FINC19016 - Retirement and Superannuation

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit covers the regulatory framework of superannuation and the role of financial advisor in retirement and superannuation planning. You will examine the legal and taxation issues related to long term wealth creation and the operation of superannuation funds. You will apply the skills required for managing the client relationship and construct a strategic retirement plan for a client situation.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 2
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 4
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Pre-requisite: FINC11001 plus Co-requisite: LAWS19033

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 2 - 2025

Term 1 - 2026 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 50%
2. Take Home Exam 50%

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 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 80.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 17.24% 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 evaluation
Feedback
Students felt the amount of work required to complete a financial plan was too much
Recommendation
Continue to set student expectations that they are required to spend the 12 hours per week on the unit and that the unit 's workload is set by TEQSA and the Financial Adviser accreditation body
Action Taken
Have checked to ensure the unit content is within reasonable limits as set by TEQSA and the Financial Adviser accreditation body.
Source: Student evaluation
Feedback
Student requested an extra amount of time for the overall exam given the expectation of referencing
Recommendation
Reduce the number of exam questions to 8 questions, to allow for more time to reference the exam answers
Action Taken
Reducing the number of exam questions has resulted in all the students completing the exams within 3 hours, an exam failure rate of only 23%.
Source: Self-reflection
Feedback
Students are dissatisfied with the Unit coordinator developed content that comes from several different resources and references.
Recommendation
Returning to textbooks will give them 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. Textbooks also comes with additional benefits like:  Chapter lists Learning objectives for each chapter Key chapter concepts Personal financial scenarios Questions and knowledge applications Concepts checks Key terms Summary Solutions Artwork from the text Worksheets Extension activities References
Action Taken
Prescribed Textbook Resource has been successfully implemented.
Source: SUTE Comments Report
Feedback
A student felt the current 3-hour timed open book, online, non-invigilated exam time needs to be extended to at least 12 hours due to the requirement of referencing and the additional GenAI declarations
Recommendation
Given that all the students who completed the exam manage to complete all eight exam questions, allowing 40 minutes for referencing and GenAI declaration and citations, there is no reason to change the current exam design and structure.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Self-Reflection
Feedback
Some students managed to pass with zero to minimal Moodle content work according the CQUSuccess data analytics
Recommendation
If the assessment tasks can be completed using other sources of information that is not necessarily on the Moodle, then the unit reflects some flexibility in how some students are learning. This will be reviewed by the unit coordinator.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Explain contemporary retirement and superannuation issues
  2. Apply taxation and legal principles to long term wealth creation
  3. Explain issues relating to self-managed superannuation funds
  4. Construct pre and post strategic retirement plans.

The Financial Advisers Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) has accreditted this unit as part of the following courses:

  • Bachelor of Accounting (Financial Planning)
  • Bachelor of Accounting/Bachelor of Business (Financial Planning)
  • Bachelor of Property (Financial Planning)
  • Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Business
  • LLB/Bachelor of Business (Financial Planning).

FASEA ceased operations on 31 December 2021. From 1 January 2022 Treasury and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) took over the role of :

  • Adviser education standards including assessment of foreign qualifications and higher education providers
  • Approved courses
  • Other standards.

This unit contributes to the core knowledge field of the accredited courses listed above. The learning otucomes for the unit and the assessments have been designed around the accreditation requirements.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Practical Assessment • • • •
2 - 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 • • • •
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
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10