Demonstrate skills and attitudes for progression to post-graduate contexts including professional work, entrepreneurship and high-level study

Programme:	BA (Hons) Finance and Investment Management
Module Code:	AF5007
Module Title:	Personal Finance and Wealth Planning – Component 1
Distributed on:	Week 1 Semester 2
Submission Time and Date:	You will be required to submit your presentation electronically using panopto (or by agreement other electronic format). Date to be confirmed.
Word Limit:	N/A
Weighting	This component accounts for [ 40  ]% of the total mark for this module
Submission of Assessment	This element of the assessment is an individual presentation on the client scenario.

 

Instructions on Assessment:

The Windsor Family

Background

Alastair and Wendy Windsor live in the North East of England. They own a house valued at around £270,000 and this is a beneficial joint tenancy. They have been married for 18 years and have had no children together. Alastair has one 24 year-old son, Harry, from a previous relationship.

Alastair is 56 and in good health. He married at 21 but divorced at 35, after which he met Wendy. He had a clean-break settlement and his ex-wife has no claim on his finances.

Alastair’s mother and father are still alive and live 10 miles away in their own property. Alastair’s father is in his mid-eighties and has cancer, although this is in remission. He used to have a very active lifestyle and was heavily involved in a local walking group. Alastair’s grandfather lived until he was well into his nineties. Alastair’s 79 year-old mother is currently in reasonable health but is a smoker and has recently been diagnosed with high blood pressure.

Alastair’s parents own a house in Newcastle currently valued at £200,000 and would like to leave this to Alastair and his brother Anthony. Anthony emigrated to the Australia some years ago and has Australian citizenship. Alastair is aware that any future care responsibilities will likely fall primarily upon him and Wendy as his brother lives so far away.

Wendy’s parents are a little younger. Wendy is 49 and her parents are in their mid- seventies. They are both in reasonable health although her mother had breast cancer around 10 years ago. They live in the South East of England in a small village within commuting distance to the city of London. They own a house that has a current market value in the region of £950,000. They also have some cash based investments amounting to £225,000 and an ISA of £40,000 each. On the first death, they would like to leave the remainder to the surviving partner. On second death they would like to leave as much of this as possible to Wendy and her younger sister Helen upon their death. They are very keen that the “tax man should not have any of Wendy and Helen’s inheritance” but do not know much about inheritance tax. Wendy’s sister Helen is unmarried with one nine year-old daughter Holly, Wendy’s niece.

Pensions

Alastair worked for a television company in the North East from the age of 16 to 35, when he was made redundant. He contributed to a defined benefit pension scheme. He has 19 years of pensionable service and is due to receive his full pension benefits in 2022, when he will be 60. His latest statement indicated his annual pension to be £17,470 per annum in addition to a compulsory tax-free lump sum of three times this amount. This figure will increase in line with inflation. The total transfer value of his pension is £450,000. He no longer contributes to this scheme.

Alastair now works for the National Health Service with an annual salary of £26,500. He contributes to a public sector defined benefit scheme. He is a member of the final salary scheme. Based on benefits accrued to date, his latest statement predicted an annual pension of £5,160 and a tax-free compulsory lump sum of three times this amount. This is also payable when he is 60. Alastair does not anticipate that his salary will change significantly in the next few years. Alastair is very good at his job but is a keen sportsman and would love to have more time to devote to training and competing so is very keen to retire as soon as financially possible. Alastair’s death in service benefit (life assurance) is £49,500 and a survivor pension would be payable to Wendy in this event.

Wendy has a number of pension schemes. She contributed to the ‘teacher’s pension scheme’ while she worked in Further Education (FE) for eight years. When she left FE, she taught in the private sector for eight years when she did not contribute to a pension scheme. Four years ago, she secured a position as a Senior Lecturer in higher education (HE) and re-joined the teacher’s pension scheme. She contributes 10.2% of her annual salary, which is £49,000 per annum. She is unsure how much her annual pension will be when she retires. Her last statement showed based on benefits accrued so far she is entitled to a pension of £4,500 and a compulsory tax-free lump sum of £11,700. She is aware that she has options in relation to the age she can retire and the size of the lump sum relative to the annual pension she can choose to take. She thinks that her pension provides for Alastair in the event of her death but is not quite sure. Her full pension will be payable at 67 but the scheme allows members to retire earlier than this but this has consequences to the pension payable.

Wendy particularly wants to know what her potential pension and lump sum would be at 60 and 67. She loves her job and also loves to travel.

Both Alastair and Wendy are due to receive a full state pension at the age of 67.

When Wendy was much younger, she was sold a private defined contribution pension. This was with Sun Life Financial and the total fund value is £69,900. She has not contributed to this scheme for many years but still receives her annual statement showing how the fund has grown. By the age of 65, this pension is predicted to be able to buy an annual annuity of around £2,000 per annum.

Alastair and Wendy have heard about the 2015 pension freedoms in the media. Alastair has suggested to Wendy using some of his pension fund to repay their outstanding mortgage as he has heard that it is possible to withdraw money from your pension pot when you are 55. Wendy is also interested in finding out about if the pension reforms would affect her in the future. They haven’t really looked into it in any detail and are not sure of the rules, which types of pensions they apply to and whether they even apply to them at all.

Property and other assets

Alastair and Wendy have a joint repayment mortgage with Santander that they took out 16 years ago. The current outstanding balance is £35,000 with four years until the total sum is repaid. They currently repay £950 per month. They have contents and buildings insurance but have no other insurance policies, other than those already mentioned and car insurance on their two cars.

Wendy owns a small flat in Cambridge that she bought when she was 26. She bought the house at the end of June 1995 for £69,000. She lived in it for 4 years but then after this moved away and just used the flat as an additional base when she visited her parents. She has recently put it up for sale for an asking price of £190,000. She does not know if she will have to pay tax on this capital gain. Wendy also has some antique furniture that she was bequeathed by her grandparents that she intends to sell at auction this year. The probate value was £4,000 and she has been advised by an expert that it is now worth £15,000 and she hopes to realise this. Once both assets have been realised, she wants to use some of the money to build a fund that can be used to help provide a university education for her niece Holly, as well as to help her with a small house deposit to buy a property in the future. It is unlikely that Wendy’s sister Helen will be able to help and Wendy is keen that Holly should not start life in too much debt. As such, she would like to develop a portfolio of investments. She is happy to take on some risk but does not want to have to do much to manage the portfolio, as she is very busy.

Alastair was left £14,000 by his grandfather, when he passed away seven years ago. This is invested into £6,000 premium bonds, £4,500 cash ISA and the remainder in a savings account with a local building society.  He has had one £25 win and made very little interest over the last seven years. Wendy has suggested he invests in something that will give a better return but Alastair is inherently risk averse. He has however thought that he may be willing to take on a little more risk.

Estate planning

Alastair and Wendy do not have a will. Both would like each other to inherit their assets when they die and have assumed this will happen. After both deaths, they would like Harry and Holly to be provided for equally. They are not really sure if they need a will and both admit to knowing very little about them or the consequences of dying intestate. They are also concerned on the impact of ill-heath and making sure that if they are unwell, the other can make decisions for them.

Harry

Alastair’s son Harry lives with his mother. He has been saving for a deposit so that he can move out and buy a property locally. He is not sure on how to proceed. He has saved £6,000 with the help of grandparents. His gross salary is £24,000 per annum.

Other Liabilities 

Alastair and Wendy have a car loan. They had to buy a car two years ago for £10,500, which they financed with a car loan paying £205 per month for the next two years.

Wendy has £6,900 on a credit card. She only pays the minimum balance off this each month.

Income and expenditure

Alastair and Wendy have made a rough estimate of their net monthly income and expenditure. They do not wish to change their expenditure

Net Income	£4,310
Expenditure: Mortgage Utilities Food Car loan Petrol and car related expenses Insurances Social expenses Council tax Season ticket for Newcastle United Miscellaneous (includes credit card) Holidays	£950 £180 £600 £205 £430 £50 £600 £145 £50 £400 £700
Total expenditure	£4,310

 

They like to holiday twice a year for which they set aside around £8,000. In addition to this, they would like to plan for a road trip to America for a month when Wendy is fifty, if finances permit. They have not costed this yet.

Assessment Tasks

You will be required to make a 10-minute individual presentation of the main elements of your report to the clients (you will record this using panopto or other format by agreement and submit an electronic version. Detailed submission guidance will be issued).

You will be assessed on:

1. Presentation skills: The assessment criteria will include a giving a clear introduction, using appropriate body language and eye contact as well as demonstrating the ability to communicate in a clear, audible and engaging way. You should take care to pace the presentation so that the timing is accurate.

20 marks

1. Content: Your presentation should be in the appropriate level of detail and is an overview of what is to come in your report. You should therefore consider demonstrating the following:

• Discussion of the couple’s objectives with reference to timescale
• Logical flow and structure of content
• Evidence of research to form recommendations
• Case study relevance and use of up to date material
• Coverage of issues in the case study at the appropriate level of depth to include an overview of key recommendations to be expanded on in the report.

• 20 marks

Late submission of work

Where coursework is submitted without approval, after the published hand-in deadline, the following penalties will apply.

For coursework submitted up to 1 working day (24 hours) after the published hand-in deadline without approval, 10% of the total marks available for the assessment (i.e.100%) shall be deducted from the assessment mark.

For clarity: a late piece of work that would have scored 65%, 55% or 45% had it been handed in on time will be awarded 55%, 45% or 35% respectively as 10% of the total available marks will have been deducted.

The Penalty does not apply to Pass/Fail Modules, i.e. there will be no penalty for late submission if assessments on Pass/Fail are submitted up to 1 working day (24 hours) after the published hand-in deadline.

Coursework submitted more than 1 working day (24 hours) after the published hand-in deadline without approval will be regarded as not having been completed. A mark of zero will be awarded for the assessment and the module will be failed, irrespective of the overall module mark.

For clarity: if the original hand-in time on working day A is 12noon the 24 hour late submission allowance will end at 12noon on working day B.

These provisions apply to all assessments, including those assessed on a Pass/Fail basis.

Word limits and penalties

If the assignment is within +10% of the stated word limit no penalty will apply.

The word count is to be declared on the front page of your assignment and the assignment cover sheet.  The word count does not include:

·      Title and Contents page	·      Reference list	·      Appendices	·      Appropriate tables, figures and illustrations
·      Glossary	·      Bibliography	·      Quotes from interviews and focus groups.

 

Please note, in text citations [e.g. (Smith, 2011)] and direct secondary quotations [e.g. “dib-dab nonsense analysis” (Smith, 2011 p.123)] are INCLUDED in the word count.

If this word count is falsified, students are reminded that under ARTA this will be regarded as academic misconduct.

If the word limit of the full assignment exceeds the +10% limit, 10% of the mark provisionally awarded to the assignment will be deducted.  For example: if the assignment is worth 70 marks but is above the word limit by more than 10%, a penalty of 7 marks will be imposed, giving a final mark of 63.

Students must retain an electronic copy of this assignment (including ALL appendices) and it must be made available within 24hours of them requesting it be submitted.

Note:   For those assessments or partial assessments based on calculation, multiple choice etc., marks will be gained on an accumulative basis.  In these cases, marks allocated to each section will be made clear.

Academic Misconduct

The Assessment Regulations for Taught Awards (ARTA) contain the Regulations and procedures applying to cheating, plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct.

The full policy is available at: http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/sd/central/ar/qualitysupport/asspolicies/

You are reminded that plagiarism, collusion and other forms of academic misconduct as referred to in the Academic Misconduct procedure of the assessment regulations are taken very seriously by Newcastle Business School.  Assignments in which evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic misconduct is found may receive a mark of zero.

You are advised to use the Plagiarism Checker prior to the formal submission of your assignment.

Mapping to Programme Goals and Objectives:

This assessment will contribute directly to the following Undergraduate programme goals and objectives. 

1. Knowledgeable about the theory and practice of responsible business and management in an international context

Objectives, Students will be able to:

x	1.	Apply knowledge of contemporary professional practice in business and management informed by theory and research.
x	2.	Apply knowledge of business and management to complex problems in professional practice in order to identify justifiable, sustainable and responsible solutions.

 

2. Intellectual/Professional Skills and abilities

Objectives, Students will be able to:

	1.	Apply effective interpersonal communication skills and the ability to work in multi-cultural teams.
	2.	Produce evidence of self-reflection as a means of informing personal development planning
x	3.	Demonstrate skills and attitudes for progression to post-graduate contexts including professional work, entrepreneurship and high-level study

 

3. Personal Values Attributes

Objectives, Students will be able to:

x

1.

Develop an awareness of the cultural and ethical context in which international business operates.

 

Assessment Criteria (NBS)

General Assessment Criteria

Trait	0 – 29	30 – 39	40 – 49	50 – 59	60 – 69	70 – 79	80 – 100
Knowledge and Understanding	Unable to grasp concepts, or to present facts in a relevant way.	Some elements of knowledge apparent but question/s inadequately addressed.	Basic knowledge-and understanding of subject shown.	Work is relevant, however, confusion shown at times.	The knowledge base is judged sound and relevant.	Thorough knowledge and understanding demonstrated.	Exceptional comprehension of knowledge demonstrated.
Structure and Alignment	Often inarticulate and can be incomprehensible.	Poor structure.  Content often irrelevant.	Work can lack focus, and is prone to unsubstantiated assertion or logic.	Over reliance on description rather than analysis.  Perhaps some evidence of unstructured argument or illogical reasoning.	Material is well presented and organised.  Occasionally, conclusions are reached on the basis of insufficient information.	Fluent and focused.  Shows ability to contextualise knowledge and sustain a relevant argument or logical reasoning.	Sophisticated skill shown in formation of relevant argument or analytical reasoning.

 

Specific Assessment Criteria

36-40	32-35	28-31	24-27	20-23	16-19	12-15	0-11
You demonstrate	You demonstrate	You demonstrate	You demonstrate	You demonstrate	You demonstrate reasonable presentation	You have clearly spent very little time	Your presentation was very poor. You have not
exemplary communication skills and ability	outstanding communication skills and ability	excellent communication skills and ability	very good  communication skills and ability	good  communication skills and ability	skills but you do not tailor specifically	preparing for the presentation.	considered any of the issues to an adequate level
to tailor to your audience.	to tailor to your audience.	to tailor to your audience.	to tailor to your audience.	to tailor to your audience.	to the audience consistently.	You have not fully engaged with IT	No evidence of rehearsal and it is
You make exemplary use of IT to enhance	You make outstanding use of IT to enhance	You make excellent use of IT to enhance	You make very good use of IT to enhance	You make good use of IT to enhance	You make use of some IT but this is limited.	Your presentation lacks a coherent structure	likely that you underran on time.
your presentation.  You make clear the	your presentation.  You make clear the	your presentation.  You make clear the	your presentation.  You make clear the	your presentation.	Structure is not always logical.	and leaves the audience confused.
key recommendations and structure is	key recommendations and structure is	key recommendations and structure is	key recommendations and clearly	Clear structure and flow.
logical and follows report structure.	logical and follows report structure.	logical and follows report structure.	logical and follows report structure.	Provision of an introduction, body	Provision of an introduction, body	Provision of an introduction, body	Provision of an introduction, body
Provision of an introduction, body	Provision of an introduction, body	Provision of an introduction, body	Provision of an introduction, body	language, communication, professional behaviour and	language, communication, professional behaviour and	language, communication, professional behaviour and	language, communication, professional behaviour and
language, communication, professional behaviour and	language, communication, professional behaviour and	language, communication, professional behaviour and	language, communication, professional behaviour and	style. In addition good pacing, and evidence of rehearsal	style. In addition good pacing, and evidence of rehearsal	style. In addition good pacing, and evidence of rehearsal	style. In addition good pacing, and evidence of rehearsal
style. In addition good pacing, and evidence of rehearsal	style. In addition good pacing, and evidence of rehearsal	style. In addition good pacing, and evidence of rehearsal	style. In addition good pacing, and evidence of rehearsal	are all of a good standard.	are all of an adequate standard.	are all of an insufficient standard.	are all of an totally insufficient standard.
are all of an exemplary standard.	are all of an outstanding standard.	are all of an excellent standard.	are all of a very good standard.	Discussion of objectives, logical structure, up to date	Discussion of objectives, logical structure, up to date	Discussion of objectives, logical structure, up to date	Discussion of objectives, logical structure, up to date
Discussion of objectives, logical structure, up to date	Discussion of objectives, logical structure, up to date	Discussion of objectives, logical structure, up to date	Discussion of objectives, logical structure, up to date	content and sufficient coverage of issues in the case are	content and sufficient coverage of issues in the case are	content and sufficient coverage of issues in the case are	content and sufficient coverage of issues in the case are
content and sufficient coverage of issues in the case are	content and sufficient coverage of issues in the case are	content and sufficient coverage of issues in the case are	content and sufficient coverage of issues in the case are	all of a good standard.	all of an adequate standard.	all of an insufficient standard.	all of an totally insufficient standard.
all of an exemplary standard.	all of an outstanding standard.	all of an excellent standard.	all of a very good standard.