Financial Planning for Professional Lifeguards and Surf Lifesavers

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 works week by week, for each employer. The ATO says that if you’re under 18, your employer has to pay super if you work more than thirty hours for them in a week, regardless of how much they pay you, and the hours can’t be averaged across fortnightly or monthly pay periods.

Once you turn 18, your employer pays super whatever hours you work. Either way, we can plan with you around the super you have now and what you could add later.

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.

Your employer’s industry and your duties decide it, rather than your job title. Fair Work lists lifeguards among the examples covered by the fitness industry award, which includes aquatic centres. A council may come under a local government award in the Fair Work system, and in some states local government employees sit under a state system instead. A water park or recreation business may come under another award, and an enterprise agreement may apply.

Fair Work, the state body or your HR team can confirm which applies to you. We plan with you from the pay you receive.

Start with how you’re employed. If you’re casual, Fair Work says casuals don’t get most types of paid leave. If you’re on a fixed term contract for the season, fixed term employees are generally entitled to the same wages, penalty rates and leave as permanent employees, and when the contracted period ends they don’t receive notice of termination or redundancy.

Moneysmart suggests saving for lower-income weeks. We can build a budget with you from the hours you can count on, with a buffer for months with fewer shifts and your super kept in view.

Plan for each fee before it falls due, so it doesn’t all come out of one pay. Courses, updates, first aid and checks can each have their own cost and timing, and any requalification your role requires is set by the employer or training body.

An employer may reimburse some costs, on conditions it sets, so it’s worth asking and not counting on the money until it’s paid. Whether any part is deductible is a question for an accountant. We can build these costs into your budget with you.

Fair Work’s Pay and Conditions Tool helps you find the minimum award rates for your job, which is a useful place to start.

A financial adviser looks at what that pay does across the year: a budget around the hours you can count on, super in each fund, personal insurance, tax planning with an accountant and the goals your work could fund over time. We can plan that with you, starting from the pay you receive.

Income protection and TPD look at whether an illness or injury, physical or psychological, stops you working as the policy defines it. Each policy’s terms shape how a claim is assessed and can limit or exclude mental health conditions.

Workers compensation is separate, through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme, if you’re eligible. Each scheme sets who qualifies, its own rules for psychological injury and who decides any claim.

Any paid leave and savings can help in the meantime.

We can help you understand how cover and its conditions treat a mental health condition linked to a serious incident at work.

Free, confidential support is available from Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 and Lifeline on 13 11 14.

A few parts of your money can connect while you study:

• A study loan, if you have one, with compulsory repayments in any year your repayment income is above the minimum repayment threshold
• Super from part-time hours, and what you could add later
• Insurance in your super: if you’re under 25, you may need to ask for cover in a new fund, depending on your job and your fund
• A budget for full-time work after study, in whichever field you choose

We can plan these with you from the hours you work now.

Start with what the role needs. Any qualification a senior or supervising role requires is set by the employer or training body, so the cost and time of getting it can go into your plan.

If the role pays more, the extra can be given a purpose before it’s spent, such as a buffer, super or a goal of your own. How a fund or policy records your job is worth reading again when your work changes. We can cost the step with you, using your own figures.

Yes. Planning can start with the work you’d like later: staying in lifeguarding, moving into supervising or centre roles, or another career, whichever you choose. If you started on casual or part-time hours, those early years can shape your balance, and contributions in the years your pay is highest could add to it.

Super from earlier jobs, if you have any, can be found and brought into one plan. We’ll build the plan on your super and savings first. You can read more about our retirement advice.

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. Our first conversation starts with how you work today, from a first lifeguard job to years of leading a team.

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 have a recent payslip, your super statements and details of any cover or study loan on hand.