ASSESSMENT GUIDE
Unit Code: BAFN608 Financial Planning, Semester 2, 2020
Assessment number (1)
Assessment Artifact (Case study – critical analysis) Individual Assessment Weighting [25%]
Why this assessment?
• This assessment provides you with an opportunity to critically analyse a case study client scenario and apply the FASEA Code of Ethics.
• Takes into account your critical thinking skills when faced with an unusual client situation and the responsibility to make recommendations that are in your client’s best interest, while taking into account the broad effects of your advice to the client.
• Your ability to effectively communicate difficult to understand concepts to your client.
What are the types of employability skills that I will acquire upon completion of this assessment?
Assessment Overview:
Purpose, as written in the EUO
Due date: Monday, 7 September 2020, 12:00 noon AEST (week 7)
Weighting: 25%
Length and/or format: 1,500 words total
Learning outcomes assessed LO1
Graduate attributes assessed GA2, GA4, GA5
How to submit: Submitted by using Turnitin link in LEO.
Return of assignment: Feedback will be provided via Turnitin within two weeks of the submission date
Assessment criteria: Rubric: see end of document
Context
CASE STUDY 1 (50 Marks):
The purpose of this assessment task is to ensure that you have a good understanding of the factors involved in giving advice to clients, particularly vulnerable clients and clients that do not have the same level of knowledge as their financial planner.
Being able to communicate difficult concepts and undertake extensive research is a requirement of financial planners and their support staff.
This assessment provides you with possible real-life scenarios and the opportunity to problem-solve complex issues and assesses your critical thinking skills.
Assessment Details
This is an individual assessment.
You must provide answers to both Case Study 1 and Case Study 2.
Mary Mason is 31 years old. Mary used to work as a carpenter for a large construction company earning $130,000 per annum (gross). Mary has been your client for 10 years and during that time you have provided advice to Mary on all of her affairs.
Mary has a 2 bedroom flat in the Western Sydney suburb of Casula valued at $600,000 (with a mortgage of $500,000), superannuation in a corporate superannuation fund of $200,000 a Life/TPD policy worth $900,000 and Income Protection for 75% of her income to age 65 (90 day waiting period). Mary has savings worth $100,000 in a high interest account and $20,000 in her everyday bank account. Mary has a daughter, Michelle who is 13.
Michelle’s father Ben died before Michelle was born in a car accident.
Mary has been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis by her neurologist after repeatedly falling over at work. She is currently unable to move her right leg and is adjusting to life in a wheelchair. It’s just lucky that Mary and Michelle live in a ground floor flat, where she has been able to pay for modifications to the flat to accommodate her wheelchair and her disability (i.e. handrails in the shower and toilet and modifications to the kitchen so that she can reach the counters and cook for Michelle and herself).
You have recently negotiated with Mary’s insurer to have her Income Protection paid, which will occur after she completes the 90-day waiting period. You are currently negotiating with the insurer to have her TPD paid as she was insured under own-occupation clause and cannot continue to work physically as a carpenter anymore.
Mary is currently still of sound mind and being that she has been at home for nearly a year unable to work in her trade, she has told you that she is ‘going nuts’ doing nothing. Mary was only 18 when Michelle was born, so she doesn’t have any other qualification other than her trade certificate as a carpenter.
Mary has expressed to you that she is thinking of going to study at University to become a mathematics teacher, as she always had a good mind for numbers. The degree would take her 5 years to complete as she cannot get around too well and sometimes the Multiple Sclerosis makes her tired, so she needs to take more breaks to rest. She has been accepted to start a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics in semester 1 2021. When she completes the degree will earn $60,000 p.a. (gross) as she will work part time 3 days per week.
Mary would also like to move to a house as she will need extra room to be able to do her study and thinks that as Michelle gets older she will need another room to do her study. She just wants to be close to Australian Catholic University Campus at Strathfield so she can undertake her studies (she has been allocated a disabled spot already). She estimates that she can buy a home for about $800,000 and she is happy to sell or rent out her current property to partially pay for her new home.
Mary will need a new car as her current car cannot be modified to suit her disability (it is manual and she can only drive a modified automatic). The budget for the car is $40,000 and the modifications $25,000. The car must accommodate her wheelchair without compromising room for passengers.
Required:
Under the FASEA code of ethics, you are required to act in the best interests of your client (standard 1), provide advice and financial product recommendations that are in your clients best interest and are appropriate to their individual circumstances (standard 5) as well as take into account the broad effects arising from the client acting on your advice and consider their long-term interests (standard 6).
Assess the case study scenario and with reference to the FASEA Code of Ethics and values determine what advice you could potentially give to this client that would ensure you comply with the standards and values in the FASEA Code of Ethics.
Rationale: This client may be worse off if she goes off claim and undertakes study to change careers. Taking this into account, you must ensure that you provide evidence to support your answers and any assumptions you make.
CASE STUDY 2:
Lily Martin, a new client has just left your office after her initial meeting. Lily is a fashion designer and has little knowledge of financial matters which is why she decided that she needed a financial adviser in the first place.
Lily finds it difficult to understand numbers and figures, she handed you her superannuation account statements towards the end of the meeting. Her superannuation is in the default ‘balanced fund’ option. By the time she handed these to you, she told you she was overloaded and had enough, but she was happy for you to go away and start looking at her finances to come up with some recommendations.
One thing Lily did say at the end of the meeting was ‘I just don’t understand how 75% split into high-risk investments is ‘balanced’.
Required:
Undertake research into what constitutes a balanced fund and what other superannuation funds consider a balanced investment, then prepare a report for Lily which includes visual aids (e.g. graphs, pictures, drawings) that you could present to her at your next meeting.
Note – your report is to be no more than 2 A4 pages in length including text and diagrams.
Instructions
Please submit your assessment as one document that includes both parts 1 and 2 using the Link provided in LEO.
You may use any font, however, please do not use a smaller font size than 11 point as a minimum, this includes Case Study 2 (which is to be no more than 2 A4 pages in length).
If you submit your assessment by other means (e.g. email) will attract no marks.
Structure
Case Study 1: Should be written in business report format using appropriate headings. All material should be referenced using Harvard Style referencing.
(You may like to refer to the Academic Skills Unit: https://www.acu.edu.au/student-life/student-services/academicskills-development/academic-skills-unit).
Case Study 2: You are required to present a client-centric report including diagrams and visual aids of no more than 2 A4 pages in length.
Helpful sites for report structuring:
https://www.business.unsw.edu.au/Students-Site/Documents/Writingareport.pdf https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/learning-teaching/support/approach/steps-to-teaching-success/resources/WSBG-reportwriting-guide-2017.pdf
https://www.adelaide.edu.au/writingcentre/sites/default/files/docs/learningguide-businessreportwriting.pdf
How do I submit?
Submit via Turnitin link provided in LEO for assessment 1.
Don’t forget to include your student number and name in the assessment file name.
Include the checklist below in your assessment document.
Make sure that you keep a back-up copy of every assessment you submit, until the marked assessment has been returned to you. In the unlikely event that one of your assessments is misplaced, you will need to submit your backup copy.
Any work you submit may be checked by electronic or other means for the purposes of detecting collusion and/or plagiarism.
Checklist for students to submit along with their assignment
My submitted assignment report is within the specified word limit ?
I have included references using specified referencing style ?
I have correctly cited all my sources and references ?
I have formatted my report as per the specifications ?
I have checked my Turnitin report to ensure the similarity report is acceptable and explainable ?
I will be able to supply the process output, if required by my lecturer to prove this my own work (e.g screen dump of my search and retrieval of journal articles, etc.) ?
I have completed proof reading and checked for spelling and grammar ?
I have submitted my work before the due date/time ?
Some Helpful Websites and Resources
https://www.fasea.gov.au/ https://library.acu.edu.au/
BAFN608 – Financial Planning Reading List on LEO.
Your lecture slides, textbook and the links provided for each topic in LEO.
Who can help me?
Studiosity
Academic skills Unit (ASU)
Post a question to the LEO discussion forum
Request a Consultation with the NLIC – Csilla Skultety – (c.skultety@acu.edu.au)
I’m having problems
SC: Application for Special Consideration Complete this form if you wish to be exempted from academic penalty because your study has been affected by unforeseen circumstances.
If you are having problems please contact the NLIC as soon a possible and/or consult your student portal for further information (you may also find Special Consideration forms here):
https://sso.acu.edu.au/authenticationendpoint/login.do?commonAuthCallerPath=%2Fsamlsso&forceAuth=false&p assiveAuth=false&tenantDomain=carbon.super&sessionDataKey=1d0b63df-e281-4238-97bf-
1c907068e098&relyingParty=StudentPortalIssuer&type=samlsso&sp=StudentPortal&isSaaSApp=true&authentica tors=BasicAuthenticator:LOCAL
EX: Application for extension of time for submission of an Assessment Task Complete this form if you wish to apply for extension of time for submission of this Assessment Task.
Referencing
All referencing should be in ACU Harvard style.
If you are coming from another faculty, you may choose to use your usual referencing style. If this is the case, you must indicate at the top of your reference list what referencing style you are using (e.g. APA, MLA, Chicago, etc).
Please ensure your assignment makes use of in-text citations and a reference list. Missing citations or references is equivalent to plagiarism.
Criteria
The full criteria is compiled in a rubric, which can be found on the following page/s.
Rubric for BAFN608 – Assessment 1 [Individual Assessment – Critical thinking case study scenarios]– 25%
Relevant LO/GAs Criterion (related to a single GA from the related LO – one GA per
criterion) Does not meet expectations Meets expectations Exceeds expectations
NN (0-49) PA (50-64) CR (65-74) DI (75-84) HD (85-100)
Case Study 1
(Total Marks = 15)
GA2
LO1
Weight = 5 marks
TL = 4
Learning Stage = D
Analyse and examine the client’s situation to be able to apply the values and standards of the FASEA Code of Ethics to the client’s long-term situation.
Failed to analyse and examine the client’s situation and appropriately apply the FASEA code of ethics to the client’s long-term situation.
(0 – 2.45 marks) Satisfactorily analysed and examined the client’s situation and appropriately apply the FASEA code of ethics to the client’s long-term situation.
(2.5 – 3.5 marks) Credibly analysed and examined the client’s situation and appropriately apply the FASEA code of ethics to the client’s long-term situation.
(3.25 – 3.7 marks) Distinctively analysed and examined the client’s situation and appropriately apply the FASEA code of ethics to the client’s longterm situation. (3.75 – 4.2 marks) Highly distinctive in analysing and examining the client’s situation and appropriately applying the FASEA code of ethics to the client’s long-term situation. (4.25 – 5 marks)
GA4
LO1
Weight = 5 Marks
TL = 3
Learning Stage = D Construct a report by applying your analysis of the client’s situation.
Failed to construct a report for that applies the analysis to the client’s situation. (0 – 2.45 marks) Satisfactorily
constructs a report that applies the analysis to the client’s situation. (2.5 – 3.5 marks) Good construction of a report that applies the analysis to the client’s situation.
(3.25 – 3.7 marks) Very good construction of a report that applies the analysis to the client’s situation.
(3.75 – 4.2 marks) Highly distinctive construction of a report that applies the analysis to the client’s situation.
(4.25 – 5 marks)
GA5
LO1
Weight = 5 Marks
TL = 5
Learning Stage = I Arrange and support your report (analysis) by taking into account the possible broader, longterm effects of your advice. Fails to arrange and support report and does not take into account the possible broad, long-term effects of advice. (0 – 2.45 marks) Satisfactorily arranges and supports report but does not take all affects of advice/analysis into account that will have possible broad, longterm effects on advice.
(2.5 – 3.5 marks) Good arrangement and support in report and takes most of advice/analysis into account that will have possible broad, longterm effects on advice.
(3.25 – 3.7 marks) Very good arrangement and
support in report takes
most of advice/analysis into account that will have possible broad, longterm effects on advice, but misses 1 possibility.
(3.75 – 4.2 marks) Excellent
arrangement and support in report and takes all advice/analysis into account that will have possible broad, long-
term effects on advice.
(4.25 – 5 marks)
6
Case Study 2
(Total Marks = 10)
GA4
LO1
Weight = 2.5 Marks
TL = 4
Learning Stage = D Compare and contrast complex concepts in financial planning.
Fail to compare and contrast information adequately. (0 - 1.225 marks) Satisfactorily compares and contrast information. (1.25 – 1.6 marks) Good comparison and contrasting of information.
(1.625 – 1.85 marks) Very good comparison and contrasting of information.
(1.875 – 2.1 marks) Excellent comparison and contrasting of information.
(2.125 – 2.5 marks)
GA4
LO1
Weight = 2.5 Marks
TL = 5
Learning Stage = D Construct a simple to understanding clientcentric report.
Fails to construct an report that is simple for the client to understand. (0 – 1.225 marks) Satisfactory
construction of a report that is simple for the client to understand. (1.25 – 1.6 marks) Good construction of a report that is simple for the client to understand.
(1.625 – 1.85 marks) Very good construction of a report that is simple for the client to understand. (1.875 – 2.1 marks) Excellent construction of a report that is simple for the client to understand.
(2.125 – 2.5 marks)
GA4
LO1
Weight = 2.5 Marks
TL = 6
Learning Stage = D Select, compare and articulate information that is appropriate to the client’s level of
knowledge/understandi ng. Fail to select, compare and articulate information that is appropriate to the
client’s
knowledge/understand ing level.
(0 – 1.225 marks) Satisfactory selection comparison and articulation of information that is appropriate to the client’s knowledge
/understanding level.
(1.25 – 1.6 marks) Good selection comparison and articulation of information that is appropriate to the client’s knowledge
/understanding level.
(1.625 – 1.85 marks) Very good selection comparison and articulation of information that is appropriate to the client’s knowledge
/understanding level.
(1.875 – 2.1 marks) Excellent good selection comparison and articulation of information that is appropriate to the client’s knowledge
/understanding level.
(2.125 – 2.5 marks)
GA5
LO1
Weight = 2.5 Marks
TL = 5
Learning Stage = A Prepare and organise information in a logical format. Fails to prepare & organise information into a logical, flowing format.
(0 – 1.225 marks) Satisfactorily prepares
& organises information into a logical, flowing format.
(1.25 – 1.6 marks) Good selection and preparation of information into a logical, flowing format. (1.625 – 1.85 marks) Very good selection and preparation of information into a logical, flowing format. (1.875 – 2.1 marks) Excellent selection and preparation of information into a logical, flowing format. (2.125 – 2.5 marks)
Total Marks for Assessment 1 = 25 (i.e. Case Study 1 = /15 and Case study 2 = /10)
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