Life Insurance and Income Protection for Tattoo Artists
Income Protection for Tattoo Artists and Their Families
A chair, split or wages, your duties, any studio debts and any cover through work or super all come into your options. We can help you apply for cover, review any you hold and lodge claims.
Financial Advice for Life Insurance and Income Protection
Who We Help
- Artists on studio wages looking at cover beyond their payslip
- Chair renters paying a studio for the space to work
- Split artists paid a share by the studio they work in
- Visiting artists on guest spots, earning in more than one place
- Tattoo apprentices learning the work and looking at their first cover
- Piercers in a tattoo studio, with duties of their own to set out
- Owner-artists tattooing alongside running the business
- Owners with a team where other artists do most of the tattooing
- Teachers and mentors passing on the work alongside their own book
- Artists changing set-up from wages to a chair or a studio, with a fund or policy from an earlier job, if they hold one
We Can Help You
- Set out tattooing, design, consults and any piercing as they are on a cover application
- Describe studio management time in your cover application when an insurer asks about your job
- Read how an income protection or TPD definition treats design or consult work you could still do
- Compare what some income protection policies pay for shorter sessions after time away
- Ask each insurer with you which income it counts across wages, a chair or a split
- Test how long you could wait for income protection on your savings, with chair or studio costs counted
- Work out from a household budget the income you’d want coming in, not just your strongest month
- Read the cover and job on file in each of your funds, for tattoo work as it is
- Talk through cover when you take a chair, start a split or open a studio
- Lodge a claim with you and stay involved as the insurer or fund assesses your duties and income
What we advise on
How Each Cover Works Around Tattoo Work
Income Protection
Away from a full book through illness or injury, what could keep money coming in at home?
Through income protection, part of your income can be paid after a waiting period, subject to the policy’s terms and exclusions.
Together, we’ll compare income protection with you around your duties and how you’re paid.
If illness or injury stops you working, income protection can pay a share of your pre-tax income, usually based on earnings in the previous 12 months. Each policy has its own disability definition and waiting period options, 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:
- Long sessions of close, detailed work, and what some policies’ test of your usual occupation asks
- Design or consult days before you’re back tattooing, and what some policies pay on a drop in earnings
- Drawing, teaching or studio experience, and how a later test in some policies may count skills beyond tattooing
- A home budget for what you’d want, not your strongest month, while earnings and the policy set any payment
- Savings against a waiting period, including studio costs and rent that may keep going while appointments are moved
- Part-week bookings, read against an hours term in some policies, if you don’t tattoo every day
- A studio injury, where each scheme sets who qualifies and some policies may take scheme payments off what they pay
- A policy’s exclusions, which can include occupations or activities, read with you before you apply
Life Insurance
If people at home rely on your tattoo income, what would it need to keep paying for?
Life cover can pay your beneficiaries a lump sum, which they could use for debts and living costs.
Together, we’ll work out a life cover amount from your debts and anyone relying on you.
Life cover can pay a lump sum if you pass away, and some policies include terminal illness cover. If you haven’t named a beneficiary, your estate or the super trustee decides where the money goes. Insurers usually ask your age and job when you apply, and the insurer decides on any application.
What we weigh up with you on life cover:
- Studio fit-out finance, if you’ve taken any, with the balance still owed counted in the amount
- Machines, furniture and other studio equipment on finance, with the amount owed and the name on it
- Premises lease terms, if you have a lease, listed as a commitment with a lawyer reading them
- A home loan, if you have one, and the weekly bills your tattoo income meets
- Life cover in a fund from before tattooing, if you’ve worked elsewhere, and what it may hold
- Who your fund’s rules allow to receive a payout, and any choice you’d like to record
- A life policy that includes TPD, and what would be left after a TPD payment
- Anyone you share bills with, and whether their cover would be counted beside yours
TPD Insurance
Which of your plans would you want to keep on track if you could never work again?
A lump sum can be paid if you can’t work again, as the policy defines it.
We can explain how TPD definitions treat the skills tattooing builds, including drawing, design and teaching.
Each insurer has its own definition, and Moneysmart lists three kinds: own occupation, usually only available outside super, looks at the job you were working in; any occupation looks at any job suited to your education, training or experience; and activities of daily living looks at basic self-care tasks. A TPD payment may also reduce life cover packaged with it, and the insurer or fund assesses any claim.
What we compare with you on TPD:
- An own occupation test built around tattooing, and whether such wording is open to you
- Drawing, design and teaching, which any occupation wording may count towards work other than tattooing
- Definitions in your funds, if you hold TPD in super, compared with you for tattoo and studio work
- Old job titles in your funds, if you’ve worked elsewhere, beside what you do in the studio today
- Dressing, moving around and similar tests in some policies, set apart from any question of returning to tattooing
- Studio debt, if you have some, and the payout your household would want for it
- A stretch off work and not being able to work again, read across income protection and TPD as each policy defines them
- Mostly running a studio these days, and the job title a fund or insurer might then apply
Trauma Insurance
A serious diagnosis can mean time away from clients: what could help with the costs?
Trauma cover can pay a lump sum if a listed condition meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded.
We can go over what a trauma policy lists with you, and how a payment could sit beside income protection.
Medical definitions can be different between insurers, Moneysmart notes, and each trauma policy sets out the conditions it lists and how each is defined. 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:
- Each condition on the list and how tightly it’s defined, as wording differs from one insurer to the next
- Early-stage payments in some policies, beside the costs you’d face while clients wait
- Paying premiums yourself, as a fund can’t hold a new policy of this kind
- Clients to reschedule and studio bills falling due, and how a lump sum might help in that stretch
- Weeks away from clients if you’re self-employed, with no paid sick leave behind you, as Moneysmart notes
- Less life insurance left after a trauma payment, if the two are sold together, for debts you’d still owe
- Any policy you hold from earlier years, gone through with you before it’s replaced
- How tax treats a trauma payment in your situation, with an accountant answering
Cover in Super
If you’ve worked elsewhere, how does cover from that fund suit your tattoo work now?
Each fund’s statement can show what cover it holds and what that cover costs you.
We’ll check each fund with you before anything changes.
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. Cover in super can end or change, for example if your balance is too low, you change fund or you reach an age limit.
What we check in each fund with you:
- Accounts from jobs outside tattooing, if you’ve worked elsewhere, with the cost of cover in each
- What your fund calls your job, and contacting them if tattoo work isn’t recorded correctly
- A change of studio while employed, and the fund your super generally goes to unless you pick another
- Joining a fund as a young apprentice, where under-25 rules may mean you have to ask for cover
- Terms on past health in each PDS, worth reading before that cover goes in your plan
- What your fund says a small balance would do to your cover, with yearly costs beside it
- Fewer accounts, if you have several, only after reading what insurance a rollover could lose
- Studio debt larger than a fund’s set amount, and the usually underwritten application if you ask for more
Tattooing, Design and the Studio
Would a clear picture of your week help cover fit the work you do?
Setting out your duties as they are gives an insurer part of what it needs to assess an application.
Together, we’ll set out your duties for an application and check how a policy or fund records them.
Jobs and Skills Australia describes body art work as consulting with clients on a design, preparing their skin and applying tattoos, with piercing as a related specialisation. When you apply, insurers usually ask about your job. Since 5 October 2021, the duty when applying for consumer life cover is to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation, which means answering the questions asked with reasonable care.
What we write down with you about your work:
- Client consults and design talks, noted with the share of your week they take up
- Skin preparation and tattooing, set out in your own words, with your usual hours beside each
- Close, detailed work over long sessions, recorded as a plain part of your usual duties
- Drawing and design time away from clients, noted with its hours, including any outside the studio
- Piercing work, if you do it, named separately from tattooing on an application
- Guest spots and travel, if part of your year, and how often you work away from your usual studio
- Running a studio: ordering, bookkeeping and managing artists, described as the share of your time they take
- Any licence or registration you hold, listed as a plain fact if an insurer asks about your work
- A change in your mix of work, such as less tattooing and more design, as a good reason to look at these notes again
A Chair, a Split or Your Own Studio
Moving to a chair, a split or your own studio: what could change for your cover?
Looking at cover before the move can show what you’d want to apply for yourself.
We’ll look at cover with you before you take a chair, start a split or open a studio.
Moneysmart says self-employed people don’t get paid holidays or sick leave, and it suggests checking whether moving from employee to self-employed affects any insurance cover through your super. How you’re paid can also change the records an insurer asks for, and the insurer decides on any application.
What we go through with you before a move:
- Sick leave on wages, or none if you’re self-employed, set beside the waiting period you’d choose
- Insurance through super before you leave wages, and what your fund says about any changes
- A split on contract, where the ATO’s tests decide who pays super, confirmed with an accountant or the ATO
- Contracting through a company, trust or partnership, and whose income an insurer may then look at
- Takings on a chair or split, and which income each insurer may count, asked before you apply
- Life and TPD amounts set against studio debts, if a new fit-out or loan comes with the move
- Workers compensation after a move, where each scheme sets who qualifies and makes its own decisions
- Your studio’s liability or equipment policies, a separate matter for a general insurance broker to explain
- Whether business expenses cover is available and suitable, if you own a studio whose costs would keep running
When to Review Your Cover
Could a change at work or at home be a good reason to look at your cover?
New work or a change at home can be a good reason to book a conversation about cover.
Together, we’ll go through what you hold, if anything, beside the way you work now and your life at home.
Tattoo work can move from apprentice to artist, wages to a chair, or a chair to a studio of your own. Default cover through super is for a set amount, so it might not match your needs. A change like this is a good reason to book a conversation, and we can read a policy or fund statement with you. The insurer decides on any new application.
Situations worth raising with us in a conversation:
- The jump from apprentice to artist, if you’re training now, and the cover that new pay could call for
- Wages to a chair, and how you’d manage without sick leave through a stretch of illness or injury
- Opening your own studio, signing a lease and buying equipment, with each workers compensation scheme setting who qualifies
- Buying a studio or taking a first fit-out loan, and the life and TPD amounts you’d then weigh
- Less tattooing and more design, teaching or management, and how you’d describe your work if you apply
- Leaving a studio where you’re employed, and what the studio or your fund says about insurance tied to that job
- Starting a first studio job while under 25, and asking your fund whether cover has begun
- A baby, a mortgage or a separation, if one comes along, and how much cover your household would want
- Premiums generally rising as you get older, if you hold a policy, set beside an income that can vary
Making a Claim
Would someone beside you for the forms and follow-up help at claim time?
Support with paperwork and follow-up can make a claim easier while the insurer or fund assesses it.
We’ll lodge any claim with you and follow each step while the insurer or fund assesses it.
Your first call is usually the person or company you bought the policy from, Moneysmart says. 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:
- Your first phone call, and the policy papers or fund details worth having ready for it
- Your tattooing, design and studio week before you stopped, set down with its usual hours
- Records of chair, split or wage income, with an accountant’s help if you use one
- Reports an insurer asks for from your doctor, explained with you so you know which ones are needed
- Time off after a studio injury, where any workers compensation claim runs apart from your own cover
- Workers compensation or sick pay reaching you while you’re off, if a policy’s terms take it into account
- A return to design or shorter sessions, and what some policies pay when you’re working at reduced capacity
- An outcome you’d like reviewed, raised with the insurer or fund, then AFCA if it’s still not settled
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
- Tattooing and close detailed work: Insurers usually ask about your job when you apply. If close, detailed work over long sessions is part of your week, it helps to set out a usual week as it is.
- Design, consults and any piercing: These can be part of your duties as well, and the share of your week each one takes can differ from the next artist’s. We can help you set them out as they are.
- Running a studio: Ordering, bookkeeping and managing artists take time, so it helps to note how much goes to each. A TPD any occupation definition may take this experience into account.
- Wages, a chair or a split: Paid leave can come with employment, while Moneysmart notes self-employed people don’t get paid sick leave. At claim, an insurer can ask for payslips, tax returns or financial statements.
- A full book and the gaps between: Income protection usually works from your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury. Some policies have minimum weekly hours, and a household budget can show what you’d want coming in.
- Your own studio: It’s worth asking each insurer how it works out income for a studio owner, and keeping records up to date with an accountant. Studio debts can also come into life and TPD amounts.
- Guest spots and moves interstate: Working in more than one place can change your hours and where your income comes from. Keeping your duties and income records current makes them easier to set out on an application.
- Back to shorter sessions for a while: Some policies pay a partial benefit when you work in a reduced capacity and earn less than before. Each workers compensation scheme sets who qualifies, and other payments may reduce an income protection benefit.
This list isn’t complete, and nothing on it decides anything on its own. We start by learning about your situation, and any decision on cover is the insurer’s.
Your options
Why Work With a Financial Adviser for Your Personal Insurance?
| A Ryker financial adviser | Directly from an insurer | An online broker or comparison site | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type of advice | Personal advice Personal adviceAdvice tailored to you. Like most financial advice, it’s given under an Australian financial services licence.Personal, not general. General advice is a recommendation or opinion that doesn’t consider your circumstances. Personal advice is tailored to your objectives, financial situation and needs.In your best interests. When we give you personal advice, the law requires us to act in your best interests.In writing. You’ll usually receive a Statement of Advice that explains the strategies and cover recommended to you, and why.On the public register. Financial advisers who give personal advice on life insurance, super and investments must be on ASIC’s Financial Advisers Register. See our financial advisers on the register:Ray RegmiRicky (Rajiv) RegmiJack OinezaDean DesoukeyRyker’s financial advisers are authorised representatives of Synchron Advice Pty Ltd, AFSL 243313. | Usually general advice | Usually general advice |
| Advice that considers your health, family, work and goals | Yes, as part of your advice | Not with general advice | Not with general advice |
| Choice of insurers | A wide range | That insurer’s policies only | A panel of insurers, side by side |
| Help preparing your application | Yes, alongside you | The insurer’s own process | Varies |
| Advice on holding cover inside or outside super | Part of your advice | Not with general advice | Not with general advice |
| Support if you need to claim | Yes, we’re in your corner | The insurer’s claims team | Varies |
| Cost of advice | No cost for the initial conversation. Any advice after that is a paid service, with its scope and fee agreed with you in writing first. Choose: | No separate advice fee | No separate advice fee |
Type of advice
- Ryker financial adviser
- Personal advice Personal adviceAdvice tailored to you. Like most financial advice, it’s given under an Australian financial services licence.Personal, not general. General advice is a recommendation or opinion that doesn’t consider your circumstances. Personal advice is tailored to your objectives, financial situation and needs.In your best interests. When we give you personal advice, the law requires us to act in your best interests.In writing. You’ll usually receive a Statement of Advice that explains the strategies and cover recommended to you, and why.On the public register. Financial advisers who give personal advice on life insurance, super and investments must be on ASIC’s Financial Advisers Register. See our financial advisers on the register:Ray RegmiRicky (Rajiv) RegmiJack OinezaDean DesoukeyRyker’s financial advisers are authorised representatives of Synchron Advice Pty Ltd, AFSL 243313.
- Direct from an insurer
- Usually general advice
- Online broker or comparison site
- Usually general advice
Advice that considers your health, family, work and goals
- Ryker financial adviser
- Yes, as part of your advice
- Direct from an insurer
- Not with general advice
- Online broker or comparison site
- Not with general advice
Choice of insurers
- Ryker financial adviser
- A wide range
- Direct from an insurer
- That insurer’s policies only
- Online broker or comparison site
- A panel of insurers, side by side
Help preparing your application
- Ryker financial adviser
- Yes, alongside you
- Direct from an insurer
- The insurer’s own process
- Online broker or comparison site
- Varies
Advice on holding cover inside or outside super
- Ryker financial adviser
- Part of your advice
- Direct from an insurer
- Not with general advice
- Online broker or comparison site
- Not with general advice
Support if you need to claim
- Ryker financial adviser
- Yes, we’re in your corner
- Direct from an insurer
- The insurer’s claims team
- Online broker or comparison site
- Varies
Cost of advice
- Ryker financial adviser
- No cost for the initial conversation. Any advice after that is a paid service, with its scope and fee agreed with you in writing first. Choose:
- Direct from an insurer
- No separate advice fee
- Online broker or comparison site
- No separate advice fee
Your Cover for Tattoo Work, Worked Through Together
Tattoo and Studio Duties Set Out
Tattooing, consults and studio work described on any application as they make up your week.
Design and Consult Work Described
How your design and consult time would be set out, gone through with you for an application.
Disability Wording Read for Detailed Work
How a policy’s disability definition treats close, detailed work, read with you before you apply.
A Household Budget for Time Away
What you’d want coming in worked out from household spending, while any payment depends on earnings and the policy.
Income Laid Out Across a Chair or a Split
Wages, chair income or a split set out, with each insurer asked how it works out income.
Cover in Every Fund Read
Cover and the occupation on file in each of your funds, read with you before anything changes.
Cover Looked at Before Your Own Studio
Cover and any new studio debts talked through with you before you open or buy a studio.
A Tattoo Work Claim Lodged With You
Your tattooing and studio hours and pay records set out with you while the insurer or fund assesses it.
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 Tattoo Artists
Clients come to a tattoo studio for work they’ll carry with them, and their trust is earned one person at a time. We’d like to earn yours in much the same way, by listening first. We start with your work, the people who matter to you and what you’re working towards. From there, we’ll help you shape a plan that suits how you’re paid, with room for the life you’d like beyond the studio.
A strong year can do more for you at home. It could go towards a place of your own, time with the people you love, travel or a studio with your name on the door. Over time, your own savings and super can build into something that’s yours, whichever way your work is set up. We can review your plan with you each year, so it keeps pace with the goals you’ve set.
If illness or injury kept you from your studio 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 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 Tattoo Artists
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 studio work, your family, work, income, assets and goals. Then we recommend the types and amounts of cover that suit your life.
Tattoo work can mean tattooing, design, piercing or running a studio, as an employee, on a chair or split, or as an owner. 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 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.
Each policy has its own definition of disability, so the first step is reading the wording. Some policies test whether you can do the material and substantial duties of your usual occupation, and some pay a partial benefit when you work at reduced capacity and earn less than before. After a set time, some policies can look at work you’re suited to by education, training or experience.
It helps to set out tattooing, design and consult work as they are when you apply. At claim, an insurer can ask about your work duties, including physical requirements, the hours you work each week and your pay records. Any benefit is subject to the policy’s terms and exclusions and the insurer’s assessment.
Insurers usually ask about your job when you apply, and each one goes about it in its own way. Two people in the same studio can have very different weeks: one mostly tattooing, another designing or running the business. It helps to set out the share of your week on each.
Since 5 October 2021, the duty when applying for consumer life cover is to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation, which means answering the questions asked with reasonable care. We can help you set your work out as it is, and the insurer decides on any application.
Moneysmart says income protection usually bases the benefit on your annual earnings in the 12 months before your illness or injury. If you’re self-employed, some policies count income from your own work less your share of business expenses, so it’s worth asking each insurer how it works this out.
At claim, an insurer can ask for payslips and tax returns, or financial statements if you’re self-employed, so it helps to keep all your takings in one record with an accountant. We can go through this with you, and the insurer assesses any claim.
A waiting period is the time before payments start, and most policies offer a range to choose from. We can weigh the options with you against your savings and the costs that may keep going, such as rent, a chair or studio bills.
Moving appointments and dealing with any deposits stay with you and the studio, so it helps to have a plan for them too. Any payment is subject to the policy’s terms and the insurer’s assessment.
Workers compensation is separate, through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme, and each scheme sets who qualifies. The scheme makes its own decision on any claim.
If you hold income protection, scheme payments may reduce a benefit, subject to the policy’s terms and exclusions and the insurer’s assessment. We can help you see how the two fit together, and plan your household budget around whichever applies.
We’d start with what you owe and who relies on you, then work out amounts with you. A studio loan, equipment finance or a fit-out can sit beside a home loan, if you have one, and it helps to separate business debts from household ones.
A broker can explain and arrange any loan, and if you have a premises lease, a lawyer can read what it commits you to. Where covers are packaged together, a claim on one may reduce another. The insurer decides on any application.
Taking a chair, starting a split, buying or opening a studio, or cutting back tattooing for design, teaching or management can each be a good reason to book a conversation. At home, a new loan, a baby or a separation can be too.
We can read a fund statement or policy with you beside how you work now, and compare new cover you could apply for. The insurer decides on any application.
Our ongoing advice clients have an annual review with us.
Quote tools can show a price quickly. They may not show how your design, consult and studio time sit in your duties, which income an insurer counts across a chair or a split, or what’s already in your super.
Personal advice starts with those questions. We’d go through any cover you already have, then compare new cover from a wide range of insurers with you. Any application is the insurer’s to decide.
Your accountant and financial adviser bring different expertise to the same decisions. Your accountant can advise on tax reporting, structures and consequences; we help you plan how cashflow, debt, super, investments and protection work towards your goals. We can coordinate before important decisions.
What an accountant does
- Prepares and lodges tax returns, BAS and financial statements
- Advises on tax structures such as companies, trusts and partnerships
- Manages bookkeeping, payroll and ATO compliance
- Provides tax advice on the consequences of a transaction
What a financial adviser does
- Sets a long term strategy across retirement, investing and cash flow
- Builds wealth from early in a working life, starting with cash flow, a first home and super
- Recommends specific super funds, investments and personal insurance
- Operates under an Australian Financial Services Licence, which is required to give personal advice on financial products
- Handles retirement planning, Centrelink and aged care strategy, and estate planning considerations
Professional roles and authorisations matter. We provide financial advice within our authorisations and work with your accountant for specialist tax advice and lodgements.
Where they work together
- Tax position. Your accountant confirms your marginal rate, deductions and carried forward losses, which shapes decisions on super contributions, investment structures and the timing of asset sales.
- Business and entity structures. Your accountant advises on the structure itself and your financial adviser works within it for investments, insurance and succession planning.
- Cash flow. Your accountant’s figures can help us understand what’s available for debt repayment, protection and longer-term goals.
- Before key decisions. We can coordinate with your accountant on contributions, asset sales and other material choices in time to consider relevant tax consequences.
We’re a national service, so you can meet with us by phone or video from anywhere in Australia. We also have offices in three cities:
- Sydney: offices in Sydney CBD, Parramatta, Seven Hills, Ingleburn and Narellan, servicing areas including the City of Sydney, Eastern Suburbs, Inner West, North Shore, Northern Beaches, Sutherland Shire, Blacktown, Liverpool, Campbelltown and all surrounding suburbs.
- Melbourne: our St Kilda Road office, servicing areas including the City of Melbourne, Port Phillip, Boroondara, Monash, Casey, Wyndham and all surrounding suburbs.
- Brisbane: our Eagle Street office, servicing areas including Brisbane City, Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Logan, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and all surrounding suburbs.
Yes. From an apprentice to someone who has run a studio for years, we can begin from where you are 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 things to have are recent pay records, a statement from each fund, any policies you hold and a description of your usual week in the studio.
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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