Financial Planning for Rope Access Workers

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.

Start from what you earned across a full year, taken from your payslips or invoices, rather than the rate on one campaign. That figure takes in any weeks between jobs.

From there, a budget can set out:

• Regular bills and repayments, on the income you can rely on
• A buffer for the time between campaigns
• A share of long campaigns for savings, super or a goal of your own

If rope access is new to you, a cautious estimate can stand in until you have a year of figures. We can work through it with you from your own numbers.

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.

That depends on your employer’s industry and your duties, rather than your job title. Two people on one job can sit differently if they work for different employers.

Fair Work is the place to check which award or agreement applies to you, including where the national award system applies, and it helps to have your employer’s details and a list of your duties ready. Whatever you find, we can build your plan with you from your payslips.

Fair Work says casuals don’t get most types of paid leave, notice of termination or redundancy pay, even if they work regularly for a long time. Points to plan:

• A buffer for time off and any weeks between jobs
• How long you could wait for a benefit, if you hold or apply for income protection, which is generally for illness or injury rather than losing a job
• The super each employer pays, read from your payslips

We can set this out with you and look at options from the insurers willing to consider your work, with the insurer deciding any application.

First, an ABN doesn’t settle who pays your super. A business may still have to pay it if more than half the contract’s value is for your labour, payment doesn’t depend on a set result and the work can’t be delegated. A contract with your own company, trust or partnership is different, as the hirer doesn’t have to pay. An accountant or the ATO can confirm where you stand.

It’s then worth looking at paid sick leave, which self-employed people don’t have, your income records from the first invoice, and workers compensation, where each scheme sets who qualifies. We can compare the offer with you against your current pay.

Begin with how the pay compares, including any change in hours, allowances or time away, using your last year of payslips or invoices. It’s then worth looking at:

• The training time and any cost, with questions about a ticket going to the body that issues it
• What you’d rely on each week in the new role, as the base of your budget
• Any cover you hold: the job on record, and how a definition may read your new duties
• Your new duties set out on any new application

We can go through it with you before you accept.

That depends on how you’re paid and what you hold. It could come from:

• Sick leave, if you’re entitled to it and have some
• Workers compensation, through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme, and 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 in between

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 a simple budget and your super, before the first campaign’s pay lands. It’s worth looking at:

• Which fund your super goes to, shown on your payslip
• Insurance in that fund: if you’re under 25, cover in a new fund may need asking for, depending on your job and your fund
• A small buffer of your own for any time between jobs
• The date your ticket needs renewing, if it has one, and what it could cost in time and money

We can set this up with you from your first payslips.

Yes. We can plan with you around when you’d like to finish rope work, whether you’d supervise, inspect or train first, and how a budget changes as campaigns wind down.

The plan would rest on super and savings, with the sale of any small rope access business as an addition. 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. Wherever you’re starting from, we can start there too, from a first rope access course to a casual campaign or your own small business.

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’s useful to have your recent pay records, your latest super statement and any policy documents with you. We can meet in person or online.