Wealth Planning & Financial Planning

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 best use of your fund.

Estate planning is the process of ensuring that your wealth is directed according to your wishes after you die. Making sure your wealth goes where you want it to is not just a simple matter of preparing a will – although a will is almost always a key part of your estate planning. You also need to consider things such as your superannuation benefits, family businesses, assets owned by legal entities such as family trusts as well as assets owned as joint tenants, etc.

It is also vital that your estate planning be consistent with your current financial planning, to ensure that your affairs are handled as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible, both now and in the future.

Entering the aged care system is often a difficult time for many families. We, or someone we love, face the prospect of a loss of independence. It can all be very scary.
What’s more, the financial aspects of the aged care system are incredibly complex. What fees do you have to pay? When do you have to pay them? To whom do you have to pay them? How does being in residential care affect your Centrelink entitlements? Your super arrangements? Your estate plans?

We can assist you to fully understand your financial situation and the way that this interacts with your aged care. This involves things:

• Working out the type and quality of care you can afford;
• Working out the costs of this care;
• Arranging to pay your accommodation and care fees that apply;
• Ensuring you maximise your Centrelink pension and any other entitlements;
• Best managing your family home and other significant assets; and
• Simply ensuring that your time in aged care is as financially comfortable as possible.

In the best cases, planning for aged care should start well before the need for aged care arises. The planning should start when your retirement planning starts – aged care is, after all, part of your retirement. And starting the planning process as early as possible lets you also ensure that this planning complements the other elements of your financial plan, such as your estate planning.

That said, it is also never too late for good planning. So, if aged care is already a reality, then get in touch with us and make sure that you make that reality as pleasant and satisfying as possible.

If you get your debt right, financial security will follow. That’s why we make debt management a key part of your financial plan. It is one of the first things we look at for all of our clients.

Debt touches most things that we do. Few of us buy homes without taking on a mortgage, and even fewer can afford to make an investment without any debt.

But it is not just this ‘big debt’ that matters. There are other types of debt as well. Who doesn’t have a credit card (or three)? Or a car loan? Or even a HECS debt that needs to be repaid? Managing these debts properly adds significantly to your ‘bottom line.’ When you save money on debt repayments you free yourself up to move forward somewhere else. The money you save can be used to make extra super contributions, to seed an investment, to upgrade your home or just to do something nice like take a holiday or eat out a little more often.

And it is not just a matter of minimising interest. We help you ensure that your loans are structured properly, so that you can optimise everything else that debt touches. This includes things like tax deductibility, asset protection, repayment prioritisation and personal maintenance.

We think property is probably the most important part of your wealth management strategy. This is because it is hard to become financially secure without owning at least one property. If you can own more than one, things get even better.

We advise on all forms of property: residential homes, investment properties and commercial properties. And we don’t just advise on your own property, either. We often find ourselves showing clients the best way to help their adult kids buy homes.
We always start with your family home. We do this because the family home occupies a special place for most Australians. Our home ownership rates are amongst the highest in the world.

Residential property also occupies a special spot in Australian investment history. It is historically the highest earning asset class, with an average annual return of over 8% compounding in the 10 years to 31 December 2015, and 10.5% per annum in the 20 years to the same date (source: ASX Annual Investment Report June 2016).
Homes account for around 43% of all household wealth in Australia. And, pretty importantly, they give you a place to live as well.

And this is just family homes. When you consider the impact of investment properties as well, you find that being wealthy is really a matter of owning property.
This is why property simply must be a significant part of your financial plan. You need to decide what to buy, how much to spend, how to borrow (and how much) and how to repay the debt if you want to make property investment work for you.

Basically, your wealth starts with property and expands from there. That’s why we do, too.

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.

History shows that, while volatile in the short to medium term, over the long term shares can be a great way to preserve and create wealth. But you need to know what you are doing so that you can manage the volatility. What’s more the share market can also be complex, and simply managing your share portfolio can be a time-consuming and expensive process.

We help you with all aspects of your share portfolio – from assistance in finding the right investments in the first place, to keeping the balance of your portfolio in line with your appetite for risk, to managing things like franking credits and your participation in share buy-backs and the like. We use economies of scale to add value to your portfolio and our service means you are never ‘on your own’ when it comes to investing. We keep a constant eye on the share market so that you do not have to.

Professional share portfolio management can make all the difference to the success of your investment. So, talk to us today about how we can help you get the most out of your share investments.