Master of Financial Planning

Program Overview

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This program equips students with comprehensive knowledge and skills in financial planning, including risk management, estate planning, superannuation, investment planning, and business consulting. It emphasizes ethical and professional conduct, behavioral finance, and client management, preparing graduates for middle to senior management roles in the financial planning industry.

Program Outline

Outline:

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Risk Management and Estate Planning

• Applies risk management knowledge and methodologies to protect and distribute wealth with effective personal insurances and estate planning.
• Analyzes and explores insurance policies and risk management products to match client situations in constructing insurance planning advice.
• Expands the concept of protecting wealth to include a strong awareness of the role of estate planning.
• Integrates related law and compliance into practical client situations and prepares a Statement of Advice with insurance and estate planning advice recommendations.
• Develops professional skills in negotiating insurance analysis outcomes against costs, succession planning challenges, and interpersonal skills related to difficult estate planning conversations.

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Superannuation and Retirement Wealth Planning

• Critically reviews superannuation and retirement planning trends.
• Compares superannuation and self-managed superannuation funds with non-superannuation options.
• Role-plays the presentation of retirement planning advice to a mock client.
• Applies technical knowledge of superannuation, related tax legislation, building retirement capital, income stream options, and social security to client scenarios.
• Models using financial planning software and tools.
• Develops client communication skills in negotiating retirement planning preparation and problems.
• Enhances professional skills in business awareness and interpersonal skills.

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Principles of Financial and Investment Planning

• Combines the higher-order responsibilities and legislative framework governing the provision of financial planning advice with the principles and functions of investing in financial markets.
• Places matters such as compliance and the relational role of the financial advisor in the context of assessing client investment risk and defending a best-interest, multi-asset portfolio as part of a client’s financial plan.
• Provides lessons from economic events and the impact of financial advice failures as a backdrop to a range of activities including managed fund research, aligning client risk profiles and preferences with investment choices, and borrowing strategies for investing.
• Develops professional skills in interpersonal skills.

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Taxation Law of Australia (Bridging)

• Equips students with technical and working knowledge of the key provisions of Australian Tax Law.
• Applies knowledge to a range of problems to determine taxation consequences.
• Undertakes comparisons of tax implications relating to business, individuals, and trusts.
• Conducts research and analysis to develop strategic tax planning solutions.
• Employs case scenarios to develop students’ understanding of tax avoidance legislation and awareness of the consequences of tax avoidance.
• Enables students to construct tax recommendations and explicate the consequences of unresolved tax problems.
• Enhances professional skills in business awareness, obligations of the TPB, and interpersonal skills related to presenting tax advice.

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Professionalism and Ethics (Bridging)

• Explores the ethical and professional capacities required of financial planning advisers.
• Investigates the FASEA Code of Ethics and the origins of ethics.
• Conducts reflective practice exercises aimed at improving the client-adviser relationship and related compliance.
• Develops professional skills in leadership and interpersonal skills.

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Financial Advice Corporation and Commercial Law (Bridging)

• Examines the Australian legal system, contract and commercial law, and significant elements of Corporations Law related to the licensing requirements of a financial planner and the provision of financial planning advice.
• Has a strong focus on practical applications and uses relevant case law to contextualize the law for financial planning professionals.
• Enhances professional skills in negotiating on commercial law matters.

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Behavioural Finance for Financial Advisers

• Contextualizes behavioral finance theory to the practice of professional financial planning.
• Explores established and contemporary research to build a deeper understanding of the motivations, fears, preferences, and decision-making biases of clients and advisers.
• Utilizes behavioral finance theories to learn communication techniques, negotiate client uncertainties, manage the ongoing client-adviser relationship, and enhance client literacy and financial literacy.
• Examines efficient market theory to develop an understanding of the irrationalities of investor behavior and how it applies to client investment planning.
• Combines the psychology of client engagement with behavioral finance to build interpersonal skills that empower client engagement and better negotiation of conflict.
• Supports content with podcast interviews with practitioners, structured discussion, and metacognitive interaction.

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Financial Plan Construction and Client Management

• Applies prior knowledge to all elements of the financial planning process, including conducting an initial client interview, planning and constructing a full statement of advice, and presenting a financial plan to a client.
• Has a higher-order focus on written and presentation communication aimed at building and managing the client relationship, as well as meeting industry standards and expectations of professional financial planning advice.
• Develops professional skills in leadership and interpersonal skills.

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Business Consulting

• Focuses on the key knowledge and skills required for successful business consulting.
• Synthesizes and leverages competencies acquired in earlier studies, which encompass accounting and finance, marketing, human resources and organizational change management, strategy, and data analysis.
• Aims to develop capabilities that allow students to pursue a career in consulting or act as an effective internal consultant within an organization.
• Applies knowledge and skills acquired in previous units of the course to effectively design, research, and manage a business consulting project.
• Delivers solutions and presents practical recommendations to meet the needs of a real-world client in an ethical manner.
• Involves authentic engagement with a client and industry feedback or draws on an industry case study to address a complex business challenge.
• Enhances research and interpersonal skills, including problem-solving, collaboration, communication, customer-orientation, and influencing.

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Accounting and Financial Management

• Focuses on the understanding and use of financial information and the composition and meaning of financial statements.
• Designed from a user-perspective for those who use accounting information rather than those who prepare it.
• Covers accounting reports prepared for external users, as well as accounting reports used by managers to plan, control, and make decisions.
• Demonstrates skills in accounting techniques used to gain intelligence to plan and control business operations and plan future business activity.

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Corporate Finance

• Provides students with an understanding of how organizations make investment and financing decisions.
• Demonstrates how to apply various valuation methods and theories to real-world settings.
• Teaches students to appreciate the limitations of tools in practical settings.
• Covers topics such as capital budgeting, investment decision rules, discounted cash flow, real options valuation, cost of capital, capital structure, dividend policy, and evaluation methods such as WACC and APV.
• Develops the necessary skills for making value-changing financial decisions to maximize an organization’s value.

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Art and Practice of Leadership

• Focuses on the development of leadership capacity and preparation for critical transformation or transition in complex situations.
• Utilizes a unique learning model that aims to close the gap between understanding and effective leadership action.
• Examines the contextual challenges facing leaders today.

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Careers:

• Middle to senior management roles in the financial planning industry, such as:
• Financial adviser
• Financial planner
• Insurance adviser
• Superannuation consultant
• Risk adviser
• Business development manager
• Client service officer