I'm stumped!

I'm studying the Entry Level Competencies through Kaplan and I'm wondering how everyone found the course content. Also, does everyone find the assignment quite breezy?

From comments on various threads, it comes across as though this course can be easily knocked over in two weeks. I am finding it really tough going and am having trouble deciphering what the heck they are talking about at times (eg module 8 -income streams).

I have now read all of the content and as far as the assignment goes, I don't really know what they want. For example, in qu.3 - data analysis - they want 500 words max but the question appears to me to be asking a fair bit of detail. I've got twice that amount and if I cut any back, I don't seem to be answering their question. In fact I'm not sure I've answered it anyway! It all seems so vague.

I am not in the financial industry but have invested in various areas. I have successfullly completed 2 degrees before and have always enjoyed learning. While I don't expect to breeze through it all, I can't see why I am having so much trouble understanding it all. At this stage, I also think their support is dismal.

As it is an entry level course, I can't imagine that they would expect students to be already working in the industry or have any prior knowledge of the subject content.

If anyone can enlighten me on this or direct me as to how to tackle the assignment in particular, I'd appreciate it VERY MUCH !!

Jen

Jen,

Write it like you're writing it for a five year old. Just focus purely on the question at hand, leave as much detail out as possible and she'll be apples! I did my first four units through AIFS (no open book exams, hee) and their assignments were fairly short too. They aren't looking for University level competency, just enough to show you can think at around a Grade 3 level. Which is about 2 grades higher than most people think anyway.

Mark

Hey Jen,

Wow, I'm so glad I finally found someone in my shoes !!!!
I've been doing the ELC since July, and boy .. it pisses me off every now and then the materials they provide and the support I get.

I must admit I expected a lot more from Kaplan in terms of technical support. I think there is only one guy who answers the email for ELC, not to blame him but sometimes I feel like I'm left alone in the cold and dark place.

And I totally agree with the module 8 ! Oh my god, you know I spent one full week trying to understand what the heck is the income stream all about. I even wrote an email to complain how ridiculous it is to "assume" we (at least me!) all know about Australian income stream system. I was furious.

Anyways, I've just started the assignment and I gotta tell ya I haven't even got passed the second question. I can't think of any questions to ask the client ! Well, I've been trying to review what I've learnt from the beginning and hopefully I'd come up with one.

Any suggestions?

post the questions and I'll see if I can give you a few pointers. I don't mind helping, these assignments are generally quite easy if you do it as a job.

If you can click on this link:

https://www.mykaplan.edu.au/home/qa/...Assignment.PDF

I'm not sure how this work. I'm on question 2 at the moment and can't think of a question to ask the client regarding their personal balance sheet given on the fact finding sheet.

Cheers

you'll need to attach the pds to this topic, cos I don't have a kaplan login to view the assignment. cheers

The FSG starts on page 8.

I'm hoping we're allowed to post these here. I'm also on the assignment section of ELC and while I do find it difficult, I also find it linear in structure.

For example
Question 1: Relates to early modules
Question 2 + 3: Relates to mid-modules
Question 4: Relates to module 4 onwards
etc.

Attached Files

ELC Assignment 1207.PDF (465.5 KB, 109 views)

Okay here goes, I’m not going to do this assignment for you, but I’ll try and give you as many pointers that I can. As I haven’t studied the previous 7 subjects of this course I can only make assumptions as to what they want, so use my tips at your own peril and if you get a bad mark don’t blame me!!!

a little bit of a disclaimer: I've have just skimmed through most of it, so I may have misinterpreted a question or gone off on the wrong tangent, so if it looks wrong use your own judgement.

Question 1:

As I don’t have the sample FSG to compare it with I’ll just take a few stabs in the dark. They are going to be obvious omissions and serious ones at that. This should be the easiest question of the assignment. They could include the following:

Not adequately disclosing a referral agreement (who it’s with, how much he gets paid) or not adequately disclosing the fees for service.

Question 2:

(FYI hardest question in the assignment in my view) What they are after here are “open” questions such as “how do you feel about...”, “what would do in the event of....” and “Why have you....”. they are not after questions that would give short one word answers i.e. yes or no.

In terms of what questions you should ask...you should look at each section and ask yourself what do I need to know so I can provide quality advice to my clients and what question will extract the most information.

Section 2: from this section you would be trying to determine their current financial position. This would actually be the hardest question to ask out of the 4 they have given you. As this section would normally be factual type questions (which is why I haven’t given you a sample, couldn’t think of one).

Section 3: This should be a risk insurance question, you would be trying to determine if the level of cover they have would be enough in the event of death, disablement or illness. As such your question should be posed in such a way that the client can see for themselves, if there is a need that should be filled.

“In the event of death, disablement or illness, what would be the impact on your current financial needs, goals and objectives? Such as your day to day living expenses, your future retirement, paying off your mortgage and going on that O/S trip”.

Section 5: From this section you would need to determine how strongly a client feels towards a particular goal, how flexible they are and what are their priorities. A question might be like this:

“Tell me about your retirement, when would like to retire? What lifestyle you would like to live? What income would you need to support it and how long would like that to last?”

Section 9: This section doesn’t really tell you how their super is invested or if they are making any contributions to it. Your question might be structured around trying to find this out.

Question 3:

So in other words.... are the clients invested inline with their risk profiles and how will their future goals impact upon this.

you would need to add up all their assets and determine for each client what % is invested in Australian & Int. shares, cash, fixed interest & property and then compare that with each clients recommended asset allocation for a balanced or growth investor. You would then need to determine which asset class is overweight and which is underweight.

From that you will need to calculate what impact their planned expenditure will have on their asset allocation and how you could prevent it from becoming a problem. So for example instead of spending all their term deposit on a new car, you might suggest they sell some shares to fund this expense, to prevent them becoming overweight to Australian shares.