Financial Planning for Professional Athletes

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.

Finishing sport doesn’t open your super. Preservation age is 60 for anyone born from 1 July 1964, and super can generally only be accessed once you meet a condition of release, such as ceasing employment at 60 or over.

That can leave a long stretch between your last season and your super, so we can plan it with you:

• Savings and investments outside super, with the risks explained.
• Your next income, whether that’s a job, a business or further study.
• Contributions you could add in the meantime.

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.

Income averaging is a concessional tax treatment for special professionals, and the ATO’s list includes people who compete in sport using physical prowess, strength or stamina. You also need to be an Australian resident at some time in the income year and meet the ATO’s first-year requirements. Averaging affects income above your average: at or below your average, you pay ordinary rates. The ATO works it out from your tax return.

Prizes, endorsements, advertisements, interviews and commentating can count. Coaching or training competitors, umpiring, administering sport, super lump sums, employment termination payments, unused leave paid on leaving and net capital gains don’t.

An accountant can confirm your position and prepare your return. We can plan tax strategy alongside them, and plan your cashflow around the result.

Super generally follows the kind of payment, not what it’s called. The ATO’s page (updated 16 September 2026) says a payer liable to pay an individual for playing sport may need to pay them super, even if that person has an ABN, issues invoices or is engaged once.

• Appearance fees and similar payments to play can attract super.
• Prize money paid for a result generally doesn’t, unless you’re an employee. The ATO’s ruling on this is being reviewed.
• Payments to a company, trust or partnership don’t, though a company or trust may have to pay super for people it engages.
• Some payments to under-18s don’t.

An accountant or the ATO can confirm your position. We can plan any personal contributions from there.

Some leagues and associations run a retirement account for players, separate from any super you hold. It has its own rules for when it pays, set by whoever runs it, while super generally stays preserved until you meet a condition of release.

The tax can differ too. The ATO’s guide lists player’s retirement fund payments among amounts that may be income, and its rulings on some accounts turn on timing: paid within 12 months of leaving, an employment termination payment; after that, assessable income. An accountant can confirm how any account you hold is treated.

We can plan these payments alongside your savings and super.

If you belong to a players’ association, any program it runs can be a real help, and it’s worth using what it offers. A program set up for many members may not take in your whole position, and the same goes for a comparison tool or an online course.

Personal advice starts with your own pay, debts, cover, super and goals, and what any program already gives you. We can build on what you’ve learned there, and show you how the parts fit together before you change anything.

It depends on your contract and any agreement covering your sport, so the first step is to ask whoever you’re contracted to, an association if you belong to one, or a lawyer. Some arrangements continue certain payments for a time, and some hardship funds are discretionary. Workers compensation is separate, through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme, and each scheme sets who qualifies.

We don’t advise on contracts or disputes. What we can plan with you:

• A savings buffer for a gap in pay.
• How cover you hold could apply, with the insurer deciding each claim.
• Your next income, and what you’d need until it starts.

A financial plan starts from your own pay and goals, so it can suit a small contract as well as a large one. On modest or part-time pay, it can help you:

• Set a budget across a season and any other job.
• Keep a buffer for gaps between contracts or grants.
• See how super applies to each payment.
• Decide what to do first with any extra.

We’d be glad to talk through your position. 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.

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 signed a first contract, you fund your own sport or you’ve recently finished playing, the conversation starts with your own position.

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 with you, if you have them: your contract, a recent payslip or prize and sponsor records, super statements and any cover summary. A parent or partner is welcome to join, and meetings can be in person, by phone or by video.