The following infographic from the Integrity One Aged Care team highlights some key metrics on age and retirement demographics in Australia, as well as an overview of the value of aged care advice.

Our Aged Care specialists can assist you or a loved one with financial considerations on aged care options and services. If you are interested in or have questions about any aspect of aged care please give us a call on 03 9723 0522.

Please contact Integrity One if we can assist you with this or any other financial matter.

Phone: (03) 9723 0522

Suite 2, 1 Railway Crescent
Croydon, Victoria 3136

Email: integrityone@iplan.com.au

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This information is of a general nature and does not take into consideration anyone’s individual circumstances or objectives. Financial Planning activities only are provided by Integrity One Planning Services Pty Ltd as a Corporate Authorised Representative No. 315000 of Integrity Financial Planners Pty Ltd ABN 71 069 537 855 AFSL 225051. Integrity One Planning Services Pty Ltd and Integrity One Accounting and Business Advisory Services Pty Ltd are not liable for any financial loss resulting from decisions made based on this information. Please consult your adviser, finance specialist, broker, and/or accountant before making decisions using this information.

These are indeed testing times for us all!.

Victoria entered Stage 4 restrictions for six weeks commencing at 11.59 pm on Wednesday, August 5, further impacting on everyone’s lives and work. We want to reassure all our clients that we are still here for you.

Even though our staff are all working from home they are all still accessible to you – they are just a phone call away.

The biggest impact has been In-person meetings, document printing, and document signing,

In-person meetings – As much as we love meeting our clients in person sadly this has not been possible for some time. Fortunately, technology has come to our aid and we have utilising a range of video meeting options and using the technology clients feel comfortable with, failing this a telephone call can be just as effective. It is particularly important that we keep communicating during this period and we strongly suggest clients not defer Portfolio Review meetings until we can meet again in person as it may be still quite sometime before this is possible.

Document printing. We are still in a position to print and send hard copy documents to those customers that prefer it. While is quicker and environmentally friendlier to use electronic documents we understand if this is not your preference. Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to drop documents to the office so all hard copy documentation will need to be sent through the mail.

Document signing. A number of government agencies, insurance companies and superannuation funds have temporarily modified their requirements around physical signatures and use of electronic signatures. Again we have a range of options around electronic document signatures which we have adopted and our staff will guide you through when necessary. The use of electronic signatures has the added benefit of reducing the amount of document printing.

These are challenging times, and increased isolation will be difficult for some people. As always do not hesitate to reach out to us if you are worried or concerned about your financial situation. Speaking with and helping our clients is what we love best!.

Please contact Integrity One if we can assist you with this or any other financial matter.

Phone: (03) 9723 0522

Suite 2, 1 Railway Crescent
Croydon, Victoria 3136

Email: integrityone@iplan.com.au

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This information is of a general nature and does not take into consideration anyone’s individual circumstances or objectives. Financial Planning activities only are provided by Integrity One Planning Services Pty Ltd as a Corporate Authorised Representative No. 315000 of Integrity Financial Planners Pty Ltd ABN 71 069 537 855 AFSL 225051. Integrity One Planning Services Pty Ltd and Integrity One Accounting and Business Advisory Services Pty Ltd are not liable for any financial loss resulting from decisions made based on this information. Please consult your adviser, finance specialist, broker, and/or accountant before making decisions using this information.

Moneymanagement.com.au recently reported that 84% of financial advisers passed the FASEA June exam.

No at bad result BUT 100% of Integrity One’s advisers that sat the exam passed the exam – now that’s a great result!.

Congratulations Tom Bailey, Nic Berry, Matt Borg, Jenny Sneesby, Cath Winduss & Ben Young.

The exam is a required component of the education standard that all advisers are required to pass to provide personal financial advice to retail clients in respect of retail financial products.

The exam tests the practical application of advisers’ knowledge in the following competency areas:

• Financial Advice Regulatory and Legal requirements (including Corporations Act chapter 7, AML, Privacy and Tax Agents Services Act (TASA) 2009
• Financial Advice Construction – suitability of advice aligned to different consumer groups, incorporating consumer behavior and decision making·
• Applied ethical and professional reasoning and communication – incorporating FASEA Code of Ethics and Code Monitoring Bodies.

Please contact Integrity One if we can assist you with this or any other financial matter.

Phone: (03) 9723 0522

Suite 2, 1 Railway Crescent
Croydon, Victoria 3136

Email: integrityone@iplan.com.au

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This information is of a general nature and does not take into consideration anyone’s individual circumstances or objectives. Financial Planning activities only are provided by Integrity One Planning Services Pty Ltd as a Corporate Authorised Representative No. 315000 of Integrity Financial Planners Pty Ltd ABN 71 069 537 855 AFSL 225051. Integrity One Planning Services Pty Ltd and Integrity One Accounting and Business Advisory Services Pty Ltd are not liable for any financial loss resulting from decisions made based on this information. Please consult your adviser, finance specialist, broker, and/or accountant before making decisions using this information.

On 7 August 2020, the Government made amendments to the previously announced extension of JobKeeper, which will ease the eligibility criteria and increase the number of employees and employers that qualify for JobKeeper.

The two major changes cover the:

• relevant date of employment for eligible employees, and
• method of calculating the decline in turnover for businesses.

Relevant date of employment for eligible employees

From 3 August 2020, the relevant date of employment to determine eligible employees will change from the originally announced date of 1 March to 1 July 2020. This means that new employees since 1 March 2020 may be eligible if they were employed on 1 July 2020

Furthermore, determining an employee’s tier of payment will be based on the two fortnightly pay periods prior to 1 March 2020 or 1 July 2020. For employees who were eligible at 1 March 2020, the period with the higher number of hours is used when determining the tier.

Decline in turnover test

The reference period to show a decline in actual GST turnover was also amended.

For the first phase of the JobKeeper extension during 28 September 2020 to 3 January 2021, businesses will need to have a significant fall in actual GST turnover in the September 2020 quarter only (compared to the September 2019), rather than the June and September 2020 quarters as originally announced.

During the second phase of the JobKeeper extension from 4 January to 28 March 2021, businesses will need to have a significant fall in actual GST turnover in the December 2020 quarter only (compared to December 2019), rather than the June, September and December 2020 quarters as originally announced.

Please contact Integrity One if we can assist you with this or any other financial matter.

Phone: (03) 9723 0522

Suite 2, 1 Railway Crescent
Croydon, Victoria 3136

Email: integrityone@iplan.com.au

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This information is of a general nature and does not take into consideration anyone’s individual circumstances or objectives. Financial Planning activities only are provided by Integrity One Planning Services Pty Ltd as a Corporate Authorised Representative No. 315000 of Integrity Financial Planners Pty Ltd ABN 71 069 537 855 AFSL 225051. Integrity One Planning Services Pty Ltd and Integrity One Accounting and Business Advisory Services Pty Ltd are not liable for any financial loss resulting from decisions made based on this information. Please consult your adviser, finance specialist, broker, and/or accountant before making decisions using this information.

The COVID-19 pandemic is posing many challenges to individuals and businesses particularly during this period of social distancing, self-isolation and other disruptions to everyday life. The simple task of signing and sharing documents is but one.

Thankfully technology can help. There are many ways of achieving this, the following tutorials look at a  couple of simple & free methods using your phone.

⇒ Click here for iPhone
⇒ Click here for Android
(Note: The android solution is also available on an iPhone).

When it comes to signing documents electronically, particularly with legal and official documents, great care should be taken to ensure that the electronic signatures are allowed in any given situation & that they are produced correctly.

The Victorian Department of Justice has issued some guidelines and temporary measures regarding the singing and witnessing of documents during this period. Click here for the detail.

Again there are several technical options available for electronically signing documents, our staff will help you with these where this is necessary

Please contact Integrity One if we can assist you with this or any other financial matter.

Phone: (03) 9723 0522

Suite 2, 1 Railway Crescent
Croydon, Victoria 3136

Email: integrityone@iplan.com.au

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This information is of a general nature and does not take into consideration anyone’s individual circumstances or objectives. Financial Planning activities only are provided by Integrity One Planning Services Pty Ltd as a Corporate Authorised Representative No. 315000 of Integrity Financial Planners Pty Ltd ABN 71 069 537 855 AFSL 225051. Integrity One Planning Services Pty Ltd and Integrity One Accounting and Business Advisory Services Pty Ltd are not liable for any financial loss resulting from decisions made based on this information. Please consult your adviser, finance specialist, broker, and/or accountant before making decisions using this information.

We know that finding your way into your first home can be daunting to say the least, let alone navigating through the current government schemes which you may have access to. There are now up to five schemes you could be eligible for!

Stamp Duty Concessions, First Home Owners Grant (FHOG), First Home Loan Deposit Scheme (FHDLS), First Home Super Saver (FHSS) & Homebuilder are all current schemes which have varying benefits and eligibility criteria. In this post we will simplify these to help make them a little easier to understand without boring you too much and if you would then like further information, we are more than happy to have a chat to help you determine if you qualify.

If you are able to qualify for one or even multiple schemes, this could save you tens of thousands of dollars and mean you can get into your first home a lot quicker than you originally thought.

 STAMP DUTY CONCESSIONS

Stamp Duty is a one-off fee paid to the state government based on the State the property was purchased in. This fee can be substantial and often a cost that is forgotten when people are searching for a property. Again, depending on the state you purchased the property in, there are discounts on Stamp Duty payable and each state provides varying discounts for first home buyers. As we are Victorian based we will outline the current criteria for the stamp duty concessions.

Firstly, what does Victoria’s State Revenue Office (SRO) determine to be a first home buyer? This can be found on the SRO website

Once you have established if you are a First Home Buyer or not, the current stamp duty benefits are as follows:

Purchase      Stamp
Price             Duty Saving

$600,000    $31,070

$650,000    $22,713

$700,000    $12,356

This is a HUGE saving compared to someone else (who is not a First Home Buyer) buying the exact same property you are looking at.

 FIRST HOME OWNER GRANT (FHOG)

If you are eligible for the FHOG you will receive a $10,000 grant to assist you with the construction of your first home or if purchasing a brand new home. Depending on the lender this can be used as a deposit and in conjunction with the savings you already had. For areas classed as regional, the grant is a whopping $20,000!

That’s an extra $10,000 or $20,000 compared to a non-First Home Buyer doing the same thing.

The criteria is similar to the stamp duty exemption with additional ‘new property’ criteria. To determine if you are eligible, you can complete an online questionnaire by clicking here

 FIRST HOME LOAN DEPOSIT SCHEME (FHLDS)

Don’t have much of a deposit? Then this scheme is for you.

You may have heard people say you need a 20% deposit plus costs in order to buy, but we all know that’s an old wives’ tale. Yes, it is the most cost-effective way of doing it because normally, any less than a 20% deposit requires you to pay another extra one-off cost called Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI). The reason the lender makes you pay this extra cost is because you are borrowing such a high amount of the property value, for example, your loan is more than 80% of the value of the property you are purchasing.

What the FHLDS allows first home buyers to do, is to avoid paying that extra LMI cost even though you don’t have the 20% deposit. The Government effectively provides the lender with the reassurance that the lender will get their loan paid out if things went bad and you weren’t able to pay your loan etc. It doesn’t mean you are off the hook, you still need to make your repayments, but it provides the lender with some security, therefore they don’t need to charge you the LMI cost.

The scheme currently allows for only 10,000 positions per financial year with 10,000 recently been released on July 1 2020, so reserving a spot is imperative before jumping into buying something!

As this is a federal government scheme the criteria to be eligible differs somewhat. To be eligible you must meet first homeowner criteria, income criteria, savings criteria and purchase price criteria.

The government has set up a great tool to check eligibility for this scheme click here.

 THE HOMEBUILDER SCHEME

Whilst this is not a scheme exclusively for First Home Buyers, it is still a scheme which First Home Buyers have access to. If eligible this scheme provides a $25,000 cash grant to you!

To be eligible for the scheme you must meet particularly build criteria, time frames and income requirements. This grant will be administered by each State Government and at this point in time we are still waiting for further information on when the grant will be paid and some other particulars but it could potentially be another $25,000 towards your purchase.

The home must be a new owner-occupied property build or renovations of at least $150,000 to an existing owner-occupied property.

The eligibility for this scheme can be found by clicking here

FIRST HOME SUPER SAVER SCHEME (FHSS)

This scheme provides an incentive to start saving for your deposit in a more tax-effective way.

Effectively this scheme allows additional payments into your superannuation in a more tax-friendly way which further boosts your savings/deposit. When you are ready to buy, the additional amounts you deposited into your super fund are tracked via your MyGov account and can be utilised. These are taken out of your super to form part of your deposit on your first property. Superannuation can be complex therefore we would recommend seeking financial advice regarding this scheme but it could be a way of increasing your deposit just by saving tax.

More details on this scheme can be found by clicking here

Confused?

If all of this is still sounding like gibberish, don’t worry we can help you understand each scheme and assist you in determining your eligibility! We can also assist you in gaining a loan approval incorporating the schemes you are eligible for. If you are able to qualify for one or even multiple schemes, this could save you tens of thousands of dollars and mean you can get into your first home a lot quicker than you originally thought. We can help by determine your budget, utilising these schemes.

Don’t hesitate to get in in touch with us as a pre-approval is very important before buying!

WRITTEN BY
NICHOLAS BERRY & TOM BAILEY
INTEGRITY FINANCE PTY LTD

Click here to learn more about Nic & Tom, or  just give them a call on (03) 9723 0522

Suite 2, 1 Railway Crescent
Croydon, Victoria 3136

Email: integrityone@iplan.com.au

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Nicholas Berry Credit Representative Number 472439 and Thomas Bailey Credit Representative Number 472440 are Credit Representatives of Integrity Finance (Aust) Pty Ltd – Australian Credit Licence 392184.

This information is of a general nature and does not take into consideration anyone’s individual circumstances or objectives. Financial Planning activities only are provided by Integrity One Planning Services Pty Ltd as a Corporate Authorised Representative No. 315000 of Integrity Financial Planners Pty Ltd ABN 71 069 537 855 AFSL 225051. Integrity One Planning Services Pty Ltd and Integrity One Accounting and Business Advisory Services Pty Ltd are not liable for any financial loss resulting from decisions made based on this information. These articles are not owned by Integrity One Planning Services. Please consult your adviser, finance specialist, broker, and/or accountant before making decisions using this information.