As a financial planner, you are required to give advice and suggestion to your client on the appropriateness of the retirement assets. The appropriateness of the assets will usually depend on how well it serves the needs and objective of the client. Objective The objective of this assignment is to encourage the student to apply their learning to a real-life investment scenario in evaluating the suitability of investment instruments used in the retirement planning process (CLO4). Client Profile Benjamin and Cindy have recently married and in planning their future have decided to solicit the services of a financial planner with the aim of implementing their short and long-term lifestyle goals and financial plans. Benjamin and Cindy are both aged 28. For their immediate future, they have decided they want to purchase a new house and a new car. The house they want has a value of RM400,000. They would also like to buy a new car for RM60,000. They expect to travel approximately 35,000 km per year. Their longer-term plans involve establishing a fairly aggressive investment portfolio with the aim of directly purchasing an investment property and investing in a share portfolio of some sort amongst other strategies that you may recommend. Benjamin works as an engineer in Big Brother Constructions Ipoh and earns RM60,000 gross income, while Cindy works for an accounting firm and earns RM50,000 gross income. They also enjoy taking holiday each year to a value of RM8,000. Benjamin and Cindy are also keen to retire early and are quite willing to take an additional risk if this assists in them achieving their lifestyle goals faster. They have managed to save between them RM80,000 in cash and are looking forward to your advice on how they should go about planning for future lives together. Your report should include details of any assumptions made on the clients’ behalf in relation to investment strategies, client background data, or any other relevant information other than those provided. Specific identification of any risks associated with the financial plan and investment advice, possibly including a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities, threats) analysis based on the current investment climate and realism of expected returns aligning with historical performance. Recommend THREE (3) different investment instruments from the listing below that the Benjamin household should adopt. a) Equities 3 b) Unit Trust c) Investment-Linked Insurance or Takaful d) Annuities e) Real Property Based on the analysis above, is it prudent for Benjamin and Cindy to retire at the age of 50. Justify your answer. Report format Complete financial plan/report in an appropriate format. Possible headings amongst others may include

: A) Executive summary