Financial Planning for University Staff

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 your plans, and it’s worth working through before your window closes. In the defined benefit option many university staff are offered, members have two years to stay or move to an accumulation-style benefit. Points to weigh:

• How long you expect to work in higher education and research.
• Your likely salary path, since the benefit uses salary generally averaged over five years.
• When you might leave or retire, and what your fund’s rules provide at each point.
• The in-built death and disablement benefits, and any cover you would need in their place.

We can work through your fund’s rules with you and set the choice against the rest of your plan before you decide.

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.

Check the cap first. Your employer’s contributions count towards the concessional cap, and on a senior salary 17% can use much of it before you add anything. From 1 July 2026 the general concessional cap is $32,500, and caps are indexed. If you’re a defined benefit member, your fund works out the contributions counted against the cap using a formula.

Division 293 tax can also apply when income and concessional contributions together exceed $250,000. Depending on the room left, salary sacrifice may still suit you, or after-tax contributions or investing outside super may fit better. We can set out the room left in your cap with you and weigh each option against the rest of your plan.

Start with the end date and what you’ll be paid when it arrives. Points to work through:

• Severance pay, which some agreements, and the award where it applies, provide when a fixed-term contract isn’t renewed in set circumstances. Your agreement or Fair Work can confirm what applies.
• Any leave paid out, with its tax confirmed by an accountant.
• A buffer sized to your fixed costs for the weeks after the contract ends.
• Employer super, which stops with your pay, and any cover in super, which you can generally keep by telling your fund, though benefits built into a defined benefit can change when you leave.
• Any income protection, and what it requires between roles.

We can set it out with you before the end date.

Your fund’s own advice service and calculators can be a useful starting point, and they can explain how the fund and its options work, including any defined benefit choice. Depending on the service, its advice may focus on your super alone.

A financial adviser can set the super decision alongside the other parts of your position: your contract, any visa, property, cover outside super, a partner’s finances if you share them, and the goals you’re planning for. We can bring those together with you into a financial plan before a decision with a deadline.

It depends on the offer, your plans and what else you hold, so it helps to plan before the deadline. Points to work through:

• The package itself, any leave paid out and the tax on the whole payment, confirmed by an accountant.
• Any defined benefit, and what leaving now would mean under your fund’s rules.
• Any cover held through super, and what continues once your employer stops contributing.
• Your household costs, a buffer and any plans for another role or retirement.

We can weigh the offer with you before you respond. Free, confidential support is available from Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 and Lifeline on 13 11 14.

It depends on your visa and residency. Points to know:

• If you’re a temporary resident for tax purposes, most foreign income isn’t taxed in Australia, though income from work overseas may be. An accountant can confirm your position.
• If you leave after working here on a temporary visa, you may be able to claim your super, less tax, as a departing Australia superannuation payment once your visa has ceased.
• A permanent visa generally ends temporary resident status for tax, which can change how foreign income is treated.

We can plan your super, cover and goals with you around the move, with an accountant advising on the tax and a registered migration agent on any visa question.

Yes. A first sessional contract, a continuing appointment or your last years on campus are all good places to start from.

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 bring your letter of appointment or contract, a recent payslip, your latest super statement showing your membership category and the details of any cover you hold. We can talk face to face or over video.