So you’re looking to complete your fact find? This is one of the most important steps in the advice process. It gives your adviser the data they need to build your personalised strategy. You can access the Fact Find directly in the app.
What is a fact find?
A fact find is a comprehensive collection of your financial information. It covers your income, expenses, assets, liabilities, and personal details. Think of it as the foundation of your Living Profile.
Before you start
To save time, have these handy:
- Recent payslips or your last tax return.
- Your latest super statements.
- Current loan balances (mortgage, credit cards, etc.).
- A rough idea of your regular spending. You can enter expenses as weekly, fortnightly, or monthly amounts.
How to complete it
- Go to the Fact Find page.
- Work section-by-section: The form is broken into logical groups like “Household”, “Income”, and “Assets”.
- Save as you go: Use Save & continue between sections, or Save checkpoint before leaving. You don’t have to finish it all in one sitting.
- Be “right enough”: Don’t worry about being perfect to the cent. Accurate estimates are much better than leaving sections blank.
Key sections you’ll complete
- Household & Personal: Basic details about you and your family.
- Tax Structures: Trusts, SMSFs, companies, and partnerships that legally hold your assets/debts.
- Employment & Income: Where your money comes from.
- Expenses: Where your money goes, using the period that best matches how each bill or budget item works.
- Assets & Liabilities: What you own and what you owe.
- Super & Insurance: Your existing protection and retirement savings.
When you enter assets (including cash accounts), use Ownership structure to pick either an individual/joint ownership or a specific tax structure.
Rental income and property expenses
In Assets, open the property and use Rental income and property expenses. Enter the total rent before expenses and each property cost once, with its payment frequency. Do not split the amounts manually between owners: the recorded Ownership structure determines each share. A trust or company retains its property income until a separate distribution to a person is recorded.
Only mark an expense Confirmed deductible when its treatment is known. Keep loan repayments in Loans; if the repayment is already recorded, a verified deductible interest amount can be entered as Tax only (no cash payment) to avoid counting the cash outflow twice.
If rent or costs were previously entered under Income or Expenses, use Link existing income or expense entries to select the matching records. This keeps their original values for reference and counts the replacement property amount once. Removing that replacement restores the original entries.
Your advice team can correct these facts in Client workspace → Forms. Changes made in Cashflow are modelling assumptions; saved scenarios and SOA tables keep the figures that were saved with them.
Remaining loan term
For each property, investment or personal loan, enter Remaining term (years) using your current loan statement. This is the time left until the loan is due to be repaid in full, not the original loan term. You can use decimals: 12.5 means 12 years and 6 months. If you do not know, leave it blank and ask your lender rather than estimate it from your repayments.
HECS/HELP and credit cards do not have this field. For interest-only loans, record the Interest only maturity date separately. Your saved remaining term is available to your advice team in Client workspace → Forms and to the loan modelling tools.
Understanding the cashflow estimate
The flow chart separates flexible expenses, fixed expenses, travel, debt repayments, investments and personal insurance. Property cash outgoings are shown against their property. These are the same categories used in the adviser Cashflow tool; the figures here come from your recorded answers.
Your estimated individual tax uses each person’s Australian tax residency answer. Check this answer for both people, and record whether salaries include superannuation. Employer super is excluded from take-home income.
If you have a HECS/HELP debt, record its current balance in Liabilities for the person who owes it. The estimate includes compulsory repayments using that person’s income and the applicable repayment thresholds, capped at the recorded balance. Recorded net rental losses are added back when estimating repayment income. Other adjustments to repayment income may require your adviser’s review. HELP reduces estimated take-home income; do not enter it again as a household expense.
Household cash spending excludes operating expenses attributed to a trust or company and entries marked as tax-only deductions. Your adviser’s Planning scenario can include additional property repayments, eligible deductions and different assumptions, so compare the source record and assumptions when figures differ.
Non-financial and personal assets
In the Assets step, include vehicles and other personal belongings such as jewellery, home contents, collectibles, boats and private jets. Use Add vehicle for vehicles or aircraft, and Add personal asset for other items. Record the type, an estimated current value in Australian dollars, and the legal owner. Couples can select either person or joint ownership; a recorded tax structure can also own an asset.
Add each item only once. These records contribute to your asset totals and are available to your advice team in the client Forms workspace. Use Save checkpoint or Save & continue to retain your changes.
Identification for personal advice
On the first tab, each person has an Identification documents section. If you plan to use Rask Advice Pty Ltd’s personalised financial planning services, upload official government ID such as a driver’s licence or passport. Couples can add documents separately for each person, and you can select more than one file.
Before selecting files, read the two Financial Services Guides, Privacy Policy and Data Use Policy linked in the upload dialog, then explicitly acknowledge the notice. Only share information you are comfortable providing. The acknowledgement is recorded with each successful upload. PDF, JPG and PNG files up to 10 MB each are supported.
Your documents go into Other → Identification in your private vault. Save a checkpoint to retain their links in your Fact Find. Identification uploads are optional; members who are not seeking personal advice can continue without uploading ID.
Tips for success
- Use the Document Vault: If you’re unsure about a number, upload the relevant statement to your Document vault and your adviser can help you fill it in.
- Update over time: Treat this as a living document. If you get a pay rise or buy a new car, update your Fact Find so your advice stays relevant.