Financial Planning for Superannuation
Superannuation Advice: Consolidation, Contributions and Fund Choice
Your fund, its fees, your contributions, any insurance inside it and who it’s paid to all shape what super may provide later. We can help you review each one and decide what to change.
Our Financial Advice Team Is Here to Help You
We Can Help You
- Track down any lost super the ATO may be holding for you
- Consolidate multiple super funds where it suits you
- Compare the fees you pay on your super
- Choose a super investment option that fits your timeframe
- Set up salary sacrifice with your employer
- Use your concessional contribution cap deliberately
- Consider catch-up contributions after a lower-income year
- Review the life and TPD insurance inside your fund
- Review your binding nomination and who your super may go to
- Plan around Division 296 and a larger super balance
Who We Help
- Super fund members wanting to know how their fund is doing
- People who have changed jobs carrying an account from each employer
- High income earners watching the contribution caps
- Parents returning to work after time out of the workforce
- Couples with very different balances between them
- Business owners selling up and looking at what goes into super
- Pre-retirees within a decade of finishing work
- Public sector and defence members in defined benefit schemes
- Members with larger balances approaching the Division 296 threshold
What we advise on
The Super Decisions We Can Help You With
Consolidating Multiple Super Funds
We’ll help you bring your super accounts together, and check what you may give up by moving.
Combining accounts can mean one set of fees, one investment option and one statement. Any insurance held inside a fund generally ends when that account closes, and cover taken out years ago may not be available again on the same terms. We check insurance, exit costs and fund features before any rollover.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Every account you hold, including any super the ATO may be holding on your behalf
- The total each fund charges, across administration, investment and any advice fee still attached
- Any insurance inside each account, what it may pay, and whether it could be replaced on similar terms
- Whether cover accepted years ago could still be underwritten on the same terms today
- Any exit cost on the way out, and any benefit in a fund worth keeping
- Which fund to keep and the reason for it, rather than defaulting to the largest balance
- Any costs of selling investments to roll out, and whether the timing of the move matters
- A choice of fund form for your employer, which can help avoid a new account starting
Comparing Funds, Fees and Performance
We’ll show you how to compare funds on something more useful than last year’s return.
A growth option and a balanced option at two different funds may not be the same investment, and one can look stronger simply because it holds more growth assets. Fees are generally deducted regardless of performance, so their effect can compound over the years you hold the fund.
We’ll help you get clear on:
- The total you’re charged, rather than the headline administration fee alone
- Whether the two options you’re comparing hold similar assets in similar proportions
- How long a run of returns has to be before it tells you anything reliable
- Whether returns are quoted before or after fees and tax, since funds differ on this
- What your current fund offers that a cheaper one does not, if anything at all
- Any insurance you may lose or gain by moving, and the terms attached to each
- Where available, what the MySuper dashboard and annual performance test show about your fund
- What switching would cost, and how long it may take to recover that cost
Concessional Contributions and Salary Sacrifice
We’ll explain the contributions that go into super before tax, and the cap that applies to you.
Concessional contributions include employer contributions, salary sacrifice and personal contributions you claim a deduction for, and they’re generally taxed in the fund rather than at your marginal rate. The cap counts them together and is indexed, so it can change from 1 July. We confirm your tax position with your accountant before you commit.
Together, we’ll work through:
- The room left under the cap this year, once employer contributions are counted
- Salary sacrifice or a personal deductible contribution, and which suits your position
- The notice a personal contribution needs before the ATO will allow the deduction
- What salary sacrifice does to your take-home pay month by month, before you commit
- Whether Division 293 may apply at your income, confirmed with your accountant
- Salary sacrifice against extra mortgage repayments, if you have a mortgage, modelled both ways
- What happens if the cap is exceeded, and the process for having the excess released
- What to adjust in a year your income rises or falls sharply
After-Tax Contributions and the Bring-Forward Rule
We can help you put money you’ve already paid tax on into super, and check whether bring-forward applies.
Non-concessional contributions have their own, larger cap, and they’re a common way for lump sums to reach super. The bring-forward rule may allow several years of that cap to be used at once, with eligibility depending on your age and your total super balance at the previous 30 June.
We’ll go through:
- Whether your total super balance still leaves you eligible to contribute at all
- Whether bringing forward up to three years of the cap suits you, against spreading it out
- Your balance at the last 30 June, since that single date decides what the bring-forward allows
- Staging an inheritance, a settlement or a property sale across two or three financial years
- Whether the government co-contribution applies at your income this year
- A spouse contribution, and the tax offset it can attract where the lower income qualifies
- The downsizer contribution, where you have owned a home long enough to qualify
- What these contributions mean for the transfer balance cap once a pension starts
Catching Up After a Low-Income Year
We’ll help you check whether unused cap from earlier years is available to you.
Unused concessional cap amounts may be carried forward and used later, which can help after a career break, parental leave, a slower year in business or a period of study. Eligibility depends on your total super balance at the previous 30 June, there’s a limit on how far back you can reach, and unused amounts eventually expire.
Together, we’ll work through:
- How much unused cap, if any, has built up, and which years it came from
- Your total super balance at the last 30 June, which is the gate on using any of it
- Which year to draw on first, since the oldest unused amounts expire soonest
- How far back the rules let you reach, and what has already dropped away
- Whether a year with a large capital gain may be the year to use it, with your accountant
- Whether a redundancy payment or a strong bonus year makes the better moment to use it
- The cash you would need available to make the contribution, and where it comes from
- How the deduction is claimed for the year you contribute, with your accountant preparing the return
The Investment Option Inside Your Fund
We can check which investment option your balance sits in, and how it was chosen.
A default option is designed for a fund’s membership as a whole rather than for an individual. A suitable option depends on how long the money has before you need it and how much movement you’re comfortable holding through, and those answers can differ for someone stopping work in three years and someone with thirty.
We’ll help you get clear on:
- What your current option holds, underneath the label on the statement
- How long the money has before you may need to draw on it
- What a poor year would look like in dollars rather than in percentages
- A single pre-mixed option, against building your own mix from the menu
- Sequencing risk as you get closer to drawing on the balance, and what may help manage it
- Whether a lifecycle option, if your fund uses one, is moving you into defensive assets earlier than you want
- The investment fee on each option, which often differs with the growth assets it holds
- What would trigger a change, so a switch is a considered decision rather than a reaction to one quarter
Insurance Held Inside Super
We’ll review any life and disability cover attached to your fund.
Default cover is generally designed for a fund’s membership rather than for you, so it may be more or less than you need. The definitions matter as much as the amount: TPD cover based on any occupation works differently from a definition based on your own, and the definitions available inside super are limited.
Together, we’ll work through:
- What you’re covered for now, and what a claim may pay under the policy terms
- Which TPD definition your fund’s policy uses, which may depend on your occupation and work status
- Whether the sum insured fits your debts, your income and anyone who depends on you
- The premiums coming out of your balance each year, and what they buy
- Whether this cover belongs inside super, outside it, or split deliberately across both
- The age each cover stops, and what needs to be in place before then
- What may happen to cover if you change funds, or after 16 months without contributions unless you elect to keep it
- Who the trustee is permitted to pay a benefit to, and how that payment may be taxed
Who Your Super Goes To
We’ll explain why super isn’t covered by your will, and what decides where it goes.
Super is held in a trust, so unless a valid binding nomination is in place the trustee generally decides who receives it. Nominations can lapse or become invalid when circumstances change, and who counts as a dependant for super can differ from who benefits under a will. We consider it alongside your will, with your solicitor’s input.
Together, we’ll work through:
- The nomination sitting on each fund right now, if there is one at all
- Whether each nomination binds the trustee, and whether any of them have lapsed
- The people the law permits you to nominate, which is a defined and narrow group
- Whether your fund offers a non-lapsing binding nomination, and what making one takes
- How the benefit may be taxed, which depends on whether the recipient is a tax dependant
- Your will and your super arrangements, reviewed together alongside your solicitor
- Whether a reversionary pension for a spouse or a payment to your estate suits your plans
- When to review the nomination: a marriage, a separation, a birth or a death
Couples With Uneven Balances
We can show you the options for evening up two super balances that have drifted apart.
Contribution splitting may allow part of last year’s concessional contributions to be moved to a spouse, and spouse contributions can carry a tax offset, depending on income. Neither generally moves a large amount in one year. Over a longer period, they may matter most where one balance is nearer a cap than the other.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Where the two balances sit today, and where they’re heading on current contributions
- Whether contribution splitting is available to move part of last year’s concessional contributions to your partner
- Which contributions can be split, and the window for asking the fund to do it
- A spouse contribution into the smaller balance, and whether any tax offset is available
- What an age gap between you means for when each balance becomes accessible
- Whether the larger balance is nearing a cap the smaller one will not reach for years
- How two transfer balance caps can be used later, rather than only one
- What evening the two balances may mean for the household’s tax once you both stop work
Large Balances and Division 296
We’ll set out the additional tax on earnings above a large total super balance.
Division 296 became law in March 2026 and applies from 1 July 2026. It adds tax on the earnings attributable to a total super balance above $3 million, with a further step above a second, higher threshold, and both thresholds are indexed. The final design taxes realised earnings rather than unrealised gains. We confirm how it applies to you with your accountant.
We’ll go through:
- Where your total super balance sits against the threshold today, and its direction
- When the measure started, and the first year it is actually assessed on
- What the measure actually taxes, which is not the same as what you have withdrawn
- Why realised earnings are counted and unrealised gains are not, after the amendments
- What happens above the second, higher threshold, and how both are indexed
- Whether anything is worth changing, or whether leaving your arrangements as they are suits you
- How the tax is paid, personally or released from the fund, and which suits you
- How this measure interacts with the transfer balance cap and with your estate plans
Your Super, Worked Through Together
Fees and What They Cost
What you pay in administration, investment and any advice fees in each fund.
Consolidating Multiple Accounts
We check what leaving a fund may cost you before anything is rolled over.
Using the Concessional Cap
We work with the number that applies this year, and what your employer already adds.
Carry-Forward Contributions
A career break, parental leave or a slower year may leave room you can use, if eligible.
Choosing Your Investment Option
How long the money has to work, and how much movement you can live with.
Evening Up a Couple’s Super
Whether contribution splitting or spouse contributions could help even two balances up.
Your Death Benefit Nomination
Whether the one you made is still valid, and whether it matches your will.
Insurance Held in Your Fund
What any cover in your fund may pay, and the age each type of cover stops.
Proactive, Holistic, and Experienced Financial Planning
Super can quietly do a lot of work over a long time, often with little attention. It’s money set aside for your life after work, built up in small amounts across decades while you’re busy with everything else. We’ll show you where yours stands, what it costs to hold, and what a few decisions now could mean for the years it’s meant to support. Changes made earlier may have more time to make a difference.
Super can also matter to the people you care about after you’re gone, which makes it worth reviewing rather than leaving to sort itself out. We can help you check who it’s set to go to, whether it’s invested the way you’d want, and what you’re paying for it. Time is one of the things super relies on, so reviewing it sooner may give any changes more time to work.
Every financial decision impacts the next
Your Financial Life Is Connected
Great advice starts with understanding the bigger picture. Every stage of life presents new opportunities and challenges, from buying property and changing careers to growing your family, planning for retirement and protecting what matters most. At Ryker, we help connect every piece of your financial world into one clear strategy.
Your
Wealth
- Property & Investing
- Career & Income
- Tax Strategy
- Insurance & Protecting Your Family
- Super & SMSF
- Wealth & Investments
- Life Events & Changes
- Business & Wealth
- Legacy & Future Wealth
- Retirement Planning
Frequently Asked Questions
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 can help, but check three things before anything moves:
- Any insurance attached to the account you’re closing. Cover inside super generally ends with the account, and it may not be available again on the same terms.
- Any cost on the way out, and whether the exit price is set on a date you don’t control.
- Whether the account you’re closing has features you’d rather keep.
One account can mean one set of fees, one investment decision and one statement. We’ll work through the checks with you before any rollover.
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.
Salary sacrifice means your employer pays part of your pre-tax salary into super. These contributions are generally taxed in the fund at a rate that may be lower than your marginal rate, which is where any benefit comes from.
Whether it suits you depends on your marginal rate, how much of your concessional cap is left this year, and how much of your pay you can do without until you can access super. We can model the figures with you, and confirm your tax position with your accountant, before you change anything.
A comparison site can be a useful way to see fees and past returns across funds.
It may not take your own position into account: how long until you need the money, what cover you could give up by switching, what else you hold, and whether the options you’re comparing invest in similar assets. A cheaper fund in a more conservative option may not be a like-for-like swap.
We start from your position and work back to the right fund, and we can use the comparisons you’ve already done.
Generally, once you’ve reached preservation age and met a condition of release. Preservation age is 60 for anyone born after 30 June 1964, and reaching it doesn’t automatically mean full access.
Conditions of release commonly include retiring after preservation age or turning 65. There are limited grounds for earlier access, including severe financial hardship and compassionate grounds, and they’re narrower than they may sound. Where one may apply, talk to us before you lodge anything, and we’ll explain the requirements.
Super isn’t automatically covered by your will, because it’s held in a trust. Who receives it depends on any valid nomination, or the trustee’s decision if there isn’t one.
A binding nomination, if valid, directs the trustee. A non-binding one is a preference the trustee can consider. Some nominations lapse, so a form signed years ago may no longer do what you expect.
It’s worth reviewing your nominations alongside your will, with your solicitor’s input, because the two are decided in different places. How a benefit is taxed may also depend on who receives it.
Certainly, and super is where a lot of first conversations start.
There’s no cost for the initial conversation, and it begins with your questions. Tell us which fund or funds you’re in and what you’d like your super to be doing by the time you can access it. We’ll explain how we can help and what we’ll need to get started.
Terms get explained as they come up, in everyday language.
Who We Help
Advice for All Stages of Life
From first job to retirement, we help you build wealth, protect it, and live well.
Starting Out
First jobs, first home, first super, HECS debt, budgeting and more.
Growing Families
First home buyers, new parents, school fees, single incomes, young families and more.
Medical & Health
Doctors, dentists, pharmacists, allied health, nurses and more.
Professional Services & Tech
Lawyers, accountants, brokers, engineers, consultants and more.
Trades & Business Owners
Electricians, plumbers, builders, sole traders, franchisees and more.
Corporate & Executive
Executives, senior managers, directors, board members and more.
Public Sector & Defence
Police, firefighters, paramedics, ADF personnel, teachers and more.
Approaching Retirement
Pre-retirees, transition to retirement, Age Pension, aged care, estate planning and more.
Other Stages
Any income, any stage, career changers, separation, second opinions and more.
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Whatever’s on your mind, we’re here to help. You’ll speak with an authorised financial adviser who’ll listen first and get to know what matters to you.
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