You need to tick all the boxes below to acknowledge that your Statement of Advice complies will all the requirements. This checklist needs to be appended to the cover sheet of the hardcopy only. Plans that do not meet the presentation requirements will not be assessed.
- The SOA can be completed individually or as a group of two people. Please note that we will not allow groups of more than two people under any circumstances. If you are going to work with someone that you have not worked with before you need to assess their ability to deliver their share of the work tasks early in the semester. We will not accept as an excuse that a group has fallen apart close to the submission date as a valid excuse - if for whatever reason a group does split up we will expect an individual assignment submission from all members by the due date.
- An electronic copy of the Statement of Advice must be lodged on DSO by the due date by both members of the group or by the individual, if the Statement of Advice is prepared by an individual.
- A hard copy of the Statement of Advice must also be submitted. If the Statement of Advice is prepared by a group then only one hard copy needs to be submitted on behalf of the group.
- When a plan is prepared by a group it should read as if it is written by one person - if you simply divide up the sections of the plan between the members of the group and then come together briefly at the end to combine the sections into one plan it is very unlikely that you will be able to prepare the comprehensive and integrated plan required.
- The page length is limited to 65 pages. This 65 page limit is inclusive of any pages devoted to financial projections. All pages must have a footer which includes the student ID(s) and the page numbering eg page 14 of 18.
- The SOA should be produced in a 12 point Times New Roman font. This includes financial projections and appendices. The plan should have standard margins.
- The SOA should be written directly to Phillip and Sunitha - it should not be written to the marker with Phillip and Sunitha referred to in the third person. The plan must be client friendly and client ready.
- Wherever possible recommendations must be made on the basis of real products and real prices that you have researched.
- You can assume that the clients have been provided with a Financial Services Guide (FSG) and the relevant Product Disclosure Statements (PDS). Where you recommend a product/service for which a PDS is available on the web you should reference the relevant URL.
- The first page of the plan must include the following information:
o The name and student ID of each student that contributed to the plan.
o A heading ‘Assumptions'. Under this heading you should list all the assumptions that you have made in order to complete the financial plan. These assumptions should not be used to reduce the flexibility of the financial plan. Please note that this information is directed to the marker of the SOA - not the client. The client is not expected to read this first page therefore where these assumptions will affect the clients understanding of the plan they should also be restated in the appropriate section of the plan.
- The second page of the financial plan should be a covering letter to the client.
- The third page of the financial plan should be a table of contents.
- Given the length of the SOA, there is precious little room for generic information. For example you may wish to recommend managed investments over direct investments - in this case a thumbnail sketch of managed versus direct investments would be appropriate but a detailed discussion would not be appropriate. For a detailed discussion of managed versus direct investments you can refer the client to an actual URL that you have found. A discussion of how managed investments fit the needs of the client is however not generic and very relevant for inclusion in the financial plan.
- All financial modelling should be done in real terms and the impact of modelling in real terms needs to be made clear to Phillip and Sunitha. Where nominal rates have been quoted you should use an inflation rate of 3% to adjust nominal rates into real rates.