Financial Planning for Professionals and Tech Workers
We Help Professionals and Tech Workers Build Prosperity and Freedom
Salary, bonuses, equity, a partnership buy-in and the tax on each can all shape what your income does for you. We can help you see the whole picture and plan around each step your career takes.
Our Financial Advice Team Is Here to Help You
We Can Help You
- Plan around a bonus that changes from year to year
- Understand how equity in the firm may be taxed, with your accountant
- Plan how to fund a buy-in to the firm you work for
- Smooth your cash flow when income arrives in lumps
- Set aside the tax on income that arrives untaxed
- Size income protection around an income that varies
- Top up super in the years the income allows
- Review super and cover as your income changes
Who We Help
- Lawyers and accountants on the path towards partnership
- Incoming equity partners weighing a buy-in and how to fund it
- Tech professionals holding shares or options as part of their pay
- Consultants and contractors paid by the project rather than the fortnight
- Engineers and project leads moving between contracts and sites
- Couples building two careers with incomes that grow at different rates
- Established professionals ready to put a plan behind the income
- Secondees heading overseas on a posting that changes their tax position
What we advise on
How Our Advice Works for Professionals
Tax & Wealth Strategies
We’ll explain how structure and timing may affect the tax on a professional income.
Salary, equity, bonuses and capital gains can each be taxed on their own terms. Whose name an asset is held in, and which financial year a gain is realised in, can make a significant difference. We work with your accountant so strategy and tax advice are considered together.
Together, we’ll work through:
- How ownership structure and timing may affect the tax payable on your income
- Employee share schemes, and whether tax falls at grant, at vesting or at sale
- Division 293 once partner distributions arrive, and whether extra contributions may still suit you
- A possible tax bill on equity you can’t yet sell, and how to prepare for it
- Whether a bonus should be sacrificed, taken, or timed into another year
- The capital gains position on shares held since an earlier grant
- How a partnership buy-in may be funded, and any deductibility to confirm with your accountant
- When to exercise options or sell vested shares, with the income-year timing checked with your accountant
Cashflow & Financial Wellbeing
We’ll help you run a household on income that arrives in lumps rather than fortnightly.
Where part of your pay arrives once a year, setting spending against the peak rather than the base can leave other months short. A tax bill may also arrive months after the income it relates to, so we help you plan a buffer for both.
Together, we’ll work through:
- The household run on base salary, with the bonus treated as separate money
- A destination decided for the bonus before the date it lands
- What a weaker bonus year would mean for the fixed costs you carry now
- Vesting dates mapped across the year, so you can plan for the cash and tax involved
- How much lifestyle the base alone can carry, stated as a single number
- What a move between firms would cost in the months around it
- Where school fees, a mortgage and a lifestyle overlap in the same month
- A household budget that could still work through a year with no bonus
Financial Planning & Advice
We’ll build one plan that can adapt through partnership, a package change or a move.
Professional careers can step rather than climb, and each step can change your income, tax and risk at once. Looking at partnership, packages and moves together helps you see how one decision affects the next, and we review the plan as your role changes.
Together, we’ll work through:
- One plan connecting partnership, package changes and moves, rather than separate decisions
- What is conditional on staying, and what you would actually walk away from
- How much of your wealth sits with one employer, and what that concentration means
- What financial independence could look like for you, and what it would take
- What an international move or a secondment would do to the plan
- How the plan would respond to a redundancy, a restructure or a firm merging
- Which parts your firm already covers, and which are yours to arrange privately
- A review timed to your remuneration cycle rather than to the calendar
Property Investment Advice
We’ll help you understand the tax implications of funding a deposit from vested equity before you sell.
Interest deductibility generally depends on what borrowed money is used for, not what secures it. Redrawing from an investment loan for private use can affect deductions, while an offset account, if your loan has one, works differently. We check the tax detail with your accountant and lending with your broker.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Which financial year to sell vested shares in, considering when any bonus is paid
- The possible tax cost of a deposit if a share sale and bonus fall in one year
- How an offset account, if available, differs from a redraw for an investment loan
- How using borrowed money for private purposes may affect which interest is deductible
- Your employer shares, your salary and your mortgage read as one exposure
- A partnership buy-in funded against the house, and how the loan’s purpose may affect deductions
- What a secondment overseas would do to a property you keep here
- School fees, a mortgage and a second loan landing in the same month
Personal Insurance & Protection
We’ll set out the difference between indemnity cover and cover for your household.
Professional indemnity may respond when a claim is brought about your work, while income protection may pay a benefit if illness or injury stops you working. Sizing income protection on a variable income needs care, because insurers generally assess earnings over a set period.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Professional indemnity for claims about your work, and income protection for times you can’t work
- Any group cover through the firm, and what may remain if you leave
- The sum insured measured against a package rather than a base salary
- How bonus and equity income are treated when a benefit is calculated
- Cover you own personally, which generally isn’t tied to your employer
- Whether the definition suits professional work rather than a generic occupation class
- How long sick leave and savings could cover you before any benefit begins
- What a partnership agreement may already provide, and where gaps could remain
Superannuation
We can show you how super contributions may compare at your marginal rate, and where limits apply.
Concessional contributions are generally taxed in the fund rather than at your marginal rate, although Division 293 may apply additional tax above a set income. Carry-forward rules let unused cap from earlier years be used later, if your total super balance is below the threshold.
Together, we’ll work through:
- How concessional contributions compare with your marginal rate, and where caps apply
- Division 293, and how it may reduce rather than remove the tax concession
- The concessional cap, and how much of it your employer already uses
- Carry-forward contributions in a big bonus season, subject to the total super balance test
- Whether after-tax contributions still suit you, given your total super balance
- How extra contributions compare with paying down a mortgage, if money is available
- The investment option, given how much equity risk you already carry at work
- Whether the transfer balance cap may become relevant to your future balance
SMSF
We’ll explain what a self-managed fund may let you hold, and how that compares with other funds.
An SMSF can offer control and flexibility for some professionals, including over specific assets, but it also brings costs, administration and trustee responsibilities. Some large funds offer direct investment options, so we compare it with other super options before recommending a change.
Together, we’ll work through:
- The specific asset a self-managed fund would let you hold, if there is one
- Whether you want a particular holding, or control over when things are bought and sold
- Running costs as a share of your balance, and how that may change over time
- How employer share plan holdings sit alongside a fund’s own investments
- The time trustee duties take, weighed against billable hours you would give up
- Whether an interest in the firm itself could sit inside the fund at all
- A secondment or move overseas, and what it could mean for an SMSF’s Australian residency status
- Whether your current fund’s direct investment menu may already give a professional the control you’re after
Retirement & Aged Care
We’ll plan with you around a career that steps down rather than stopping.
Consulting two days a week, a non-executive role or a gradual handover of clients are all ways a career can wind down. Each can change what your plan needs to provide and when, and any equity in a firm may have its own timing on the way out.
Together, we’ll work through:
- A career that steps down rather than stopping, planned as a series of stages
- Consulting, a board seat or a slow handover, and the income each may provide
- What financial independence looks like in numbers, separate from retiring
- How unvested equity may be treated under the plan rules if you leave early
- The date the numbers support, against the date you have in mind
- What a partnership exit may involve, and what it could return to you
- How much of the plan depends on the final few years of income
- A drawdown that suits a household used to a variable income
What We’ll Work Through Together
What Your Bonus Is Worth
The tax, what it means for your contributions, and what the money could do.
Shares, Options and Vesting
Understand when equity may be taxed, and how the plan rules affect it.
Budgeting on a Variable Income
Set a household budget on your base income, with a plan for quieter quarters.
Setting Aside for Tax
Set aside money for tax as income arrives, with the amount checked with your accountant.
Funding a Partnership Buy-In
Consider how buy-in debt fits alongside your other commitments and changing income.
Insuring a Variable Income
Consider how insurers may assess variable earnings, and review cover as income changes.
Professional Indemnity and Your Income
See where professional indemnity ends and personal income cover may begin.
Catching Up on Super
See whether carry-forward rules may let you use cap from earlier years.
Proactive, Holistic, and Experienced Financial Planning
Being good at your job isn’t necessarily the same skill as managing your own finances, and there’s often far less time for the second. Income can arrive in pieces at this level: salary, a bonus, equity whose value may change. We’ll bring the whole picture into one place, help you understand what each part may mean for you, and turn it into a practical plan you can work with and revisit.
Work like this can move quickly, and sometimes overseas. Partnership, a move in-house, a startup that works or doesn’t, a couple of years in another country. Each of those can change what makes sense. We can review the plan with you as things change, with the aim of turning more of your income into something you own rather than something that simply passes through. The goal is a plan that supports the life you want now, as well as later.
Every financial decision impacts the next
Your Financial Life Is Connected
Great advice starts with understanding the bigger picture. Every stage of life presents new opportunities and challenges, from buying property and changing careers to growing your family, planning for retirement and protecting what matters most. At Ryker, we help connect every piece of your financial world into one clear strategy.
Your
Wealth
- Property & Investing
- Career & Income
- Tax Strategy
- Insurance & Protecting Your Family
- Super & SMSF
- Wealth & Investments
- Life Events & Changes
- Business & Wealth
- Legacy & Future Wealth
- Retirement Planning
Frequently Asked Questions
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 depends on the scheme and the timing, and the key questions are when it’s taxed and how.
Broadly, some schemes are taxed when shares or rights are granted, others at a later deferred taxing point such as vesting or the end of a restriction, and later movements in value are usually treated as a capital gain or loss.
One practical risk is a tax bill arriving on shares you can’t yet sell. We can model that with you before a vesting date and work with your accountant on the tax detail, so you can plan for the cash needed.
One approach is to run the household on your base income, and give the bonus a purpose before it arrives.
That way regular costs such as housing, schooling and lifestyle sit on the more reliable figure, which can make a weaker year easier to manage. The bonus can then go towards priorities you’ve agreed in advance, such as a buffer, debt, super, investments or something you want.
It’s easy for spending to drift towards the peak rather than the base. We can help you set that line in a strong year and review it as your income changes.
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.
It can, although the concession may be worth less at higher incomes.
Contributions within the concessional cap are generally taxed in the fund rather than at your marginal rate. Above a set income, Division 293 may apply additional tax, which reduces the concession rather than removing it.
Access also matters. Contributions are preserved until you meet a condition of release, so it needs to be money you won’t need before then. We can weigh it against the rest of your position, with your accountant confirming the tax detail.
A platform can help you build and rebalance a portfolio efficiently, often against a risk setting you choose.
Advice can also consider whether investing is the right use of the next dollar, given your debts, your goals and how much of your wealth may already sit with one employer. Concentration risk is worth reviewing if you hold equity in the company that pays your salary, and features vary between platforms.
We can work with the platform you already use and help with the allocation decisions that come first.
There’s no universal figure, and the right level depends on your circumstances, including how secure and replaceable your income is.
If you hold equity in the company that also pays your salary, one difficult outcome could affect both at once. That risk can be easy to overlook while the shares are rising.
We can look at how much of your total position sits in that one company, what the vesting schedule commits you to and what diversifying may cost in tax, with your accountant’s input. Then you can decide with the numbers in front of you.
Partnership can change how you’re paid, how you’re taxed and what you’re exposed to, all at once. Before you sign, it’s worth understanding:
- How the buy-in may be funded, and what that debt could mean for your cashflow.
- How income arrives afterwards, and what that may mean for super and tax instalments.
- What personal liability may come with it, and what cover could respond, alongside your solicitor’s advice on the agreement.
- What happens if you leave, or if the firm changes shape.
It’s worth starting early, because arranging the funding can take time.
Of course, and nothing needs organising before we talk.
There’s no cost for the initial conversation. Tell us how you’re paid, what you hold and what you’d like to be different in a few years.
We’ll explain how we can help and what details, such as payslips, equity statements or existing cover, will help us get started.
Who We Help
Advice for All Stages of Life
From first job to retirement, we help you build wealth, protect it, and live well.
Starting Out
First jobs, first home, first super, HECS debt, budgeting and more.
Growing Families
First home buyers, new parents, school fees, single incomes, young families and more.
Medical & Health
Doctors, dentists, pharmacists, allied health, nurses and more.
Professional Services & Tech
Lawyers, accountants, brokers, engineers, consultants and more.
Trades & Business Owners
Electricians, plumbers, builders, sole traders, franchisees and more.
Corporate & Executive
Executives, senior managers, directors, board members and more.
Public Sector & Defence
Police, firefighters, paramedics, ADF personnel, teachers and more.
Approaching Retirement
Pre-retirees, transition to retirement, Age Pension, aged care, estate planning and more.
Other Stages
Any income, any stage, career changers, separation, second opinions and more.
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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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