family and work in mind
- Someone in your corner if you ever need to claim
Going directly to an insurer can mean no separate advice fee, but you’ll only see that insurer’s policies, and you’ll generally receive general advice only, which doesn’t consider your personal circumstances.
Going through an online comparison site or broker, you may see more options side by side, but they also generally provide general advice only, which doesn’t consider your whole financial picture.
When we give you personal advice, the law requires us to act in your best interests, which we take personally. The insurer still decides whether to offer cover and on what terms.
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.
Income protection can pay part of your income to you, rather than paying the business’s bills as such. How you use that money is up to you, though it’s only part of your income.
Business expenses cover looks at the fixed costs of a business. Some policies list costs such as rent, and whether this cover is available and suitable for you depends on your situation and the insurer. We can go through both with you, and the insurer decides on any application.
Moneysmart says income protection usually bases the benefit on your annual earnings in the 12 months before your illness or injury. For an owner, takings may not be the starting point: some policies count income from your own work, less your share of business expenses, and leave out income such as dividends.
It’s worth asking each insurer how it works this out for your structure. An insurer can ask for tax returns or financial statements at claim, so it helps to keep records up to date with an accountant. We can go through this with you, and the insurer decides on any application.
It depends on the policy, and the first question is whether this cover is available and suitable for you. Some policies list regular costs such as rent, power, equipment leases and interest on business loans.
Staff costs need a closer read. Some policies list employees who don’t generate income and leave out your own pay and employees who do, so it’s worth asking how the wording treats someone replacing you on the floor or in the kitchen. Benefits run for a limited period the policy states, and your share of what the business earns during a claim can reduce them. The insurer decides on applications and claims.
Start with a lawyer, who can read your personal guarantee and explain what it could mean for you. From there, we can count it beside any home loan and other debts when working out amounts with you.
Cover doesn’t change what that document says, and a lump sum can go to your beneficiaries, or to you on a TPD claim. A package may also be reduced by a claim on another part, so that’s worth reading too. The insurer decides on any application.
Each of you would apply in your own right, with your own duties, hours and income set out. If one of you couldn’t work, the household could lose part of that income while the other person takes on more of the work, so a household budget is a useful place to start.
If you both hold cover, it’s worth reading who owns each policy and who it would pay. We can go through this with you both, and the insurer decides on any application.
Insurers usually ask about your job when you apply, and two owners can run very different weeks: one mostly in the kitchen, another on the floor or in the office. It helps to set out the share of your week on each, including ordering, rosters and the books.
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. We can help you set your work out as it is, and the insurer decides on any application.
Leaving a job for a business, signing or renewing a lease, opening a second location, becoming a company, handing the floor to a manager or selling can each be a good reason to book a conversation.
At home, a new loan, a baby or a separation can be too. We can read a fund statement or policy with you beside how you work now, and compare new cover you could apply for. The insurer decides on any application.
Our ongoing advice clients have an annual review with us.
An online form can give you a quick look at what one seller offers. It may not show how your income is worked out from the business, how your week splits between the kitchen, floor and office, or whether business expenses cover is worth looking at.
Personal advice starts with those questions. We’d go through any cover you already have, then compare new cover from a wide range of insurers with you. Any application is the insurer’s to decide.
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.
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. Our first conversation starts with what you do now, whether you’re buying your first cafe or have run a restaurant for 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.
It helps to bring your latest tax returns or financial statements, a statement from each super fund, any policy papers you have and a short note of how your week splits across the kitchen, floor and office.
Reviews
Testimonials from Our Clients
Client Success Stories
A Property Sale Became a Full PlanEstimated long term financial benefitApprox $448,000
A Plan to Keep the Family HomeLife cover established$1.2 Million
Cover in Place and Fees LoweredImmediate value$1,055 a year
Super Fees More than HalvedProjected retirement uplift$416k
Income Covered for a New MortgageImmediate value$975 a year
A 13-Year Mortgage Paydown PlanPlanned mortgage paydown13 years
A First Home and Family CoveredImmediate value$1,346 a year
Age Pension Kept After an InheritanceProjected uplift at 90More than $642,000
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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