The M.S. in Financial Planning and Wealth Management program is designed to provide graduate-level finance training to individuals with either career experience in finance or an undergraduate degree in finance / related field.
The Master’s in Financial Planning and Wealth Management program is available under Plan B (without thesis), and the program of study is determined in consultation with, and with the approval of, the program director at the time of enrollment. The program commences at the beginning of the fall semester and ends at the completion of the spring semester.
Degree Requirements
A total of 30 Credits are required for the degree. All students must meet the requirements specified below:
- Maintain a grade-point average of 3.00 each semester as well as a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 3.0.
- Complete each of the following courses in the core curriculum (18 credits):
- FI 801: Managerial Finance
- FI 830: Introduction to Financial Planning and Wealth Management
- FI 832: Principles of Insurance and Risk Management
- FI 836: Estate and Income Tax Planning
- FI 838: Advanced Financial Planning and Wealth Management
- FI 850/851: Introduction to Investments I and II
- Complete 12 credits in elective courses approved by the program director. These credits can be earned in finance courses or in courses in related disciplines including marketing, psychology or communications. At least 9 of these 12 credits must be earned in courses at the 800 level or higher.
Students who have not completed equivalents of MTH 124: Survey of Calculus I and STT 315: Introductory Probability and Statistics for Business must take appropriate remedial math coursework before they may begin the program.
Flexibility in the choice of courses is the key characteristic of the M.S. in Financial Planning and Wealth Management program. Subject to certain broad guidelines, each student’s program of study is developed to further the student’s chosen professional objectives and to build on the student’s prior academic background.
The curriculum covers a variety of topics important to financial planners including traditional planning topics along with relationship development and building skills.
An example of a set of courses completing the M.S. degree with the full 30 credits is as follows:
Fall Semester
- FI 801: Managerial Finance (3 credits)
- FI 830: Introduction to Financial Planning and Wealth Management (3 credits)
- FI 832: Principles of Insurance and Risk Management (3 credits)
- FI 836: Estate and Income Tax Planning (3 credits)
- MKT 412: Digital Marketing (3 credits)
Spring Semester
- FI 850/851: Introduction to Investments (3 credits)
- FI 838: Advanced Financial Planning and Wealth Management (3 credits)
- FI 891: Behavioral Finance (3 credits)
- FI 891: Sales and Relationship Management for Wealth Management (3 credits)
- FI 891: Communication Skills for Wealth Management (3 credits)
Finance Graduate Course Descriptions
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FI 801 Managerial Finance
Variable from 1 to 3 CreditsInvestment decisions by firms. Value creation, risk and return, pricing models, and financial markets. Financing alternatives, market efficiency, capital budgeting, and leverage and risk relationships. Optimizing firm value. Agency problems and effects on investment and financing decisions.
View full course description at the Office of the Registrar.
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FI 830 Introduction to Financial Planning and Wealth Management
3 CreditsTechniques used to develop and implement comprehensive plans to achieve a person’s overall financial objectives. Budgeting, debt management, investing, tax planning, risk management, employee benefits, retirement planning, and estate planning.
View full couse descriptions at the Office of the Registrar.
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FI 832 Principles of Insurance and Risk Management
3 CreditsTechniques for measuring and managing risk. Pure risks related to mortality, health-related expenses, property damage, and product liability. Management techniques studied include risk assumption, prevention, diversification, and transfer via insurance and non-insurance market mechanism.
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FI 836 Estate and Income Tax Planning
3 Credits
Issues in estate planning and income tax planning for the financial planner and wealth management advisord shaping data.
View full course description at the Office of the Registrar.
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FI 838 Advanced Financial Planning and Wealth Management
3 Credits
Advanced retirement planning, client management, planning tools and software applications. Case-based capstone course resulting in the creation of a comprehensive financial plan.
View full course description at the Office of the Registrar.
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FI 845 Financial Modeling
Variable from 1 to 3 CreditsApplications of financial theory through computer modeling. Financial forecasting, cash flow modeling, and valuation.
View full course description at the Office of the Registrar.
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FI 850 Introduction to Investments I
Variable from 1 to 3 Credits
Essential financial theories and quantitative tools related to the field of investments. Topics include behavior and distribution of stock returns, mean-variance optimization model of portfolio selection, basic asset pricing theories and market efficiency.
View full course description at the Office of the Registrar.
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FI 851 Introduction to Investments II
Variable from 1 to 3 Credits
Security risk and return concepts. Security analysis and concepts of market efficiency. Emphasis on equity investments. Bonds, options, futures and international securities.
View full course description at the Office of the Registrar.
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FI 857 Security Analysis and Portfolio Management
3 Credits
Fundamental analysis of individual stocks. Discounted cash flow valuation, relative valuation and special situations. Portfolio implications.
View full course description at the Office of the Registrar.
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FI 862 Corporate Strategy Valuation
Variable from 1 to 3 Credits
Financial planning and control using financial theory and management techniques. Applications in international settings. Use of business cases.
View full course description at the Office of the Registrar.
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FI 870 Venture Capital and Private Equity
Variable from 1 to 3 Credits
Financing of entrepreneurial startups, venture capital and private equity. Valuations of entrepreneurial startups, structuring venture capital, and private equity deals and partnerships.
View full course description at the Office of the Registrar.
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FI 872 Financial Data Analytics
Variable from 1 to 3 Credits
Introduction to the analysis of real-world financial data in a variety of settings. Applying textual analysis to large documents, identifying “sentiment” in Google search data, and back-testing trading strategies. Developing the programming skills necessary to both collect and prepare data for analysis. Identifying, downloading, cleaning, and shaping data.
View full course description at the Office of the Registrar.