Chances are you’ve heard some of Jimmy Buffett’s classic songs. ‘Margaritaville’ and ‘It’s five o’clock somewhere’ are old favourites. But this episode goes out to fans of the song called ‘If the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me’.
We frequently get sales calls from people wanting us to sell products or services to our clients. And although we politely say no, at times they are adamant and keep calling and inviting us to events to try selling more. It’s to this strategy that we want to say: if the phone doesn’t ring, you’ll know it’s me!But it got us thinking about something else, too. Sometimes clients wonder why they don’t hear from the ATO more often. They wonder – what are we paying our financial advisers for?Well, here’s the ultimate fact: if you don’t hear from the ATO, that is a good thing. And that is exactly what you’re paying us for – to make sure things are done so well that the ATO doesn’t need to call.We recently signed a new client who came to us with a $125,000 tax bill. He’d been seeing a different adviser who didn’t tell him about the fact he had to pay taxes on his investments. He was simply reinvesting his dividends and never saw them, and was not aware of the tax implications. A high-income earner, he’d made $250,000 of profit from his investments, but was never aware he had to pay tax on those dividends. Tax requirements related to investments can be confusing – and as someone who tried to do the right thing, this sudden unrealised capital growth was a huge shock.Obviously, if you have a good adviser this sort of thing won’t be an issue. The fact is, no news is good news when it comes to the ATO. When you see a good adviser, you’ll know what’s coming and you can make a contingency plan. Some surprises in life are good, but we generally find that surprises regarding tax are not! The earlier you get a good adviser, the more smoothly things can run when it comes to your finances – and the less time you need to think (or worry) about them.Often when our clients have a healthy super account, the assumption from others is that they must be high-income earners. But most of the time it comes down to the fact that they got organised early and started putting the right strategies in place. Time and accumulation are important and can have a huge impact on your super in the long run.Whether it’s help with super, investments, changes in the share market or tax strategies, we’re here to help. And if the ATO doesn’t ring, you’ll know it’s us!Listen to the related podcast here!
