FIN 550 Financial Planning & Risk Management
Course Catalog Description
Introduction
This course will review the fundamental principles of financial planning, professional conduct, education planning, risk management and regulation. The course is aligned with the principal knowledge topics evaluated on the CFP® Certification Examination. The course introduces you to the financial planning process and teaches you how to work with clients to set goals and assess risk tolerance. Learn how to process and analyze information, construct personal financial statements, develop debt management plans, recommend financing strategies, and understand the basic components of a written comprehensive financial plan. The course also covers the regulatory environment, time value of money, and economic concepts.
| Campus | Fall | Spring | Summer |
|---|---|---|---|
| On Campus | X | X | |
| Web Campus | X | X |
Instructors
| Professor | Office | |
|---|---|---|
|
Vasileios Katsikiotis
|
vkatsiki@stevens.edu |
More Information
Course Outcomes
By the end of this course, the students will be able to:
- Understand the fundamental concepts of financial planning from a theoretical and applied perspective.
- Understanding and apply the code of ethics and professional responsibility, rules of conduct, planning standards and disciplinary rules (including related procedures) applicable to certified financial planning along with the fiduciary standards to which planners must conform.
- Understand consumer financial laws that apply to financial planning products and processes
- Apply the basic concepts of time value of money, portfolio selection and optimization to problems related to financial planning and risk management.
- Know the value and also the limits of financial planning and risk management at a personal level.
- Understand different insurance products that can be used to hedge the risk of financial plans
Course Resources
Textbook
- Michael Dalton, et al. Fundamentals of Financial Planning, 5th edition, Money Education, 2016. Available in both print and e-book formats. ISBN 978-1-936602-41-4.
- George Rejda and Michael McNamara. Principles of Risk Management and Insurance, 13th edition. This text is available in both print and e-book versions. The latter ISBN-13: 978-0-13-408344-5 costs 1/4 the price of the former.
Grading
Grading Policies
| Weights | ||
| 1 | Assignments (4 Total) | 30% |
| 2 | Midsemester Exam | 35% |
| 3 | Final Examination | 35% |
Lecture Outline
| Topic | Reading | |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | I. Fundamentals of Financial Planning What is Financial Planning? /Review of the Industry/ Ethics Code / Fiduciary Rules | Dalton, 1 |
| Week 2 | Client Communication | Dalton, 2 |
| Week 3 | Financial Planning Approaches | Dalton, 3 |
| Week 4 | Personal Financial Statement | Dalton, 4 |
| Week 5 | Time Value of Money | Dalton, 7 |
| Week 6 | Regulation and Consumer Laws / Debt Management/Credit | Dalton,15 |
| Week 7 | Investment Planning | Dalton, 9 |
| Week 8 | Ethics | Dalton,16 |
| Week 9 | Midterm Exam | |
| Week 10 | II. Risk Management and Insurance Introduction to Risk, Insurers and Marketing Systems/ Government Regulations | Rejda, 1, 2, 5 & 8 |
| Week 11 | Legal Principles / Insurance Contracts | Rejda, 9 &10 |
| Week 12 | Life Insurance | Rejda,11, 12, 13 |
| Week 13 | Auto & Homeowners' Insurance | Rejda, 20, 21, 22, 23 |
| Week 14 | FINAL EXAM |