News
Healthcare and allied health practices are currently operating under a unique set of pressures. While patient volumes remain solid and demand for services is high, the reality of running a practice is becoming more complex.
Costs are rising across the board, from staffing to consumables and software. At the same time, margins are often thinner than top-line revenue suggests. For many practice owners, the administrative load has grown significantly, leaving less time for strategic planning and practice management.
When daily operations demand your full attention, the bigger structural and financial conversations tend to get pushed back. However, deferring these reviews can limit your practice's growth and impact your long-term wealth.
Through our work with healthcare professionals, we consistently see three core issues surface during practice reviews.
Many practices are still operating under the entity structure they set up on day one. A structure that made sense for a solo practitioner or a small clinic may not offer the right asset protection, tax efficiency, or flexibility for a growing team with multiple locations.
As revenue increases and the risk profile changes, your structure needs to evolve. A proactive review ensures that your practice is housed in an entity that supports your current scale and future ambitions.
Growing a practice means taking on more staff, which brings a corresponding increase in compliance and payroll obligations. Superannuation is a critical area where mistakes can be costly.
With the ATO taking a firmer stance on late or incorrect superannuation payments, practice owners need robust systems to manage payroll accurately. As your team expands, manual processes become a liability.
A busy practice does not automatically translate into personal financial freedom. We often see a gap between the clinical income generated by the practice and the wealth that actually reaches the owner's personal balance sheet.
Bridging this gap requires a clear strategy for profit extraction, tax planning, and investment. It means looking beyond the daily cash flow of the clinic and structuring your finances so that your hard work translates into long-term security.
The businesses that thrive are those that take the time to step back from daily operations and review their foundation. If your practice has grown but your financial structure has not changed, it is a good time for a conversation.
As always, if anything sparks a question or you'd like to sense-check your position, we're here for a conversation.
Ready to review your structure? Call 1300 866 113 or book via our website.
– Cedomir and the entire Attune Advisory team
This is general information only. Please seek professional advice for your specific situation.
Income protection is one of the most under-reviewed items on a business owner's financial checklist. It is often set up during the early days of a business and then quietly forgotten as the business grows.
The question is not just whether you have cover, but whether the cover you hold today still reflects your current income, your business structure, and the life you are actually protecting.
When you first start a business, your income protection is usually based on a modest set of numbers. As your business matures, your drawings increase, your personal liabilities often grow (such as upgrading a family home), and your business structure may become more complex.
If your insurance has not been updated to reflect these changes, you may be significantly underinsured. A policy that was adequate three years ago might only cover a fraction of your current lifestyle and obligations.
As your business grows, you may transition from a sole trader to a company or a trust structure. This changes how you draw income, which in turn can affect how your income protection policy defines and assesses your earnings at claim time.
It is critical that your policy aligns with how your income is actually distributed, ensuring there are no surprises if you ever need to call on it.
For most business owners, income protection premiums held outside of superannuation are tax-deductible. This makes reviewing your cover not just a matter of risk management, but also a component of your broader tax planning strategy.
Ensuring your cover is structured correctly can optimise your tax position while providing the protection your family and business rely on.
The start of a financial year is a natural time to review your position, but you should also trigger a review if:
Reviewing your cover does not necessarily mean something is wrong. It is simply good financial hygiene to ensure your safety net grows alongside your success.
If you want to talk through how insurance fits into your broader financial and business plan, the Attune Advisory team can point you in the right direction. We work alongside trusted specialists to ensure your entire financial picture is secure.
This is general information only. Please seek professional advice for your specific situation.
To talk through what this means for your situation, call the Attune team on 1300 866 113 or book a time via our website.
The start of a new financial year is a good time to look at your property portfolio with fresh eyes.
Not to make big moves. But to ask whether what you hold is still structured the right way, and whether the strategy you started with still fits where you are now and where you are headed.
A few things worth considering:
Property tends to sit in the background until something forces a review. The best time to look is before that something arrives.
Many business owners set up their property holdings early in their journey, often in their own name, a simple family trust, or a company. Over time life changes. A new partner, children, a growing business, a change in risk appetite, or simply the passage of years can mean the original structure no longer serves you as well as it once did.
Common pitfalls we see include:
Review ownership: Does the current structure still match your goals for asset protection, tax efficiency, and succession? A short conversation can often highlight simple adjustments that reduce complexity and cost.
Update depreciation: Buildings, plant, and equipment depreciate at different rates. A fresh schedule aligned to the latest ATO rulings can deliver immediate tax savings with no change to your day-to-day operations.
Check your lending: Interest rates, loan terms, and offset arrangements all affect how much of your cash stays in your pocket. A review now can identify whether restructuring debt or adjusting facilities would improve cashflow without increasing risk.
Stress test the plan: Ask yourself: if rates rise further, or if one tenant vacates, or if family circumstances change, does the current setup still work? The answers often point to small, proactive changes that protect what you have built.
The earlier you look, the more options you have. Waiting until a trigger event (a refinance, a tax audit, a family change, or a market shift) usually leaves you with fewer choices and higher costs.
At Attune Advisory we regularly help business owners and investors review their property structures through a practical, tax-effective lens. We focus on making the complex feel manageable and on giving you clear, calm guidance so you can make well-considered decisions.
If you would like to sense-check your current setup ahead of the busy tax year ahead, we're here for a conversation.
This is general information only. Please seek professional advice for your specific situation.
Ready to talk? Call 1300 866 113 or book a conversation via our website.
The first quarter of the financial year is one of the most underused opportunities in the business calendar.
Most owners are still catching their breath after 30 June. They lodge the return, close the books on the year, and get back to running the business. Q1 becomes reactive by default.
The owners in the strongest position at year end tend to do something different. They treat July, August, and September as the quarter where the year is actually shaped.
Here is what that looks like in practice.
By the end of July, proactive SME owners have a working estimate of their full-year income. Not a precise forecast, and that is rarely possible. But a realistic sense of direction.
That early read matters. It determines whether there are distribution decisions to consider, whether planned purchases should be brought forward or pushed back, and whether there are any structural questions worth addressing before they become urgent.
The goal is not certainty. It is simply not being surprised.
Business structure tends to get reviewed when something forces a review. A tax bill that feels too large. A compliance issue. A growth milestone that exposes gaps in the current setup.
The better time to look is before any of that happens. Q1 is quiet enough to have a considered conversation about whether the current structure is still fit for purpose, and whether the way income is flowing matches the personal and business goals behind it.
A structure that made sense at a lower turnover, or under different personal circumstances, may not be the right fit now.
Q1 is when the year's compliance calendar becomes real. For most businesses, the Q1 BAS covers July through September and is due by 28 October. That is close enough to plan for but far enough away that the businesses who stay on top of their records through the quarter lodge cleanly and on time.
The ones who scramble in October are generally the ones who put the records aside during Q1 and picked them up again under pressure.
Getting payroll, banking, and contractor documentation in order early in the quarter removes that pressure entirely.
The conversations that tend to be most useful are the ones that happen before a decision is made, not after.
A brief Q1 check-in with an advisor can surface issues that are still easy to address, confirm that the year is tracking the way it should, and flag anything worth considering before it becomes time-sensitive.
It does not need to be a long conversation. But it does need to happen early enough to be useful.
The financial year does not wait for you to feel ready. Q1 moves quickly, and the decisions made in this window tend to echo through the rest of the year.
If you want to make sure you are starting FY27 the right way, we are here.
This is general information only. Please seek professional advice for your specific situation.
Running a successful business and building genuine personal wealth are not the same thing.
For a lot of business owners, the gap between the two is wider than it looks. Revenue is strong. The business is growing. But when they look at their personal financial position, the picture is less clear.
The money is in the business. The question is how to move it into lasting personal wealth.
It is not usually a deliberate decision. It happens gradually.
Profits get reinvested. Growth gets funded from retained earnings. The structure that made sense at the start, a company, a trust, a combination of both, quietly becomes a holding pattern rather than a vehicle for building personal wealth.
The business keeps generating income. But if that income is not flowing into the right places at the right time, it can stay locked inside the entity indefinitely.
How your business is structured has a significant effect on how income flows, and ultimately on what you can access.
Different structures have different implications for tax, distributions, asset protection, and the ability to move wealth into personal hands or long-term vehicles like superannuation.
There is no single right answer. The right structure depends on your situation, your goals, and where you are in the journey. What matters is that the structure you have in place is actually designed to serve the outcome you want.
If it was set up at the start of the business and has not been reviewed since, it may be worth a look.
One of the most common gaps for business owners is the concentration of wealth inside a single entity.
The business itself has value. But if that is where most of your wealth sits, you are exposed in ways that are worth understanding. The business can have a bad year. It can face disruption. The value can change.
Building assets outside the business, through property, investment portfolios, superannuation, or other structures, creates a more resilient personal financial position. It also creates options that are not dependent on the performance of the business at any given moment.
For business owners, superannuation is often underused.
The contribution caps have increased for FY27, and the tax advantages of building wealth inside super remain significant for most business owners. For those with an SMSF, there are additional structural options worth understanding.
The earlier you engage with super as a deliberate wealth vehicle rather than an afterthought, the more it can do for you over time.
If your business stopped generating income tomorrow, what would your personal financial position look like?
That is not a comfortable question. But it is a useful one. The answer tends to clarify whether the wealth you are building inside the business is translating into genuine personal financial resilience, or whether there is work to do on the structure.
If you would like to talk through how your current structure is working and what options exist for building wealth more effectively, we are here.
Call 1300 866 113 or book a time via our website.
This article contains general information only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. Please seek professional advice for your specific situation.
Most business owners think about tax in June.
By then, most of the decisions that actually matter have already been made.
The first quarter of the financial year, July through September, is where your tax position for FY27 is genuinely shaped. Not finalised, but shaped. The choices you make in these three months tend to have more leverage than anything you can do in the months that follow.
Here is why that matters, and what it means in practice.
Tax planning is not a single conversation at year end. It is a series of smaller decisions made throughout the year, and the earlier ones carry more weight.
In Q1, you still have the full year ahead of you. That means genuine flexibility on timing. You can consider when to make purchases, how to structure income, whether distributions need to be thought about early, and whether your current entity structure is going to serve you well at year end.
By the time Q3 arrives, many of those options have narrowed. By Q4, you are largely working with what you have.
The owners who consistently finish the financial year in a strong position tend to do a few things in the first quarter that others leave until later.
They get a clear picture of where the business is tracking on income. Not a precise forecast, but a reasonable sense of direction. That early visibility informs everything that follows.
They make a note of any significant purchases or investments planned for the year and think about timing. A purchase made in August and a purchase made in May can have meaningfully different tax outcomes.
They check whether their structure is still appropriate. A business that has grown, or changed in nature, may find that the structure it started with is no longer the most effective one.
And they have a conversation with their adviser before the quarter closes. Not an urgent one. Just a considered check-in while there is still room to act on what comes up.
It does not require certainty about how the year will unfold. Businesses are unpredictable.
What it requires is enough awareness of your current position to have a useful conversation. That is usually achievable with one good look at where things stand.
There is nothing wrong with reviewing your tax position in March or April. But by then, the levers available to you are fewer. The decisions that would have made the most difference have already been made, one way or another.
The gap between a proactive Q1 conversation and a reactive Q4 scramble is often visible in the final outcome.
If you would like to sit down and talk through where your business is tracking, what decisions are worth making now, and how to set the year up well, we are here.
It does not need to be a big exercise. A 45-minute conversation is usually enough to surface the things that matter.
Call 1300 866 113 or book a time via our website.
This article contains general information only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. Please seek professional advice for your specific situation.
Every SMSF must maintain a documented investment strategy. This is a core compliance requirement, not a formality.
The ATO has consistently reinforced that an investment strategy must be prepared and reviewed regularly, genuinely considered by trustees, and actually reflected in how the fund is managed.
The start of a new financial year is the right time to carry out that review.
The ATO has increased scrutiny on SMSF investment strategies that appear generic, outdated, or disconnected from the fund’s actual composition.
Common issues flagged include:
None of these issues will necessarily result in compliance action on their own. But they represent the kind of gaps that become visible under audit.
ATO guidance describes a compliant strategy as one that considers:
It should also reflect the fund’s current asset allocation, with realistic ranges for each asset class, not a blanket statement that all assets are permitted.
An investment strategy review is not time-consuming if the fund is in good shape. A couple of hours with your SMSF accountant or adviser will usually be sufficient.
The alternative, finding out at audit that documentation does not meet requirements, carries a much higher cost in time, money, and stress.
We work with SMSF trustees regularly on compliance and strategic reviews. If you have questions about what your fund’s investment strategy should cover, we are happy to talk through the general requirements. Call 1300 866 113 or book a time via our website.
This article contains general information only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Please seek professional advice for your specific situation, including from a licensed financial adviser.
When most business owners set up their structure, they chose what made sense at the time.
A sole trader arrangement because it was simple to start. A company because it offered liability protection. A trust because it was efficient for distributions.
Those decisions were probably right at the time.
The problem is that businesses change. Revenue grows. Teams expand. The owner’s personal situation shifts. And the structure that was fit for purpose in year one starts to carry costs, limitations, and complications it was never designed to handle.
There is no fixed trigger for a structure review. But these circumstances are worth noting:
If more than one of these applies, the start of a new financial year is a practical time to have the conversation.
The most visible cost is tax. A structure that does not allow effective income splitting, or forces all profits through a single entity at the highest marginal rate, will consistently produce a higher tax bill than one that is well-designed.
But there are other costs too. Complexity that should not exist. Liability exposure that a different structure would reduce. Limitations on bringing in new equity, or on exit strategies when the time comes.
In most cases, the cost of reviewing and updating a structure is modest. The cost of not doing it compounds over years.
A structure review is not a major undertaking. It starts with understanding where the business is now and where it is heading, then mapping that against what the current structure allows and what it limits.
The output is usually one of three things: confirmation that the structure is right and just needs to be managed well; a specific recommendation for change; or a note to revisit in twelve months when the picture is clearer.
The conversation works best when both your accountant and, where relevant, your legal adviser are involved. The structural and tax dimensions need to be considered together.
A structural review is easier to approach at the start of a financial year, before the year’s decisions are locked in. If a change is warranted, there is more time to implement it cleanly.
We work with business owners across industries to review, design, and optimise their structures. If you have not had this conversation in the last two years, it is worth having now.
Reach out through attuneadvisory.com.au or call 1300 866 113.
This article contains general information only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. Please seek professional advice for your specific situation.
A family trust does not manage itself.
For clients who hold assets, business income, or investments through a family trust, the start of a new financial year is one of the most useful moments to check whether the structure is still working as intended.
This is not about compliance panic. It is about making sure the decisions you made when you set up the trust, and the decisions you made during the year, are still aligned with where you are heading.
The end of financial year is when distribution decisions are made and documented. The start of the new year is the right time to reflect on whether those decisions produced the outcome you expected.
A few questions worth asking:
If the answers are unclear, that is useful information. It suggests the process may benefit from more structured planning through the year rather than a decision made under deadline.
Trust deeds are legal documents that govern who can benefit from the trust and how distributions can be made. They do not update themselves when your family situation or business changes.
It is worth checking whether:
A deed review is a conversation for a qualified adviser. But flagging it now is better than discovering a problem at the worst possible time.
If the trust holds investments, a documented investment strategy is not just good governance. In some structures it may be a requirement.
Even where it is not mandatory, a strategy written years ago may not reflect how the trust’s assets have evolved. The new financial year is a natural point to check whether it still fits.
The most important question at the start of a new year is whether your trust structure is still the right fit for where your business and family finances are heading.
Businesses grow. Family dynamics change. Tax law evolves. What was the right structure five years ago may not be the most effective one today.
This is not about unnecessary complexity. It is about making sure that the structure you are maintaining is actually delivering value.
A trust review does not need to be complicated. A structured conversation with your accountant covering the four areas above will usually reveal quickly whether everything is on track or whether there is something worth addressing.
If you have not had a proper review in the last couple of years, the start of FY27 is a practical prompt.
We are here if you would like to have that conversation. Call 1300 866 113 or book a time via our website.
This article contains general information only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. Please seek professional advice for your specific situation.
Every 1 July brings a reset. New financial year, new contribution caps, new thresholds, and in FY27, some structural changes that are worth understanding before Q1 gets away from you.
This is not an exhaustive list of every legislative change. It is a practical summary of the changes most likely to affect how you plan and structure your finances this year.
The concessional contributions cap for FY27 has increased to $32,500 (up from $30,000). This is the cap that covers employer super guarantee payments, salary sacrifice contributions, and personal deductible contributions combined.
The non-concessional contributions cap has also increased, to $130,000, with the three-year bring-forward arrangement rising to $390,000.
For anyone who salary sacrifices or makes personal contributions, the new cap creates room to do more this year than last. The key is to set your contribution levels at the start of the year, not in May when time has run out.
The stage three tax cuts took effect from 1 July 2024, but FY27 brings further adjustments worth confirming with your accountant. Marginal rates and the thresholds at which they apply affect income splitting decisions, distribution planning, and the overall efficiency of your structure.
If you have not confirmed the current thresholds with your adviser, this is a good time to do it. The difference between planning at the right threshold and planning at last year’s can be meaningful when distributions are involved.
The start of a new financial year is the right moment to check two things for your business: whether your current structure is still efficient, and whether your contribution and distribution settings are calibrated for the year ahead.
A few questions worth raising with your accountant before Q1 builds:
These are not complicated conversations. But they are easier to have at the start of the year than six months in when decisions have already been made.
If you hold income or assets through a family trust, the changeover to FY27 is a practical prompt to confirm a few things:
Trust deeds and distribution strategies do not update themselves. The businesses that stay ahead of these questions are the ones who ask them at the start of the year, not under deadline.
The beginning of the financial year is the most useful time to have these conversations. Decisions made in July have eleven months to play out. Decisions made in June have to be right immediately.
If you have questions about how the FY27 changes affect your situation, we are here to help. The starting point is always a conversation. To start yours, call 1300 866 113 or book a time via our website.
