Wealth creation and preservation strategies from leading financial planners

Written in plain English, the Australian Financial Planning Handbook offers comprehensive coverage of all key aspects of financial planning: superannuation, compliance, finance and investing, estate planning, taxation planning, retirement planning, social security, risk insurance, salary packaging and executive remuneration, family law requirements and small business issues.

The 2009-10 edition will cover all law changes and relevant tax rulings to 30 June 2009, including:

• Details of relevant 2009 Federal Budget announcements including superannuation, retirement incomes, pensions and employee share schemes;
• Relevant Bills before Parliament as at 1 July 2009;
• A full update of compliance issues affecting financial planners;
• Updated rates for income tax, superannuaiotn thresholds;
• Updated content regarding the ongoing financial planner fees debate;
• An updated Rates and Tables chapter covering individuals, companies, trustees, CGT, FBT, superannuaiotn rates, state taxes rates, social security rates, Family Tax Benefit rates;
• A complete review of all chapters: updated as at 1 July 2009 – including a major update of the superannuation chapter taking into account changes coming out of the Federal Budget.
• Coverage of social security changes including more examples and analysis of the recent changes concerning superannuation.

The Handbook contains around 1,000 case studies, checklists, examples, practical tips and warnings of traps to avoid for financial planners – taken from the authors’ first-hand experience. It is also available as an online service updated twice a year, as well as a single volume published annually.

Contents:

• Financial planning process and getting started (including the 7 steps)
• Investing and finance
• Income tax from an investor’s view
• Superannuation and self-managed super
• FBT, CGT and GST for the investor
• Taxation planning and investment structuring
• Retirement planning
• Estate planning
• Social security
• Salary packaging & executive remuneration
• Financial planning for small business
• Family law issues relevant to financial planning
• Risk insurance
• Compliance
• Comprehensive tax rates and tables
• Key developments to watch for financial planners

Authors:

Experienced practitioners, planners and business advisers, including:

• Money Management’s 1996, 2002 and 2004 Financial Planners of the Year
• Experts who won a contract to provide the Federal Government with extensive information on employee share ownership (including the tax consequences)
• Field specialists from RetireInvest, Grant Thornton, President Financial Services Pty Limited, McMillan Financial Planning Pty Ltd, Remuneration Strategies Group, Brett Davies Lawyers, Boyd Partners Limited, Forte Family Lawyers.

The paper version features one update per year. The online version features two updates per year.