Ageno School of Business FI420 Personal Financial Planning

Transcription

1 Ageno School of Business FI420 Personal Financial Planning Holly Gillian Kindel, CFP, CLU Adjunct Professor Saundra Davis, MSFP Adjunct Professor Contact Information Office Hours: to set up telephone appointment Important Dates: First Day of Class: January 6, 2010 Last Day to Add: January 19, 2010 Last Day of Class: April 27, 2010 Last Day to Drop/Audit March16, COURSE DESCRIPTION Introduces the broad scope of financial planning as it relates to personal goals/values, as well as its role in the financial services industry. Topics include careers in financial services, management of personal financial statements, time-value-of-money analysis, calculator/computer applications, insurance, social security, house-buying strategies, investments, retirement planning, income tax and estate planning. Satisfies part of the educational requirements to sit for the CFP examination. Prerequisite: FI 203 (or FI 100) or FI 300A. 2. COURSE OBJECTIVES This course introduces you to the broad spectrum of personal financial planning within the financial services sector. Students will develop: A broad overview of comprehensive financial planning Knowledge to make recommendations in the area of tax planning, portfolio design, investment strategy, retirement planning, education funding, estate planning, and risk management The ability to prepare a financial plan utilizing the tools available Upon successful completion you will be able to create a personal financial plan. FI 420 CY1 SP 10 Page 1 of 9

2 3. REQUIRED MATERIALS Personal Financial Planning: Theory & Practice by Michael A. Dalton et al., 5 th Ed. Kaplan Schweser Publishing. Financial Planning: The Next Step by Roy Diliberto, CFP, FPA Press (used during the second half of the course) 1040 QUICKFINDER HANDBOOK FORM 1040, 2008 TAX YEAR- This text is a handy quick reference on the current tax laws; or Obtain the most current 1040 Income Tax Instruction Booklet from the IRS. IRS Publication 17 (which is also free) is even better because it provides more detailed information about income taxation. To obtain IRS Publication 17, link to or pick it up at an IRS office or Federal Building because the Internet download takes a long time because of the many pages. Financial calculator (e.g., Hewlett Packard HP-10BII, HP-12C or comparable) Additional resources and readings will be listed in your Syllabus and detailed Module reading assignments. Journal of Financial Planning (JFP) many of our articles are from the Financial Planning Association s JFP and if you are a member (student membership is available at a lower cost) you will receive the JFP at no charge. The assigned articles will be posted on the cyber campus you will be responsible for obtaining optional articles and supplemental readings. Although not required, I strongly recommend that you join the FPA early in your coursework. You will have access to a wealth of information at the member website and in most areas, a local network of veteran planners. If you are interested, go to Bookstore - To purchase course books and materials from efollett, GGU's official online bookstore, go to University Library Find the GGU Library Home Page at. There are several databases available through the GGU Library for students to conduct research on various topics. Remote (off campus) access to the databases requires your last name and student ID# (located on the front of your ID card). Be sure to type in ALL 7 digits, including the starting 0. Example: CONTACTING THE INSTRUCTOR Contact us at any time during the course if you have questions or concerns. Post questions about assignments, due dates or course content in the applicable session of the course. Use the Water Cooler (in the Course Home tab) for general questions about the course. For personal concerns or questions feel free to or call. sdavis@ggu.edu Telephone (415) Office Hours: to set up telephone appointment FI 420 CY1 SP 10 Page 2 of 9

3 5. COURSE REQUIREMENTS, STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES AND EVALUATION Course Requirements For sixteen weeks, our class will be a community whose mission is to examine the Personal Financial Planning profession, and the skills and tools required to develop a planning practice. Our goal is to provide an environment of collaboration and you are encouraged to connect with the material through discussion, readings, group work; sharing of personal (relevant) experiences with the class and how the material presented either could, or have, impacted them. At all times, an atmosphere of openness, non-judgmental and academic creative thought should be maintained. Students should feel free to express relevant honest opinions and approach the material in a way that respects the rights and feelings of others in the classroom. Diversity of thought is not only encouraged, but also expected. Students should come to class with an open mind and heart, and with an inquisitive learning spirit. We will build a collegial learning environment, supporting each other in excavating the topic and increasing our capacity to become financial planning professionals. Student Responsibilities There is a lot of material to cover and most of it will be unfamiliar to you. In order to successfully accomplish the course objectives it is imperative that you: Complete all assignments on time, move through the course as assigned, and make a firm commitment to completing the course. Develop a study plan that will work for you. You need to budget your time in order to organize your work efforts to cover scheduled readings and assignments on a timely basis. Be an active participant. Take Responsibility for Your Learning. Education is a combination of working independently on assignments and interaction with classmates. This style of learning allows an individual a greater opportunity to learn the material presented and a freedom in terms of the amount of effort you put into the course. However, with this freedom comes the need for an even higher level of personal responsibility and discipline in terms of completing your work on time, monitoring your progress and ultimately achieving your own grade. Ask questions when you do not understand the material. Be assertive in seeking out help. We want to stress our availability to help you make the most of the course. Even though we don t have in-person office hours you can or pick up the phone when you need help. Each week you will have a lecture, reading assignment which includes the Dalton Text and various articles, and an applied assignment. It will also be important to listen to the audio-casts, download the practice quizzes and key points from the document sharing tab. FI 420 CY1 SP 10 Page 3 of 9

4 It is important to read ALL of the Course Home information during the first week of class and familiarize yourself with the Course Admin, Doc Sharing, and Drop Box tabs. We trust that you will notify us immediately if you find problems within the course - if a link doesn t work or an assignment is unclear; send us an or pick up the phone and we will get it straightened out. Attendance and Participation In a cyber course you demonstrate attendance by showing up in the discussion topics. Your participation in the discussions is a key component of the Cyber Campus learning process, and will count towards 20% of your grade in this course so don t underestimate your need to continually participate throughout the entire course. Each student must comment on a classmate s posting two times for each discussion topic to receive full credit for the posting. Don t forget to comment on our postings to you! Evaluations You will receive an opportunity to evaluate the course and instructor at least once this term. 6. COURSE PROCEDURE This course consists of 16 sessions (15 weekly assignments; a review, and a final paper/exam). Each session consists of chapter(s) from your text and Discussion Area questions. Each student is responsible for reading all of the assigned chapters and lectures and participating in each discussion topic. We recommend that you approach each of the weekly sessions in the following manner: Read the assigned chapter(s) from the text and the supplementary readings we provide. We know this is a lot of reading but the textbook provides the theory that is the foundation for the "real" application of financial planning. You will find that we spend most of our time together working on how the theory is applied. This is not to say that you can "skim" the textbook. You will need to know the theory to be successful in your future coursework in the program. There are quizzes for each chapter to help you track your progress - these are optional and are not turned in or graded - but if you do the quizzes you will find the exams in this course very manageable. Read the lecture for an overview of the assignment. This overview will help you to see the key points that should be the focus of your reading. Go to the Assignments tab in the Session and complete the assignment (if applicable). This tab contains the reading and applied assignment (same info as in the Lecture tab - just duplicated for easy access); you can post any questions you have about the reading or applied assignments in this section of the course. We may provide templates for you to use in completing an assignment - you will see this template in blue; when you click on the blue text you will be able to open or save the document. If you are supposed to turn in a document you will see a Dropbox. If there is no Dropbox for the Session, you will use the assignment to build your FI 420 CY1 SP 10 Page 4 of 9

5 financial plan and turn it in at the end of the semester. We will not accept late assignments so post by the due date. Participate in the Discussion Area (see Discussion Area Directions below). These discussion questions do not necessarily have right or wrong responses. They are intended to start a discussion based on the particular topic being focused on during that session. Please think about and comment on the question or on another student s comment. In addition, feel free to bring up any other good discussion questions relating to the topic at hand. Your discussion grade will be based on the quality of your postings. Our class starts on a Wednesday so we get a bit of ramp up time to allow you to explore the course make sure you can find everything. Assignment and discussion posting deadlines will be on Sunday 5:00 p.m. PST of each week. Your first assignments/posting will be due on 01/17/2010. In order to have the best possible online experience, we recommend that you follow this or a similar system to manage the course: Monday - log into the Course and read the lecture, the discussion topics and review the homework assignment. Tuesday read the supplementary articles and complete the assignment. You may find it helpful to re-read some of the text to clarify or emphasize issues we have raised. Then, you should then begin to participate in our Discussions. Check the previous Session Recap - we post a recap of the discussions; be sure to check back to read them. Post your first comment by Friday to give your classmates time to review and comment. Your participation grades are based on the level of class discussion so help each other out by posting early in the session. Saturday check the Discussions for new topics, discussion responses, and administrative announcements. Generally, there will not be any right or wrong answers to discussion topics; you will be graded on your ability to respond to the topics thoughtfully and with a clear comprehension of the text or articles from that session. Monday - start all over again Make sure that you have completed and posted all assignments (including discussion posts) due for the week. We recommend that you log on regularly (at least three times during the session) and check for New Announcements and be sure to look at the What s New tab. Submitted written assignments must be legible, computer word-processed and clearly identified with name, class, assignment, and date submitted. You will notice that the Sessions with an Assignment tab have a Drop box. Assignments must be submitted as an attachment in the appropriate Session Drop Box; do not send assignments via or fax. 7. COURSE EVALUATION You will be evaluated through a variety of assessment tools. This may include traditional tests and quizzes, discussion participation, journal entries, case studies, term papers, presentations, FI 420 CY1 SP 10 Page 5 of 9

6 and group projects. You will participate in at least one evaluation of the course during the 16 week semester. Please provide honest feedback so we can continue to improve the course. 8. GRADING POLICY Grading Policy Discussion Midterm Exam Financial Plan Final exam Total Possible 70 points 100 points 130 points 100 points 400 points Discussion Grade Skills Grading 5 Contributions are prompt, timely, relevant, self-initiated; remarks are raised freely on all assignments throughout the course; there is no attempt to dominate conversation. Student posts twice (to other classmates) during topic. 4 Student generally keeps up with the discussion. Needs some prompting to contribute. 3 Participation is spotty; picks and chooses topics to get involved. Demonstrates little initiative. 2 Some participation, makes relevant remarks 0 No participation Percentage A 93% - 100% A- 90% % B+ 87% % B 83% % B- 80% % C+ 77% % C 73% % C- 70% % D+ 67% % D 63% % D- 60% % F 0% % Academic Integrity Students must familiarize themselves with the University s policy on academic integrity which is posted in the Important Info tab of the Course Home. In this class the academic integrity policy FI 420 CY1 SP 10 Page 6 of 9

7 extends to using financial planning software for your final project. 9. INSTRUCTOR BIO HOLLY GILLIAN-KINDEL, CFP, CLU MOSAIC FINANCIAL PARTNERS, INC. Holly Gillian Kindel, Director of Financial Planning for Mosaic Financial Partners, Inc., has a wide range of investment management and financial planning experience gained through her work with boutique wealth management firms serving high net worth clients. Holly is a CFP practitioner and a Chartered Life Underwriter CLU. As director of the financial planning department for an ensemble fee only planning firm, Holly is responsible for the continuous evaluation of the firm s financial planning processes and deliverables to ensure that each client's unique needs and concerns are addressed. Her department collaborates with client advisors to help develop new relationships and provide ongoing planning to existing clientele. An active member of the Financial Planning Association, Holly serves as Chair of the San Francisco Chapter's Pro Bono Committee which is devoted to providing personal financial planning to members of the public who cannot afford a financial advisor, Holly has forged close alliances with several non-profits including Northern California Tax Aid and The San Francisco Earned Asset Resource Network (EARN). Holly facilitated the FPA Practicum Project which enables financial planning students to prepare plans for EARN alumni under the supervision of a CFP veteran. In 2005 Holly was named EARN s Volunteer of the Year. Holly is also an adjunct professor at Golden Gate University where she teaches financial planning, a regular contributor to Research magazine and a member of the Scripps College Financial Education Program Planning committee ( Money-Wise Women ). An advocate of holistic financial planning, Holly is a Money Quotient Financial Life Planning Professional, an endorsed Conscious Finance professional and a member of The Nazrudin Project. Nazrudin is a loose affiliation of financial planners and other professionals devoted to working with their clients and their profession in a manner that recognizes the human aspects of money, e.g. the fact that financial decisions can have spiritual repercussions, can affect intangible life goals, and can impact larger social issues. Prior to her career in financial planning, Holly performed various roles in the film industry as screenwriter, assistant director and producer. She also taught at San Francisco State University where she received her master's degree in Film Studies. Holly earned her bachelor's degree in Philosophy with honors in the humanities from Scripps College in Claremont, California. Holly previously served as Board Director for the Film Arts Foundation of San Francisco where she acted as Investment Committee Chair and Treasurer. A California native, Holly enjoys collecting mid-century art and furniture, studying architecture, appreciating wine, and spending time with her zany pug. FI 420 CY1 SP 10 Page 7 of 9

8 SAUNDRA DAVIS Sage Financial Solutions, Inc. Saundra Davis is a financial planner and management consultant with fifteen years experience in grant writing and ten years providing capacity building and technical assistance to non-profit and local government agencies. Saundra holds B.S. in Management and an M.S. in Financial Planning from Golden Gate University (GGU). In 1996 Saundra founded the Management & Business Assistance Center and for five years managed the Ryan White Title I Planning Council, a 30-member community planning body that prioritizes and allocates AIDS funding for Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. During this time she also provided technical assistance to public and private agencies as part of the Cal-WORKS program. Saundra has served on several local Boards for non-profit agencies and she continues to conduct workshops for local government agencies to increase their responsiveness to the non-profit community. In 2004, Saundra expanded her mission to include holistic, comprehensive personal financial planning services for individuals, small business owners and community based organizations. She provides consulting services to help communities develop financial education programs that focus on the complete financial life cycle of the intended participants. Saundra is a co-founder of Earned Asset Resource Network s (EARN) work in financial coaching and planning, and a long time consultant on EARN s general asset services work, and advisor to the CEO and Board on planning and coaching issues. Saundra is active in the FPA San Francisco Chapter Pro Bono Committee and is a member of Pro Bono National Advisory Committee. She is the current chair for the FPA Diversity Task Force. Saundra works with community based organizations that focus on asset building for the working poor and she frequently speaks about this topic around the country. Saundra is an adjunct professor in the Golden Gate University and University of California at Berkeley Personal Financial Planning programs and serves on the University of California at Berkeley Financial Planning Program Advisory Committee. Saundra lives in the San Francisco Bay Area (she is a native) with her partner, John. She is a marginal golfer and a wonderful grandmother. FI 420 CY1 SP 10 Page 8 of 9

9 10. FI420 COURSE SCHEDULE Week Assignment Due Date Topics Reading Assignments 1 01/17/10 Introduction to Personal Financial Planning Ethical Responsibilities 2 01/24/10 Communication & Internal Analysis Establishing Financial Direction 3 01/31/10 Personal Financial Statement (Preparation & Analysis) 4 02/07/10 External Environment Time Value of Money 5 02/14/10 Introduction to Insurance & Risk Management Property & Casualty Insurance 6 02/21/10 Insurance on the Person Social Security 7 02/28/10 Introduction to Retirement Planning Basic Retirement Plans 8 03/07/10 Mid-Term Examination Sessions 1 7 PROCTORED Education Funding Financial Planning: The Next Step - Begins Chapters 1 & 19 Chapters 3 & 5 Chapter 4 Chapters 2 & 6 Chapters 8 & 10 DALTON : Chapters 9 & 11 Chapters 15 & 16 Chapter 7 DILIBERTO 9 03/14/10 Introduction to Investment Concepts Chapter /21/10 Investment Vehicles Chapter 12 Supplement A,B,C 11 03/28/10 Individual Income Tax & Tax Planning Chapter /04/10 Business Entities Tax Planning Supplement DALTON : Chapter /11/10 Introduction to Estate Planning Chapter /18/10 The Practice of Financial Planning Case Project Due - Your Financial Plan Chapter /25/10 Review for Final Exam Diliberto Book Review & Discussion 16 04/27/10 You can take your Final Exam between 04/22 and 04/27 Assignment and discussion posting deadlines are Sunday 5:00 p.m. PST. FI 420 CY1 SP 10 Page 9 of 9