Life Insurance and Income Protection for Senior Public Servants
Income Protection for Senior Public Servants and Their Families
Your role, any scheme benefits, contract dates and debts can all shape your options. We can help you find and apply for cover, review any cover you hold and lodge claims.
Financial Advice for Life Insurance and Income Protection
Who We Help
- Senior Executive Service members with pay and duties to set out for an insurer
- State and territory executives comparing cover beside a contract or scheme
- Directors whose weeks can include long hours or regular travel
- Executive level staff carrying more responsibility at work
- Regulator and authority leaders outside a department structure
- Contract executives with a renewal decision still to come
- People moved between agencies after a restructure
- Defined benefit members reading a scheme beside any cover of their own
- People newly promoted whose income has changed
- People approaching a contract end or a leaving date, and looking at their cover
We Can Help You
- Read any scheme death and invalidity benefits beside your own cover
- Start from household spending to judge the income protection you’d want, since earnings set the benefit
- Choose a cover waiting period with your accrued sick leave, if you have it, in mind
- Describe senior duties, travel and hours plainly when you apply for cover
- Ask how each insurer treats allowances and packaged pay for income protection
- List the insurance in each super account you hold, and how each fund records your job
- Explain own and any occupation TPD wording, and ask whether each is available to you
- Work through life and TPD amounts for a home loan, dependants and your level of pay
- Talk through your cover if a contract date, restructure or leaving date changes your plans
- Lodge a personal cover claim with you, then stay involved during the assessment
What we advise on
How Each Cover Works Around a Senior Public Sector Role
Income Protection
Suppose illness or injury took you away from your public sector role: how would you manage?
After a waiting period, income protection can pay part of your income, subject to the policy’s definitions and exclusions.
Together, we’ll compare income protection from a wide range of insurers around your duties, pay and any scheme benefits.
A policy can replace part of your pre-tax income if illness or injury stops work, usually based on the previous 12 months’ earnings. Each has its own definition of disability, most offer a waiting period between 14 days and two years, and exclusions can apply, including to occupations or activities. An insurer usually looks at your job and duties when you apply, and this can affect whether cover is offered, the benefit periods available and the amount. The insurer decides.
What we look at with you on income protection:
- Each policy’s own definition of disability, set beside duties like leading teams, briefing and making decisions
- Whether a policy’s definition of disability changes over a long claim, asked before you compare
- A budget for what you’d want covered, remembering the benefit itself is a share of senior earnings
- Long service or recreation leave, if you have it, and how long it could last before a benefit begins
- A phased finish on fewer days, if you plan one, and your policy’s rules on hours worked
- An invalidity or other payment from a scheme, if you’d receive one, and whether it may reduce the benefit
- An older policy’s benefit amount, if you hold one, read against what you earn now
- Which parts of your pay each insurer counts, asked before you compare benefit amounts
Life Insurance
Who would you want looked after financially if you weren’t here?
Life cover can pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries, towards debts, everyday costs and plans you’ve made.
We’ll work through a life cover amount with you, reading any scheme death benefit first.
Life cover can pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries if you pass away, and some policies include terminal illness cover. Moneysmart notes it can help if you have large debts or a mortgage. A scheme death benefit, if you have one, is set by its own rules, and with no beneficiary named, your estate or the super trustee may decide where the money goes.
What we weigh up with you on life cover:
- A home loan, if you have one, and what would be left to repay if your income stopped
- School or care costs, if you have children, over the years they’re likely to run
- Who a scheme can pay on your death, if you’re in one, under its own rules
- Naming your beneficiaries in super, and the form a valid choice has to take under trustee rules
- Linked life cover, and the amount remaining once a TPD claim has been paid
- Your job and duties on a life application, answered with reasonable care when the questions are asked
- Cover for both of you, if you have a partner, so one income isn’t left carrying the household
- A fund from before your public service, if you hold one, and what life insurance it includes
TPD Insurance
Would your plans still hold if you could never work again?
TPD cover can pay a lump sum if you can’t work again, as the policy defines it.
We can explain how TPD definitions apply to a senior career, and how scheme invalidity terms differ.
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, and scheme invalidity definitions are set by the scheme. A TPD payment may also reduce any life cover packaged with it.
What we compare with you on TPD:
- Own occupation definitions at a senior level, and asking insurers what they’ll consider, usually outside super
- Any occupation wording, and how education and experience can come into the test, with no outcome assumed
- Invalidity definitions in a scheme, if you have one, set by the scheme rather than by a policy
- A policy and a fund that define disability differently, if you hold both
- Activities of daily living wording, one of three TPD tests Moneysmart lists, read before you compare
- Borrowings, if you have any, and how far a TPD payment would reach against them
- Deciding between more TPD and more income protection, as each pays in a different situation
- Moving to a less senior role, and how a policy’s wording may then read your usual job
Trauma Insurance
A serious diagnosis can bring costs beyond your pay: what could help with them?
Trauma cover can pay a lump sum for a listed condition, where it meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded.
Together, we’ll read what a trauma policy lists and how a payment could sit beside other benefits.
Trauma cover can pay on a listed condition rather than on time away from work. Each condition has its own definition, and Moneysmart notes that medical definitions can be different between insurers. New trauma cover can’t be held inside super, which has been the rule for policies written since 1 July 2014.
What we read with you in a trauma policy:
- Named conditions on each list, set out before you look at price
- Two insurers describing one illness differently, as medical definitions can vary
- Room in your take-home budget for trauma premiums, since a new policy can’t sit inside super
- Early weeks off before another policy starts paying, and whether a trauma payment could ease those bills
- Trauma cover linked to a life policy, as paying one part can lower the other
- Existing trauma cover, if any, read line by line before you’d swap it for something new
- Any tax on the payment, as a point to raise with an accountant ahead of time
- Scheme death and invalidity benefits, if you have them, which work under different rules from a trauma policy
Cover in Super
Is cover through super, if you hold it, still a good fit for the role you have now?
Reading each fund before you change anything can show what’s there and what it costs.
We can read what each fund provides with you, and set any scheme benefits beside it.
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, so it’s worth asking your fund what a low balance would mean for your cover.
What we check in each fund with you:
- A defined benefit fund, if you have one, set beside an accumulation account and the cover in each
- How a fund or policy records your job, which is worth reading again when your work changes
- Stapling rules, which can send contributions from a new employer to your existing fund, and the exceptions your fund can explain
- Anything a PDS says about earlier health issues, before you count on that cover
- The insurance deductions on each statement, and how they’d reduce an accumulation balance
- Consolidating older accounts once each one’s insurance is read, leaving any defined benefit fund’s rules for the fund to explain
- Extra life or TPD through your fund, where the request is usually underwritten
- Rolling money out of an older fund, which can mean losing its insurance
Your Scheme Beside Your Own Cover
If you’re in a scheme, what could knowing its benefits first show you about your own cover?
Knowing what a scheme provides can show what personal cover could sit beside it.
We’ll read what your scheme says with you, if you’re in one, then weigh what personal cover could add.
Death and invalidity benefits, where a scheme has them, are set by its own rules, and your fund can explain how they work. A personal policy has separate definitions, and the insurer decides on any application and any claim. We can list the questions with you, then set the fund’s answers beside what you’d want covered.
What we’d ask and read with you:
- What a scheme says is paid on death, and to whom, asked of your fund with you
- The invalidity definition in a scheme’s rules, and how it may differ from the wording in a personal policy
- Who decides an invalidity claim under a scheme, and what evidence your fund says it would ask for
- Changes to contributions or your role, and whether your fund says they alter a death or invalidity benefit
- Whether one benefit may reduce another, asked of your fund and insurer before you rely on both
- Leaving your employer, and what your fund says stays in place for you afterwards
- Questions to put to your fund in writing, listed with you so the answers can sit in your plan
- A benefit for your partner under a scheme, if the rules provide one, read beside your partner’s own cover
Contract Dates and Restructures
With a contract date or a restructure ahead, what could it mean for your cover?
Looking early can show what stays, what may change and what you’d like to apply for.
Together, we’ll go through what a contract date or restructure could mean for cover you hold or want to apply for.
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. If you stay with the same super fund as you move between jobs, any insurance you have there will usually stay with that fund. Any new application is the insurer’s decision.
What we look at with you before the date:
- A look at your cover before a contract ends, while there’s time to ask your employer or fund
- A move between agencies, and any cover through work that your old and new employers can explain
- Cover decisions that don’t rely on renewal, in case a contract isn’t extended
- Time between roles, and how long your savings could last with premiums still to pay
- Going to the private sector, and questions about cover to ask before you accept
- Which income an insurer counts if your pay changes, asked of each insurer before you rely on the figure
- New cover you’re weighing while you’re still in your role, with any application decided by the insurer
- Redundancy, and what income protection would and wouldn’t do, as it’s generally for illness or injury rather than losing a job
When to Review Your Cover
Could a new role or a change at home be a reason to read your cover again?
A promotion, a contract date or a change at home can each be a good reason to book a conversation.
We can go through what you hold, if anything, beside the role you have now and your plans.
A senior public sector career can bring promotions, contract dates, moves between agencies and a chosen leaving date. Default cover through super is for a set amount, so it might not match your needs. When one of these comes up, you can book a conversation and we’ll read a policy or fund statement with you. Any new application is the insurer’s decision.
Situations worth raising with us in a conversation:
- Stepping into a more senior role, and the job title your fund or any policy still shows
- A contract end or renewal date, and what you’d want settled for your cover beforehand
- A restructure moving you to a new agency, and whether work-based cover moves too
- A leaving date on the calendar, and what you’d still want cover to do once salary stops
- Changes at home, such as a loan, a child or separating, if they apply, and how much cover now makes sense
- Your final weeks in a department or agency, and the HR questions to raise about work-based cover
- Renewal notices for stepped premiums, if yours are stepped, read against what you’d want cover for now
- How your job is recorded, worth reading again on each fund statement or policy when your work changes
Making a Claim
Would it help to have someone beside you for the paperwork if you ever need to claim?
Help with forms and records can make a claim easier while the insurer or fund assesses it.
We’ll lodge a claim with you and follow up each step while the insurer or fund assesses it.
Moneysmart says to contact whoever you bought the cover through first, and your employer for cover through an employment arrangement. At claim, an insurer can ask about your work duties, including physical requirements, the hours you work each week and your pay records. 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 ring first when cover sits with an insurer, a fund or your agency’s HR team
- Travel, briefings and the hours you worked, put down plainly for a senior role
- Pay records from your time with each agency, including how allowances appear on payslips and tax returns
- Reports from your treating doctor, and a plain account of senior public sector duties they can refer to
- Invalidity under a scheme, if you’re in one, as its own process with its own decision-maker
- Money from leave or a scheme during a claim, and what your policy says about other payments
- Returning on reduced hours or lighter duties, and any partial terms written into your policy
- An outcome you want looked at again, which can be raised as a complaint and later taken to 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 role and duties: Insurers usually ask about your job when you apply. A title such as director can cover very different work, so what you do in a typical week is part of describing your job accurately.
- Travel and hours: Any regular travel, site visits or long weeks are part of your work, so it helps to set them out as they are. Some income protection policies only cover you if you work a minimum number of hours.
- How you’re paid: Income protection usually works from your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury. If part of your pay is an allowance or a packaged amount, it’s worth asking each insurer how it works out income.
- Any scheme benefits: If you’re in a scheme with death or invalidity benefits, its rules set who qualifies and what’s paid. A personal policy has its own definitions, and other payments may reduce an income protection benefit.
- Super and cover in funds: Default cover through super is for a set amount, so it might not match your needs. Premiums are deducted from your super balance, and each fund’s cover is worth reading on its own.
- A contract date: 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. A date on a contract gives you a point to look at this early.
- A restructure or move: A move between agencies can change your employer and your duties, and your employer and fund can tell you what changes for any cover through work. How a fund or policy records your job is worth reading again when your work changes.
- Stepping back: Fewer hours, advisory work or retirement can change the income you earn and what you’d want cover to do. Cover in super can end or change, for example if your balance is too low, you change fund or you reach an age limit.
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 in Public Sector Leadership, Worked Through Together
Scheme and Cover Read Together
What a scheme pays on death or invalidity, read with you beside personal cover.
Senior Duties Set Out
Your duties, travel and responsibilities described as they are on any application.
Income Protection Weighed Against a Budget
What you’d want covered worked out with you from household spending, with the benefit itself based on earnings.
Cover in Each Super Fund Read
The insurance in each account, and how each fund records your job, read with you.
TPD Wording Compared
Own and any occupation wording explained with you, with each insurer asked what’s available.
Cover Looked at Before a Contract Date
Any cover you hold read with you before a contract ends or a role changes.
Debts Reflected in Life Cover
Life cover amounts worked out with you against any debts and who relies on your income.
A Claim Lodged With You
Forms, records and follow-up handled with you while the insurer or fund assesses the 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 Senior Public Servants
Public work asks a lot of the people who lead it. You carry decisions that reach well beyond your own desk, for teams, for programs and for the people who rely on them, and it’s easy for your own plans to wait their turn. We’d like to start by getting to know you: what you’ve worked for, what matters to you and who you’d like to look after. From there, we’ll help you bring your money together into one plan you can see clearly.
That same care can go towards your own next stage. It might be a home you’ve always wanted, more time with family, travel or work you choose for yourself later on. It might simply be knowing where you stand and what’s possible when you’re ready to step back. Whatever you have in mind, we’ll help you give it the attention you’ve given your work, and with ongoing advice we can review your plan together each year.
If illness or injury kept you from your public sector role, income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period, subject to the policy’s definitions, exclusions and the insurer’s assessment. Personal cover can also include life, TPD and trauma cover, each with its own terms. We can advise on cover alone, without a full financial plan, explaining each one in plain language and comparing cover from a wide range of insurers with you. The insurer decides on any application.
Every financial decision impacts the next
Your Financial Life Is Connected
Great advice starts with understanding the bigger picture. Every stage of life presents new opportunities and challenges, from buying property and changing careers to growing your family, planning for retirement and protecting what matters most. At Ryker, we help connect every piece of your financial world into one clear strategy.
Learn more about Financial Planning and Advice for Senior Public Servants
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 public sector role, your family, work, income, assets and goals. Then we recommend the types and amounts of cover that suit your life.
A senior public sector role can be on a fixed-term contract or ongoing, in a department, agency or statutory body, with or without scheme benefits. Your duties, how you’re paid and any scheme benefits are what we look at.
With a financial adviser, you also have:
- Access to a wide range of insurers, who can assess the same health details differently
- Help preparing your application and answering the health questions with care
- Advice on whether to hold cover inside or outside super, and the trade-offs
- Annual reviews of your cover through ongoing advice, with your health, family and work in mind
- Someone in your corner if you ever need to claim
Going directly to an insurer can mean no separate advice fee, but you’ll only see that insurer’s policies, and you’ll generally receive general advice only, which doesn’t consider your personal circumstances.
Going through an online comparison site or broker, you may see more options side by side, but they also generally provide general advice only, which doesn’t consider your whole financial picture.
When we give you personal advice, the law requires us to act in your best interests, which we take personally. The insurer still decides whether to offer cover and on what terms.
We’re invested in your long-term success. What we do is personal, and we take it personally.
Your financial decisions connect, so we consider the parts of your financial life that are relevant to the advice you need:
- Property & Investing
- Career & Income
- Tax Strategy
- Insurance & Protecting Your Family
- Super & SMSF
- Wealth & Investments
- Life Events & Changes
- Business & Wealth
- Legacy & Future Wealth
- Retirement Planning
This is how we help you make decisions today with your longer-term goals in view.
Everybody’s situation is different, so we listen first, understand what matters to you and explain your options clearly before we make a recommendation.
That depends on what your scheme provides and what you’d want covered. The scheme’s rules define its benefits, so we’d start there: what’s paid, who decides and what changes if you leave. Then we’d set that beside any debts, anyone relying on you and the income you’d want to keep.
Personal cover has its own definitions and its own costs, and other payments may reduce an income protection benefit. We can compare options with you from there, and the insurer decides on any application.
Start with any cover that comes through your employer. It may not continue once you leave, so it’s worth asking your employer or fund before your last day. If you stay with the same super fund as you move between jobs, any insurance you have there will usually stay with that fund, but if you move your super, you may lose any insurance that comes with your account.
It’s also a good time to read any policy you hold and consider cover you’d like to apply for. We can go through this with you, and any application is the insurer’s decision.
That’s a question for your employer and fund, as the answer depends on what you hold and how it’s set up. A move between agencies can change your employer, and they can tell you what applies to any cover through work. How a fund or policy records your job is worth reading again when your work changes.
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 a fund statement or policy with you, beside your new role.
Insurers usually ask about your job when you apply, and a title can cover a lot of different work. It helps to set out what you do: time at a desk, travel, site visits and the hours you work.
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.
Moneysmart says income protection usually replaces a percentage of your pre-tax income and bases the benefit on your annual earnings in the 12 months before your illness or injury. If your pay includes allowances or packaged amounts, how they count is a question to ask each insurer.
At claim, an insurer can ask about your work duties, including physical requirements, the hours you work each week and your pay records, so it helps to keep payslips and tax returns together. We can compare with you how insurers approach this, and the insurer decides on any application.
Yes. Our financial advice and strategies can help you get ready while you’re still in your role. We can set a buffer with you, see how long your money would last between roles, look at any debts and check what your fund says leaving would mean for any defined benefit. Your contract, employment instrument or agency can tell you what would apply if your role ended, and an accountant can confirm the tax on any payment.
Income protection is generally for illness or injury rather than losing a job, so we can help you understand what it would and wouldn’t do for you, and what may change with any cover if you leave. If your role does end, our redundancy advice can help with what comes next.
A promotion, a contract date, a restructure or a leaving date can each be a good reason to book a conversation.
A new loan, a baby or a separation at home can be too. We can read a fund statement or policy with you beside the role you have now, and compare new cover you could apply for. The insurer decides on any application.
Our ongoing advice clients have an annual review with us.
Online quotes can show a price from one seller quickly. They may not show how scheme benefits sit beside a policy, how your duties and travel read on an application, or what’s already in your super.
With personal advice, we talk through those things first, read what you hold and compare cover from a wide range of insurers with you. The insurer decides 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.
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. We start with where you are now, whether you’re a newly promoted director or an executive looking at a leaving date.
There’s no cost for the initial conversation. Any advice after that is a paid service, with its scope and fee agreed with you in writing first.
It helps to bring recent payslips, a statement from each super fund or scheme, any policy papers you have and your contract if you hold one.
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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