Overview of Our Services | Life Strategies

Our Services

No two financial plans are the same, especially if you are at different stages in your life. A person in their 30s will need different advice from a person in their 60s or a person in their 80s.We believe reviewing your overall financial situation with a professional at any point in your life adds understanding and focus and there is value in an ongoing relationship with regular reviews.

We have provided more detailed information on individual services in the drop down menu however as an overview as to why & how you might work with our team please consider how your situation may fit with the examples below.

We offer an initial meeting at our expense.

Young Adult
You’ll be starting out in your career, maybe with a HELP debt to repay. Without any heavy financial commitments, now is a good time to start good habits early and begin to put money aside and plan for your future. You may not be aware of your current superannuation fund (or funds), its features, options or the fees you are paying. Your income may be your greatest asset so you should also consider protecting your income if you can’t work due to illness or injury.

Make an appointment with our Insurance Adviser who will explain Income Protection Insurance and how you can arrange this cover and at what cost.

If you have had more than one previous job, you may have ‘lost super’ or have more than one super fund. Our Adviser can help you search for your ‘lost super’ and consolidate your super funds into one whilst also reviewing your current investment option(s), insurance within super and fees to ensure that these are appropriate for you. The document Super – your money, your future provides information on superannuation when you are starting out in the workforce.

Our team can also work with you to help identify your goals, assist you with budgeting and explain Government schemes that can assist you with these savings goals.

Life Strategies can prepare and lodge your personal tax return or be a resource for you should you decide to do so yourself. Refer to ATO website – Lodging your Tax Return. You should allocate some time to visit the free ASIC website Moneysmart – “Simple Guidance you can trust”.

We also recommend you buy and read Barefoot Investor or at least have a look around this website for some good thoughts on money and being aware of what you do with it.

Young Couples
You may be starting to share finances (and debt) and set goals together perhaps of owning a home but how will you get there? Many of the issues above may still apply to you but now you are thinking of someone else besides yourself.

Make an appointment with our Adviser who can help to ensure that you are focused on your goals, have appropriate insurance cover, assist you to manage your debt, understand your superannuation and have a savings plan in place. We can help with questions regarding housing finance and introduce you to our Mortgage specialists if necessary.

Young Families
Many of the above issues may still apply to you but now you have children to consider too. With increased living costs and financial commitments, budgeting is important as well as protection for your family against unexpected events. If you are going through a divorce, you may be concerned about meeting your household expenses with reduced income and worried about your overall financial situation.

Our team can advise you on the government support available for families including tax rebates to supplement your income and whether you are eligible. Again, insurance is a major consideration to protect your family and our Insurance Adviser can work with you to identify your insurance needs and provide a cost-effective way of meeting these. We can help with questions regarding housing finance and introduce you to our Mortgage specialists if necessary. If you don’t already have current wills, or you are concerned about how your wealth will be handed down to your children, we can help review your current situation and develop a plan to give you peace of mind.

During Your Career / Running a Small Business
It’s important not to lose sight of the long-term and to start to plan now. You’ll want to avoid any excess tax and maximise any benefits available to you, while having appropriate insurance in place. You may face a situation of being made redundant and need assistance working through the financial ramifications of this.

If you own a business, our Adviser can help to ensure you have appropriate insurances in place, including Income Protection and Key Person insurance if appropriate; and can assist with Employer superannuation plans. You may also require advice on succession planning.Our Chartered Accountant can assist from setup through to growth of your business with advice on tax structures, tax planning strategies and tax on specific transactions.If you are facing a redundancy, we can help ensure you receive the right entitlements taxed at the correct rate. We can provide advice on managing a lump sum payout.

Pre-Retirement
Now that you have fewer financial commitments, your focus has shifted to security in retirement and retirement plans. You may wish to salary sacrifice to your super fund or start a Transition to Retirement pension. You may also start to think about your investments and how they will be handed down to your family.

Our Adviser can help you identify your lifestyle requirements in retirement to come up with a retirement income goal. A review of your current superannuation and superannuation arrangements may be required to help ensure your retirement goals can be met. Our Adviser can also advise you on estate planning considerations and develop an effective plan to ensure your wealth ends up in the right hands in the most effective way for tax purposes.

Retirees
With 20 years or more of retirement ahead of you, you will wish to maintain your lifestyle once your salary or other employment income stops. If you have savings and investments, you will need to generate enough income from them to meet your expenses without having to access your assets. You’ll want to pay as little tax as possible once you retire so you have more to spend or save. You may be entitled to an age pension and possibly not aware of Centrelink benefits available to you.

The first focus is to ensure your investments and superannuation are managed to meet your income goals to fund the lifestyle you have worked for. Our Adviser can also provide information on Centrelink entitlements to supplement your retirement income and determine your eligibility. However other areas of advice including aged care advice and estate planning perhaps become more significant and you may wish to put in place a Power of Attorney. You may be concerned about assisting your children and grandchildren financially.

Longevity risk may be something you haven’t considered. Most people have the goal of ensuring that their capital will last for their lifetime and provide them their desired income and flexibility to meet changes in housing and health needs and for some there is the goal of having some left over for their families at the end of the day.

Unfortunately none of us know how long that lifetime will be and surviving longer than your money is what we refer to as longevity risk. You may be interested in visiting the My Longevity website and taking 10 minutes to complete their questionnaire. This questionnaire provides a “guestimate” of what age you might live to, based on a number of lifestyle factors and we hope it highlights the issue of managing your money with what Financial Planners call longevity risk in mind.