A finished FIN-490 Topic 1 planning relationship memo example, widening a single inheritance question into a defined scope, assigning duties to planner and couple and settling how a joint engagement handles disclosures. Searches like "fin 490 topic 1 assignment example", "fin490 topic 1 sample" and "fin-490 topic 1 example" land here.
What a finished FIN-490 Topic 1 planning relationship memo looks like
The finished memo starts from the couple's request and four facts that make it unanswerable in isolation, every figure illustrative: 4,000 of emergency savings, a 9,000 card balance at 22 percent, no life insurance on the self-employed spouse beyond a small policy, and no wills for two children aged 4 and 7. Investing the inheritance before those are settled could leave the family worse off than paying the card. The memo therefore proposes a comprehensive scope and states the alternative: if the couple want only the inheritance answered, the engagement is recorded as limited and the answer lists what it did not consider. Duties follow in two columns. The planner analyzes, recommends and discloses conflicts and compensation in general terms; the couple supply complete data and report changes. Return preparation and legal drafting are referred out.
How a FIN-490 Topic 1 example is structured
The memo is organized around what the relationship will and will not cover. It opens with the couple's request in their own wording and the planner's reason for widening it, tied to the four facts rather than to a preference for bigger engagements. A scope section lists the planning areas included: cash flow, debt, insurance, investments, retirement, tax and estate. An exclusions paragraph names the work sent elsewhere, return preparation to a tax professional and wills to an attorney. The duties table sets out what each party owes and when. A joint-client section explains that both spouses are clients, that information shared by one enters the plan, and what happens if their goals diverge. A process section lists the stages the plan will pass through, from data gathering to monitoring. The memo closes with the documents the couple must gather first.
The narrow question and its limits
Investing the 60,000 cannot be judged apart from a 22 percent card balance, thin savings and missing insurance, so the memo names those facts first.
Comprehensive scope, limited alternative
The couple may choose either, and a limited engagement is written down as limited, with the areas it leaves unexamined listed in the answer itself.
Duties in two columns
The planner owes analysis, recommendations and disclosure of conflicts, while the couple owe complete information and prompt word of any change in their circumstances.
Work referred to other professionals
Return preparation goes to a tax professional and wills and guardianship documents to an attorney, and the memo says which questions each referral will answer.
Two spouses, one engagement
Both spouses are clients, so the memo states that information either one shares enters the plan and explains what happens when their goals diverge.
Where marks go in FIN-490 Topic 1
Memos that accept the inheritance question as the whole engagement score lowest, because the plan that follows would optimize one decision while the card balance and the insurance gap go unexamined. Widening the scope without offering the couple a limited engagement overrides their authority over the work they have asked for. Papers that list duties for the planner alone leave the client's obligations, complete data and prompt notice of change, unstated. A joint engagement described with no word on shared information invites the conflict it should prevent. Treating the planner as preparer of returns or drafter of wills claims work the relationship cannot deliver. Describing the planner's standard of care vaguely, rather than stating the fiduciary duty the course names, leaves the relationship's central promise undefined.
Get a FIN-490 Topic 1 example written to your instructions
Send the FIN-490 Topic 1 instructions and the rubric from your classroom, with the household case your section assigns for the capstone. We write a custom example to them, with the request placed in context, scope and exclusions defined, duties assigned to both parties, the joint relationship settled and the first data needs listed, in 24 to 48 hours. The first one is free.
FIN-490 Topic 1 questions, answered
Why widen the scope beyond what the clients asked?
Because some questions depend on facts outside them. Whether to invest an inheritance depends on high-interest debt, emergency savings and insurance gaps, and an answer that ignores them can leave the family worse off. The memo proposes a wider scope and explains why, but the couple decide. If they keep it narrow, the limited scope is documented so neither side later mistakes a partial answer for a full plan.
What does a fiduciary duty mean for a financial planner?
At a general level, a duty to act in the client's best interest, with loyalty, care and disclosure of material conflicts. The CFP Board's standards require its certificants to act as fiduciaries when providing financial advice, and other rules apply depending on how a planner is registered. The memo describes the duty in these general terms and ties each part to something the planner will actually do for the couple.
Can I use the memo as an agreement with a planner?
No. The couple, their finances and the scope were invented for a FIN-490 exercise, and real engagement agreements depend on the planner's registration, firm policies and applicable regulations, none of which the memo attempts to reflect. It illustrates how a planning relationship gets established and documented for grading. Anyone entering an actual engagement should read the planner's own agreement and disclosures closely.