The client

Bruce (41) and Patty (40) are successful business owners in East Brisbane. Their business had really taken off over the past couple of years and they now managed 15 staff and had a turnover of over $1M. Despite being well educated professionals, Bruce and Patty had complicated financial structures in place, and were worried that they were simply too busy to take proper care of their own finances while running their business. Their previous financial advisor hadn’t been seen or heard from in seven years, and they wanted a fresh approach to making sure they were on track.

They have income of $120K and $150K. They had a superannuation account that was set up from an adviser a long time ago and they haven’t heard from him in over 7 years and they felt they were getting no value and were simply too busy to look at their own personal finances whilst managing the business. They are both highly educated professionals but feel finance is best outsourced to an adviser they can trust.

The strategy:

Bruce and Patty had complicated structures set up, with trusts and companies that were frustrating to manage, making them feel like their finances were out of control and perplexing. So our first task was to help them get a clear picture of the structures they had, examine the assets within, and provide them an overall view on their assets, liabilities and net position.

• When they approached us for advice, they had a combined income of $270k/year that they drew from the business, which had them both paying a lot of tax, even as employees of their own business. We engaged a carry forward rule to boost their super which they had neglected in the business start-up phase and we were able to reduce their taxable incomes each by approximately $25,000 each which equates to a rough saving of $8,500 each in tax savings.
• We kept their current super policies and simply became advisers on their own accounts so they didn’t need to change payments or anything from their end. However we updated their super investments to remove the underperforming investments and reduce the costs on their accounts. This saved them approximately $2,000/year in costs.
• We reviewed their insurance portfolios that their old adviser set up and  we were able to save around $2,000/year in costs on their insurance portfolio; we also removed exclusions and updates their insurances so that they were efficiently in line with their needs and not paying for unnecessary insurance.

The outcome:

Raeburn now helps keep an eye on Bruce and Patty’s overall finances, so they can focus on running and growing their business, knowing that they are building on a solid financial foundation.

Note: Client names have been changed for confidentiality reasons but case study is otherwise accurate and true.