Life Insurance and Income Protection for Personal Trainers, Fitness Instructors and Yoga Teachers
Income Protection for Personal Trainers, Fitness Instructors and Yoga Teachers and Their Families
Training and teaching duties, pay by the session or class or from your own clients, and any cover through super shape your options. We help you apply for cover, review existing cover and lodge claims.
Financial Advice for Life Insurance and Income Protection
Who We Help
- Gym staff trainers on the payroll
- Trainers hiring gym floor space for clients of their own
- Instructors teaching group classes from a weekly timetable
- Yoga and Pilates teachers paid by the class
- Casual instructors on the gym floor and running inductions
- Mobile and outdoor trainers taking sessions to clients
- Online coaches who also train people in person
- Trainers with another job fitting sessions around it
- Studio owners still running sessions themselves
- Trainers leaving a gym payroll for their own clients, and checking any cover they hold first
We Can Help You
- For a cover application, describe your one-on-one sessions, classes, floor work and online coaching as they really are
- If you have a second job, describe it accurately beside your training work on an insurance application
- Compare the minimum hours rule in some income protection policies with a part-time week of sessions and classes
- Ask each of the insurers willing to consider your work which income counts from wages, per class pay and your own clients
- Choose a waiting period, the time before payments can start, around the savings you’d draw on while sessions and classes pause
- Check how a policy’s disability definition, and any partial benefit, treats programming or online check-ins you could keep doing
- Test how own and any occupation total and permanent disability (TPD) definitions treat designing programs and teaching movement
- Check each super fund’s record of your work, and any insurance attached to that account
- Talk through your cover if a move off a payroll, a second gym or a studio changes how you’re paid
- Lodge a claim on your personal cover with you and keep track of it until a decision is made
What we advise on
How Each Cover Works Around Training and Teaching Work
Income Protection
During illness or injury, what could keep money coming in while training and teaching stop?
Income protection could pay a share of your income after a waiting period, subject to the policy’s definitions and exclusions.
We’ll check income protection options with you from the insurers willing to consider your work, around your duties and pay.
A policy can pay a share of your pre-tax income if you can’t work, usually based on your earnings in the 12 months before. Each income protection policy has its own definition of disability, and conditions that must be met before a claim is made. 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. Exclusions can apply, including to occupations or activities.
What we look at with you on income protection:
- Not being able to run sessions or classes in person for a while, and how each policy’s definition of disability applies
- Programming, online check-ins or admin you could still do, and any partial benefit for working in a reduced capacity and earning less than before
- Asking each insurer before you apply which income counts across wages, per class pay and your own clients
- A part-time week of training and teaching, set against the minimum hours some policies require
- If you’re self-employed, savings in place of paid sick leave, weighed when you choose a waiting period
- The amount you’d want, based on household costs, beside the limits a policy and your earnings set
- An injury in a session or class, workers compensation where each scheme sets who qualifies, and any offset that lowers what a policy pays
- Premiums paid from your own pocket or through super, with the tax side of each confirmed by an accountant
Life Insurance
Could life cover help the people you love keep the plans your training income supports?
Your beneficiaries could receive a lump sum towards debts, daily costs and the plans you’ve made together.
We’ll size life cover with you from your debts and anyone relying on your income.
If you pass away, life cover can pay your beneficiaries a lump sum, and some policies include terminal illness cover. Moneysmart notes it can help if you have large debts or a mortgage. Insurers usually ask your age and job when you apply, and if no beneficiary is named, your estate or the super trustee may decide where the money goes.
What we weigh up with you on life cover:
- A studio fit-out or business loan, if you hold one, added to what anyone relying on you would need repaid
- Rent or a home loan, plus the regular household bills your training income covers now
- Car finance for mobile or outdoor sessions, where you have a loan, counted in the total
- Funds from earlier gyms or other jobs, if you have more than one, checked for life cover still attached
- A binding or non-binding choice of who receives your super death benefit, checked against the trustee’s rules
- Life cover bundled with TPD or trauma, where paying out one benefit may shrink the sum your beneficiaries receive
- Sessions, classes and floor work described on a life application as your week really runs
- Household income from your sessions and classes, set beside a partner’s own cover if you have a partner
TPD Insurance
Never able to work again: how could your plans and debts still be met?
TPD cover could pay a lump sum if you meet the policy’s definition of being unable to work again.
We’ll check with you how TPD definitions might treat the skills your training and teaching work builds.
An own occupation definition looks at your usual job, while an any occupation definition looks at jobs suited to your education, training or experience. Own occupation cover is usually only available outside super, and some definitions look at everyday activities instead of work. A TPD payment may also reduce life cover packaged with it.
What we compare with you on TPD:
- Own occupation TPD, usually bought as a separate policy outside super, which looks at training or teaching as your usual job
- Designing programs, delivering classes and teaching movement, tasks Jobs and Skills Australia lists, and how a definition may treat them
- Each fund’s TPD definition, set side by side if you hold cover in more than one fund
- The occupation each fund has on file, set beside the sessions, classes or floor work you do
- Daily living tasks, which some TPD policies test instead of work, compared with wording based on your job
- A TPD lump sum weighed against a home or studio loan, and what you’d still owe on each
- Income protection for a recovery period and TPD for a permanent stop, weighed as two separate needs
- Retraining or study, and whether a TPD test would then measure you against new skills as well as old
Trauma Insurance
Treatment after a serious diagnosis can mean time away from training and teaching: what could help with costs?
Trauma cover could pay a lump sum when a listed condition meets its definition and isn’t excluded.
Together, we’ll look at the conditions a trauma policy lists, and where its lump sum fits beside income protection.
Each trauma policy sets out the conditions it covers, with a definition for each one, and Moneysmart notes those medical definitions can differ 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:
- The medical definition for each listed condition, read one at a time before you compare policies
- Smaller payouts for an early-stage condition, where a policy pays them, checked in each definition
- Session and class income as the source of trauma premiums, as super can’t hold a new trauma policy
- Studio lease or car loan payments during an income protection waiting period, if you hold both covers
- Sessions you can’t run while recovering, if you’re self-employed without sick leave, and how a lump sum could help
- Standalone trauma compared with trauma joined to life cover, and what each structure means if you claim
- An existing trauma policy, if you hold one, kept until you’ve compared its wording side by side with any replacement
- The tax treatment of a trauma lump sum, confirmed by an accountant before the money is relied on
Cover in Super
In your super, how well does the cover suit the training and teaching you do now?
Each fund’s statement can show what cover you hold there and what it takes from your balance.
We’ll line up each fund’s cover and cost with you before anything is combined or changed.
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 listed in the fund’s product disclosure statement (PDS), and increasing it is usually underwritten like any other application.
What we check in each fund with you:
- Several funds from several gyms or studios, each with its own premiums coming off the balance
- Starting at another gym, where super generally goes to your existing fund unless you pick a different one
- Floor, class or session work as each fund has it on file, and asking the fund to fix an error, as Moneysmart suggests
- Gym work started before age 25, when insurance in a new fund may have to be requested, depending on job and fund
- Default cover for a set amount, which might not match what your household needs
- Smaller contributions in part-time years, if you have them, and what your fund says a low balance means for cover
- Premiums taken from each balance, weighed against how much super your training work adds each year
- Rolling gym and studio funds into one, after reading the insurance attached to each account
Sessions, Classes and Your Week
How could describing your sessions, classes and hours help cover fit the work you do?
Clear duties give an insurer an accurate picture of the work you do across your week.
Together, we’ll describe your duties for any application and check how a fund records them.
Jobs and Skills Australia lists tasks for fitness instructors such as designing individual fitness programs, delivering group exercise classes and personal tuition, and demonstrating and teaching body movements. 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:
- One-on-one sessions, with the share of your week spent training clients in person
- Group classes, where you teach any, and roughly how many a week, described plainly
- Yoga or Pilates teaching, where you teach either, listed beside other classes you run
- Gym floor shifts and inductions, including teaching members how to use equipment
- Sessions outdoors or in clients’ homes and workplaces, with where the work happens written down
- Online programming and check-ins, counted separately from the time you spend training people in person
- Sessions early and late in the day, and another job if you have one, noted so the whole week is clear
- A new mix of sessions, classes or online work, and how your fund or policy describes the job afterwards
Payroll, Per Class or Your Own Clients
Moving between a payroll, per class pay and your own clients: what changes for any cover?
Reviewing cover before the change can show what stays, what may not and what to ask.
We’ll describe how you’re paid for any application, and look at cover with you before a move.
Moneysmart notes self-employed people have no paid holidays or sick leave, and suggests checking how leaving a payroll affects cover through your super. A business may have to pay super on a contract if more than half its value is for your labour, you’re not paid for a set result and you can’t delegate the work, unless the contract is with your own company, trust or partnership. An ABN doesn’t settle it, and an accountant or the ATO can confirm.
What we look at with you before the change:
- Wages or per session pay on a gym payroll, with the sick leave and cover through your employer or fund, if any
- Casual engagements, shifts as short as one hour under one award for some trainers, kept in your income records
- Per class pay from several gyms or studios, brought together so an insurer can see the whole year
- Paying a gym a weekly fee to train your own clients, with income records kept from the first week
- Prepaid packages and online coaching income, kept in records an insurer could ask for when you claim
- If you’re self-employed, savings sized for time off, as Moneysmart notes there’s no paid leave
- Whether a gym or studio owes super on a contract under the ATO’s three tests, confirmed with an accountant or the ATO
- How each insurer works out income after a move to your own clients, asked before you apply
When to Review Your Cover
Where does your cover stand after a change in your training work or at home?
New work or a change at home can be a good reason to look at your cover again.
Together, we’ll check any policy or fund statement against the training and teaching you do now.
Training and teaching work can move from a payroll to your own clients, from one gym to several, or into online coaching or a studio. Default cover through super is for a set amount, so it might not match your needs. A change at work or home is a good reason to book a conversation, and the insurer decides on any new application.
Situations worth raising with us in a conversation:
- Moving from a gym payroll to your own clients, and what changes for leave and cover through super
- Picking up classes at a second gym or studio, and how your fund or policy records the work
- Adding online coaching, and how an insurer may count income earned that way
- Opening a studio, and the life or TPD amount you’d weigh against the new debts
- A second job starting or ending, and how your new hours compare with a policy’s terms
- Your last weeks at a gym, and checking with the employer or fund whether work-linked cover carries on after you go
- Teaching yoga or Pilates as well as training, and how a policy or fund records a mix of roles
- Moving house, a new baby or separating, and the level of cover your household might want afterwards
Making a Claim
Making a claim one day: how much clearer could each form and follow-up be with help beside you?
Someone working through the paperwork with you can make each step clearer while the insurer or fund assesses it.
Together, we’ll lodge a claim and follow each step with you while the insurer or fund assesses it.
Moneysmart says to speak first to whoever you bought the cover through, or your employer for cover through an employment arrangement. Insurers can ask for your work duties, including physical requirements, and weekly hours, 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 fund, then to AFCA.
How we help with a claim:
- Who to phone first, found from each policy’s papers or your fund statement before anything else
- A typical week before you stopped, with sessions, classes and hours written up in your own words
- Gym pay records, or your books and tax returns if you work for yourself, matched to what each insurer requests
- The medical and other reports an insurer may ask for, gathered with you as each request comes in
- Workers compensation, through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme, and each scheme sets who qualifies
- Scheme or other money paid to you during a claim, and how a policy’s terms may offset it by paying less
- A return on fewer sessions or classes, and how the policy’s terms treat reduced hours
- An outcome you don’t accept, taken to the insurer or fund first, then to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (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
- Your training and teaching duties: Insurers usually ask about your job when you apply. Jobs and Skills Australia lists tasks for fitness instructors from designing individual programs to delivering group classes, so the mix in your own week is worth describing as it is.
- Hours across the day, and any second job: Moneysmart notes some policies only cover you if you work a minimum number of hours a week. Your usual hours, and another job if you have one, are worth describing together.
- Payroll, per class or your own clients: On a payroll, paid leave and cover through your employer or fund, if you have them, are the starting point. If you’re self-employed, Moneysmart notes you won’t have paid holidays or sick leave, and an insurer can ask for financial statements when you claim.
- Packages, classes and online income: Income protection usually works from your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury. It’s worth asking each insurer how it works out income that comes from packages, classes and online clients.
- Work you could still do for a while: Programming or online check-ins may carry on when in-person sessions can’t. How a policy’s definition of disability, and a partial benefit if the policy has one, would treat that work is for the insurer to assess.
- Leaving a gym payroll: If you’re moving from employee to self-employed, Moneysmart suggests checking whether this affects the insurance cover through your super.
- A studio of your own: A lease, a fit-out or a loan adds commitments, so life and TPD amounts are worth comparing with what you’d owe. A broker can arrange any finance.
- Study or a new direction: A TPD definition may look at your usual occupation, or at jobs suited to your education, training or experience, so a move into study or other work is worth raising before it happens.
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. To understand how insurers approach training and teaching work, contact us and we’ll go through the options with you.
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 | The insurers willing to consider your work | 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
- The insurers willing to consider your work
- 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 Training and Teaching Work, Worked Through Together
Training and Teaching Duties Described
Sessions, classes, floor work and online coaching described with you as they make up your week.
A Second Job Described Beside the Training
Another job, if you have one, described accurately beside your training and teaching work.
Your Hours Compared With Minimum Hours Terms
Your usual week compared with you against the minimum hours some policies set.
Each Way You’re Paid, Described for an Insurer
Wages, per class pay and own-client income described with you, with each insurer asked how it works out income.
Disability Wording Checked for Work You Could Still Do
How a policy treats programming or online work you could keep doing, checked with you before you apply.
Each Fund’s Cover Checked
Cover, premiums and the occupation on file in each fund, checked with you before any change.
Cover Looked at Before Leaving a Payroll
Any cover through super, and sick leave if you have it, checked with you before moving to your own clients.
A Trainer’s Claim Lodged With You
Your duties, hours and pay records written up with you while the insurer or fund assesses a 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 Personal Trainers, Fitness Instructors and Yoga Teachers
People come to you because they want to feel stronger, feel better and stick with something they’ve started. You’re there for them class after class and session after session, and you notice the progress they might miss. We’d like to hear about your own life as well: the people who matter to you, what you enjoy and where you’d like to be in a few years. Then we’ll build a plan with you around the way you’re paid and the life you want.
Steady planning can help your income go further than the week ahead. It might go towards a home, time with the people you love, a studio of your own, further study or more choice about how much you work later on. Anyone who counts on your income can be planned for alongside your own goals. With ongoing advice, we go over the plan with you each year, so it moves with your work and your goals.
If illness or injury kept you from your training and teaching work, 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 with you from the insurers willing to consider your work. 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.
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 training and teaching work, your family, work, income, assets and goals. Then we recommend the types and amounts of cover that suit your life.
Training and teaching work can mean one-on-one sessions, classes, floor work or online coaching, on a payroll, per class or with your own clients. 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 what we look at.
With a financial adviser, you also have:
- Access to the insurers willing to consider your work, each with its own way of assessing an application
- 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.
It comes down to the policy’s definitions. Each income protection policy has its own definition of disability, and conditions that must be met before a claim is made. If a policy has a partial benefit, it may pay part of a benefit when you work in a reduced capacity and earn less than before.
At claim, an insurer can ask about your work duties, including physical requirements, your weekly hours and your pay records. We can read the wording with you before you apply, and the insurer decides on any claim.
Start by describing both jobs as they are. Moneysmart notes some policies only cover you if you work a minimum number of hours a week, so your hours across both jobs are worth writing down, along with what each job involves.
Which income counts across the two is a question to ask each insurer, and sick leave from the other job, if it comes with any, can affect which waiting period you choose. We can compare this 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. With income from several sources, how each one is counted is a question to ask each insurer before you apply.
An insurer can ask for payslips, tax returns or financial statements at claim, so records kept up to date with an accountant help. We can compare with you how the insurers willing to consider your work approach it, and the insurer decides on any application.
Describe your week as it is. Insurers usually ask about your job when you apply, so it helps to list one-on-one sessions, classes, floor work, outdoor sessions or online coaching, and roughly how your hours split between them.
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, and we can help you describe your work accurately.
Begin with anything that comes through the job. Any cover that comes through your employer may not continue once you leave, so it’s worth asking your employer or fund before your last day. Moneysmart also suggests checking whether moving from employee to self-employed affects the insurance cover through your super.
Moneysmart notes that if you’re self-employed you won’t have paid sick leave, so savings and a waiting period are worth weighing together. 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. We can go through it with you.
That depends on the definition. An own occupation definition looks at your usual job. An any occupation definition looks at jobs suited to your education, training or experience, and Jobs and Skills Australia lists tasks such as designing fitness programs and teaching body movements, so skills like these may come into it.
Own occupation cover is usually only available outside super. We can compare the wording with you before you apply, and the insurer decides on any claim.
Moving from a gym payroll to your own clients, picking up classes at a second gym, adding online coaching or opening a studio can each be a good reason to book a conversation.
A new home, a baby or a separation can matter just as much. Together, we can go through what you hold beside your work today and look at new cover you might apply for, with the insurer deciding on any application.
Our ongoing advice clients have an annual review with us.
Online quotes are a quick way to compare prices for one set of answers. They can miss how sessions, classes and coaching fill your week, how per class pay and clients of your own can make your earnings vary, or the cover already in your super.
We begin with those details, then compare options with you from the insurers willing to consider your work, and the insurer decides on any application.
Book a conversation to learn what you could look at for sessions, classes and coaching.
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. Whether you’ve just qualified, teach classes across a few studios or run a studio of your own, we start from the work you do now.
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: pay records from a gym or your own books, last year’s tax return, each super statement, insurance documents if you hold cover, and a rough split of your week between sessions, classes and other work.
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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