FINANCIAL PLANNING

FINANCIAL PLANNING

You have recently met with your clients, Mr. and Mrs. Smith. During that meeting, they gave you a lot of information about themselves and their family (see attached for the notes you made during the meeting). You are now preparing for another meeting with them.

There are 10 topics/issues that you will want to discuss with Mr. and Mrs. Smith in this meeting based on your notes (again, see the attached document for these notes). Use the notes to determine what the 10 topics are that you want to discuss! Explain EACH of these topics in enough detail for Mr. and Mrs. Smith to get an overview and an understanding of some of the key concepts, as well as an understanding of how the topic is relevant to their personal situation.

The purpose of this assignment is to show that you can listen to the information provided by a client and identify the topics that should be addressed, AND that you can explain a topic briefly to a client in a way that they can understand.

IMPORTANT: There is a BIG difference between simply reciting information about a topic and really explaining a topic. In order to explain well, you need to put yourself in the shoes of a client and imagine how you would want someone to explain a new concept to you. Is it helpful to have someone give you formulas and technical information? Or is it more helpful if they explain in their own words and simplify it for you? Repeating word for word what you learned in this course will NOT earn you a good mark on this assignment. Showing me that you really understand what you're talking about will get you top marks.

Your notes were taken during the first meeting with your client: Mr. and Mrs. Smith have come to you for financial planning help. They're not sure where to begin but know that they have much to learn and would like to get their financial house in order. Here is the information they have given you during your first meeting with them:

1. they are both age 35 and work full-time; fortunately, Mrs. Smith's employer provides her with a company car which she drives for both work and personal use

2. they have 3 children, ages 7, 5, 2; the older two are in school during the day, but the youngest goes to a child care center

3. Mr. and Mrs. Smith paid $3,000 out of pocket for medical expenses earlier this year; these costs were not covered by their health and dental benefits

4. they currently pay rent for the house that they are living in; they have been saving for a down payment on a home but aren't sure how much they need (the houses they are looking at are in the $500,000 range); they're a little bit worried about their lack of knowledge about how mortgages work

5. they tell you that they never seem to have any extra money available for savings, but they really don't know where all their money goes every month

6. although their children are quite young, they're wondering if they should start saving for their children's education and, if so, what is the best way to do so

7. they'd like to be able to save for retirement, so they figure they'll just keep trying to accumulate some extra money in their savings account whenever possible

8. knowing that the house they eventually buy in their price range will likely need a lot of work done on it, they are anticipating renovating the kitchen first; they recognize that they would need to borrow money for this purpose but aren't sure how best to go about doing that or if they would even qualify for a loan

9. they pay someone to do their tax returns for them each year; they tell you that they don't understand anything about tax but would love to learn some basics

10. Mr. Smith bought shares in the Bank of Montreal many years ago. He is considering selling them because they've gone up in value a fair bit. However, they really enjoy the dividend income that they receive from the shares