What We Do Best
Whatever your stage of life, and whatever your goals, whether it be growing your wealth, funding your children’s education, helping with tax planning, having enough money to live comfortably in retirement, insurance or estate planning, Mint Financial Planning takes a holistic approach to financial advice.
Holistic financial advice relates to your financial position as a whole, so the end result is a financial plan delivering on your objectives via a highly-tailored and interrelated set of recommendations. Holistic financial advice can cover a very wide range of financial needs, for instance, it’s not uncommon for us to be advising on basic banking needs right through to helping with estate planning (and everything in-between).
The Services we offer include:
Investment Management
The first step towards building and managing your wealth is to set up the correct tax and investment strategy for your portfolio. We work with you to understand your personal wealth goals, your investment preference and your attitude towards investment risk.
Mint Financial Planning will design an investment asset allocation and portfolio specifically tailored to you, which we will implement and monitor. Investors can gain exposure to the investment markets by purchasing investments directly and/or investing indirectly through a managed funds. The best avenue and combination depends on your investment goals, risk profile, tax position, expertise and other priorities in life.
At Mint we take an “active” approach to investing to maximise your returns. We have the expertise required to invest in direct shares, hybrid securities, managed funds, property syndicates, term deposits, alternative investments etc.
When we recommend managed funds we prefer the use of “sector-specific” funds, this allows us to choose the portfolio’s asset allocation rather than having a multi-sector fund manager dictate. Using sector specific funds also enables us to control the investment strategy we wish to adopt in different market conditions, we are able to select managers based on their investment style and current portfolio holdings. In addition, a sector-specific fund’s performance can be readily compared with the index performance for that sector over a particular period of time, thereby allowing us to assess the value added by the managers in that sector.
Retirement Planning
Mint Financial Planning specialises in helping our clients plan for, enter and enjoy their retirement. It’s really never too early to start planning your retirement.
We all have visions about how we want to live in retirement. Whether it’s travelling around Australia or overseas, playing golf every day or spending more time with the grandkids, how do you save enough to pay for it all? If you really want to retire your way, you need to start planning well before you make the decision to leave work. Often we find clients leave their planning too close to their departure from full time work, and without time on their side, the retirement options they have are much narrower.
To help you get started thinking about your own retirement planning right now, we ask some important questions below.
How much do you need to retire?
Lifestyle is a personal choice. The big question is: How much do you need to save while you’re working to pay your preferred retirement lifestyle? A good starting point is to calculate how much you need to meet basic living costs. You could use your current expenses as a guide, but keep in mind that these may change quite a bit in retirement.
How much is enough?
If you want more than a basic lifestyle in retirement, you’ll need more than the Centrelink Age Pension to live on. Your superannuation and non-superannuation savings will need to supplement the difference, and in some cases, fully fund your retirement.
Transitioning to retirement provides real opportunity
Using the transition to retirement rules, people approaching retirement can give their savings a boast by saving substantial amounts of tax. If you are aged 55 or older and still working, this strategy can be extremely lucrative and well worth exploring.
Planning your retirement with a Mint Financial Planning adviser by your side can help you go forward with confidence. Personal advice will ensure you make the most of your individual situation and options.
As part of your retirement planning we also assess the suitability of Centrelink benefits, and explore various strategies to help you maximise any benefit you may qualify for. For clients in receipt of government benefits, Mint Financial Planning helps you deal with Centrelink including helping you complete the annual assessment forms. We know it can be stressful and time consuming to maintain your benefits so allowing us to take on some of the burden can really help.
Our professional staff ensure that they are up to date with Centrelink, taxation and legislative changes, this is vital for successful retirement planning strategies and an important part of maintaining your financial wellbeing in retirement.
Superannuation
Your superannuation is your future and the sooner you take control, the better!
Superannuation is constantly changing in Australia, becoming more complex and yet more important than ever. Superannuation is a powerful wealth building tool with significant tax concessions and incentives. If you are serious about achieving financial independence, getting your superannuation house in order should be a high priority.
Mint Financial Planning can help you by:
- Tracking down your lost super. There is over $18 billion worth of lost super in Australia.
- Recommending the right superannuation structure for your needs.
- Tailoring and regularly reviewing a superannuation investment strategy for you.
- Taking advantages of the various concessions and tax advantages that exist such as salary sacrificing and contribution strategies.
- Using your superannuation to tax effectively provide for you and your family in the event of misfortune.
- Ensuring your superannuation benefits go to the right people at the right time in the event of your passing.
Self Managed Super Funds
Have you considered whether a self managed super fund (SMSF) is the right choice for you; and/or whether your SMSF is structured correctly to maximise the tax benefits and investment returns? Mint’s financial advisers are experts in SMSFs and can help you with an assessment.
A Self Managed Superannuation Fund is extremely attractive to individuals that have larger superannuation balances, particularly given the level of control over the investment program, the flexibility to choose your own strategy and investment selections, and the capacity to undertake taxation planning with your specific situation and interests in mind. Although there are many reasons to set-up a SMSF they come with great responsibility, at Mint we can help you determine if a SMSF is right for you.
If you decide to commence a SMSF Mint can guide you through the entire process, with the experience and expertise to ensure your SMSF is set-up correctly and starts working hard for you from the beginning. Mint Financial Planning’s dedicated SMSF PLATINUM Service Level provides clients with the following SMSF services (in addition to our standard services):
- Ongoing SMSF Trust Deed and Investment Strategy updates;
- Ongoing SMSF compliance advice and maintenance;
- Ongoing investment, strategic and implementation advice (including direct shares, property syndicates, managed fund investments and term deposits);
- Administration services including mail collection, action as required, sorting of documents for annual tax return, liaising with your accountant/s, arranging the SMSF annual audit and tax return etc. This will allow you to avoid expensive Administration Platforms where possible;
- Tailored half-yearly investment and portfolio reporting;
- Tailored Annual Strategic Review including portfolio and performance reporting;
- Access to special opportunities and limited offers.
Personal Insurance
Insurance is a fact of life that most people over look. Financially crippling events such as death, disability and illness, can be covered to ensure the financial wellbeing of yourself, your spouse, your children, and even your business partner. Consider the consequences of these risks on your affairs and the need for Wealth Protection is often self-evident. However there is a lot more to it than just plain old life insurance and unfortunately a lack of insurance can lead to huge consequences for you and your family.
Our role is to understand your financial situation and to undertake a comprehensive insurance needs analysis in order to identify associated risks, we then recommend appropriate levels of insurance cover tailored for your needs. We will also discuss the best ways to structure your insurance cover from a cost, tax and protection perspective and review this regularly to ensure that in the event of the unforeseen, you and your family will have money when you need it most.
Mint Advisers are also a valuable resource at claim time and can help you to lodge a claim and assist with any issues that may arise during the claim process.
There are five broad categories of insurance that should be considered:
Life Insurance – this cover provides a lump sum payment to your dependents to ensure the plans you had for them can be achieved in the event of your death. It can also enable the financial obligations of your business to be met.
Total & Permanent Disability Insurance (TPD) – this cover provides a lump sum payment if you suffer an illness or injury and are permanently unable to work. This will help you maintain your current lifestyle whilst paying the additional expenses that arise as a result of an ongoing illness or injury.
Critical Illness (or Trauma) Insurance – this cover provides a lump sum payment if you suffer one of a list of major medical traumas, and will help you meet liability repayments, replace lost income, obtain the best medical and rehabilitation care and also change your lifestyle if you wish.
Income Protection (or Salary Continuance) Insurance – this cover provides a regular salary replacement if you suffer a sickness or injury and are temporarily unable to work. This will help you maintain you and your dependant’s lifestyle until you are able to return to work.
Business Insurance – this cover ensures that if a business partner or key person of your business were unable to continue working there will not be a financial impact on the business and it can continue to operate.
Tax Planning
The goal of tax planning is to arrange your financial affairs so as to minimise the amount that you or your family will pay in taxes, now and in the future. Astute financial planners should always have one eye on the tax implications of recommended strategies and actions.
At Mint we aim to legitimately minimise the tax that you pay. Once we are confident that your affairs are in order we look at how you might reduce your income tax liability by:
- Restructuring your savings and investments, or altering the way that investments are held within a couple or a family.
- Exploring tax deductions to reduce your annual taxable income.
- Introducing Transition to Retirement and Salary Sacrifice strategies.
- Introducing tax effective Structures and Investments.
- Handling large one-off capital gains.
- Reviewing your salary packaging strategies if you are an employee; or reviewing your remuneration strategies if you run your own business or company.
- Reviewing your position each year in line with legislative changes.
Mortgage & Debt Planning
Mint Financial Planning assists clients both manage and reduce their debt through a variety of tailored solutions. Mint, through its affiliations with trusted mortgage brokers and financiers can help you fast-track the repayment of your outstanding debt with strategies including the restructure of existing debt, targeted debt reduction, and debt recycling strategies.
At Mint you will receive a comprehensive mortgage/debt plan so that you can have confidence that you are structured in the most efficient and effective manner that is right for you.
Cashflow planning
Whatever stage of life you are at it’s important to regulate your cashflow to meet the needs of you and your family. The best tool to manage your cashflow needs is to create a budget by looking at the things you require – the essentials, such as housing and food – and those you simply like to have, or want.
An effective budgeting solution should fit the following criteria:
- Easy to use
- Intuitive
- Flexible
- Provides meaningful results
- Can be easily reviewed by your Adviser
Having an adviser work with you on your budgeting can be very effective in helping you track and meet your goals on an ongoing basis. At Mint, we can assist you with managing your cashflow in order to allow you to understand where your money is going, and assist you in harnessing your income to save for whatever goal you are aiming to reach.
Estate Planning
The essence of Estate Planning is to ensure that in the event of your death, the assets from your estate are distributed in accordance with your wishes. In addition, estate planning assists with ensuring assets are passed on to Beneficiaries in a timely and tax effective manner. Setting the right provisions in place in a Will is not necessarily straight forward when all of the taxation and superannuation issues are considered.
Estate planning is vital to any Financial Plan. A good estate plan requires the involvement of skilled legal, accounting and financial specialists to ensure the right funds get into the right hands at the right time.
What we mean by estate planning?
A broad definition encompasses the following points:
- Having enough assets available to meet your wishes upon death.
- Transfer of ownership (or control) of those assets passes to the appropriate person or entity.
- Ownership or control passes to a beneficiary at the right time.
Simply, estate planning involves making sure that, when you die, the appropriate assets go where you want them to, when you intended them to go there.
Some basic elements to consider when addressing your estate planning needs are:
- Whether you have a current and properly drafted Will.
- Whether you need an Enduring Power of Attorney.
- Whether a Testamentary trust is appropriate.
Mint can assist you to ensure you have all necessary structures and documentation in place in order to help you ensure that your estate wishes are carried out.
Services Offered By Trusted Partners
- Accounting & Taxation
- Mortgage Lending
- Car and Equipment Finance
- Legal & Estate Planning
- Conveyancing
- Buyer’s and vendor Advocacy
- Insurance Services