Financial Planning for Removalists

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.

Super on a contract depends on what you’re paid for. A contract that includes your truck is generally not mainly for labour, so the business you contract to doesn’t pay your super, and it’s yours to plan. If you’re self-employed, Moneysmart notes you won’t have paid holidays or sick leave. Workers compensation is separate, through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme, and each scheme sets who qualifies, so ask the scheme how it treats you.

An accountant or the ATO can confirm your super position. A business that pays subcontractors may also report those payments to the ATO each year, so keep records that match. A broker arranges any truck finance, and we can plan your super and cover with you before the first job.

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.

Fair Work says the Road Transport Award covers furniture removalist assistants if the employer is in the road transport and distribution industry. Under that award, a removalist’s grade depends on the size and capacity of the truck they drive, and assistants are classified as loaders. On interstate work, the Road Transport (Long Distance) Award only covers drivers, so an assistant travelling with them stays under the Road Transport Award.

Fair Work’s Pay and Conditions Tool is the place to check your own pay. We can then build your budget and super plan from the pay on your payslips.

Weekend rates for ordinary hours generally attract super, and overtime generally doesn’t. The ATO counts casual loading and penalty rates for ordinary hours as earnings that attract super. Overtime generally doesn’t, provided your ordinary hours of work are clearly identified.

It helps to compare your payslips with your fund statement, and questions about your own pay can go to your employer or Fair Work. We can plan contributions with you around what’s being paid, and any extra you’d like to add.

We start with the pay you can count on, usually your base hours, and build the household budget on that. Weekend rates and overtime are then planned as extras, each with a purpose set before it’s paid, such as savings, a deposit or super.

A buffer for quieter weeks sits underneath, sized from a full year of payslips or invoices rather than one busy month. If you subcontract, tax money and truck costs come out first. We can build it with you from your own figures.

Start with the truck: repayments set against the income you can rely on, with a broker comparing lenders and arranging any finance. Then the running costs, such as fuel, servicing and registration, and business insurance, which a general insurance broker can advise on.

If you employ a crew, from 1 July 2026 their super must generally reach their funds within 7 business days after payday, and structure and tax are for an accountant. A truck loan is also a debt to allow for when you set life and TPD amounts. We can plan the budget and cover with you before you start, and the insurer decides on any application.

Fair Work’s Pay and Conditions Tool is the place to check a pay rate, and it’s worth using. Planning what that pay goes towards is where a financial adviser can help.

A financial adviser looks at how your base pay, weekend rates and any subcontract income fit with your budget, super, tax and cover, and what you’d like to build. We can compare cover with you, plan contributions and set goals around the way removal work pays, and the insurer decides on any application.

Yes. Removal work can mean wages, casual shifts and subcontracting over the years, so we start by tracing the super each stage has built. If a contract includes your truck, adding to super is likely to be yours to plan.

A move into quoting or coordinating jobs before you stop can be part of the plan, if you’d like one. We’d build the plan on super and savings, and count what a truck or business might sell for as an extra. 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. An offsider in their first month, a subcontractor with a truck or the owner of a removals business can all start with us.

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 bring recent payslips or invoices, your latest tax return, a statement from each super fund, any policies you hold and your truck loan details, if you have a loan.