Specialist advice

Whether you’re a recent fellow or already setting up your practice, the early stages of your career are an exciting time. The decisions you make now can make a big difference in the future. At this stage of your career, here are some of the Perpetual services which have helped doctors like you:

Strategic financial advice
Strategic advice is advice that synthesises a whole range of factors – your personal and family situation, current circumstances, your goals and attitudes to things like risk, spending and investment ethics. By working through all these issues with you, your Perpetual adviser can help you create a real financial plan – a roadmap that ensures every financial decision you make moves you closer to your goals. No more missed opportunities, no more regrettable last-minute decisions. A strategic approach to financial freedom and creating a wealthier, happier you.

Wealth, lifestyle and business protection
As a doctor you know only too well that accidents happen. We can‘t protect you from these, but as part of our ‘protect and grow’ strategy we can help protect your income and lifestyle should something go wrong.

Our insurance strategies encompass life insurance, total and permanent disability, trauma insurance and income protection. Just as importantly, we tailor those insurances to be tax-effective, to work effectively together, to integrate with your investment and superannuation strategies. We’ll also make sure the insurance you need to protect your practice is not overlooked.

Managing debt
For doctors, managing debt starts early. There are student loans to repay as soon as you transition from training to your first job – and then there’s the mortgage, potential property investments and school fees in the mix.

Whether you’re starting out, expanding or buying new equipment, debt will also play an important part in growing your practice. But what is the best way to manage your debt?

At Perpetual, we’re always careful to build debt management into your financial plan. We can also help you find the right loan, consolidate and refinance high-cost debt, and structure repayments in a way that lets you grow your practice without sacrificing the lifestyle you’ve earned. 

Property investing
An investment property (or properties) can make up a large part of your portfolio and carry a similarly large burden when it comes to maintenance, accounting and tax management. Across everything from purchase, rental, management and sales our property experts can help you maximise the return and tax benefits of property investing whilst relieving you of a significant compliance and management workload.

We’ll also help you with tax-effective strategies that can enable you to own more properties sooner. Find out more on our property management services.

Strategic tax planning
Tax obligations go hand in hand with running a small business. While there’s the tax you should pay, many doctors who run their own practice pay more than they need to. This isn’t surprising, as finding the right strategy to minimise your tax bill can be complex and time-consuming.

The advisers at Perpetual can work with your current accountant, or you can benefit from the tax and accounting experts at our specialist accounting firm, Fordham. Our accounting firm Fordham, specialising in work with business owners and managers, achieved an exceptional NPS score of 75 in 2020.* Together, they can help you to understand your practice and develop a flexible, legal tax strategy that reduces your paperwork, compliance burden, tax bill and headaches!

Asset protection
The rewards of running your own private practice are enormous. As with any small business, however, there are risks and pitfalls along the way. As a registered doctor you have medical indemnity insurance in place, however this may not be enough to protect your business and personal assets, such as an investment property, if there are legal judgements against you.

Our team will help you develop asset-protection strategies including separate legal structures and other arrangements specifically to separate your business assets from your personal ones.

Investments
Should I invest more in my practice? What about shares or super? How about my property?

There’s no right or wrong answer to these questions. Just what’s right for you. You may want more income, maybe you’d like to grow the value of your practice, or simply protect your nest egg.

With a deep understanding of where you are now, what you want for yourself and your family, your attitudes to investing, risk and much more, we’ll carefully design an investment strategy that is aligned to your goals.

You may have different financial goals, or maybe your goals require a mix of investments. That’s why it’s important to have a broad array of investment choices. Our award-winning* investment team offer you multiple options to choose from or combine. These include direct shares, managed funds (including ethical options), fixed income, real estate, alternative assets and exclusive investments not normally available to individuals.

Learn more about our investment services

Superannuation
Super is the most tax-effective way to build your wealth for the future. We will help you find the right platform for your super, including setting up a self-managed super fund that lets you stay in control of your investments. We also work with you on an optimum contribution strategy to maximise your super balance. 

Managing your practice
The team at Fordham act exclusively for private business owners, business managers and their families. We help you grow your practice and succeed through careful planning and strategy. As a specialist part of Perpetual, we can bring you unrivalled expertise when it comes to turning your business success into assets that safeguard the future of those you care about.

We can also advise on ways to improve profitability, simplify your administration and manage people. If you’re looking to expand or even exit your practice, we can advise on the best strategy for this too.

^{* The Perpetual Income Opportunities Fund and Perpetual Growth Opportunities Fund celebrated 10 years in market in 2019.
Perpetual was recognised as Best Alternative Investment Manager of the Year and the Perpetual Income Opportunities Fund has won Best Multi Strategy Fund two years running at the Hedge Funds Rock Australian Alternative Investments Awards held in Sydney (2018-2019).}

Transition to retirement
Highly ambitious individuals don’t work one day and retire the next. However, your priorities will change as you move through career. As you begin to wind down your working hours and step back from the day-to-day of running your practice, you might want to supplement your income with a pension from your super to maintain your income. If you’re eligible, we can put in place a transition to retirement strategy that lets you do just this.

Succession planning or sale?
When considering how to exit your practice, your first big decision could be whether you want to sell your practice or set up a succession plan. Either way takes careful planning and preparation. We can advise you on what type of ownership transfer is best for you.

If you sell, we can advise on the right way to go about it, such as trade sale, management buy-in / buy-out, initial public offering (IPO), private equity, gift or orderly wind down? Different forms of sale have different advantages and we will work out which best suits your circumstances.

We can also help with tax management, timing of the sale and even ways to retain equity for the future.

Estate planning
It’s understandable, but untrue, to think that estate planning conversations are about death. They’re about how you can help the people and causes you love after you’ve gone. When you’re not there to help them in person, that job passes to the legal and financial structures you create. Think about it that way and you can see that wills, estate plans, powers of attorney and trust structures are how you extend a helping hand long after you’ve gone. At Perpetual, our job is to help you do that as easily, efficiently and fairly as possible.

Learn more about our estate planning and administration services.