The Fundamentals of Writing a Financial Plan, First Edition (Revised)

The Fundamentals of Writing a Financial Plan provides a unique approach to helping aspiring financial planners write a comprehensive financial plan. The book outlines how the CFP Board of Standards, Inc. newly-revised 7-step systematic financial planning process can be applied when writing a comprehensive financial plan for an individual or family and demonstrates how to analyze and create a plan for key financial planning scenarios.

The book not only highlights various elements involved in comprehensive financial planning, including estate, tax, cash flow, education planning, and much more – but also introduces important behavioral perspectives and communication techniques. As a way to synthesize these pieces and learn how the plan writing process unfolds, students follow a running case—the Hubble family.

This book features:

• A thorough review of the new 7-step systematic financial planning process.
• A description of the regulatory environment in which every financial planner operates.
• An in-depth discussion of client communication and counseling techniques.
• Financial planning strategies that can be applied to a variety of clients and client circumstances.
• A chapter-by-chapter focus on analytical tools and techniques that can be used to evaluate client data.
• An example of a complete written financial plan with explanations about how analyses lead to the recommendations.
• Chapter-based learning aids, including access to a fully integrated Financial Planning Analysis Excel™ package and other online support materials, including video examples of client communication and counseling strategies.
• Instructions on how to do calculations essential to creating a financial plan.
• Numerous self-test questions to test comprehension of material.

New in the revised 1^st Edition:

• Newly updated materials that reflect current financial planning trends
• Updated information regarding recent tax changes, including the SECURE Act

Topics Covered:

• Writing a Financial Plan
• Laws, Regulations, and Ethics: Standards Guiding the Financial Planning Process
• Fundamentals of Communication and Counseling in Financial Planning
• Cash Flow and Net Worth Planning
• Tax Planning
• Life Insurance Planning
• Health Insurance Planning
• Disability Insurance Planning
• And more! See the “Table of Contents” section for a full list of topics

A note for instructors:

This book serves as a capstone book for students in financial planning programs by allowing instructors to combine all of the relevant financial planning sub-disciplines (budgeting, tax, estate, and insurance planning) into a single plan-writing exercise.

If you have questions about our academic program or if you are interested in purchasing the original 1st edition, please contact Jay Caslow by phone at 614-562-6462 or by email at [email protected].