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 - 2023

Term 1 - 2023 Profile
Online
Term 2 - 2023 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 - 2022 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 83.33% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 13.04% 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: self-evaluation
Feedback
Overall the unit ran well, especially when students realized posting their unit content and assessment queries using the Moodle Q&A Forum gets them answers faster than using other means of communication. It especially encouraged students to help each other solve problems around unit content and assessments.
Recommendation
Continue to encourage students to use the Moodle Q&A Forum to get academic and assessment support from the unit coordinator and their peers (virtual classmates)
Action Taken
The engaged students contributed about 67 times in the Moodle Q&A forum for this unit over twelve weeks to obtain clarification on content and assessment items. Will continue to encourage students to use the Moodle forums to address any content and assessment issues.
Source: staff feedback (peer review);
Feedback
Complaints about some of the multiple choice questions being too ambiguous, inappropriate and open to interpretation and misinterpretation led to a feedback and peer review meeting between the unit coordinator and supervisor
Recommendation
When students are dissatisfied with any assessment tasks that leads to a formal complaint, it is important the issue, however minor is addressed by the unit coordinator within the scope of CQU's complaints handling process
Action Taken
There were no complaints on any of the multiple questions for Term 1, 2022. The unit coordinator will continue to be mindful of how multiple choice questions are worded.
Source: student feedback (formal unit evaluation responses)
Feedback
Students appreciate lecturers that are approachable, helpful, supportive and nurturing that gives them that personal touch given the unit is challenging and can be overwhelming for new entrants to financial planning
Recommendation
Continue to encourage and support students navigate a challenging unit
Action Taken
The unit coordinator will continue being approachable, helpful, supportive and nurturing to encourage student engagement and success.
Source: student feedback (formal unit evaluation responses)
Feedback
Students appreciated real-life examples and interesting workshops where the knowledge was relayed in an easy to understand manner
Recommendation
Continue to offer workshops where the unit content is explained in an interesting easy to understand manner
Action Taken
Use of guest lecturers and more story telling has been introduced into the unit content.
Source: student feedback (formal unit evaluation responses)
Feedback
Students found the resources on Moodle were too much, overwhelming and puts them off reading if it is too much content
Recommendation
Review the unit Moodle reading content volume for assessments and learning
Action Taken
Unit coordinator continues to reduce the unit content while ensuring they cover the curriculum.
Source: student feedback (formal unit evaluation responses)
Feedback
Written assessment needs to be proof-read to ensure it flows well and does not confuse students.
Recommendation
Review to consider engaging more than one proof-reader and reviewer for the assessment tasks to ensure it flows well and does not confuse students
Action Taken
This has been implemented for 2022.
Source: student feedback (formal unit evaluation responses)
Feedback
Within the context of unit coordinator's workloads, public holidays and guest presenters. students want the workshop conducted in the week that the content is delivered as it helped the student watching the workshop after doing the content and readings really helped with the learning and understanding of the content.
Recommendation
Review whether classes are appropriate for Mondays or Fridays when public holidays usually occur, and whether guest speakers are adding any value for the students for an introductory course
Action Taken
Temporary Zoom workshop recordings are made available within the Classes and Recordings tile as soon as the links have been emailed to the unit coordinator. This is usually within half an hour of the workshop. The permanent recordings are linked as soon as they have rendered in Echo360 within 7 days of the Zoom Workshop.
Source: Student evaluation
Feedback
Some students found the work integrated learning partially completed Assessment 2 - Statement of Advice (financial plan) assessment template too daunting and one student wanted the template to only include the sections that are required to be filled out.
Recommendation
The request to simplify the assessment by only including sections that the student needs to fill is no longer simulating a simplistic version of the real world or preparing students for the real world of financial advice. However, to further support students cope with the assessment, the unit coordinator will make additional recordings focussing on each section of the Assessment template in more detail.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: Student evaluation
Feedback
Some guidelines on how to correctly cite and reference through this specific assignment would have been helpful.
Recommendation
Although the orientation video points out where students are to find resources for their assessments, like the correct citation and referencing style, the unit coordinator will try and improve the design of the Moodle site to make to make it clear where the resources are to be found.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: Student evaluation
Feedback
Content needs to be revised and updated where possible as the students find it leads to unnecessary workloads and confusion
Recommendation
Unit coordinator will revise the content by removing the textbook resource and replace with Study Guides and Overhead slides that can serve as learning resources.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: Student evaluation
Feedback
Students want a lecture video as well that goes for 30 to 40 minutes.
Recommendation
Unit coordinator will revise how the content is delivered via a video.
Action Taken
Nil.
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 • • • • • •