Capstone Course: Developing Financial Plans

Capstone Course – Developing Financial Plans
Online Course

The Capstone course prepares students of financial planning to effectively and appropriately develop, communicate, and monitor financial plans. Students will recall, integrate and apply knowledge and skills from the eight core domains of financial planning to create a financial plan appropriate for a specific client (including recommendations, implementation strategy, and monitoring plan); effectively communicate the recommendations; and meet professional standards and act in accordance with professional ethics.

This course requires students to utilize skills obtained in other courses and work experiences in the completion of a comprehensive personal finance case. During the course, students are expected to:

  1. Review the key points of financial planning
  2. Complete a series of case analysis and development activities to practice the integration and application of essentials of financial planning
  3. Write an original targeted financial plan
  4. Simulate presentation of a specific section of the plan to a client
  5. Evaluate and make changes to the plan as necessary

Instructor

Donna Jordan, AIF®, CLU®, RHU®, RFC®, CFP® is a financial planning practitioner and investment advisor. She holds a Master’s degree and four professional designations: Accredited Investment Fiduciary®; Chartered Life Underwriter®; Registered Health Underwriter®; and Certified Financial Planner®. She has had over 30 years of experience in a broad range of financial services, to include banking, mortgage banking, insurance, investments, and employee benefits. Ms. Jordan is also a state-designated instructor for continuing education for life and health insurance professionals in the State of Florida, and has instructed consumer education courses in financial planning at both Pensacola Junior College and Okaloosa-Walton Community College. In addition to teaching the Introduction to Financial Planning course in the online program, she has also taught the Intro and Retirement Planning courses for FSU in the traditional classroom program and is guest lecturer for the Life and Health segments of the online Insurance Planning course. She has also served on the textbook selection committee for the CFP® Board of Standards.

Textbooks and Calculator

Cases in Financial Planning: Analysis and Presentation – 4th Edition
Authors: Michael A. Dalton, James F. Dalton, Katheleen F. Oakley
ISBN13: 978-1-946711-68-7
Published by: Money Education
FSU 15% discount available when purchased through the publisher, Money Education.
**To obtain the discount code, contact the Program Director, Anthony McDonald, using the contact form on the registration page.**

The Fundamentals of Writing a Financial Plan – 2nd Edition
Authors: John Grable, Michelle Kruger, Megan Ford
ISBN: 978-1-954096-57-8
Published by: The National Underwriter Company
Available at many online retailers including the publisher, The National Underwriter Company

Financial Calculator: The following models are among those that comply with the CFP® Board calculator policy:

  • Hewlett Packard 12C
  • Hewlett Packard 17BII Plus
  • Hewlett Packard 10B II / Hewlett Packard 10B II PLUS

Financial Calculator: To see an exhaustive list of all the approved financial calculators that can be used on the CFP Board Exam please read the Calculator Policy for CFP® Examination.

Prerequisites

In order to be eligible to take the Capstone course, students must meet the following criteria:

  • Have successfully completed the six courses that satisfy the CFP® Board topic requirements
    Or
  • Be exempt from completing the coursework
    Or
  • Take the CFP® Board Examination under “challenge status”

While there are no special degree requirements to participate in the FSU Certificate in Financial Planning program, the level of instruction is that of an upper-division college course. A bachelor’s degree is a condition of CFP® certification, although not a requirement to be able to sit for the Certification Examination.

Basic computer literacy including: the ability to connect to the Internet and navigate the web using search engines and links, the ability to use online communication tools including email and discussion boards, the ability to send and receive email attachments, and the ability to navigate software including saving and opening files to and from specific locations.

Technical Requirements

Browser (most recent version): Firefox, Google Chrome or Safari.

Course Schedule

Traditional Track
May & October

Fast Track
July & December