Financial Planning for Roofers and Roof Plumbers

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 insurer and on what your work involves. When you apply, insurers usually ask about your age and job, and roof work is part of that assessment, so the terms and premium offered can differ from one insurer to the next. An application can be offered on standard terms, with a premium loading, with an exclusion for a named condition, deferred for a period, or declined. The insurer decides.

Income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period if illness or injury stops you working, subject to the policy’s definitions. We can compare suitable options across several insurers with you before you apply.

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.

Default cover inside super can usually be issued without medical checks, though it may carry pre-existing condition rules set out in the fund’s PDS, and increasing it is usually underwritten like any other application. Cover you apply for outside super usually comes with questions about your age and job.

Closing an account when you merge super can end the cover held in it.

This is general information that doesn’t take into account your goals, finances or needs, so consider whether it suits you before acting on it. We can compare what you hold before anything changes.

Your job is one of the things an insurer looks at, so roof work can affect the premium and the terms you’re offered. Each insurer assesses occupations in its own way, which means the same duties can be treated differently from one insurer to another.

Since 5 October 2021, the duty when applying for consumer life cover is to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation, which means answering the questions asked with reasonable care. If you leave out important details, the insurer may change or cancel your cover or refuse a claim (Moneysmart).

We can help you describe your work clearly and compare options, and the insurer makes the final decision.

A comparison site can show a range of policies and a rough idea of price, which is a useful place to start. It may not include every policy on the market, and it can’t see how your own roofing duties, any cover in your super or your household budget fit together.

Advice starts with the work you actually do on roofs, then compares suitable options across several insurers, checks what you already hold and sizes the cover to your income and debts. We can go through it with you before you apply, and the insurer still assesses any application.

Generally not your own income. Public liability and tool cover are business insurance, there for claims against the business and for its equipment. Some packages include an accident and sickness policy, which is separate general insurance with its own terms, so a general insurance broker is the person to explain it.

Personal cover works differently: income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period if illness or injury stops you working, and life and TPD cover pay a lump sum on the policy’s terms.

We can look at the personal side with you, alongside any business cover you hold.

Plan the whole year rather than the busiest part of it. A run of repair work can be followed by quieter months, and no season is predictable. Points to work through:

• Your fixed costs, set against the income you’d expect in a quieter month.
• A buffer topped up during the busy run, sized to carry those costs.
• Tax on the extra income, with the amount to set aside worked out by an accountant.
• Travel and time away, if you take on repairs in other areas.
• What the rest goes to, such as debt, super or a goal of your own.

We can build the plan with you and review it after each season.

Yes. An apprentice, a roofer on an ABN or the owner of a small crew can all start here.

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 details of any cover you hold, your super statements, recent payslips or invoices and a short description of the work you do on roofs. We can talk face to face or over video.