Financial Services

Risk insurance policies are financial products that will pay the policy holder if the ‘insured event’ – such as becoming unwell and being unable to work – happens.

Insured events include things like temporary illness, permanent illness, temporary injury, permanent injury, or the premature death of the insured person.

Risk insurances insure your good health, which is actually your most important financial asset. That is why risk insurances are almost always the essential first step in any financial plan. Insuring yourself against a loss of income or earning ability allows you to ensure that life for you and your loved ones goes on with the quality you want, even if something unwanted happens.

We provide the complete range of risk insurance services: death cover, total and permanent disability (TPD), income protection and trauma cover. We help you calculate the type and amount of each cover that you might need, as well as discuss other ways that you can protect yourself against financial loss.

We also show you how to minimise the premiums, especially after-tax, without unnecessarily compromising the quality of the policy or the level of cover that you acquire.

If cash flow is tight, we can assist you to find ways to insure yourself that minimise the demands on your day-to-day income. And, of course, as financial planners we can help you find ways to enhance your income. This makes everything more affordable, not just your insurances.

Most people think of superannuation as a tax-favoured way of saving for your retirement. For employees, it is compulsory. For self-employed people, it is optional. For everybody, it is a great idea.

But superannuation is about more than retirement planning. It is actually a cornerstone of most people’s financial plan. This is because ‘super’ touches every other aspect of your financial planning. The way you manage your super impacts on how you manage your insurances, your other investments, your tax planning, your retirement planning, your marriage, your divorce, how and when you might help your adult kids out financially, your estate planning and even how you repay your own mortgage.

It is super by name and even more super by nature.

There are three types of super fund: retail funds, industry funds and self-managed superannuation funds. Different clients are suited to one or more of these types, and sometimes it makes sense to use more than one type in combination. We help you select the best type of fund for you. We then help you make best use of whichever option you take. This is important because super can and should be incorporated into your thinking about everything to do with your finances.

If you decide to manage your own super (a ‘self-managed super fund,’ or SMSF), we assist with all facets of establishing and maintaining this fund. This includes the facilitation, through our legal team, of all documents needed to start and then make good use of your fund.

Investing means becoming wealthier by buying and sometimes selling assets that provide income while you hold them and capital when you sell them.

There are two ways to invest and three broad types of investment. We can assist you with all of them.

The two ways to invest are directly or indirectly. Direct investment is where you buy and hold investment assets in your own name (or in the name of some entity that you control, such as a family trust or a self-managed super fund).

Many people like to buy property and shares directly. If direct investment is what you are after, we can help you find appropriate investments (excluding direct property) and assist in the management of those investments. A big part of this is making sure that you buy the asset in the appropriate structure or way. Sometimes this is yourself (owned personally), but sometimes it is not.

Indirect investment is where you employ an investment manager to buy and hold investment assets on your behalf. We can assist you to identify the managed investment option or options that suits your circumstance and your goals, and then show you how to access the particular benefits of managed investments to minimise your risk.

The three broad things in which you can invest are shares, property and cash fixed/interest. The specific choice of investment types, and the way in which you mix these choices within your portfolio, is different for each person. We take the time to assist you to identify which type or types of asset class makes most sense, and then assist you to make either a direct or indirect investment accordingly.

As the name suggests, a self-managed super fund is one that the members manage for their own benefit.

Self-managed super funds (SMSFs) are one of the most popular ways for Australians to hold their super benefits. SMSFs allow for maximum control over super benefits, which in turn means that super benefits are managed in ways that complement all other elements of a financial plan. This includes, of course, your estate planning (super benefits are not generally subject to your will and therefore you need to make specific arrangements for the posthumous management of super benefits).

Appropriate planning also typically allows SMSFs to be the most efficient way for retirement benefits to be held.

Our comprehensive SMSF service ranges from establishing a new SMSF, to managing contributions into and investments by new and existing funds, to ensuring that the fund complies with the various aspects of super law to which it is subject. We can also assist you to utilise your SMSF to optimise your life insurance arrangements.