FINS5510代写、代写Java/c++编程

日期：2023-04-17 08:41

FINS5510 Personal Financial Planning

INSTRUCTIONS

Financial Plan Assignment

Andrew Hingston v2023.1.1

Overview

The purpose of this assignment is to help you to develop a detailed financial plan that

will act as a financial roadmap for the rest of your life. Each section of your financial

plan provides you with the opportunity to reflect deeply on the theory covered in the

course and to make practical, specific and detailed application of that theory to your

expected future life stages. You should work on your financial plan gradually during

the term as you cover each Unit. You should use the Microsoft Word template provided

and submit the final document in Microsoft Word format. There is no word limit for this

assignment but most submissions are between 3,000 and 9,000 words.

The financial plan that you will develop is far more comprehensive (and useful) than a

typical ‘Statement of Advice (SOA)’ that a financial adviser would prepare for a client.

This is because the focus of this course is on understanding the broad issues that

financial advisers need to consider when advising clients. The follow-on course to this

one, FINS5537 Financial Planning Advice and Ethics, will focus on the process of

developing a compliant and ethical SOA for clients. Nevertheless, under the final

section of your Assignment you are required to identify the differences between the

Financial Plan that you are submitting for this course and a compliance Statement of

Advice (SOA).

This is an individual assignment. Copying the work of another student, basing your

financial plan on another student’s work, asking anyone else to write your financial

plan, obtaining assistance from an Artificial Intelligence computer program, providing

a copy of your financial plan to another student or posting your financial plan on a

website is academic misconduct and will result in a fail grade being awarded for this

course.

Weight

The Financial Plan assignment is worth 50% of your assessment for this course.

Due Date

The due date for the financial plan assignment is as follows:

Assessment component Due Date*

Financial Plan Assignment 1:00PM Mon 1 May 2023 (Week 12) Sydney time

* All times are Sydney time

Backup your work

You should be writing your financial plan assignment gradually over the term after you

have completed each Unit. You need to plan for a situation in which the file may

become corrupted or your device is damaged. Please create regular copies of your

work and place them into a ‘Backups’ folder. Make sure this folder is synchronised onto

a USB key or a cloud-based storage solution such as OneDrive or Dropbox (or an

equivalent service in China for students who cannot access these services). Loss of

data or a damaged device does not constitute grounds for Special Consideration.

Late Penalties

Late submission will incur a penalty of 5% per day or part thereof (including weekends)

from the due date and time. An assessment will not be accepted after 5 days (120

hours) of the original deadline unless special consideration has been approved. An

assignment is considered late if the requested format, such as hard copy or electronic

copy, has not been submitted on time or where the ‘wrong’ assignment has been

submitted.

The late penalty applies to your score for the financial plan (not the maximum possible

score). For example, if your raw score is 70/100 and the plan is submitted 2 days late,

a 10 mark penalty will apply and so your score would be reduced to 60/100.

Note that there is a small ‘grace period’ of a few minutes after the submission time to

allow for slow internet connections or slow website performance. No penalty will apply

if the submission is within this ‘grace period’. Please do not email me asking if your

submission falls within this grace period.

Since you are supposed to be working on this assignment gradually each week as the

course progresses, the maximum period of special consideration that will be granted

for this assessment (for any reason) is 7 days from the original due date. Also, the

maximum extension that will be granted for Equitable Learning Plans will also by 7

days from the original due date. Any submissions received after this will automatically

be awarded a score of zero.

Special Consideration

Special consideration will only be granted in exceptional cases. You are responsible

for developing your financial plan gradually as you work through each Unit of the

course materials. You should work on your financial plan as you cover each Unit and

avoid leaving it until last minute. You are responsible for completing your financial plan

well before the due date/time to allow for unexpected circumstances or illness. Being

ill during the last week before the date of submission will not normally constitute

grounds for special consideration.

Loss of data or a damaged device does not constitute grounds for Special

Consideration. You are responsible to regularly backup your work and synchronise it

onto a cloud-based storage solution (such as OneDrive or Dropbox).

If special consideration is granted, the maximum extension that will be granted is

7 days from the original due date. Any financial plans received more than 7 days from

the original due date will automatically be awarded a score of zero.

An application for Special Consideration together with supporting documentation must

be submitted online within 3 working days of the due date. The process for applying

for special consideration is here: https://student.unsw.edu.au/special-consideration

Individual Assessment

This is an individual assessment. You are permitted to discuss the contents of this

assessment with your family, a spouse or partner. However, all written work, research

and supporting calculations must be your own work. Seeking assistance with your

written work or financial modelling constitutes academic misconduct. Seeking

assistance from Artificial Intelligence computer programs also constitutes academic

misconduct. Providing assistance to any other students also constitutes academic

misconduct. Copying or paraphrasing the work of any other student (from current or

previous terms) constitutes academic misconduct. Copying the work of another student

and then changing the details to reflect your situation and strategies constitutes

academic misconduct. Using another student’s financial plan as a ‘reference’ for you

while you complete your own financial plan is also academic misconduct. Posting a

copy of your assignment on a website is academic misconduct (except for submitting

your assignment on the course website under the appropriate submission link).

If another student approaches you for assistance, please note the time, date and

details of the incident and email the details to me at andrew.hingston@unsw.edu.au .

UNSW has no tolerance for students who are dishonest or seek to obtain an unfair

advantage over other students. Academic misconduct is a serious offence. It can result

in zero being awarded for this assessment, a failure grade for the course and/or

removal from the University.

Template

You should use the Microsoft Word Template document provided under the ‘Financial

Plan’ section of the course website. Do not use another student’s financial plan as your

template. Note that as a student at UNSW, you have access to the full suite of Microsoft

Office 365 applications. More information about accessing this software is provided

below.

Software

You should note that all students at UNSW have access to the full suite of Microsoft

Office 365 products for free (on both Windows and Mac). This includes downloadable

versions of the entire Microsoft Office suite to 15 devices (5 desktops, 5 tablets and 5

mobiles).

The steps for downloading the latest version of MS Office are as follows:

1. Go to https://login.microsoftonline.com

2. Login with the same zPass that you use for Moodle using the

‘zID@ad.unsw.edu.au’ version of your UNSW student email. For example:

z1234567@ad.unsw.edu.au

3. Click the ‘Install Office’ button at the top right of the screen.

4. Choose ‘Office 365 apps’ and follow the on-screen directions from there.

More information is available here (although it is a little out of date):

https://student.unsw.edu.au/sites/all/files/uploads/group228/notices/office-proplus.pdf

Formatting

For headings and body text, please use the styles in the Microsoft Word template

provided.

Fonts: Please only use either Arial (PC) or Helvetica (Mac) fonts. Students with

dyslexia who find these fonts difficult to read may use Times New Roman.

Font sizes: Please use font size 11 pt for your body text.

Line spacing: Use the default in the Microsoft Word Template provided (1.08 lines).

Styles: Use the styles provided in the Microsoft Word Template provided.

File format: You should submit your file in Microsoft Word format.

Filename: Please use the filename following the format ‘zID Plan.docx’. If your zID is

z999999, you should name your document

‘z999999 Plan.docx’.

For tables, diagrams, captions, footnotes and other minor formatting elements, you

can choose your own formatting and styles. Please make sure they are easy to read.

Table of Contents

You should update the page numbers in the table of contents before submitting the

final version of your financial plan as a Microsoft Word document. This can be done as

follows:

1. User your mouse to select the table of contents on page 1

2. Go to the ‘References’ tab on the command bar at the top of Microsoft Word

3. Select ‘Update Table’ under the ‘Table of Contents’ group on the Ribbon.

4. Select ‘Update Page Numbers Only’ to only update the page numbers or select

‘Update Entire Table’ to also update your Headings.

File Format

You should submit your file in Microsoft Word format.

File Name

Please name your financial plan using the following file name format (and extension):

zID Plan.docx

For example, if your student zID is z1234567, your file should be named:

z1234567 Plan.docx

Word Limit

There is no word limit or page limit for this assignment. This is your plan and so you

can ‘invest’ as much time and detail into it as you like. In past terms, most financial

plans are somewhere between 3,000 words and 9,000 words.

References and citations

As a general principle, you do not need to reference the concepts covered in my lecture

slides unless the lecture slides themselves cite another source or it makes sense to do

so given how you are using the concept in your assignment. In most cases, I’m

expecting you to reference other sources that you have identified to support the ideas

in your financial plan including websites, articles, books or videos.

Citations and references for any other article or website should follow standard

university assignment citation and referencing principles. You may use Harvard,

Oxford or APA referencing (see below).

For websites, I’m usually happy with just the author (or company), the date that it was

accessed and a URL (preferably hyperlinked). For example:

"Domain Property Group, accessed 9 January 2023, https://www.domain.com.au"

As a general principle, you do not need to reference any pictures that you use in your

financial plan.

The following website provides some good examples for referencing for other

documents:

https://student.unsw.edu.au/citing-different-sources

When referring to other sources, the standard method for citations at UNSW is in-text

(Harvard). However, in this course I don’t mind whether you use Harvard, Oxford or

APA style referencing.

More information on the in-text (Harvard) method is here:

https://student.unsw.edu.au/harvard-referencing

More information on the footnote (Oxford) method is here:

https://student.unsw.edu.au/footnote-bibliography-or-oxford-referencing-system

More information on APA referencing method is here:

https://www.student.unsw.edu.au/how-cite-references-apa-style

References are not included in your word count.

Privacy

This assignment includes personal information that is both private and confidential.

Your assignment is not used for any other purpose except to provide you with a mark

for this assessment. It will not be used for academic research or commercial purposes.

You should also note that more than 100 students undertake this course each term

and so it is unlikely that I will remember any of your personal information after I finish

marking them all (my memory isn’t that good!). However, you should note that your

financial plan will be uploaded onto the Turnitin plagiarism detection service for the

sole purpose of checking for similarity with other assignments in past, present or future

terms.

If you are concerned about the privacy of the information, you are welcome to change,

omit or redact any of the specific details that you are concerned about (such as

information about your current income or assets). Doing so will likely make very little

difference to the usefulness of your financial plan, since you can simply change those

details back to the correct values after submission.

Spouse or Partner

If you have a spouse or partner, you are also welcome to perform this assignment

based on your ‘collective’ situation and ‘collective’ plan for the future. Discussing your

financial plan assignment with your spouse or partner does not constitute academic

misconduct. However, the written financial plan, supporting research and calculations

should be your own work. For more information, see ‘Individual Assessment’ on

page 4.

Foreign Countries and Currencies

The financial plan assignment is designed to assess the key learning outcomes of this

course. Many of these learning outcomes are specific to the Australian financial

system. This presents a problem for overseas students who plan to live abroad after

they graduate, since the taxation and retirement saving systems in those countries

may be quite different from Australia.

Whether or not you plan to live abroad for a significant component of your life after

graduation, for the purposes of this assessment you must assume that the

Australian system of taxation and retirement savings (superannuation) will apply

for your entire life. For instance, you may base your plan on the assumption that you

will live in China for the rest of your life, but you must assume that only the Australian

system of taxation will apply (not the system in China) and that you will use the

Australian superannuation system to save for retirement. I understand that this could

result in some unusual circumstances at times, but it is necessary for the assessment

of this course. Of course, you are welcome to change your financial plan to reflect the

local taxation and retirement savings system after the course is completed.

Please only use Australian dollars as your currency for this assignment. You can

convert any foreign values in Australian dollars at the current exchange rate.

Financial Assistance from Family

Some students may be expecting significant financial assistance from their families or

a large inheritance from parents or grandparents after they graduate from their degrees

(or later in life). This can undermine the learning outcomes assessed by the financial

plan assessment because it can result in a financial strategy that basically argues, “I

don’t need to do anything that this course covers because my family will provide me

with everything that I need financially.”

You should undertake this assignment assuming that you will not receive significant

financial assistance from your family or others after you graduate in the form of a large

lump-sum payment, income support or gifts of property or other investments. However,

you are permitted to assume that you can move back home to live with parents while

you are saving for a deposit on your first property.

Students with disability may assume ongoing support (financial or otherwise) from

family.

Religion and Interest

Some devoutly religious students may believe that either receiving or paying interest

on borrowed funds (even under a profit-sharing arrangement using Islamic Banking) is

incompatible with their religious faith. Inclusiveness is important at UNSW and I

personally have the utmost respect for these religious beliefs. However, being unable

to borrow or lend at interest makes many of the financial strategies and products

covered in this course unviable and can therefore make it difficult to assess the learning

outcomes of the course. As such, if you hold these religious views, one approach that

you can take with this financial plan assessment is to base it on a ‘hypothetical third-

party’ (perhaps a friend) that is willing and able to borrow or lend money using Islamic

Banking services under a suitable ‘profit sharing’ arrangement. Obviously, you are

welcome to make appropriate changes to this financial plan document after submission

to reflect your personal beliefs and your own preferred financial and investment

strategies.

If you have further questions or would like to discuss an alternative approach, please

contact me at andrew.hingston@unsw.edu.au and I will be happy to discuss it further.

File Size

The maximum file size permitted by Moodle is 40MB. If your file is larger than this then

it is most likely because you have used some high-resolution images. Please locate

the super-high-res images in your document and downscale them. More on this here:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/reduce-the-file-size-of-a-picture-in-microsoft-

office-8db7211c-d958-457c-babd-194109eb9535

Writing Style

This is your financial plan and so an informal writing style is acceptable in this

assignment. You may write in the first-person if you would like to do so. You may also

make selective use of bullet-points and tables where appropriate.

However, you are reminded that this is also an assessment for a university course.

You are expected to justify your ideas by linking them back to concepts covered in the

course or from other cited sources wherever possible.

As a general principle, it is not acceptable to justify statements in your financial plan

as being true because you “feel that they are true”. For example, “I am going to invest

all my money in Bitcoin because I feel as though this will be a good investment for the

long-term.” This form of reasoning is generally not acceptable at university. If you

believe that Bitcoin is a good investment for the long-term, you need to justify this with

logical reasoning based on theories covered in this course and/or evidence from other

sources (that are cited). You need to clearly explain your reasoning.

Structure and Content

You should use the Microsoft Word template provided under the ‘Financial Plan’

section of the course website and use the same headings provided in that document.

The following instructions on the suggested content for each section are oriented

towards a grade of somewhere between 65 to 80. If you are time-poor due to your

workload in other courses or work commitments, you may choose to miss out some of

the suggested components in each section. However, doing so may adversely affect

your overall score. If you are aiming for a score above 80, you will need to reflect deeply

on the material in each Unit and ‘go the extra mile’ in applying it to your future

anticipated circumstances. This may involve including content in each section that is

not included in these instructions (at your own initiative). The key thing is to balance

your expectations for this assignment with your time-constraints due to other

commitments.

Please also note that the content suggested here is far too much to complete in the

week before the financial plan is due. This assessment is designed to be written each

week as you work through the course material. It is designed to encourage you to think

deeply about the concepts covered in each Unit and to apply it to your own life. In some

ways it is like a journal. You are supposed to study the content of a Unit, then

immediately apply that content to your own life by writing up the relevant sections of

your financial plan.

Your financial plan should contain the following sections and content:

Title Page

The Microsoft Word template provided contains the following table. You should

complete the information in the space provided (deleting the hint text):

Student ID: Replace this text with your UNSW student zID

Given name Replace this text with your given name (UNSW student records)

Family name Replace this text with your family name (UNSW student records)

Degree program What degree are you currently studying?

Country In what country do you plan to live most of your life?

Word count Replace this text with your assignment word count

Check the student declaration to confirm that the assessment is your own work.

A table of contents is provided. You can update the page numbers as follows:

1. Use your mouse to select the table of contents on page 1

2. Go to the ‘References’ tab on the command bar at the top of Microsoft Word

3. Select ‘Update Table’ under the ‘Table of Contents’ group on the Ribbon.

4. Select ‘Update Page Numbers Only’ to only update the page numbers or select

‘Update Entire Table’ to also update your Headings.

Failing to update page numbers in the table of contents before final submission will

result in a penalty (see Assessment Criteria on page 30).

1. Current Situation (Unit 1)

This section is a statement of your current situation. It provides a starting point for

assessing the gap between your current situation and the long-term goals that you will

establish in section 2 of your financial plan. When financial advisers provide advice to

clients, listing the client’s current situation is a key component of a Statement of Advice

because it demonstrates that the adviser understands the client’s current situation

correctly.

This section can be formatted using a combination of tables and bullet-points if you

believe that this is a clear way to present the information. It does not need to be

presented as full sentences in a paragraph form.

The information is private and confidential and will not be used for research or

commercial purposes. For more information in privacy of your information, please refer

to the section on ‘Privacy’ on page 7.

This section should include the following information:

Basic Information

Your current age.

Your preferred gender description.

Your current relationship status description (eg. single, casual relationship, defacto

relationship, married). This is relevant for the estate planning and some other

sections of your financial plan.

A list of anyone who is currently financially dependent on you (usually children).

Your country of residency or citizenship. If you are an overseas student, please

also identify whether you plan to pursue residency in Australia in the future.

Your current residential living circumstances. Are you living in a residential college

or other UNSW accommodation, renting or co-renting a property, own your own

home (with or without a mortgage) or living with parents?

Your current mode of study. Are you a part-time or full-time student? Are you a

domestic or international student? What is your degree program and major? When

do you expect to complete your current degree?

Your current employment status. Are you working part-time, full-time or currently

not working? What is the name of your employer and what is your current job role?

Income Statement

An income statement estimates your income, expenses and profit over the last 12

months. As discussed in Unit 1 of the course, income statements are always measured

over a period of time (often one month or one year). The key formula for an income

statement is ‘income less expenses is equal to profit’. Following are a few tips:

You likely haven’t been recording your income and expenses over the last year and

so some estimation will be necessary. I obviously don’t know the ‘truth’ of your

income and expenses over this period. However, you should do your best to

estimate your key expense categories, since they are usually needed for any home

loan applications and are useful for establishing a budget.

Many students are engaged in casual work and so income earned can vary

significantly between weeks and months of the year. If your income is variable, one

approach is to simply calculate your total income over the last 12 months and then

divide the total by 12 to calculate an ‘average’ monthly income. The key thing is

that it is normal for income to be ‘lumpy’ if you are working casual jobs or pursuing

holiday employment. However, usually an ‘average’ monthly income across the

entire year is the number that is useful to know.

It is helpful to express your income, expense and profit figures in both ‘per year’

and ‘per month’ bases (as two separate columns). For some expense categories

(such as food), it may be easier to estimate a ‘typical month’ and then multiply by

twelve to estimate the annual figure. For other expense categories (such as motor

vehicle registration and insurance), it may easier to estimate the total expense for

the year and then divide by twelve to estimate the ‘per month’ figure.

For your personal income (salary or wages), you can use either before or after-tax

income. If you use before-tax income, you should also include income tax as a

corresponding expense.

In most situations, your employer will have made contributions into your

superannuation account. Even though these payments are not part of your ‘cash

flow’, they are still a source of income. In most situations, 15% contributions tax is

taken out of these employer superannuation contributions. The total contribution is

income. The contributions tax is an expense.

If you received financial support from your parents and/or a scholarship, you should

include the amount that you received as income (with an appropriate

categorisation). If your parents gave you money in ‘instalments’, estimate the total

amount that they gave you over the last 12 months and then divide by twelve for

the average monthly amount.

Income should be categorised by the different sources, similar to the examples

covered in the Unit 1 course materials. You are welcome to customise these

categories for your own situation.

Your estimate of expenses should be broken down into categories such as ‘Rent’,

‘Food’ and ‘Transport’. If you are not sure about your expenses, try tracking them

over a month using a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet is provided under the

‘Spreadsheets’ link provided under the ‘Course Resources’ section of the course

website (Moodle).

You can choose your own expense categories but don’t include too many. For most

people, less than 5 categories doesn’t provide enough detail to understand your

expenses but more than 15 categories creates ‘information overload’. There are

some suggested categories in the course material (lecture) for Unit 1 but you can

customise these for your own situation.

If you live at home with your parents, better quality submissions will include your

share of various bills (such as electricity and food) in your calculation of expenses.

Whether or not you pay for these expenses yourself, they are still expenses that

you are incurring because you are using the service and are deriving a benefit from

that service. If your parents pay for your expenses on your behalf, then the amount

that your parents are subsidising you is a form of income (‘support from parents’).

For instance, if you incur $100 of educational expenses (an arbitrary number) and

your parents pay for the $100 on your behalf, two separate transactions have

occurred. You have incurred a $100 education expense and you have received a

$100 income from your parents (‘support from parents’). The net effect of these two

transactions on your profit is zero because the $100 in income is offset by the $100

in expenses.

Unit 1 covers the concept of depreciation, which is a measure of how an asset

decreases in value over time. Depreciation is an application of the ‘matching

principle’ in accounting, in which the expense is matched to the period in which the

benefit from the asset is recognised. Many assets decrease in value as a curve

(diminishing value), halving in value every X years. For example, if an asset is

purchased for $1000 and halves in value every 2 years, then it will be worth $500

after 2 years, $250 after 4 years and $125 after 6 years and so on. If you are not

sure how much something you own is worth, look it up on Ebay or Gumtree. The

current value of the asset can be placed on your balance sheet. Better quality

submissions will include estimates of depreciation on key assets as an expense

with a very brief explanation of how it was calculated. Note that some suggested

rates of depreciation for cars and notebook computers are included in the Unit 1

lecture slides, but you are welcome to make your own estimates. However, there

is no need to go overboard here. Only include depreciation for significant assets

that you are expected to use over many years (such as a motor vehicle or

computer). The purchase of smaller items is normally just treated as an expense at

the time of purchase.

Tuition fees are an expense whether you pay them directly, your parents pay for

them on your behalf or you defer payment by using a HECS or FEE-HELP loan

from the government. For example, let’s assume that your course fees are $100

per month (I’m using a ridiculously small number here for simplicity!). If you pay for

these yourself via your savings, the course fees are an expense of $100 per month

and your savings account (an asset) will decrease by $100 per month. If you defer

payment of the tuition fees by using a HECS loan, you have still incurred an

expense of $100 and your student loan (a debt) will increase by $100 per month. If

your parents pay for your tuition fees on your behalf, you have a tuition expense of

$100 and also an offsetting income support from parents of $100. In other words,

you will have a $100 expense no matter whether you pay for them yourself, defer

it onto a HECS or FEE-HELP loan or your parents pay for it on your behalf. If you

pay for the course fees yourself, your savings account (an asset on your balance

sheet) will decrease by $100. If you use HECS, a loan (a liability on your balance

sheet) will increase by $100. If your parents pay for your student fees, you will have

an income of $100 and there will be no change in your balance sheet.

For couples, there are two approaches that you can take with your income

statement: (1) keep your income and expenses completely separate and only

include your share of the income and expenses (like you are flatmates) or (2)

combine all of your income and expenses as one combined entity (like you are one

organisation). It is entirely up to you how you do this but most students who are in

a stable long-term relationship prefer option (2).

Balance Sheet

A balance sheet is a statement of your current assets, liabilities and equity (net wealth).

As discussed in Unit 1 of the course, a balance sheet is always measured at a point in

time. The key formula for a balance sheet is ‘assets less liabilities is equal to equity’.

Following are a few tips:

In the lecture material I emphasised that the profit on the income statement should

equal the change in equity on the balance sheet. However, if your income statement

does not reconcile with changes in your balance sheet there is no penalty. There is

a lot ot do in this financial plan and I’d rather that you spent your time on other

sections rather than trying to get your balance sheet and income statements to

reconcile!

Your assets should mainly focus on ‘financial and property assets’ (such as bank

accounts, property, superannuation or other investments).

You are also welcome to include other significant ‘physical assets’ such as a

computer or motor vehicle (at their estimated current value).

Please avoid including ‘lifestyle assets’ such as mobile phones, clothes and

furniture. Use some of your own discernment about what to include … please don’t

post questions in the general forums about whether you should include your ‘pet

hamster’ as an asset, since this is really not very important and wastes everyone’s

time!

Your student loan (HECS or FEE-HELP) may make your balance sheet look pretty

terrible (creating overall negative equity position for some students), so you are

welcome to exclude your student debt from your list of liabilities and simply list it as

a separate item underneath your balance sheet table. This is a bit of a ‘cheat’, but

it can be a little depressing to have a negative number for ‘equity’ in your balance

sheet from student loans since you are actually investing in the value of your brain

(an asset), and the associated ability to produce a future income. However, please

do not include the value of your brain as an asset, since this would be weird! The

easiest way to find out your HECS or FEE-HELP debt is to just contact the ATO on

1300 650 225, provide them with your tax file number and ask them for your HECS

or FEE-HELP debt balance (noting that the current term may not be included in that

balance).

If you have loaned money to someone else (a friend or family member), the amount

of the loan is an asset (loans to friends/family). If that person fails to repay the loan,

then the amount would need to be expensed (bad debt expense) and the value of

the asset would be zero. If you have borrowed money from someone else, the

amount of the loan is a liability (loans from friends/family). If that loan is forgiven,

the amount of the loan is actually an income (gift received or loan forgiven) and the

value of the liability would decrease to zero.

If you do not currently have any liabilities or debts (lucky you!), you should still

specify this. For some students, the only debt that they have is their student debt.

The basic requirement for this section is to just calculate your balance sheet ‘now’.

Your current balance sheet position will have more meaning if you are able to

compare it against your position at some stage in the past. An optional extension

is to compare your assets, liabilities and equity with values from one year ago. You

can do this by simply adding a second column of figures and labelling it accordingly.

Insurance

Insurance will be covered in Unit 7, but it is helpful to undertake a quick ‘stocktake’ of

your current insurance situation at the start of the course. However, it could be a good

idea to review this section after you have completed Unit 7 to make sure that you

haven’t missed anything.

This section should include details of your current insurance cover including:

Death Cover or Term Insurance (lump-sum payment upon death). Note that for

many people, this will be included in their superannuation accounts.

Total & Permanent Disability (TPD) (lump-sum payment upon disability). Note that

for many people, this will be included in their superannuation accounts.

Income Protection or Salary Continuance (replacement of income upon accident or

illness that prevents you from working). Some people may have salary continuance

in their superannuation accounts. Others may have taken out separate income

protection policies.

Any other form of life insurance such as trauma or whole of life policies.

Home and contents insurance

Motor vehicle insurance

Private health insurance or overseas student health cover (OSHC)

Travel insurance that you normally take out when you travel abroad.

For each of these types of insurance, you should state whether or not you currently

have them. If you don’t currently have this type of insurance, you should list the

insurance and state ‘None’ next to it. If it isn’t applicable (such as motor vehicle

insurance for someone who doesn’t have a motor vehicle), please state ‘Not

applicable’.

As an optional extension, it can be helpful (for you) to list the details of each policy as

in an Appendix to your financial plan (perhaps as a table). Some suggested details

include:

Insurance provider (company name)

Product name

Account number (you can redact/ delete this in your final submission for privacy,

but it is a good idea to include this in your personal copy of this financial plan)

Annual premium paid

Level or amount of cover (if applicable)

Telephone number for making claims

Some notes (for you) about key inclusions or exclusions (if relevant). This is

normally not a complete list, just some notable ones for your own reference.

You should think carefully about how you will format this section. You may make

selective use of bullet points, tables and other means to concisely and clearly

communicate this information.

Estate Planning

Estate planning (wills etc) will be covered in more detail in Unit 7. In section 1 of your

financial plan (current situation), please include details of any current wills or other

relevant estate planning issues:

Do you currently have a valid will in place? If so,

o Who drafted the will for you (lawyer or will kit)?

o When was the will last updated?

o Have you had a significant change in life circumstance since it was last

updated (such as getting married or having children)?

o Who is the executor of the will?

o Who are the main beneficiaries?

o Who are the nominated guardians for any children?

o Who were the witnesses?

Have you appointed any Powers of Attorney (allowing someone to sign documents

or act on your behalf)?

If you do not have a current will in place, you should clearly specify this here.

Anticipated Irregular Cash Outflows

This section should identify any significant irregular expenses or large cash outflows

that you expect to occur in the next 5 years. By ‘irregular’, I mean that they are not

expected to occur each year. These might include the cost of a new motor vehicle (less

expected sale price of your existing vehicle), the costs associated with moving out of

home or the funds required for a particularly expensive holiday abroad. It might also

include the deposit required to buy a property.

2. Life Planning (Unit 2)

This section should combine the content covered in the first half of the Unit 2 course

material with your own research and life experiences to define and justify a series of

life values, principles and an overall life purpose. It should also define a series of life

stages and include a set of life and financial goals for each life stage.

Life Values and Principles

Defining a series of values and the associated life principles is an important foundation

for determining your life stages and corresponding life and financial goals. Including

an overall statement of ‘life purpose’ is suggested but not required.

Life values and principles are similar but slightly different. Values are used to formulate

principles. A value is a quality or standard of behaviour. A principle is a specific rule

governing your behaviour that is based on that value, sometimes expressed in “I’ll

never …” or “I’ll always …”. Values are general while principles tend to be more specific

and unyielding. Below are some examples of values and a corresponding principle:

Value Principle

Thriftiness I’ll always practice contentment and avoid buying things

just because they are ‘new’ or to impress others.

Open-mindedness I’ll practice listening, compassion and empathy so that I

can understand other people’s thinking and behaviour.

Fairness I’ll never treat people unfairly by making judgements

based on their gender, sexual orientation, age, race,

cultural background or appearance.

Honesty I’ll never lie, even if it is to prevent harm, hurt feelings or

to avoid an uncomfortable situation. I will always be

honest in a way that is also loving, compassionate and

has the best interests of other people in mind.

Relationships matter I’ll never be unfaithful to my friends or partner. I will

always put the long-term interests of people ahead of

short-term financial gain.

In this section, you should briefly identify between 3 and 10 values and some

corresponding life principles. You should also briefly explain why you have chosen

these values and principles based on your beliefs (religious or otherwise), the

principles of happiness covered in Unit 2 or your own research.

Most students write this section with a series of headings for each value (or principle).

Each value (or principle) is then followed by a paragraph explaining why they have

chosen that value or principle (and if possible) citing any research to support the

claims. For example:

Value 1: BLAH

This is a paragraph supporting why I have selected BLAH to be a life value. It

will also identify one or more specific life principles based on this value. There

is also a justification for the value and principles by clearly articulating the

beliefs on which they are based, the course material and/or your own research.

Better quality financial plans will also include an overall statement of life purpose. A

statement of purpose provides our reason for being. Values focus on the ‘what’ we

value, principles focus on ‘how’ we may (or may not) achieve our values. Purpose

explains ‘why’ our values and principles are important.

Note that you don’t have to choose the values or principles covered in the course

material in Unit 2. You are welcome to use any values and principles you like, so long

as you clearly explain and justify the reasons why you have chosen those values and

principles.

Life Stages

The component of this section is to clearly document the ‘Visualise your future’ activity

conducted in Unit 2 of the course materials. This involves imagining that you are aged

60 and are financially independent. You should describe your closest relationship

(romantic or otherwise), the nature of your relationships with your immediate family

(children, parents and siblings), any paid or unpaid work to keep you engaged and

serving others, any hobbies or interests (including with whom you practise them),

where you are living (and with whom) and a typical holiday (and with whom you are on

holiday).

You can also go a bit further and discuss what you have achieved in your life, with

whom you regularly spend time, what you do together, what significant health

challenges have you experienced, the current status of your health, a typical daily

schedule and a description of the things that you are passionate about. The key thing

is to clearly visualise one possible future for yourself at age 60.

The second thing that you should do is define a series of ‘life stages’ up to and including

age 60. This should be based on one possible future course of events (out of many

possible life paths). Your future life path can also be thought of as one ‘scenario’

amongst many possible scenarios. As a general principle, the number of life stages

should be between 3 and 7 (preferably not too many since it will add unnecessary

complexity to your financial plan).

The following table shows two different examples of life paths based on two different

scenarios (with ages in brackets). Note that you are only required to have one life path

in your financial plan (two are provided here for illustration only):

Life Path 1* Life Path 2*

Student (19 – 23) Student (19 – 23)

Single worker (24 – 30) Single worker (24 – 30)

Couple with dependent children (31 – 50) Start first business (31 – 50)

Couple with adult children (51 – 60) Start second business (51 – 60)

Financially independent couple (61 – 85) Financial independent investor (61 – 85)

* Note that you are only expected to have one life path in your plan. The two life paths provided here are just examples.

For mature age students above the age of 40, you might like to include some of your

previous life stages. In other sections of your financial plan, you can briefly describe

the financial strategies and choices that you made in previous life stages.

It is fairly normal to feel uncertain about what path your life might go down, so it may

be difficult to image one specific ‘life path’ and the associated ‘life stages’. However, it

is important to have a plan in place for one possible life path. Undoubtably, your life

will end up going down a different path to the one that you cover in your financial plan.

However, as your life diverges from your plan, you can simply ‘update’ your financial

plan document accordingly. As such, your financial plan should be a ‘living document’

that you keep updated for the rest of your life.

Once you have defined a series of life stages, you should briefly describe your

expected relationship, work and living circumstances in each stage. Do you expect to

be single, dating, in a de facto relationship or in a committed long-term relationship?

Do you expect to have children? If so, how many? Where will you be living? What will

be the type of dwelling in which you will be living? Wherever possible, try to link these

details back to the life principles covered under the previous section.

Life Goals

For each life stage, you should now define a series of life, career and financial goals.

Examples of life goals include getting married, backpacking through Europe for a year

or getting a ski instructor licence (or maybe all three at the same time!). An example of

a career goal is to open your own General Practitioner (GP) practice by age 40. A

financial goal might be to save up $X0,000 for a deposit to buy a property by age X.

As discussed in Unit 2, each goal should be expressed in SMART terms. They should

be Specific (well defined, clear and unambiguous), Measurable (specific criteria to

assess attainment), Achievable (attainable with a reasonable probability with adequate

skill and effort), Realistic (adequately resourced and consistent with your life values)

and Timely (clearly defined timeline or deadline).

A poorly expressed goal is “to save up enough money to buy a home”. This lacks

specificity (Apartment? Townhouse? House? Sydney? Country?) and lacks a time

component. A corresponding SMART goal is “to buy a two-bedroom apartment in SW

Sydney for approximately $X00,000 by 1/7/20XX”.

Where possible, you should justify your financial goals with calculations to show that

they are realistic. There are examples of financial calculations to support these goals

throughout the course … especially towards the end of Unit 2 and the first half of Unit

3 (Financial Independence) and in Unit 5 (Property). If you haven’t studied Unit 3 or 5

yet, you can just use ‘placeholder’ estimates at this stage and then come back and

perform the calculations after you have completed the relevant Unit of the course.

The S.M.A.R.T. principle also helps to explain why goals are different from the ‘Life

Values and Principles’ covered in the previous section. A Life Principle is a principle

by which you would like to live your life and applies to your entire life. A goal is

expressed in terms of S.M.A.R.T. criteria and is something you would like to achieve.

Below is an example of a life principle and the associated life and financial goals:

Live Value: To be an open-minded person

Life Principle: To be a citizen of the world who is able to understand and empathise

with people from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds

Life Goal: Travel to 20 different countries by the time I am 40 years old

Financial Goal: Save $X,000 by the time I graduate so that I can go backpacking in

Europe for three months

One really important financial goal for this course is the amount that you will need to

achieve financial independence (at age 60 for instance). Unfortunately, we will not

cover the financial mathematics for calculating this figure until Unit 3 of the course. As

such, you might like to include a ‘guess’ placeholder number here at this stage and

then update the number (and show calculations or key assumptions) once you have

completed that section of Unit 3.

One issue that you will face in any financial modelling that you undertake is that you

need to assume an average rate or return that any savings and investments will

achieve. In the formulas, this is denoted with the letter ‘r’. This is discussed in various

Units (especially Units 2, 3, 9 and 10). As a general principle, you should use a ‘real

expected rate of return’ in your calculations. The ‘real’ means that it should be adjusted

to remove the effects of future inflation in the cost of living (price inflation). If your

investments are expected to earn an average nominal return (including price inflation)

of 6% per annum and you expect inflation to be 2.5% per annum, the real expected

rate of return would be 6.0% - 2.5% = 3.5% per annum.

In Australia, inflation is expected to be somewhere between 2% to 3% per annum over

the long-term. Interest rates in savings accounts are normally expected to achieve

approximately 1% to 2% above the rate of inflation (although this is currently not the

case unfortunately due to historically low interest rates). Returns on property and

shares (including both price gains, dividends or rent) are normally expected to be

approximately 5% to 6% above inflation. Tables of real rates of returns for each asset

category are provided in Units 2, 3 and 10 in the course and the derivation of these

numbers are discussed in more detail in Units 9 and 10. You are free to choose your

own numbers here but you should explain your reasoning if you deviate from the above

numbers.

A special note in case you have absolutely no idea about what you will do after

graduation. Many students struggle with setting goals and strategies in this situation.

The approach taken by financial planners is to ask, “What is the most likely life path?”

and to base the plan around that. You can then ask, “What would be the best strategies

under various other life paths?”, and model each of those strategies separately.

However, you are only required to model only one life path in this assignment.

3. Financial Strategy (Unit 2)

Your financial strategy is your ‘game plan’ for achieving your financial goals for each

your life stages. Your financial strategy may change (or grow in complexity) as you

progress through the course, so you will likely need to revisit this section after you have

completed each Unit to add more detail. Once you have completed Unit 2 of the course,

you should write a ‘rough draft’ of your overall strategy. You should then come back

and ‘improve this draft idea’ and/or add details as you build your financial intelligence

with each Unit of the course.

Towards the end of the Unit 2 course material, I cover a mainstream strategy (‘this is

what most people do’ and an ‘alternative strategy’. In Unit 10 of the course material, I

will go into a more detailed ‘advanced alternative strategy’. I would like to be very clear

that you do not need to use these ‘alternative strategies’. They are only provided as

one possible strategy (amongst many) that financial advisors recommend to some

clients. It may not be appropriate for your current situation, life values, principles and

goals. You should modify the provided strategy to make it appropriate for your own

situation and goals or determine an entirely different strategy altogether.

In the first section of your plan you identified a number of significant irregular cash

outflows that you anticipate over the next five years. It is important that you include

some strategies to save for these cash outflows. You should explain how you plan to

save for them (using calculations and/or savings plans as necessary). If you need to

save for a deposit on a property, you need to explain how you plan to save for the

deposit needed on that property (usually is good to aim for a deposit of at least 10% of

the property value).

Please also note that the values used in many Units of this course are somewhat

arbitrary and often use rounded or very simplistic numbers (some of which may not be

realistic for Sydney!). You should make sure that you undertake your own research on

appropriate prices for properties (you will do this in later Units of the course). You

should also undertake your own modelling and calculations to estimate how long each

stage will take. If you undertake this modelling in a spreadsheet, you can easily update

the numbers if you decide to change your assumptions (or strategy) in future Units.

Please be specific in this section about the timing and details of each step in your

overall financial strategy. Better plans will also briefly explain how a strategy satisfies

or is consistent with life values and/or goals. Better quality submissions may also

attempt to visualise the steps (or stages) of your overall strategy using a diagram, flow-

chart or other means.

4. Financial Independence (Unit 3)

This section should apply the principles covered in Unit 3 to develop a long-term

strategy for building and maintaining financial independence. There are three

components that you should cover:

1. Overall description of the means by which you plan to achieve financial

independence. This would normally involve a quick recap of the financial strategy

covered in the previous section, highlighting the roles of regular saving, property,

retirements savings (superannuation), other investments, any plans to start (and

sell) your own business and intergenerational transfers of wealth (inheritance).

2. Detailed description of how you plan to use the Australian superannuation system

to build financial independence during the accumulation phase (usually below age

60) including any superannuation strategies.

3. Detailed description of how you plan to use the Australian superannuation system

to maintain financial independence during the payment phase (usually after the age

of 60) including any superannuation strategies.

To satisfy assessment requirements, even though you may be living in a different

country, you should discuss your strategies using the current Australian taxation and

superannuation system. You should not base your strategies on any other country.

5. Career Strategy (Unit 4)

This section should apply the principles covered in Unit 4 to describe your overall

career strategy across your life stages. I’m mindful that there is a LOT of material that

you could cover in this section, so I need to be clear that I’m only expecting one

paragraph on each of the following topics:

1. Labour market: Please provide a clear definition of the labour market in which you

plan to compete (the type of work, industry and geographic location).

2. Economic cycle: Briefly explain how an economic boom or recession is expected

to affect employment in your labour market. Is employment highly sensitive to the

state of the economy or relatively unrelated? Why? Identify the current phase of the

economy (boom, normal or recession) and how you believe that it is affecting

average income and employment levels.

3. Structural change: Briefly identify how structural change in the economy from

changing technology (fourth industrial revolution) and other factors (post-pandemic

economy) are expected to change average income and employment levels in your

industry over the next ten years. How will it change the specific work activities that

you expect to perform?

4. Values: Briefly explain how your chosen labour market and the associated work

aligns with your personal values and principles.

5. Personality: Briefly explain how the nature of the work in your chosen labour

market aligns to your intelligences and personality.

6. Work styles: Briefly explain how the nature of the work in your chosen labour

market aligns to your skills, experiences, preferred work styles and deeply

embedded life interests.

7. Career goals: Briefly define some specific career goals for each of your life stages

in terms of the type of company for which you will work, the job role or position and

the expected income (in terms of current remuneration levels). This content can be

formatted in a table.

8. Career strategy: Briefly explain the specific steps that you plan to take to achieve

these career goals. This may involve pursuing specific workplace experiences,

developing new skills, regular mentoring, network building, active ‘marketing’ of

your skills via social media, additional part-time study (such as studying a Master

of Business Administration from UNSW’s AGSM MBA Program … yes … a

shameless cross-promotion there!). The content could be formatted as a bullet-

pointed list but try to be specific.

9. Risk analysis: Briefly identify and discuss some risks associated with achieving

your career goals, including an assessment of the likelihood of each risk occurring

(low, medium or high) and the negative impact of the event (low, medium or high).

Explain some steps that you can take to manage the risk through mitigation,

elimination, acceptance or transfer. Explain some steps that you can take to build

resilience against risks that are incurred or are unavoidable.

10. Career Action plan: What specific actions do you need to take in the short term

(less than 1 year), medium term (1 to 5 years) and long-term (5+ years)? This can

be covered as a bullet-point list.

As indicated earlier, I am only expecting one paragraph on each of these topics to keep

the scope of this section at a reasonable level!

6. Property and Loans (Unit 5)

This section should apply the principles covered in Unit 5 to develop your long-term

property strategy and your strategy to finance these properties using home or

investment property loans.

Property Strategy

Your property strategy should apply the principles covered in the first half of Unit 5 to

develop a long-term property strategy, including the acquisition of your first property (if

you do not currently own one) and any subsequent properties.

Buying a property is an important step for creating wealth because it provides control

over living expenses over the long-term. It also allows you to buy an asset that is

expected to grow at a similar rate to income over the long-run using relatively low

interest-rate debt.

Better quality assignments will undertake some research using property websites

about the type of property (or properties) that you plan to purchase at each life stage.

Do you plan to live in it yourself or do you plan to rent it out while you live somewhere

else? Is it an apartment, town house or free-standing house? In what country, city and

suburb (or area) will it be located? Based on your research on property websites, how

much would it cost to buy a property like this right now? When do you plan to buy the

property? How much do you expect it to cost at the time of purchase (explaining your

assumptions)?

You should also consider your need for a dwelling over your various life stages. Do

you plan to own your own home during various life stages or rent? How will your need

for a home change over your different life stages? You should explain your reasoning

and try to link the content to your life values, principles and goals.

One problem that many students face is that the price of property in future years is

uncertain. Over the long-term, property prices tend to increase in line with average

incomes (assuming that increased demand is able to be satisfied by additional property

construction). In Australia, inflation is low right now, but the long-term average tends

to be between 2% and 3% per annum. Income growth is also low, but would be

expected to be around 2% to 3% per annum over the next 20 years based on

productivity growth. As a result, you would normally expect property prices to increase

by somewhere between 4% to 6% per annum over the long-run. In the short-run,

demand and supply factors will influence property prices. A recession would normally

be associated with a fall in property prices. In this course, financial calculations are

based on ‘real returns’ after adjusting for the effects of inflation. So if you expect

property prices to increase by an average of 5% per annum (halfway between 4% and

6%) and you expect inflation to be 2.5% (halfway between 2% and 3%), you would

assume that the ‘real’ increase in property prices in the long-run would be 5% - 2.5%

= 2.5% per annum. These concepts are covered in more detail in various Units of this

course.

Property Borrowing Strategy

This section should apply the principles covered in the second half of Unit 5 to develop

a strategy for borrowing money to buy your first property (if you currently do not own a

property) and any subsequent properties covered in your property strategy.

This section should be detailed and specific to your situation. Better quality

submissions will involve calculations and some basic financial modelling of loans

(however, please do not include loan repayment schedules over 300 months!). How

much will you need to borrow to buy the property (or properties) you discussed in the

previous section? What will be the monthly and annual mortgage repayments? Based

on your projected income in the last section, what proportion of your income will be

required to make these payments? Is this sustainable if interest rates were to increase

or you were to be temporarily unemployed?

If your life plan includes a long-term spouse or partner in the future (or currently have

one), you can assume that their income will also help to service the property loan.

Note that some students may prefer to avoid borrowing money and paying the

associated interest for religious reasons. As discussed under ‘Religion and Interest’ on

page 8, please base this section on a hypothetical person who is able to borrow money

and pay interest (perhaps using Islamic Banking).

Note that interest rates in Australia are currently at their lowest level in 30 years, so it

may not be wise to use those as your ‘expected’ future interest rate. If you are planning

on buying a property in Australia, it would be advisable to use a more ‘moderate’

interest rate for your home loan calculations, such as 6% per annum. This is more

likely to be a ‘mid-cycle’ interest rate given our new low-inflation world economic

environment that we are experiencing. If you are thinking of buying a property

overseas, you should do some research on home loan lending rates in that country.

7. Risk Management (Unit 7)

This section should apply the principles covered in Unit 7 to develop a strategy for

protecting your finances and loved ones over your various life stages.

Key Risks

You should identify some key risks that you will face in each life stage, identifying both

the likelihood (low, medium, high) and impact (low, medium, high) of each risk. If other

sections of the plan included a risk-management section (such as ‘Career Strategy’,

you do not need to repeat the risks covered in that section. For each of these key risks,

you should very briefly explain how you plan to avoid, mitigate or otherwise manage

the risk.

Life Insurance

You should briefly identify the appropriate types of life insurance that you will likely

need at each life stage. You should be specific here including details of the product

and levels of cover. Please briefly explain your reasoning and assumptions. Better

assignments will also include some basic product research to identify some possible

insurance products that you could use to satisfy your needs.

Health Insurance

You should briefly identify the appropriate level of private health insurance cover that

you will likely need at each life stage providing a clear explanation of why that

insurance satisfies your needs. Best to include some product details, including levels

of cover and premiums.

General Insurance

You should briefly identify other types of insurance that you need at each life stage,

including motor vehicle and home and contents insurance. General insurance isn’t a

major section of this course and so you can keep this fairly brief.

Estate Planning

This section should apply the principles covered towards the end of Unit 7 to develop

a brief estate planning strategy to protect your loved ones in the event of an untimely

death.

For each life stage, you should briefly explain how you plan to structure your will. Who

will you use to draft your will (will you be using a will kit, an online service or a solicitor)?

Who will be the executor? Who will be the beneficiaries and how do you plan to

distribute your estate upon your death?

You should also consider what you would like to happen in the event of an accident or

illness that prevents you from making decisions for yourself over the long-run. Do you

plan to grant power of attorney or enduring power of attorney? Why? How?

8. Taxation Planning (Unit 8)

This section should apply the principles covered in Unit 8 to explain your taxation

situation and strategies for each life stage. This will involve identifying the main sources

of assessable income and allowable deductions at each life stage and explaining the

taxation strategies that you plan to use at each life stage to pay ‘the right amount’ of

tax for your situation. Note that you do NOT need to estimate your tax at each life stage

in this section.

This section should be based on the Australian Taxation System under the assumption

that you will be living in Australia for most of your life. You should not base your

strategies on the fictitious country of Snowland used in the course materials.

9. Investment Strategy (Units 9 and 10)

This section should apply the principles covered in Units 9 and 10 to develop an

investment strategy for your savings and other financial assets at each of your life

stages.

How will you invest your various savings and investments? What is your asset

allocation at each life stage (or each step in your financial strategy)? Will you use

savings accounts, fixed interest products, shares, investment properties, managed

funds and/or exchange traded funds? What specific product(s) are most appropriate

to your current and expected future situation? Show evidence of some research here

and be specific! How are the products appropriate for your tolerance of risk at each life

stage and the associated investment time-horizon?

10. Action Plan (Unit 10)

This section should include a specific list of tasks to implement your strategy with

deadline dates for each task to be achieved. This is like a one-page ‘task list’ with tick

boxes that you can put up on the refrigerator for implementing your chosen strategies

(like Microsoft’s free ‘To-Do’ application). This section may repeat some elements of

your various strategy sections and can be laid out using a bullet-point or check-box

format. However, the key difference is that the plan of action is a brief one-page task

list of things that you must do to implement your strategy (1 page) while the various

strategy sections provides detailed information about the strategies themselves.

One way to prevent the task list from become too complex (and long) is to be detailed

about the tasks that need to be done over the next 5 years or so and then get less

detailed as you get further out.

11. Compliant Statements of Advice (Unit 6)

The financial plan that you have written is far more comprehensive (and useful) than a

typical ‘Statement of Advice (SOA)’ that a financial adviser would prepare for a client.

This is because the focus of this course is on understanding the broad issues that

financial advisers need to consider when advising clients. The follow-on course to this

one, FINS5537 Financial Planning Advice and Ethics, will focus on the process of

developing a compliant and ethical SOA for clients.

Nevertheless, it is still important that you demontrate an understanding of how to

construct a compliant SOA as part of this course. Please review the content on

‘Statements of Advice’ from the Unit 6 lecture and download the sample SOA from the

‘Readings’ folder under the ‘Course Resources’ section of the course website:

‘FP06 Reading – Sample Statement of Advice from textbook’ and answer the following

question.

How is the content and structure of a compliant Statement of Advice (SOA) different

from the financial plan that you have written for yourself in this course?

Your answer to the above question should be a minimum of 300 hundred words. You

may use bullet or numbered points in your answer.

Note that you must write a satisfactory answer to this question to pass this assignment.

If the section is missing or inadequate, a fail grade will be awarded for the assignment.

References

This page should include a list of references and websites that you have used to

support the research in your financial plan.

You generally do not need to reference me or the content in my slides and videos

(unless the course materials reference another source). You should generally be

referencing external research that you have undertaken.

For more information on the formatting of referencing, please refer to the section

‘References and citations’ on page 6.

Appendices

You can include additional research or modelling that your have undertaken in

Appendices that would otherwise break the ‘flow’ of the main body of the assignment.

However, please avoid copying and pasting text from websites into an Appendix.

There should be cross-references to your appendices in the main body of your

assignment. There shouldn’t be any ‘orphaned’ appendices that just contain ‘dumps’

of information.

Submission

Your Financial Plan should be submitted on the course website by the due date listed

on page 2. The link for submitting your plan is under the ‘Financial Plan’ section of the

course website.

Note that there is a small ‘grace period’ of a few minutes after the submission time to

allow for slow internet connections or slow website performance. No penalty will apply

if the submission is within this ‘grace period’. Please do not email me asking if your

submission falls within this grace period.

You should use the Microsoft Word template provided and submit it in Microsoft Word

document format. Remember to update the page numbers in the table of contents

using the instructions provided earlier (also provided in the template).

The TurnItIn Originality Check will only be performed once at the due day and time.

You will not receive an originality report when you submit your assignment. Your

Originality Score (plagiarism detection) is usually not a problem if you have written your

assignment yourself without assistance from others.

The maximum file size of submissions is 40MB. If your file is too big, please decrease

the size of your images. Instructions for how to do this are in the previous section.

You can resubmit your assignment as many times as you like before the due date.

However, the TurnItIn Originality check is only performed once on the due date. You

can still submit your assignment on the link provided after the due date but a late

penalty will apply. Note that resubmissions on the course website after the due-date

are not possible. If you discover that you have submitted the incorrect file, you can

email the correct file to me (note that late penalties may apply).

The TurnItIn service has a ‘preview’ function for your uploaded document. This

preview isn’t very good and often stuffs up the formatting of your document. I wouldn’t

worry about this. I download the original file you submit and mark this directly and so

formatting is rarely a problem (especially if you just use Arial/Helvetica fonts).

If you are submitting your financial plan within one week after the due date, you should

just submit your financial plan on the course website. There is no need to email me.

The penalties for late submission are indicated under ‘Late Penalties’ on page 3.

If you are submitting your financial plan more than one week after the due date, you

should both submit your financial plan on the course website and also notify me by

email at andrew.hingston@unsw.edu.au .

Assessment Criteria

Your assignment will be assessed based on following criteria:

Criteria Descriptor

CONFORMITY

(Penalties)

The file name or file type does not follow the assessment instructions (5 marks).

A table with required information (ID, name, degree etc) was not included on title page (5 marks).

A table of contents was not provided, not accurate or page numbers not updated (5 marks).

Heading titles for each section deviated from the assessment instructions (5 marks).

Document styles were not used consistently (5 marks).

Inadequate referencing of sources (5 marks).

Missing or inadequate answer to Section 11 question on compliant statements of advice (Fail grade awarded).

Other deviations from assessment instructions (penalty varies).

CLARITY (10%) Ideas are clearly expressed with correct use of spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Use of clear and appropriate topic sentences at the beginning of paragraphs.

Appropriate use of bullet-points and prose where appropriate to the content.

Appropriate use of tables to summarise information.

A clear flow of ideas within sections (between paragraphs).

COMPELLING (10%) The content is interesting and engaging.

The formatting of the document is visually attractive and easy to read on-screen.

The length of the assignment strikes the appropriate balance between providing a detailed and customised financial

plan without boring the reader with trivial or irrelevant information.

Effective use of diagrams, graphs and pictures to visualise information and strategies.

RESEARCH (20%) Use of secondary research (websites or articles) to support your financial strategies.

Detailed product research to support your financial strategies.

The evidence of secondary and product research is provided through clearly identified references.

Appraises a full set of options, has significant original content, is lateral and adopts a wide array of perspectives.

COMPLETENESS (60%) Theory from each Unit is effectively utilised to analyse your situation and to develop your strategies.

The financial plan avoids simply paraphrasing the course material.

Evidence of a deep understanding of the course material.

A high level of specificity on how to apply the theory in the course material to your current and expected future

situations, goals & objectives and your various strategies.

The application of theory demonstrates a high level of critical reasoning and logic.

The application of theory is novel and/or innovative while remaining appropriate and effective.

Use of financial modelling and calculations to formulate your goals and objectives.

Explanation of financial modelling in your plan using spreadsheets and/or algebraic calculations.

Explanation and justification of key variables in financial modelling.