Course Description
The Professional Financial Management course gives the student a broad understanding of personal financial planning techniques and issues. The course covers topics in planning personal finances, managing personal credit and liquidity, tax planning, insuring oneself and one’s resources, investing financial resources, and controlling one’s financial future (retirement and estate planning). FINC 4300 is designed to be transferable to the CSI Professional Financial Planning course.
Course Content
The course provides instruction on key topics including:
- Overview of a financial plan.
- Planning with personal financial statements.
- Budget and savings planning.
- Banking, interest rates, and loans.
- Residential mortgages.
- Personal credit management.
- Business law.
- Family law.
- Insurance: auto, property, health & disability, and life.
- Tax planning.
- Retirement planning.
- Estate planning.
- Investment management: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and asset allocation.
- Integrating the components of a financial plan through cases.
Learning Activities
A combination of lectures, supplementary materials, and class presentations.
Means of Assessment
| Assignments or case studies |
10% - 15% |
| Major case study or project |
15% - 20% |
| Midterm examination |
30% |
| Final examination |
40% |
| Total |
100% |
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the course, the student should be able to:
- Analyze personal financial statements;
- Describe the role of insurance in preparing a personal financial plan;
- Demonstrate how to plan a personal budget and design a personal savings plan;
- Demonstrate how to plan for taxes, retirement, and devise an estate plan;
- Provide advice on personal investment management;
- Explain the role of law and fair and ethical business practices in preparing a personal financial plan.
Textbook Materials
Textbooks and Materials to be Purchased by Students
Textbooks and materials will be chosen from:
- Professional Financial Planning, Course Textbook, Latest Edition, CSI Global Education, Inc.
- Kapoor, Jack, Les Dlabay, Robert Hughes, and Arshad Ahmad, Personal Finance, Latest Edition, McGraw-Hill Ryerson
- Gitman, Lawrence J., and Michael D. Joehnk, Personal Financial Planning, Latest Edition, Thomson South-Western College.
- Jeff Madura, Personal Finance, Latest Edition, Addison-Wesley.