Life Insurance and Income Protection for Motor Mechanics
Income Protection for Motor Mechanics and Their Families
Wages, invoices or a workshop of your own, any accident pay and any cover in super all shape your cover. We can help you apply for cover, review any cover you hold and lodge claims with you.
Financial Advice for Life Insurance and Income Protection
Who We Help
- Automotive apprentices working through light vehicle, heavy vehicle or motorcycle training
- Qualified mechanics paid award or above-award rates on the workshop floor
- Heavy diesel technicians keeping trucks, buses, tractors and mine fleets running
- Bike and small engine mechanics in motorcycle dealerships, power equipment and marine workshops
- Hybrid and EV technicians trained to depower and work on high-voltage systems
- Mobile mechanics invoicing parts and labour on an ABN from a service vehicle
- Leading hands and foremen splitting the week between the bays and the paperwork
- Technicians stepping up to take over the business from the owner they work for
- Workshop owners carrying staff, premises costs and any equipment finance
We Can Help You
- Describe workshop, mobile or site duties, including any high-voltage vehicle work, accurately on a cover application
- Choose when income protection payments would start, around any accident pay, paid leave or ABN savings
- Set out wages, any tool allowance, overtime and above-award pay for an income protection application
- Separate parts from labour so a mobile mechanic’s income is shown clearly for income protection
- Review personal cover and any cover in super before any move to mobile work or away from the workshop that employs you
- Set a workshop’s fixed costs apart from your own pay if you own one, then compare business expenses cover, offered by some policies
- Total any hoist finance, service vehicle loan or home loan before life and TPD amounts are chosen
- Trace any life, TPD or income protection left in super accounts from past workshops
- Read how TPD definitions may treat diagnostic, service advising or inspecting experience
- Lodge an income protection, TPD or trauma claim with you, with payslips or ABN financial statements attached, and follow it up
What we advise on
How Each Cover Works Around Workshop Work
Income Protection
If an illness or injury kept your bay and hoist idle for weeks, what could keep part of your income coming in?
After a waiting period, income protection can pay part of your income to help with the bills while you can’t work.
We’ll start with how your pay is made up and what any award or employer provides, then compare income protection with you.
Income protection can pay part of your income if illness or injury stops you working, usually based on your earnings in the 12 months before the illness or injury. Each policy has its own definition of disability. Waiting periods can run from 14 days to two years, you must be unable to work at the end of the waiting period to be paid, and benefits can run for two or five years, or to an age.
What we work through with you on income protection:
- Any cash saved from mobile jobs or workshop wages, matched to how long a waiting period could be
- Any accident pay and paid personal leave from work, lined up against the waiting period you pick
- A non-work illness, or an injury workers compensation doesn’t cover, set against the waiting and benefit periods you choose
- A benefit period of two or five years, or to an age, chosen with any workshop and home debts in view
- Any tool allowance, overtime or Saturday penalties, each read against a policy’s own definition of income
- A four-day week or a later start in the workshop, read against any weekly hours threshold in a policy
- Weekly compensation and any accident pay after a workshop injury, which a PDS may say reduce the monthly benefit
- Workshop pay or a fund balance as the source of each premium, and the deduction question an accountant answers
Life Insurance
Could the people at home keep up with what your pay or any workshop income covers now if you were no longer here?
Life cover can pay your beneficiaries a lump sum to put towards any loans, everyday costs and the plans you share.
We can total any debts with you, then size life cover around anyone relying on your income and any cover in super.
A life policy can pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries if you pass away, and some include a terminal illness benefit. Insurers usually ask about your age and your job when you apply. 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 other claims paid under that package.
What we work through for life cover:
- Any mortgage, service vehicle repayments and tool supplier accounts added up, so a payout could match those debts
- Any workshop lease, hoist or equipment finance and business loan in your name, counted in the amount
- Any life cover sitting in funds from earlier workshops or an apprenticeship, found before any account is closed
- Binding or non-lapsing nominations, where a trustee offers them, for eligible people or your estate after any rollover
- Life and TPD sold together in any old workshop fund, where paying the TPD part may lower the life amount
- Bay, roadside or mine site work spelled out on a life application, because insurers ask about occupation
- A terminal illness payment, if a life policy allows one, and the point at which a mechanic could receive it
- The amount of life cover revisited when a workshop sale settles, a home is bought or a baby arrives
TPD Insurance
Which goals would you still want paid for if you could never work on vehicles, or in any job, again?
A TPD lump sum could go towards debts and plans if you’re unable to work again, as the policy defines it.
Together, we’ll weigh TPD definitions against the diagnostic and trade skills you’ve built.
As the policy defines it, TPD cover can pay a lump sum if illness or injury means you’re unlikely to work again. Own occupation wording looks at your usual job; any occupation wording looks at any job suited to your education, training or experience. Own occupation cover is usually only available outside super, cover in super usually ends at 65, and a TPD payout may reduce life cover sold in the same package.
What we compare with you for TPD:
- A test asking whether you could return to mechanic work, beside one asking about any suitable job
- Diagnostic, service desk, parts or inspection experience, and how “education, training or experience” wording may weigh such work
- TPD wording in any super accounts from past dealerships or workshops, read before any account is closed
- A move from the bays to service advising or parts, told to each fund so its record of your job is current
- Activities of daily living tests, which some TPD policies use instead of asking whether you could work on vehicles
- Hoist finance, a service vehicle loan or a mortgage, if you carry them, totalled for a TPD figure
- Own occupation TPD bought personally rather than through a fund, with the premium coming from take-home pay
- A TPD payout under a package with life cover, which may lower the amount left for your beneficiaries
Trauma Insurance
Were a serious diagnosis to come, how could treatment and weeks away from vehicles and customers be paid for?
For a listed condition that meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded, trauma cover can pay a lump sum.
Together, we’ll read a trauma policy’s list of conditions, and how it sits beside income protection.
Medical definitions can be different between insurers, so each listed critical illness or serious injury is read against the policy’s own wording. A lump sum can be paid when a condition meets that definition and isn’t excluded. 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:
- Definitions on a trauma schedule, read clause by clause so a diagnosis can be checked against the wording
- Lower-severity diagnoses some policies pay a portion for, beside the weeks a workshop job may be on hold
- Trauma premiums budgeted from workshop takings or wages, since a new trauma policy sits outside any fund
- A workshop lease or household bills met from a trauma payment, if one is paid, until any income protection begins
- A serious illness not covered by workers compensation, planned for with cover of its own
- Time off for treatment as a mobile mechanic, when no jobs means no invoices, weighed against a trauma lump sum
- Any trauma policy you already pay for, weighed on its issue terms before any replacement is agreed
- Tax on a trauma payout or its premiums, which an accountant confirms for a wage earner or a business owner
Cover in Super
From one workshop to the next, has any cover in your super kept up with the work you do now?
Checking each fund’s cover against your work can show what’s worth keeping and what could suit you better.
We can check any cover in your super with you before anything is changed or any accounts are combined.
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. It’s usually for a set amount, and premiums are deducted from your super balance. With more than one account, you may pay premiums on more than one policy and may not be able to claim the full benefit from more than one.
What we look at in your super with you:
- Any super account from past dealerships or workshops, with any life, TPD or income protection inside it named
- A start at a new workshop, and which of your funds then receives your super and carries any cover
- An apprentice’s new account, where life and TPD for an under-25 member may wait until the fund is asked
- The job each fund has on file for diesel or light vehicle work, with the fund asked to correct a wrong one
- Any health exclusions in a fund’s automatic insurance, found in its PDS before relying on that insurance
- Any premiums coming out of a small account from an earlier workshop, weighed against what its cover would pay
- Old workshop accounts rolled together only after weighing up any insurance each one carries
- Cover in super checked before any move from employment to mobile work, as insurance terms vary between funds
Accident Pay and Your Own Cover
How could knowing whether your award or agreement includes accident pay help shape the cover you choose?
Knowing where any accident pay stops can help you choose a waiting period and benefit period.
Together, we’ll map what any award, employer and workers compensation scheme may provide, then where cover of your own fits.
Workers compensation is separate, through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme. Some awards and agreements add accident pay, which tops up weekly compensation, and others have none. One award covering many vehicle repair workshops, for example, excludes the first 5 normal working days and over-award pay, runs up to 26 weeks for any one injury, is reduced by pay for modified duties and ends if you leave that employer or take a lump sum. Other awards and agreements may differ.
What we look at with you on accident pay and your own cover:
- An injury away from the workshop, at sport or at home, and what any income protection policy says about it
- Above-award pay, which some awards’ accident pay leaves out, and how much of it a policy’s income definition may count
- Any days at the start of a work injury that your award’s accident pay excludes, set against your waiting period
- The months after any accident pay limit, such as 26 weeks under some awards, set against a policy’s benefit period
- Modified duties or fewer hours on a return to work, which can reduce any accident pay by what that work pays
- A move to another workshop, where any accident pay from the old job generally ends with that employment
- Sick leave you’ve banked, if you have it, and how many weeks of a waiting period it could carry
- Questions about any accident pay taken to your employer or the Fair Work Ombudsman, with personal cover planned alongside
Going Mobile or Owning a Workshop
If you start invoicing your own jobs or take over a workshop, what could change for any cover you hold?
Looking at your cover before the move can show what carries over and what’s worth comparing.
We’ll go over your cover with you before any move to mobile work or into a workshop of your own.
On an ABN there’s no paid holiday or sick leave, and leaving employment can affect the insurance cover in your super. A business contracting with you as an individual may have to pay your super if you’re paid mainly for your labour, for your own skills rather than a result, and you do the work yourself, but not through your company, trust or partnership. Some policies base a self-employed person’s income on their share of net business profit.
What we check with you before the move:
- No sick leave or accident pay on an ABN, and whether a workers compensation scheme may cover you, asked of the scheme
- Parts on each invoice, and the net profit after costs that some policies use as your income
- Super on contract work, which depends on all three ATO labour tests and doesn’t apply through a company, trust or partnership
- Financial statements and BAS prepared by an accountant, gathered for an income protection application
- Rent, equipment leases and staff wages, read against what a business expenses policy lists as eligible
- Parts stock and your own pay, which some business expenses policies leave out of what they pay
- A company or trust for the workshop, with the structure itself advised on by an accountant
- Garage, tools and public liability insurance, left with a general insurance broker who can advise on it
Making a Claim
Were a claim ever needed, how much easier could the forms and follow-up be with someone beside you?
Sharing the paperwork and the follow-up can make a claim easier to manage while you look after yourself.
We can lodge a claim with you, then keep following it up while the insurer or fund assesses it.
Moneysmart suggests speaking first to whoever arranged the cover, including your employer for cover through work. An insurer can ask about your duties, physical requirements and weekly hours, plus payslips and tax returns, or financial statements if you’re self-employed. The insurer assesses the claim, and a complaint goes first to the insurer or super fund, then to AFCA. For urgent financial help during a claim, speak to the insurer or super fund.
How we help with a claim:
- Any welcome packs and insurer letters from past workshops, gathered so each claim goes to the right place first
- Hoist work, lifting and the hours behind a usual week, set out as the physical requirements of the job
- Payslips showing any tool allowance and overtime, collected to show what your workshop wages paid
- Hoist and engine bay tasks you can still do, described in treating reports an insurer may request with your consent
- A hoist or lifting injury at work, with the scheme assessing compensation and any personal cover’s claim lodged with you
- Mobile mechanic invoices, BAS and tax returns, gathered with an accountant to show what the business earned
- Lighter duties or shorter days back in the bays, and whether a policy pays part of the monthly amount then
- A disputed decision, raised first with the insurer or super fund, then free of charge with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority
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
- Workshop, mobile or site work: Insurers usually ask about your job when you apply. A dealership technician, a mobile mechanic and a diesel mechanic on a mine site do different work, so where you work and your day-to-day duties are part of describing it accurately.
- Under vehicles and lifting: Time spent under vehicles on a hoist and lifting heavy parts are part of the physical requirements an insurer can ask about at claim, so they’re worth setting out as they are.
- High-voltage vehicle work: Depowering battery electric vehicles is a trade skill with its own national training unit. If your duties include it, it belongs in the description of your work.
- Hours across the week: Some policies only cover you if you work a minimum number of hours each week, so your usual hours are worth setting out, and checking again before any cut in hours.
- Allowances, overtime and bonuses: Income protection usually works from your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury. Whether any tool allowance, overtime, Saturday penalties, above-award pay or bonuses count is set by the policy’s own definition of income.
- Accident pay and sick leave: If your award or agreement includes accident pay, it can top up weekly workers compensation on its own terms. One award covering many vehicle repair workshops, for example, excludes the first 5 normal working days and over-award pay, runs for up to 26 weeks and applies only while you stay with that employer; other awards and agreements may differ or have none. For illness or injury not covered by workers compensation, any sick leave or employer cover is what work may offer.
- Parts and labour on an invoice: On an ABN, some policies use your share of the business’s net profit rather than what you invoice, so parts and other costs are worth separating. Where a business must pay you super on a contract, parts and other non-labour items are left out of it.
- Taking over a workshop: If you leave a job to take over a workshop, any accident pay generally ends with that employment, and any cover through your old employer may not continue. Workshop debts and fixed costs may call for a fresh look at life and TPD cover, and at business expenses cover, offered by some policies.
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 Workshop Work, Worked Through Together
Your Workshop Duties Set Out for an Application
Bay, mobile or site work, and any high-voltage vehicle work, described in full on any application.
Accident Pay and Sick Leave Lined Up With a Waiting Period
Any accident pay, paid leave and any savings set beside the waiting periods a policy offers.
Pay and Allowances Set Out for Income Protection
Wages, any tool allowance, overtime and above-award pay read against each policy’s income definition.
Invoice Income Separated From Parts
If you invoice, parts and labour set apart in your figures, alongside the financial statements an accountant prepares.
Cover Reviewed Before Any Move to Mobile Work
Any cover through work and super looked at with you before a move to invoicing your own jobs.
Workshop Costs and Your Income Weighed as Two Needs
Income protection and business expenses cover, offered by some policies, compared if you own a workshop.
Cover in Any Fund From Past Workshops Checked
Any life, TPD or income protection in each super account you hold, listed before any accounts are combined.
A Claim Lodged With You, Start to Finish
Forms, reports and follow-up shared with you while the insurer assesses a claim.
Proactive, Holistic, and Experienced Financial Planning
Choosing cover starts with knowing how your work runs. We listen first: a dealership or a local workshop, a service vehicle, a site or a business of your own, and what you’d like your cover to do. We explain each type of cover in plain terms, answer questions as they come up and work at a pace that suits you. Our recommendations usually come to you in writing, so you can go through them away from the workshop.
Cover paperwork is something we share with you. With your consent, we can gather payslips, invoices, fund statements, PDSs and any award or employer cover details, then follow up with funds and insurers so the chasing doesn’t land on you. A partner or someone else close to you is welcome to join our conversations, in person or on a call. If a claim is ever needed, we’ll lodge it with you and keep you updated until the insurer has decided.
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 Motor Mechanics
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 work as a mechanic, your family, work, income, assets and goals. Then we recommend the types and amounts of cover that suit your life.
A mechanic’s life can mean wages with allowances or above-award pay, any accident pay that stops at set points, invoices that include parts, or a workshop with its own costs. Each can affect how an insurer assesses an application and how a policy pays, so your duties, pay, engagement and any debts 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.
Some awards and agreements include accident pay, which tops up weekly workers compensation for a work injury. One award covering many vehicle repair workshops, for example, excludes over-award pay and the first 5 normal working days, runs up to 26 weeks for any one injury, is reduced by pay for modified duties and ends if you leave that employer or a lump sum replaces weekly compensation. Other awards and agreements may differ.
Income protection can pay part of your income if illness or injury stops you working, including an illness or an injury away from work, subject to its definitions. Under a policy’s terms, weekly compensation and any accident pay may reduce the monthly benefit. The scheme decides any workers compensation claim, and the insurer decides on any application.
It depends on the policy. For tax, the ATO counts an allowance your employer reports as income, while a reimbursement isn’t income and the expense it repays can’t be claimed as a deduction. An income protection policy uses its own definition of income, so whether it counts a tool allowance, overtime or Saturday penalties is set by its wording.
It helps to set out every line on your payslips before comparing policies, and to have an accountant confirm the tax side. We can read the income definitions with you across a wide range of insurers, and the insurer decides on any application.
Each policy sets its own definition. Some work out a self-employed person’s income from their share of the business’s net profit, rather than the total invoiced, so parts, fuel and other business costs come off before the income figure is reached. At claim time, an insurer can ask for financial statements if you’re self-employed.
Keeping parts and labour separate on each invoice can make your figures clearer, and an accountant prepares the financial statements and tax returns an application may draw on. We can compare how policies work out self-employed income with you, and the insurer decides on any application.
It depends on what your job provides now. Where your award or agreement includes accident pay, it generally applies only while you remain employed by that employer, and paid sick leave comes with employment, so neither carries over from that job. Any cover through your employer or an agreement may not continue, and whether a workers compensation scheme may cover you in your own business is a question for the scheme.
Moneysmart suggests checking how a move from employee to self-employed affects the insurance cover through your super, since terms vary from fund to fund. We can look at any cover you hold with you before the move, and compare personal cover alongside it.
Describe the work accurately. Insurers usually ask about your job when you apply, so it helps to set out your day-to-day duties in full, including any high-voltage work you’re trained for, such as depowering battery electric vehicles, and where you do it: a dealership, a local workshop or a service vehicle. If you ever claim, an insurer can ask about your work duties and their physical requirements.
The insurer decides whether to offer cover and on what terms. We can help you prepare an accurate description of your work for any application, and compare policies with you across a wide range of insurers.
A business package quote can show business cover and its price quickly, which helps when you’re insuring a workshop or a van.
Advice for cover of your own looks at different things: income protection, life, TPD and trauma for you, any accident pay or sick leave from work, any cover in your super, and how you’re paid, from wages to invoices. We compare options from a wide range of insurers with you, and the insurer decides on any application. Business, garage and tool insurance stay with a general insurance broker.
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. Apprentice, qualified mechanic or workshop owner, we start with your work, how you’re paid and what you’d like protected.
There’s no cost for the initial conversation. Any advice after that is a paid service, with its scope and fee agreed with you in writing first. Useful to have on hand: recent payslips showing any allowances and overtime, or invoices, BAS and tax returns on an ABN, each super statement, any award or employer cover details, any policy you hold, and any workshop lease or loan papers. We’ll agree the next step with you from there.
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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