Canadian Financial Planning, Administration, and Investing Program

Personal Finance Fundamentals Course 1 sheds light on the purpose of financial plans – the why, what, and how – as well as how to set goals considering a beneficiary’s needs, wants, and wishes. The five basic building blocks of financial planning are explored in detail. These financial planning building blocks include saving, spending, giving, income, and budgeting. Risk management and long-term factors are reviewed. Finally, the course concludes with an applied learning exercise which gives students the opportunity to create their own basic budgets.

Personal Finance Fundamentals Course 2 introduces various financial statements including income statements, balance sheets, and statement of cash flows. Students learn the fundaments of how to read and analyze these statements. Financial statement subtotal measures such as gross margin, operating income, and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) are reviewed.  Finally, measures and ratios that reveal financial performance are detailed including working capital, current ratio, quick ratio, earning per share, debt-equity ratio, and return on equity.

Course 3 of the Personal Finance Basics course introduces two cases to expand student’s understanding of personal financial planning, personal financial statements, and how these statements are used in business. This course delves into the process of setting short-term and long-term goals, evaluating one’s options for achieving them, and ultimately putting a plan in place to achieve them. Students also learn how financial statements reveal the overall performance of a business and how the details of these statements help diagnose areas of strength and areas that require attention.

Course 1 of Trust Administration and Working with Advisors builds the foundational understanding of how a trust is administered. This course explores the essential questions to ask to understand how a trust is administered, as well as the key duties of the trustee relative to trust administration. Students learn the four steps of trust administration which include:

1. Assuming control,
2. Administering the trust,
3. Understanding the trust parties, and
4. Reviewing the trust.

Course 2 of the Trust Administration and Working with Advisors course builds the foundational understanding of how a trust is administered and now brings into consideration working within the advisor ecosystem. Essential topics are discussed including the types of advisors that may be in your network, how to hire, compensate, onboard, and fire advisors. Managing performance, communication, and transitions are covered. This lesson explores how to navigate changes in desired services and considerations for negotiating contracts and fees. Finally, course 2 concludes with an applied learning case about mobilizing an advisor team in a time of crisis.  

Course 1 of Fundamentals of Trust Investments builds the foundational understanding of how a trust is invested. The course focuses on common practices to investing a trust, the more common asset classes that a trust may typically hold and the investment considerations for those common asset classes. This course explores the concept of compounding, portfolio construction, time horizons, and risk and return.  It concludes with an overview of annual asset class performance and the factors that can influence performance.

Course 2 of Fundamentals of Trust Investments covers investment goals and strategy, the investment process, and different approaches to investing such as Modern Portfolio Theory and Goals Based Investing. This course explores investment governance that may be associated with a trust, including having an investment philosophy, investment policy statement, investment charter and/or an investment committee. Finally, this course ends with how to interpret a sample investment statement.

Course 3 of Fundamentals of Trust Investments progresses through a real-life case study and provides insights to how trust investing may have different guidelines and parameters than a simple brokerage or investment account. The lesson applies the insights learned from investment basics in Course 1 and the process, approach, and governance to investing covered in Course 2. The final Course provides a useful investment case study that also ties in the broader estate planning, financial planning, and wealth transfer concepts covered in earlier lessons.