Department of Finance

PERSONAL FINANCIAL ADVISING, FINA 237

Representative Syllabus

Professor Neil G. Cohen, DBA, CFA

  • Office: 501 Funger Hall, Department of Finance, 2201 G St NW, Wash, DC 20052
  • Phone: (202) 994?7276 
  • Fax: (202) 994-5014
  • E-Mail: ngcohen@gwu.edu 
  • Website: http://home.gwu.edu/~ngcohen
  • Office Hours: via Email and/or appointment
Course Objectives 
·The course addresses the need for professionally-skilled personal financial advisors. 
·It is directed at students from different fields (finance, accounting, law, marketing, human resources) who want to develop knowledge of this field, to be used as a career path. 

·All students in the course are expected to become familiar with the use of personal financial plans and the techniques required to formulate competent recommendations. 

·Only finance and accounting students are expected to do the number-crunching for developing personal financial plans from scratch. 

·Others will follow an alternate syllabus appropriate to their interests, such as marketing of personal financial services, managing a personal financial planning profit center, advising clients using plans written by others, or advising on employee benefits planning. 

·While only some students will perform the number-crunching, all students must know how to interpret the numbers, as expected of a competent professional.

 

How the Course Works 

·The class environment is active Q&A and debate, not a lecture.
·The first stage of the course lays out the basics of personal financial planning, income and estate taxation, retirement plans and pensions, and life and disability insurance in the context of a case study, The Morgan Family and Bob Collins CFP.
·The second stage of the course uses a hands-on workshop approach for learning-by-doing. You will learn to make and present a comprehensive personal financial plan, including an investment portfolio plan.
·The third stage of the course deals with legal and regulatory issues and organizing, running, and marketing an advisory practice in the context of a case study, Metropolitan Financial Advisors.

Prerequisites

·Normal Syllabus: MBAD 250 or equivalent required; FINA 223, ACCT 261 or 242, FINA 224 helpful but not crucial 

·Custom Syllabus: Permission of professor

·Familiarity with Excel

Materials

  • ·Personal Financial Advising: Text and Cases, Neil G. Cohen, 2005. Excerpts from this manuscript accompany weekly assigments as Reading Notes.
  • Personal Financial Planning, 7th Edition, G. Victor Hallman & Jerry S. Rosenbloom, McGraw-Hill, May 2003, ISBN 0071419446, List $49.95  Amazon $32.97. Also available as an E-book from McGraw-Hill, but not discounted. This is one of the best selling books in the field, extremely comprehensive, best used as a reference and encyclopedia. It’s not something you want to sit down and read, page after page. You will be directed to what you should read for each assignment; sometimes whole chapters, sometimes just certain pages of chapters. 
  • A Random Walk Down Wall Street: Completely Revised and Updated, 8th Edition, Burton G. Malkiel, W.W. Norton & Co., January 2004, ISBN 0393325350, Paperback List $17.95 Amazon $12.21. It is a book to be owned, read, and re-read by everyone except the very poorest (who have no money) and the very richest (who have so much financial slack it may not matter).
Grading
·Attendance is required because the learning experience depends on in-class interactions.
·Accordingly, all homework must be completed on time, before class, because it is the basis for your class participation and your learning.

·Quiz33%

·Class Participation 33%

·Comprehensive Financial Plan & Presentation33% 

Code of Academic Integrity 

·You are expected to adhere to the published University policy on academic integrity.http://www.gwu.edu/~ntegrity/code.html

·A violation of these policies is grounds for receiving a course grade of F. 

·All group efforts and teamwork collaborations must be clearly identified as such on each page, listing the name of each person involved

Protocol for Submission of Electronic Files 

  • Always label your file with your name and the name of the assignment. 
  • For example, if the assignment is Morgan Investment Plan, your Word file is labeled <your name-MorganInvestmentPlan.doc>. 
Assignments 
·Keep in mind that this is a 7-week course, so assignments are longer than for a 14-week course.
·Each week you will get an Assignment Sheet posted on Blackboard. It gives the plan for that week, including directed reading in Hallman & Rosenbloom and/or Malkiel, for some weeks a set of notes is included, and the deliverables you are expected to bring to class or email in.

·All assignments are for the week preceding the class meeting.

·The week leading to the November 5 class is an online week – there is no live class that Saturday, only email or telephone conversations during the week as you prepare the deliverable due November 6 at the latest.

October 22: The Breadth and Depth of a Comprehensive Personal Financial Plan and the Financial Planning Process

See Assignment Sheet #1 for what to read, explanatory notes, and what to do (deliverables due in class on October 22).

October 29: Sudden Financial Shocks, Pensions and Retirement 

See Assignment Sheet #2 for what to read, explanatory notes, and what to do.

November 5: Major Revision of Fred & Sally Morgan Financial Plan – THIS IS AN ONLINE WEEK – DO NOT COME TO CLASS ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5 

See Assignment Sheet #3 for what to read, explanatory notes, and what to do (deliverable due by 6PM, Sunday, November 6).

November 12: Investment Portfolio Planning

SeeAssignment Sheet #4 for what to read, explanatory notes, and what to do.

November 19: 

See Assignment Sheet #5 for what to read, explanatory notes, and what to do.

December 3: Regulatory and Legal Issues & A Business Plan for a Financial Advisory Practice

See Assignment Sheet #6 for what to read, explanatory notes, and what to do.

December 10: Client Financial Plan Presentations

See Assignment Sheet #7 for what to read, explanatory notes, and what to do.


STUDENT INFORMATION

FINA 237 – PERSONAL FINANCIAL ADVISING

NAME_________________________________________________

EMPLOYER_____________________________________________

TITLE________________________________________________

YEAR'S EXPERIENCE________

DAYTIME TELEPHONE___________________ 

E-MAIL ADDRESS 

AGE_______

DEGREES/MAJORS______________________________­_________

FINANCE/ACCOUNTING COURSES TAKEN:

COURSEWHENWHERE

PROFESSIONAL DESIGNATIONS_________________________

WORK EXPERIENCE (Employer, Title, Year's Experience):

POST?MBA CAREER PLANS

REASONS FOR INTEREST IN FINANCIAL PLANNING: