Life Insurance and Income Protection for Landscapers
Income Protection for Landscapers and Their Families
Maintenance and construction work, how you’re paid, the busy and quiet months and any cover through work and super shape your insurance 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
- Garden maintenance workers on mowing, pruning and planting
- Hardscape crew members building paths, walls and pergolas
- Apprentices in landscaping or horticulture
- Casual crew members taken on for the busy months
- Sole operators with a mowing or garden maintenance round
- Landscapers who have just bought a round
- Business owners with a landscaping crew and machines
- Structural landscapers holding, or working towards, a licence
- Landscapers moving into design and quoting more than building
We Can Help You
- Set out how your week splits between garden maintenance and landscape construction for a cover application
- Describe the mowers and machines you run and any structural landscaping work on a cover application
- Check whether a policy’s disability definition counts the mowing and pruning you could still do while paving is off
- Compare partial disability benefits across policies for weeks when lighter garden work is all you can manage
- Ask each insurer with you which income it may count for income protection after you buy or start a round
- Work out how long savings from the busy months could carry you before any income protection benefit, on casual or ABN work
- Set an income protection amount from what the household spends, not from your busiest weeks of landscaping
- Read the insurance in each fund from casual and seasonal jobs, including the occupation it records
- Look at any cover you hold before a step up to licensed structural landscaping work
- Prepare and lodge a claim with you, your landscaping duties set out for the insurer or fund to assess
What we advise on
How Each Cover Works Around Landscaping Work
Income Protection
When illness or injury stops your landscaping work for a while, what could keep some income coming in at home?
Income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period, helping your household plan for time off work.
We’ll compare income protection with you around the maintenance or construction work you do and how you’re paid.
Income protection is designed to pay part of your income if illness or injury stops you working, usually a percentage of your pre-tax earnings in the 12 months before the illness or injury. Each policy has its own definition of disability, and most offer a waiting period between 14 days and two years, at the end of which you must be unable to work. Some policies only cover you if you work a minimum number of hours each week.
What we look at with you for income protection:
- Paving and wall building you couldn’t do, read against the important-duties test some policies use for disability
- Mowing and pruning you could still manage, and any partial benefit some policies pay on lower earnings
- A long claim where some policies move to an any occupation test, read with you before you choose
- A monthly benefit sized from what the household spends, not from a peak month of landscaping work
- How long you might go unpaid before any benefit starts, measured against savings or any leave from a permanent job
- The hours you put in during the quieter months, checked against a policy’s weekly threshold where it has one
- Scheme payments for a work injury on site, if eligible, which the PDS may count against a monthly benefit
- Paying for the policy yourself or through super, with the tax treatment confirmed by your accountant
Life Insurance
What does your landscaping income cover now that anyone at home would still need, if you were no longer here?
Your beneficiaries can receive a lump sum from life cover, towards any home loan, everyday costs and the plans you’ve made.
Together, we’ll work out a life cover amount from any debts, anyone relying on your income and any cover already in super.
A life policy can pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries if you pass away, and some include terminal illness cover. Moneysmart notes it can also help if you have large debts or a mortgage. If you haven’t named a beneficiary, your estate or the super trustee may decide where the money goes, and life cover sold in a package may be reduced by an amount paid on another claim in that package.
What we weigh up with you for life cover:
- Any finance still owing on a ute, trailer, mower or bobcat, totalled for the sum insured
- Any money borrowed to buy a maintenance round, added to what anyone relying on you would need
- Mortgage repayments, if you have a mortgage, and the everyday bills your landscaping pay meets
- Insurance shown on statements from any job before landscaping, so nothing already held is missed in the sum
- Choosing among eligible people or your estate for your super, and putting the choice in writing with each trustee
- Life and TPD sold as one contract, so beneficiaries may receive less after a TPD payment
- Any garden maintenance, construction or machine work named on a life application as well
- A partner’s cover, if you have a partner, and a new figure once a round is bought or a crew hired
TPD Insurance
How far would the plans you’re working towards get without your income, if you could never work again?
TPD cover can pay a lump sum if you can’t work again, as the policy defines it, for debts and plans ahead.
We’ll weigh TPD definitions with you against the skills landscaping work builds, from planting to quoting.
TPD cover can pay a lump sum if illness or injury means you’re unlikely to work again, as the policy defines it. An own occupation definition looks at your usual job, while an any occupation definition looks at any job suited to your education, training or experience. Own occupation cover is usually only available outside super, some definitions look at everyday activities instead of work, and a TPD payout may reduce any life cover packaged with it.
What we compare with you for TPD:
- Cover tied to your landscaping trade alone, the own occupation kind, which is usually only offered outside super
- Any occupation wording, and how plant knowledge, quoting or garden design experience may be counted
- Each super fund’s TPD definition, read before any account holding cover is closed or rolled over
- The occupation each fund records, compared with the mowing, building or crew work you actually do
- Tests about everyday self-care rather than a job, which some TPD definitions rely on, read word for word
- A lump sum weighed against any loans for gear, a round or a home, and anyone relying on you
- Income protection for a long break from landscaping, beside a TPD lump sum if you can’t work again, the two sized together
- A move into design or supervising, and how any TPD definition may then read your usual work
Trauma Insurance
Treatment and weeks away from your work after a serious diagnosis can add up: what could help with those costs?
For a listed condition that meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded, trauma cover can pay a lump sum towards treatment.
We can go over the conditions a trauma policy lists with you, and how a lump sum sits beside income protection.
A trauma policy lists the conditions it covers, and a lump sum can be paid for one that meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded. 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, and where trauma is packaged with life cover, a trauma payment could reduce the life cover.
What we go through with you for trauma cover:
- Which illnesses and injuries a trauma policy names, and the clinical tests each insurer sets for a payment
- An earlier or milder diagnosis, and whether a policy pays a smaller share of the sum insured
- Trauma bought personally and paid from landscaping income, as super can no longer hold new trauma cover
- Paying for treatment in the weeks before any income protection benefit starts, if a trauma claim is accepted
- Days missed as a casual on a crew or on your own round, with no sick leave, and where a lump sum fits
- A combined package with life cover, where a critical illness payout may reduce the sum left for beneficiaries
- A trauma policy bought earlier in your working life, with any switch weighed against what its wording allows
- Whether tax applies when a trauma claim pays out, put to your accountant before you plan around the money
Cover in Super
Any funds from casual, seasonal or earlier jobs may each hold some cover: how well does it suit the landscaping you do now?
Reading each fund’s cover before anything changes can show you what it offers for the work you do today.
We’ll check the cover in every fund you hold with you, before you combine, change or add to any of it.
Depending on your age, balance and fund, cover in super can start automatically for a set amount, usually life and TPD and sometimes income protection. 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. Premiums are deducted from your super balance.
What we check in each fund with you:
- Funds opened through casual or seasonal landscaping jobs, each listed with the cover it holds
- Landscaping, gardening or labouring: the job title on each fund’s file, and a call to the fund to fix a wrong one
- Starting with a new landscaping employer, whose payments generally land in your existing fund unless you pick another, and that fund’s insurance
- Starting landscaping as a teenager or apprentice under 25, when cover may need requesting unless the fund gives dangerous-job cover automatically
- Old injuries or illness from before joining a fund, checked against what each PDS may exclude
- Insurance premiums taken from balances built on landscaping pay, compared with what each fund would pay out
- Folding accounts from casual and permanent landscaping jobs into one, once each one’s insurance is read
- A higher sum insured than the default, requested from the fund and usually underwritten before it applies
Garden Maintenance and Landscape Construction
How could setting out the maintenance and construction work in your week, whichever you do, help your cover suit the way you work?
Describing your week as it really runs can help an insurer understand the work you do and the cover that suits it.
Together, we’ll set out your maintenance and construction work on any application and check how any policy or fund records it.
Jobs and Skills Australia lists Gardener (General) and Landscape Gardener as separate occupations: one maintains planted and grassed areas by weeding, trimming, fertilising, watering and mowing, the other builds paved areas, walls, fences, pergolas and ponds. In some states, structural landscaping above a set value needs a contractor licence. 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 set out with you about your work:
- Mowing, pruning, weeding and planting, described on any application as the share of work they are
- Paving, retaining walls, fences, pergolas and ponds, set out as the construction duties you take on
- Turf laying and soil preparation, named alongside the rest of your landscaping work
- Mowers, edgers and any earthmoving or compaction machines you run on a job, each listed accurately
- The share of your week on maintenance and on construction, and how it moves through the year
- Any structural work you do, and any contractor licence you hold or are working towards
- Time spent on design, quoting and client visits, included in the duties you describe
- Your work description looked at again when the mix of jobs changes, and what any policy asks you to tell the insurer
A Wage, a Round or a Crew
Moving from wages to your own round, buying one or taking on a crew: what could change for any cover you hold?
Checking your cover before the change can let you plan the move with a clear view of what you hold.
We’ll look at any cover you hold before you buy a round, go out on your own or hire a crew.
Under one award, for example, casuals receive a loading instead of annual leave and personal/carer’s leave, and Fair Work notes casuals don’t get most types of paid leave. Self-employed people don’t have paid holidays or sick leave, and Moneysmart suggests checking whether leaving wages affects the insurance cover through your super. After buying a round, it’s worth asking each insurer how it works out income for income protection.
What we look at with you before the change:
- Casual landscaping work, and the paid leave that one award, for example, swaps for a casual loading
- Cover through your super, checked before you leave wages for your own round or business
- Super on a landscaping or building contract: paid mainly for labour, not a result, on work you can’t delegate
- A contract held through your own company, trust or partnership, where the hirer doesn’t have to pay your super
- The income an insurer may look at after you buy a round, asked of each insurer first
- Life and TPD amounts set against any loan taken on for the round, a ute or gear
- Your own life, TPD and income protection amounts looked at again before you hire a first employee
- Business, liability and tool insurance, left with a general insurance broker who can advise on it
Making a Claim
Forms, medical reports and follow-up calls come with any claim: how could sharing them make the process easier?
Sharing the forms and follow-up with a financial adviser can make a claim easier while the insurer or fund assesses it.
Together, we’ll lodge a claim and follow each step with the insurer or fund while it’s assessed.
Moneysmart suggests speaking first to whoever you arranged the cover through, or to your employer for cover through an employment arrangement. An insurer can ask for details of your work duties, including physical requirements, and the number of hours you work each week, plus payslips and tax returns, or 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 super fund, then to AFCA.
How we help with a claim:
- Who to phone first, and where the paperwork ends up: the insurer, or the fund for insurance held through super
- Any mowing, paving or wall building duties and your normal weekly hours, written up exactly as you worked
- Pay records from a landscaping employer, or the round’s books and tax returns if self-employed
- Treating doctors’ reports on the garden or building work you can do, released with your consent
- A mowing or paving injury: the scheme decides any workers compensation, separately from the policy claims we lodge with you
- Other money coming in while you can’t work, and whether the PDS lets it reduce a monthly benefit
- Coming back to mowing before paving, and the reduced-capacity terms some policies set
- Contesting what was decided: the company that issued the policy or your fund hears it first, then AFCA
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
- Maintenance, construction or both: Insurers usually ask about your job when you apply. Jobs and Skills Australia lists Gardener (General) and Landscape Gardener as separate occupations with different tasks, so the mix in your week is part of describing your work accurately.
- Machines you run on a job: Mowers, edgers and any earthmoving or compaction machines you use are part of your duties, so it helps to set them out as they are.
- Structural work and any licence: Retaining walls, paving, decks and pergolas, and any contractor licence the work needs where you are, belong in the description of what you do.
- The busy months and the quiet ones: Income protection usually works from your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury, and some policies only cover you if you work a minimum number of hours. A household budget is a steadier guide to the amount than your busiest months.
- Wages, casual hours or your own invoices: On wages, any paid leave and any cover through your employer and fund are the starting point. Under one award, for example, casuals receive a loading instead of annual leave and personal/carer’s leave, and on an ABN there’s no paid sick leave, and an insurer can ask for financial statements at claim.
- A round of your own: Buying or building a maintenance round changes your income records and may add debts. Because income protection looks at the 12 months before an illness or injury, it’s worth asking each insurer how it would work out your income.
- Designing and quoting more, building less: A change in duties is worth raising with any fund or insurer, and for cover in super, Moneysmart suggests asking what happens to it if you change jobs. A TPD any occupation definition may also take design or quoting experience into account.
- Back on lighter garden work: Some policies pay a partial benefit when you work in a reduced capacity and earn less than before. Workers compensation is separate, through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme, and other payments may reduce an income protection benefit.
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 for Landscaping and Garden Work, Worked Through Together
Maintenance and Construction Duties Set Out
Any mowing, planting, paving or wall building described as it makes up your week on any application.
Your Machines and Structural Jobs Listed
Any mowers, earthmoving machines and structural jobs set out accurately before you apply.
Partial Benefit Wording Read for Lighter Garden Work
How each policy treats doing lighter work for a while, compared before you choose one.
Income Protection Sized From a Household Budget
An amount worked out from what your household spends, rather than from your busiest months.
The Income an Insurer May Count After Buying a Round
Payslips, invoices and business records set out, with each insurer asked how it works out income.
Super Cover From Casual and Seasonal Jobs Checked
Each fund’s cover, set amount and recorded occupation listed in one place.
Cover Reviewed Before Structural Work or a Crew
Any cover you hold read with you before a step up to licensed work or a first employee.
A Landscaping Claim Lodged With You
Duties, hours and pay records gathered with you while the insurer or fund assesses the claim.
Proactive, Holistic, and Experienced Financial Planning
Every landscaping week runs a little differently, so we listen first: any maintenance and builds, who you work for or with, how the year moves between busy and quiet months, and what you’d like your cover to do for you and anyone close to you. We explain each type of cover in plain terms, take your questions as they come and meet at a time that suits you, around the days and hours you work.
The paperwork is something we work through alongside you. With your consent, we can gather payslips or invoices, tax returns, fund statements, PDSs and any employer cover summary, then follow up with funds and insurers on your behalf. Bring along a partner or anyone you’d like a second opinion from. Our recommendations usually come to you in writing, so you can read them through in your own time and ask us anything that isn’t clear.
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 Landscapers
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: your landscaping work, your family, work, income, assets and goals. Then we recommend the types and amounts of cover that suit your life.
Landscaping can mean garden maintenance, landscape construction or both, machines and structural work, and pay as an employee, a casual, a contractor or owner of a round or crew. Each can affect how an insurer assesses an application and how a policy’s definitions read a claim, so your duties, hours and pay are part of 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
- Reviews as your health, family and work change
- 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.
It depends on the policy. Some policies treat you as totally disabled when you can’t do one or more of the important income-producing duties of your usual occupation and aren’t working, and some pay a partial benefit when you work in a reduced capacity and earn less than before.
How your maintenance and construction duties were described when you applied, and the hours and pay you’re back on, are part of what the insurer assesses. The PDS sets out what applies. We can read these definitions with you before you choose a policy, and the insurer decides on any claim.
Income protection usually bases the benefit on your earnings in the 12 months before the illness or injury. After buying a round, those months may mix wages from earlier work with income from the new business, and how an insurer treats that mix is a question to ask it directly. Moneysmart suggests asking how much of your income it would pay and how it works that out.
At claim, an insurer can ask for payslips and tax returns, or financial statements if you’re self-employed, so it helps to keep records up to date with your accountant. A household budget is a sound guide to the amount. We can compare how insurers approach this with you, and the insurer decides on any application.
Insurers usually ask about your job when you apply. Jobs and Skills Australia lists Gardener (General) and Landscape Gardener as separate occupations with different tasks, so the share of your week on each, the machines you run and any structural work all help describe what you do.
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. Each insurer assesses applications in its own way. We can help you set your work out as it is, and the insurer decides on any application.
It depends on what you have in place. Under one award, for example, casuals are paid a loading instead of annual leave and personal/carer’s leave, and Fair Work notes casuals don’t get most types of paid leave. Unless other cover or support applies, any savings are what you’d draw on during an income protection waiting period, which most policies offer between 14 days and two years.
The waiting period you choose sets how long savings may need to last, and some policies only cover you if you work a minimum number of hours each week. If you hold trauma cover and a listed condition meets its definition, a lump sum could also help. We can weigh the options with you, and the insurer decides on any application.
It depends on the policy and any cover you already hold. New duties, such as retaining walls or other structural work, belong in the description on any new application, and for cover in super, Moneysmart suggests asking what happens to the cover if you change jobs.
Cover you already hold was issued on its own terms, and the policy wording sets when they can change, so it’s worth reading before you change or replace it. New business debts, such as finance on machines, are worth setting against your life and TPD amounts. We can go through this with you, and the insurer decides on any application.
With more than one account, you may be paying premiums on more than one policy, and you may not be able to claim the full benefit from more than one. Premiums come off each balance. It’s worth checking the occupation each fund has recorded, and if a fund has classified you incorrectly, Moneysmart suggests contacting it.
When you start a new job, your employer generally pays into your existing super fund unless you choose another, and that fund’s insurance might not suit your new job. Reading each fund’s cover amount, exclusions and pre-existing condition rules comes before any decision to combine accounts. We can go through each fund with you.
A quote tool works from the questions on its form. It may not weigh how a policy’s disability definition and any partial benefit would treat lighter garden work while paving is off, how a newly bought round’s earnings might be counted, or what sits in each super account you’ve picked up along the way.
Personal advice begins with a conversation about any mowing, planting or building work you do, how you’re paid and anything you’ve got in place. From there, we look at policies from a wide range of insurers with you, and the insurer makes the final call on any application.
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.
Yes. It makes no difference whether you’re new to a crew or years into your own round: we begin with the work you do now and what matters most to you.
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. Worth bringing: pay records from the last few months, your latest tax return or business accounts, a statement from each super account, any insurance papers you already have, and a rough idea of how much of your week goes on maintenance versus building.
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
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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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