Wealth Creation Blogs Worth Sharing.

I often get asked about eligibility for long-service leave. There seems to be a little bit of confusion surrounding this topic.  Traditionally, long service leave applies to an employee who has been with the same employer for several years (typically 8-10).    Depending on the industry, an amount of leave is available after that time.  For example, some industries provide 1.3 weeks of long service leave for each completed year of service.   After 10 years they are eligible for 13 weeks. Of course, if you leave that employer prior to the 10 years, it’s unlikely any accrued amount will be paid out and in most cases, it’s not transferable to the next employer. In the Coal Mining Industry, things are a little different.  In 1992, the Australian Government introduced the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Administration Act.   It’s a complicated piece of legislation.   However, the idea is to allow eligible employees...

A complimentary review of your super and insurances is the first step we take with you at Hindsightwealth.  Put it on your new year resolution  "to - do" list. Andrew O’Brien and Hindsight Group Pty Ltd t/as Hindsight Wealth Pty Ltd (ABN 88 168 442 528) are Authorised Representatives of Affinia Financial Advisers Limited ABN 13085335397 & AFS Licence No 237857. The material contains general advice only and the consumer should consider the PDS and whether the product is appropriate prior to making a decision to buy.

Growth, growth and more growth is what we are about at Hindsight Wealth. If your super performance doesn't quite look like the graph above, perhaps it's time to do something about it? The last 12 months really should serve as an excellent test for your super fund. Investment markets around the world continue to perform strongly. 2017 is continuing to be a very positive year for domestic and international investment markets, and this should have translated to strong returns on your super fund. You should consider structuring your super fund to take advantage of this by investing in a personalised portfolio that is appropriate to your investor profile with your funds spread across all the different asset classes.  At the time of writing, the local All Ordinaries Index (a measure of the broader Australian stock market) is sitting just over 6100 points. An increase of some 14% from its level 12 months ago.  Whilst markets have been performing ...

I have had a few clients of late take me up on my offer of a  “Uber Ride &Chat” meeting.   It’s all designed to make your time and our meeting more valuable, hassle free and easy to review your latest super statement & insurances.  How it works.  Let’s make a time to meet at the Hindsightwealth Hamilton office. I’ll arrange and pay for in advance, your Uber ride from Brisbane CBD return. I will text you and screen shot the Uber confirmed pick up time, location and your Uber Driver detail. They will deliver you safely to Hamilton. Let me know your coffee or tea preference when we make our appointment – it will be ready waiting for your arrival. Lunch is on me.  A client opted for a lunch time meeting and needed it capped to 1 hour. No problem at all. In fact, we have a café close by that delivers great sandwiches which I can arrange for you if you choose to visit over lunch. Should we need to meet again  – need...

Many of you are keen to meet and chat about your latest Super Statement which is terrific!  However, it’s finding that time to come out to our Hamilton Office. If you are Brisbane CBD located, I’ll cover your return Uber ride to visit us Portside to kick start your Super Statement review.  If you would like to “ Uber Ride & Chat ”, let’s make a diary date soon. I also hear what people who work in the mines or FIFO are saying in regional Queensland.  It perhaps can be the last thing you want to do after a hitch with so many family, social and personal “to – do” lists to conquer. I visit regional hubs throughout the year and will always let you know when I am in town.  If there are a few of you, with or without your significant other, who would like to block out some time to discuss your latest super Statement, I’ll happily book a flight and meeting space for us to catch up. At the outset, it might be you are keen to find out how I ...

For those of you currently working in the resources industry, you would no doubt understand that the potential downside is the punishing rosters and long periods away from home that can take a toll on your family and personal life. Sure, the money is good for the most part, but it comes at a cost. Unfortunately, many marriages suffer irreparably and many industry workers find themselves having to “start again” after relationship breakdown and divorce.  It can be an extremely difficult time and apart from the emotional strain, there’s the stress of having to rebuild financially.  Quite often, you may find yourself in a situation where you’re left with minimal assets and essentially must start again. In this situation, it’s critical to make sure you have your superannuation structured and invested correctly. If you’ve come through a divorce with your superannuation intact, it may end up being your biggest asset. You really need to get it working for you. The othe...

As of July 1st this year, Queensland’s largest and Australia’s second largest super fund, QSuper, will no longer be the only choice for Queensland’s largest employer, the Queensland Government. The below is an excerpt from an email recently sent to all Queensland Government employees: Colleagues, From July 2017 you will be able to choose your superannuation provider. This change aligns superannuation arrangements in the Queensland public sector to those that have applied to public servants in nearly all other states and the Commonwealth for some time. So why is this such a big deal? Basically, it means that Queensland’s largest collective of employees now has access to Super Choice, a benefit that non-government employees have had access to for years. The Queensland Government has over 215,000 full-time equivalent employees, to put that in perspective, Townsville is one of Australia’s largest urban centres with a population of around 190,000. Whilst some public servants...

Super Choice – how can employers help their employees? Since 1 July 2005, most employers have been required to give their employees a choice of fund for their superannuation guarantee contributions. It is only if the employee fails to choose, or chooses a fund which cannot be used by the employer, that the employer will be able to choose the fund. Prior to this, employees essentially didn’t have a choice and they were basically stuck with the fund their employer chose for them. In the past decade since “Super Choice” was introduced, there has been a great deal of competition in the superannuation market given that employees can choose where to put their money. A competitive market is good for consumers with an almost limitless choice of highly developed options for employees to choose from. So, what does this mean for employers? Well, in the early stages of this change it was essentially an administrative burden as large companies with large numbers of staff were faced with p...

For those of you currently employed on a salary, your employer pays your superannuation fund 9.5% of your earnings payable each quarter. This is known as the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) contribution. Some employers choose to pay monthly. However, most pay quarterly and today (October 28th) is the payment due date for the July -September quarterly payment. Have you been paid your contribution? It’s important to keep track of these payments. It’s your money and it will play a big part in your retirement. The other thing to consider is where this money is invested. Most Australian’s have some level of exposure to the local stock market via their superannuation. Over the last week or so, our stock market has declined by around 4%. What this means is that when your SG payment is made (hopefully by today), it will be invested within your super fund. With stock markets being down a bit, your super fund will be purchasing assets at a cheaper price. Is this important? Try...

Over the last 12 months I’ve published a number of posts specifically for those of you working in the resources industry. As more and more of you connect with me on LinkedIn, it’s becoming increasingly clear, people in the resource industry need to review their Superannuation and Insurance. It’s a positive opportunity to “get your financial self and your future self - sorted.” In the last 12 months there has been little improvement in the resource industry. We’ve seen an improvement in the spot price of coal, in particular coking coal, however this has yet to translate into a meaningful and sustained increase in activity. How do I know this? My client base is a high percentage of resource industry people - just like you, and I speak with them regularly. Also, as a Site Senior Executive (SSE) I keep up to date with contractors, suppliers, exploration/mining managers and other SSEs. What I’m hearing is, there is light at the end of the tunnel, but we’re not likely to see a return...

In November last year I published a post called Time to Risk Assess your Super and Insurance and since that time (almost 12 months) the relevance of that post certainly hasn't decreased, in fact I think it’s increased. In the last year there has been little improvement in the resource industry. Redundancies continue, and to make things worse, industry super funds continue to provide very poor returns despite solid gains on local equity markets. We have little control over the state of the resources industry. However, we can control where our super is invested and how our insurance is structured. Be curious. Check your recent statement from your super fund which you should have received over the last few weeks. If you’re not happy with the returns, don’t ignore it. Do something about it. After all, it’s your money. My time as a Site Senior Executive (SSE) in the Queensland Resources Industry has taught me many things. The most powerful is that of the simple r...

Welcome to the 2016/2017 financial year. No doubt you’re all enjoying your new cars and computers that you rushed out and bought before June 30. Or like most people, you probably didn’t realise that July 1st marks the start of the new financial year. Don’t’ worry, this is not going to be one of those “let’s look back over the last 12 months” articles where we remember which celebrities are no longer, or who won major sporting events (although go the Maroons!). But I think it important to give some brief consideration to how our local investment markets have performed and how this has translated to our super funds. Believe it or not, it’s been a fairly stagnant year as I write this. Our local markets are set to finish pretty much where they started 12 months ago. A little hard to believe given the recent Brexit debacle where we were all told it was the end of the world financially. So what should we expect from the next 12 months? Well, nobody knows. However, there is ...

Book and have your free Statement of Advice consult with Andrew O’Brien of Hindsight Wealth before the Bronco’s Vs Panthers game Friday 22 July, 2016 at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane to be in the draw to win a family ticket to the big game. Terms & Conditions Andrew O’Brien of Hindsight Wealth is conducting this promotional game. The prize is: A family general admission ticket to the Bronco’s Vs Panthers game. 7.45 p.m Friday 22 July, 2016 at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane. Family ticket constitutes (2 adults, 2 children) or (1 adult, 3 children). Draw entrants must be over 18 years of age. A Statement of Advice consultation is a complimentary service. The promotion closes Friday 15th July, 2016. The draw date is Monday 18th July, 2016. The lucky winner will be announced on Andrew O’Brien of Hindsight Wealth business Facebook page and Andrew O’Brien of Hindsight Wealth LinkedIn profile. The winner will be notified via Facebook, email and phone.

I’ve posted recently about the positive start investment markets have made for the year. This in turn has had a positive impact on my client’s super funds with balances enjoying healthy gains. As I’ve said before, we shouldn’t get too excited about short term gains. Superannuation is very much a long term investment. However, what the last few months does demonstrate is the need to have your superannuation invested appropriate to your time horizon and risk profile. Understanding the numbers is important. For instance, if you are just starting out in your career and have a relatively modest super balance of $20,000, even a solid annual return of 10% will only yield in increase of $2,000 in your balance. By contrast, if you have a higher balance of say $100,000 then the same percentage return yields a $10,000 increase. Obviously this isn’t a complicated concept. However it highlights the need to manage your super correctly from the very start. Get your super performing ea...

Quite often the Mum’s out there take time off from their professional careers to help raise the family. Of course, this is also the case for many Dad’s out there. As this weekend is Mother’s Day, the focus should be on Mum. Being properly insured whilst working is one thing, but what about when you’re taking time off to be at home? Many insurance companies recognise the importance of “stay at home Mums” (or Dads) and essentially treat the role as a recognised occupation. And so they should. It’s one of the hardest occupations we can undertake. Being insured while you’re at home is important. Why? What if you become disable, or worse? What happens financially for you and your family then? These are things that should be considered in an insurance review. A consequence of having time off may be that returning to work may mean starting a new job with a new employer. In fact this can happen to anyone over the course of their career. One of the outcomes is a number of...

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The media has recently been reporting on an insurance scandal involving CommInsure.   The particulars of the case are complex and were aired recently on Four Corners if you’d like to look up the specifics.   Importantly, the case highlights the value of quality advice in relation to your insurance needs.  The case in question involved what is known as a Group Insurance policy.  Effectively, it is the default cover that is provided to a member of an industry superannuation fund.   For example, many of my clients come to me with various superannuation funds Sunsuper, Australian Super etc which include some level of insurance cover.   More often the not, the advice I provide involves obtaining a new, fully underwritten retail policy to replace or compliment the default group cover already in place.  The reason being, there is a massive difference between advised insurance products and direct insurance products offered ...

On January 13 this year I wrote a post The markets are down! What’s going to happen to my super? What do I do? And here we are a little over 2 months later and the contrast could not be greater.  Welcome to the world of investing! So what do all these numbers mean and how does it impact on my super? Well, for the majority of people, their superannuation has some level of exposure to Australian stock markets.  To get an idea of how the market is performing, you can simply follow one of the indices such as the All Ordinaries Index or ASX 200.  Without getting too technical, these are a basic measure of how the majority of the companies on the Australian stock exchange perform on average on any given day.  Normally reported on the news at night you’ll hear statements like” the All Ords went up half a percent today” . On Feb 12 this year the All Ordinaries sat at around 4800 points.  It’s currently sitting at 5240 points which means an increase of...

Keeping track of your superannuation can be difficult.  Especially when you consider the average time Australians are currently spending in a job is just over 3 years.  So in a 50 year working life, on average you’ll have around 17 jobs.   That’s a lot of super funds to keep track of.   Each one of your funds could be charging you fees and each of them could have insurance built into them.  It may not sound important, but it really is.  You could be paying more than you have to and you could be paying for insurance elsewhere when you already have it. Worse still, if something happens to you and you need to claim on that insurance, you may not know where to find it.  As part of the rollover consolidation process that I undertake with clients, a free “super search” is conducted based on your tax file number.   Various searching services have been around for a while, however, they usually charge a fee, take a long time and req...