FINC11001 - Fundamentals of Personal Financial Planning

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit is the foundation unit for students completing the Financial Planning stream and covers the professional financial planning process, including the Australian legal framework and the responsibilities of financial planners. You will learn how to investigate a client's financial situation and turn the core elements of financial planning into a strategic financial plan. You will also be introduced to financial planning software, tools and templates used in real-world financial planning practice as well as communication methods aimed at building long term client relationships.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 1
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 4
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites There are no pre-requisites for the unit.

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2025

Term 1 - 2025 Profile
Online
Term 2 - 2025 Profile
Online

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Practical Assessment 30%
2. Practical Assessment 30%
3. Take Home Exam 40%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 1 - 2024 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 20.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 35.71% response rate.

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Source: Student Evaluations
Feedback
The volume of content and resources can be overwhelming.
Recommendation
Continue to review and reduce the volume of content and resources as far as possible without compromising the integrity of the unit.
Action Taken
Although efforts have been made to reduce the reading content, students still seem to continue to struggle with the reality that professional financial advisers must handle extensive documents, such as product disclosure statements, which require thorough reading and understanding.
Source: Student Evaluations
Feedback
More flexibility for people not able to attend live lectures.
Recommendation
Provide students who cannot attend the live online workshops, not only the pre-recorded workshop recordings, but opportunity to do one-on-one Zoom sessions at other times of eh week.
Action Taken
Although not ideal, the unit coordinator has been available before and after work hours to accommodate students who work full-time.
Source: Student evaluations
Feedback
If submitting an assessment in two parts, it would be more effective to separate them into individual documents rather than combining them into a single file.
Recommendation
Will implement this recommendation for 2025 and beyond.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student evaluations
Feedback
Have optional workshops for people new to financial planning
Recommendation
Unit coordinator to continue to offer pre-arranged one-on-one Zoom sessions for those new to financial planning, which is more productive than having set consultation times, when nobody may turn up.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student evaluations
Feedback
Navigating and finding content on Moodle was considered difficult and confusing. To quote the student: .."it felt like it was a bit of this here and bit of that there and so on.."
Recommendation
Returning to a prescribed textbooks might solve the problem of student struggling to find information given there is an index, and eBooks have good search functions.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Self-reflection
Feedback
Some students are dissatisfied with the unit coordinator developed content that comes from several different references and sources
Recommendation
Returning to textbooks will give students more content structure, and detail in one resource, rather than expecting them to access several different resources or sources of knowledge and information to learn from.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Explain and apply the process and Australian legal framework of financial planning.
  2. Present strategic advice which meets the financial planning needs and objectives of clients in a variety of circumstances.
  3. Communicate effectively with clients to solve financial planning problems.
  4. Construct financial planning scenarios using industry standard software.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Practical Assessment • •
2 - Practical Assessment • • • •
3 - Take Home Exam • • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Communication • • • •
2 - Problem Solving • • • •
3 - Critical Thinking • • • •
4 - Information Literacy • • • •
6 - Information Technology Competence • • • •
7 - Cross Cultural Competence • • • •
8 - Ethical practice • • • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 - Practical Assessment • • • • • •
2 - Practical Assessment • • • • • • •
3 - Take Home Exam • • • • • •