Financial Planning for Tradies

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.

Workers compensation is separate, through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme. Safe Work Australia explains that employers must hold it to cover workers who get sick or injured because of work, and each scheme sets who qualifies, including how it treats subcontractors and sole traders.

An injury on the weekend, or an illness with no link to your work, may fall outside it. Income protection can pay part of your income if illness or injury stops you working, on or off the job, after a waiting period and subject to the policy’s definitions, exclusions and the insurer’s assessment.

We can help you understand how the two fit together for the way you work.

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 depends on how you’re engaged and paid. The ATO says that if you’re a contractor paid mainly for your labour, the business paying you may need to pay super for you, even if you have an ABN. A contract counts as mainly for labour when more than half its dollar value is for your labour.

Where a contract also covers materials or equipment, the test looks at whether labour is more than half of its value, so the answer can differ from one contract to the next.

If no super is owed to you, personal contributions are your choice, and we can plan them with you, with an accountant confirming whether a deduction applies.

Comparison sites can show prices and headline features side by side, which is a useful place to start.

Advice can add the detail that matters for physical work: how each policy defines disability, which waiting period your savings could support, how any cover held in super fits, and whether an exclusion could apply to your occupation or activities. An insurer usually looks at your job and duties when you apply, so these details are worth understanding first.

We can talk through what you need, then compare suitable options with you. The insurer decides on any application.

A few things become yours to manage when you work for yourself, so it helps to plan them before the move:

• Super: as a sole trader, the ATO says you’re not required to make compulsory super contributions for yourself, so contributions become your choice.
• Leave: if you’re self-employed, Moneysmart notes you won’t have paid holidays or sick leave.
• Cover: Moneysmart suggests checking whether the move affects any insurance cover through your super.
• Tax: an accountant can advise on setting money aside for tax as it comes in.

We can plan savings, cover and super with you before you start, and there’s more in our advice for sole traders and business owners.

Yes. A plan can look at when you’d like to finish up in the trade and what you’d like the years after to hold, whether that’s part-time work, a training role or a full stop. We’ll set out what your super, savings and other income could support, including the years before preservation age, the age at which you can access your super if you’re retired or have started a transition to retirement income stream.

If you work in building and construction, any portable long service leave in your name can be part of the timing too. There’s more in 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.

Of course, and you can start with whatever is on your mind, whether that’s a first ute, going out on your own or the years after the trade.

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.

Payslips or tax returns and a super statement are useful if you have them handy, and we can meet in person, by phone or by video.