In Progress
Please note that this Unit Profile is still in progress. The content below is subject to change.Overview
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
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
There are no requisites for this 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).
Offerings For Term 1 - 2025
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).
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.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
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.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
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.
Feedback from Student evaluations
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.
Will implement this recommendation for 2025 and beyond.
Feedback from Student evaluations
Have optional workshops for people new to financial planning
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.
Feedback from Student evaluations
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.."
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.
Feedback from Self-reflection
Some students are dissatisfied with the unit coordinator developed content that comes from several different references and sources
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.
- Explain and apply the process and Australian legal framework of financial planning.
- Present strategic advice which meets the financial planning needs and objectives of clients in a variety of circumstances.
- Communicate effectively with clients to solve financial planning problems.
- 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 - 30% | ||||
| 2 - Practical Assessment - 30% | ||||
| 3 - Take Home Exam - 40% | ||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | ||||
| 2 - Problem Solving | ||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | ||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | ||||
| 5 - Team Work | ||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | ||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | ||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | ||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | ||||
| 10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
| 1 - Practical Assessment - 30% | ||||||||||
| 2 - Practical Assessment - 30% | ||||||||||
| 3 - Take Home Exam - 40% | ||||||||||