Financial Planning for Wind Turbine, Solar and Battery Technicians

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.

They may, and having an ABN doesn’t settle it. The ATO treats a contractor as an employee for super if more than half the contract’s value is for their labour, they’re not paid to achieve a set result and they can’t delegate the work. If the contract is with your own company, trust or partnership, the hirer doesn’t have to pay.

Panels, batteries or other materials in your price can change the sum, as payments for materials aren’t labour. An accountant or the ATO can confirm where you stand. Whatever the answer, we can plan your super with you around what’s paid in and what you’d like to add.

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 depend on your employer’s business and the work you do, rather than your job title. One award covers the generation of electrical power by whatever means, along with its transmission, distribution and retail supply, though contractors covered by some other awards, and generation that’s only incidental to another industry, sit outside it.

Where your wind, solar or battery job falls is a question for Fair Work, where the national award system applies. We can build your budget and super plan with you from the pay you receive.

It helps to look at this before your last day. Points to plan:

• Final pay and any leave if you’re employed, which depend on your employer, award or agreement
• A buffer for the time until your next role or contract
• Repayments on any debts, set against the income you’d have
• Any cover that comes through your employer may not continue once you leave, so it’s worth asking your employer or fund before your last day

Income protection is generally for illness or injury rather than losing a job, so savings and your budget do more of the work here. We can go over the numbers with you while your pay is still coming in.

That can depend on how you’re paid and what you hold. Places to look:

• Sick leave, if you’re employed and have some available
• Workers compensation through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme, where each scheme sets who qualifies
• Income protection, if you hold it, which can pay part of your income after a waiting period, subject to the policy’s terms and exclusions and the insurer’s assessment
• Savings, for any time before other payments start

We can plan with you how these could fit together. The insurer decides any claim on a policy, and each scheme’s rules set who decides a workers compensation claim.

Start with the repayments, tested against work you can rely on rather than your busiest month. A broker can compare lenders and arrange any finance. Then add fuel, servicing, tools, test gear and any business insurance from a general insurance broker.

If your work needs accreditation, check with the body that issues it, and ask the licensing regulator about any licence. It’s also worth reading any cover you hold before you leave wages, as Moneysmart suggests for insurance through super. We can work through the budget and cover with you before you sign, and the insurer decides on any application.

Cover for the business itself, including tools and the van, sits with a general insurance broker, who can explain those policies for you.

A financial adviser starts with you as a person: what you’d want in place if you couldn’t work, who relies on your income, and how super and savings fit with what the business pays you. We’d look at cover from the insurers willing to consider your work, and the insurer decides on any application.

First, check what the new role needs. Design work on some systems can call for its own accreditation, and the body that issues it is the place to confirm. Points to plan:

• The cost of training, and what you’d live on while your hours change
• Any change in pay, allowances or how you’re paid
• Any cover you hold: how it describes your work, and how a TPD or income protection definition may read the new duties

We can work through the costs with you before you commit.

Yes. A plan here could cover how long you’d like to stay on towers or roofs, if that’s your work now, and a later move into design, planning or training. On an ABN and paid per job, your contributions may be yours to plan, unless a business has to pay your super.

The plan starts with super and savings, and a business sale, if you have a business, is treated as an addition because a sale isn’t certain. 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. New to installs, on a wind service team or running a small crew, you can start with us from where things are 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 have with you are recent pay records or invoices, your super statement and the details of any van finance or policies you hold. We’re happy to talk in person or online.