M.A. in Financial Planning & Law

Principles of risk, return, liquidity, horizon planning, inflation, and taxation applied to personal financial planning of discretionary income, saving, credit, investing, and retirement planning.

Analyze the financial model and operating performance of a company compared to its competitors and market trends to determine the attractiveness of an investment in the company.

Managing financial assets by establishing appropriate investment objectives, developing optimal portfolio strategies considering, risk-return tradeoffs, investing the assets, and evaluating of investment performance. Includes choosing stocks or bonds for a style-specific portfolio as well as setting an asset allocation across asset classes and choosing managers for each.

(1) The philosophical and theological sources and nature of American law and justice; (2) the role of lawyers in the American justice system; and (3) jurisprudential thinking about what lawyers do, including select substantive legal issues.

Considers principles of risk and insurance, income taxation and business use of insurance, analyzes and evaluates risk exposures and insurance needs, and the selection of insurance company and policy; finally, examines the following forms of individual insurance; life, long-term care, disability income, health insurance, and annuities.

Focuses on communicating with a counseling financial planning clients; discerning client and planner attitudes, values, biases and behavioral characteristics; and learning the Certified Financial Planning Board’s Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility and Rules of Conduct, Disciplinary Rules and Procedures, and Financial Planning Practice Standards.

Fundamental areas of estate planning, which include methods of property transfer at death, characteristics and consequences of property titling, incapacity and elder law, powers of appointment, fiduciaries, sources of estate liquidity, use of life insurance in estate planning, estate planning documents (including wills and trusts, and planning for non-traditional relationships), IRAs and retirement plans, income in respect of a decedent, the types, features, and taxation of trusts, qualified interest trusts, charitable gifts/transfers and gifting strategies, marital deduction, intra-family and business transfer techniques, deferring and minimizing estate taxes, generation-skipping transfer tax, federal estate and gift tax compliance and tax calculation, and postmortem estate planning techniques. Prerequisites: FNCE 652, MLAW 542, MLAW 543, and MLAW 670.

Involves case analysis and the integration of financial planning, insurance planning, investment planning, taxation, retirement and employee benefits, and estate tax planning in comprehensive personal financial planning. Students will learn how to manage case scenarios to identify issues, analyze client financial situations, and make and implement recommendations. Prerequisite: UNIV 500 as required for admissions. Prerequisites: MLAW 542, MLAW 543, MLAW 544, MLAW 670, FNCE 652, FNCE 653, and FNCE 654.

Considers the fundamentals of personal, business, and trust & estate income tax law and tax compliance, including basis, tax consequences of property sales, alternative minimum tax, passive activity and at-risk rules, charitable contributions and deductions, tax reduction techniques, and the tax implications of special circumstances.