Financial Planning for Rail Network and Station Staff

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.

The ATO says you can usually choose your super fund, but not always. It lists times you may not be eligible to choose the fund your employer pays into, including if:

• Your super is paid under a state award or registered agreement
• You’re a federal or state public sector employee
• You’re in a particular type of defined benefit fund

Your employer or fund can confirm which applies to you. Either way, we can look with you at the fees and any cover in the fund you’re in, and any contributions you’d like to add on top.

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.

Who employs you matters more than your job title. Fair Work says its system covers most Australian workplaces, and includes the National Employment Standards, awards and registered agreements. In some states, state public sector employees remain under the state system instead.

Fair Work, the relevant state body or your HR team can confirm which rules apply to you. Whichever it is, we plan with you from the pay you receive, and leave questions about your rate or classification to them.

A move like this can come with a training program, a new roster and a change in pay, set by your employer and the award, agreement or employment terms that apply to you. Points worth planning:

• What you’d live on during the training, at the pay that applies to it
• Any health assessment your employer requires for the new role, allowed for in your timing
• Any higher pay after qualifying, and where it could go
• How a fund or policy records your job, which is worth checking again when your work changes

We can work through each part with you before you apply.

That’s your decision, and deciding before the first higher pay arrives can make the plan easier to keep. Options worth weighing:

• A buffer for unplanned costs, if you don’t have one yet
• Extra super, within the contribution caps
• Paying down debts, if you have any
• A goal of your own, such as a home deposit or travel

A higher salary can also change your tax, so an accountant is worth involving. We can work out the split with you.

The rules behind your pay set what you earn, and your fund looks after your super and any cover inside it. Both matter, and each has its own job.

A financial adviser looks at what that pay and super can do next: a budget that fits your hours, any rise from a new role, extra contributions, cover for your work and goals such as a home or retirement. For questions about your pay rate, ask Fair Work, the relevant state body or your HR team. For questions about your account, ask your fund.

Your leave follows the award, agreement or employment terms that apply to you, and savings can help too.

Workers compensation is separate, through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme, and each scheme sets who qualifies, its own rules for psychological injury and who decides any claim.

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. 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.

Your employer’s super contributions are worked out on what you earn, so part-time hours can mean smaller contributions. Points worth looking at:

• Contributions from your own pay, if they suit your budget, within the caps
• Any cover in your fund, and whether its amount still suits you
• A minimum number of weekly hours in some income protection policies, compared with your usual hours

We can weigh each one with you, and the insurer decides on any application for cover.

Yes. We’d start with the date you’d like to stop, what the fund your employer pays into could provide and whether extra contributions suit you in your highest-paid years. A move to regular daytime hours before you finish is something we can plan for too, if you’d like it.

If you’re a member of an older defined benefit fund, its own rules come into the plan as well. We’d build it 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. Trainees, part-time station staff and long-serving controllers can all start here, wherever things stand today.

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 bring are recent payslips, your super statement, any insurance policies you hold, and study loan or home loan details if you have them. We can meet in person or online.