FINS5510 Personal Financial Planning

INSTRUCTIONS

Adviser Engagement Assignment

Overview

*All times are based on Sydney time

In future, you may be practicing as a financial adviser. Even if you don't end up working in the financial planning industry, you (or a member of your family) will likely need to engage with a professional financial adviser to give you feedback on your ideas and to help implement your financial plan. The purpose of this assessment is to assess your ability to identify some important best practices and skills when providing financial advice to clients. It is required that we assess this since this course is part of an Approved  Degree  Program  for  practising  as  a  financial  adviser  in  Australia.  The assessment involves watching some videos of financial advisers interacting with clients and answering two questions. The videos are on Youtube, with the link provided under the ‘Adviser Engagement’ section of the course website. We have provided videos of two advisers (Jeremy and Tristan) but you are only required to watch the videos of one adviser. The questions are under the ‘Questions’ section of the Adviser Engagement Instructions document. There is no word limit for your answers to the questions, but the expected total number of words for this assessment is somewhere between 1,000 and 3,000 words in total (with approximately half allocated to each question). You can write more than 3,000 words if you would like to do so. The answer to both questions should be submitted  in  Microsoft Word format  using the  Microsoft Word template provided.

Weight

The Adviser Engagement Assignment is worth 20% of your assessment for this course.

Backup your work

You should be writing your assignment gradually in the few weeks before the due date and not leaving it until ‘last minute’ . You also 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). Note that UNSW provides you with a free Onedrive account. Loss of data or a damaged device does not constitute grounds for Special Consideration.

Note that if you have saved your file in your UNSW Onedrive account, you should be able to restore a backup from your file history. Here is a linkon how to do this.

If you lose your file and are unable to restore from a backup, a standard late penalty of 5 marks (out of 100) per day will apply. Technical problems with your file or device does not represent grounds for a Special Consideration extension.

Late Penalties

Late submission will incur a penalty of 5 percentage points 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 an incorrect document has been submitted.

The late penalty applies to your score for the assignment (not the maximum possible score). For example, if your raw score is 70/100 and the assignment 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 this assignment can be submitted at any time during the term, 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  be  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 should work on this assignment well before the due date. Being ill on the day before the assessment due date will not normally constitute grounds for special consideration.

If special consideration is granted, the maximum extension that will be granted is 7 days from the original due date. Any assignments 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. All written work must be your own work. Seeking assistance  with  your  written  work  or  research  constitutes  academic  misconduct. Seeking assistance from Artificial  Intelligence  computer programs also constitutes academic  misconduct.  Providing  assistance  to  any  other  student  also  constitutes academic misconduct. Copying or paraphrasing the work of any other student (from current or previous terms) constitutes academic misconduct. Basing your answer on an assignment submitted by another student is academic misconduct. Providing a copy of your assignment to another student is 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 meat [email protected] .

For some students, English is not your first language and so you may not feel confident with your English grammar. In this course, obtaining assistance from someone else to help correct spelling or grammar is not considered academic misconduct.

UNSW has no tolerance for students who are dishonest. 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.

No Artificial Intelligence

Using Artificial Intelligence programs or services is not permitted in this assessment.

There are two exceptions to the above ‘no use of Artificial Intelligence’ rule. Students for whom English is their second language are allowed to use Artificial Intelligence programs  (such as Google Translate) to translate from their native  language  into English or to translate from English to their native language. Students with writing difficulties are allowed to use Artificial Intelligence programs (such as Grammarly) to help correct their spelling and grammar.

Template

You should use the Microsoft Word Template document provided under the ‘Adviser Engagement’ section of the course website. 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 on page4.

Software

Your Learning Community Report should be submitted as a Microsoft Word document. 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 ‘[email protected]’ version  of your  UNSW  student  email.  For  example: [email protected]

3.  Click the ‘Install apps’ button

4.  Choose ‘Office 365 apps’ .

For students who use the Linux operating system, you should either use one of the university labs to write the assignment, use a word processor that will export to a

Microsoft Word file format or use a Google Doc and export to Microsoft Word format.

Formatting

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 Adviser

Engagement.docx’ . If your zID is z999999, you should name your document ‘z999999 Adviser Engagement.docx’ .

Videos

The videos for this assignment are on Youtube  under the ‘Adviser  Engagement’ playlist. The link to this playlist is provided under the ‘Adviser Engagement’ section of the course website.

Tristan Scifo (Purpose Advisory) and Jeremy Chiel (Stonehouse Group) have provided some roleplays that demonstrate some ‘good’ and ‘bad’ examples of interactions with clients.  You  are  only  required  to  watch  the  videos  from  one  adviser,  but  better submissions will draw examples from the videos of both advisers. To make it clear which roleplays are ‘bad’ and ‘good’ , I have included ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ in the titles before each section of the video. The bad examples are pretty funny at times, so sit back and have a good laugh. Note that there are both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ versions of Jeremy’s videos but some of Tristan’s roleplays only have ‘good’ versions.

There are some additional videos of Alexander Pan, who is a compliance officer in the financial planning industry. These may be useful to watch as you attempt to formulate your answer to Questions 1 and 2.

These videos work best when you watch them on your large-screen TV in your media room. Sit back, grab the popcorn and enjoy watching them (taking notes as you go)!

Questions

There are two questions that you must answer. Please use headings for ‘Question 1’

and ‘Question 2’ and answer them separately. Parts (a) and (b) within a question do not need separate headings and can be answered holistically or as two separate parts (the choice is up to you). Each question is marked separately and so it is okay for you to repeat arguments or examples that you used in Question  1 for your answer to Question 2.

Question 1 (50 marks)

a)  Provide specific examples of situations in which Tristan and/or Jeremy attempted to  evaluate,  analyse  and  communicate  a  deep  understanding  of  the  client’s situation, financial resources, financial goals, budget, risk perceptions, investment, insurance  and  other  financial   planning  needs.  Provide  specific  examples  of situations in which they failed to do so.

b)  Explain why it is an important part of the financial planning process for a financial adviser to have a deep understanding of the client’s situation, financial resources, financial goals, budget, risk perceptions, investment, insurance and other financial planning needs before preparing a Statement of Advice (financial plan) for the client.

Question 2 (50 marks)

a)  Provide specific examples of steps or actions that Tristan and/or Jeremy undertook to apply ethical principles, professional standards and/or comply with legislation and regulations as they interacted with their clients. Provide specific examples of situations in which they failed to do so.

b)  Explain why it is an important for financial advisers to apply ethical principles, professional standards and to conform. with legislation and regulations when they interact with their clients.

Word Limit

There is no word limit to this assignment. The expected total number of words for this assessment is somewhere between 1,000 and 3,000 words in total (with approximately half allocated to each question). If you would like to write more than 3,000 words, you are welcome to do so. Each question has two parts (aand b). There is no specific mark allocation  provided  to  each  part  of  the  question  since  each  question  is  graded holistically (based on both parts). The ‘a’ and ‘b’ parts are provided to make each part of the question clear. In the past, students normally write a roughly similar number of words on parts a) and b) for each question.

Writing Style.

You should adopt a ‘report’ writing style for this assignment. This means that you can use  headings  and  make  selective  use  of  bullet-points,  tables  or  diagrams  (if appropriate).

Please use headings for ‘Question 1’ and ‘Question 2’ and answer them separately, since I mark each question separately. You may also include ‘a’ and ‘b’ labels for each question part, but this is not required. You can choose to answer a question holistically (covering both part a and b) in one integrated answer or you can answer each part separately. However, remember that Questions 1 and 2 must be answered separately and you should use separate headings for them.

References and citations

When citing specific videos in your answer, please just use the adviser name and the timecode reference (mm:ss) in brackets. Full references and citations to the adviser videos are not required since they are the focus of this assessment. For example, if you are referring to the video with Jeremy Chiel to a timecode reference of 10 minutes 15 seconds, use the following in-text reference (Jeremy Chiel 10:15). There is no need to include the adviser videos in your list of references.

If you would like to reference my lecture slides, an informal approach is acceptable. Please just reference the title of the Unit and the slide number. There is no need to cite my name or treat it as a published work. There is no need to include my lecture slides in your list of references.

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 website references, 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 26 April 2024,https://www.domain.com.au "

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.

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 (which are not expected to be used in this assessment). 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

Submission

Your Adviser Engagement Assignment should be submitted on the course website by the due date listed on page Error! Bookmark not defined.. The link for submitting your assignment is under the ‘Adviser Engagement’ section of the course website.

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 required file format is in Microsoft Word format.

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 assignment within one week after the due date, you should just submit your assignment on the course website. There is no need to email me. The penalties for late submission are indicated under the section on ‘Late Penalties’ .

Assessment Criteria

Your assignment will be assessed based on following criteria: