Spring 2024

This course is designed to provide students with the knowledge of both public and private retirement plans, with an appreciation of the usefulness of employee benefits and the ability to counsel others on important retirement and employee benefit decisions. Discussion will include corporate pension and profit sharing plans, self-employed Keogh plans, IRAs, annuities, health insurance, and social security, as well as additional issues individuals face in retirement, including insurance, medical, and life-style and community choices.

This course is designed to introduce students to an overview of the ethical, legal, and social environment of the retail services marketplace. Topics, among others, to be covered include social responsibility, sustainability, ethics, and the basic concepts of law, structure, and characteristics of the retail services marketplace.

This course is designed to introduce students to federal income taxation and the role of the tax code in financial planning for individuals, businesses, and business owners. Topics addressed include fundamentals of income tax planning, the measurement of taxable income, the taxation of business income, individual income taxation, and the tax compliance process.

This course is designed to provide students with an introduction to the techniques and issues of risk management and insurance. While businesses will be included in the discussion, the emphasis of the course will be on personal risk management and insurance. Topics to be examined include life, disability, and health risks, social insurance, real and personal property liability risk, insurance companies and product markets, insurance pricing, insurance taxation, government regulation of insurance, legal principles in risk and insurance, types of insurance contracts and the contents thereof, and professional ethics and market conduct.

This course is designed to familiarize students with the understanding and evaluation of investment options, plus the risks and rates of return of each type of investment. Study will also incorporate, among other topics, cash flow management, time value of money, measurement of investment returns, investment strategies, asset allocation and portfolio diversification, and alternative investments.

This course is designed to introduce students to a broad overview of personal and family financial planning, with specific emphasis the financial planning process, financial strategies, savings and cash flow management, insurance, investments, taxes, use of credit, and time value of money.

This course is designed to introduce students to challenges and opportunities associated with managing money. The course will cover key personal finance topics and money management strategies relevant for college students in the early stages of their financial journey. This course will approach money topics from a personal point-of-view and students can expect to gain objective financial knowledge as well as insight into their own individual approaches to money. By the end of the semester, students will have a clear understanding of how they can set and achieve financial goals.

This course describes the prominent characteristics of consumption behavior, societal change that has influenced consumer-driven societies and pressures for change in the future. The course will examine the important economic variables that, on the one hand, have led to a rapidly growing worldwide consumer demand for goods and services and, on the other hand, have resulted in increased debt, overspending and an inability to achieve long term personal financial goals. An objective analysis of both personal and global consumption habits will provide the transition into sustainable strategies to increase personal financial solvency. The course will not provide you with the answers to achieving your personal financial goals, but rather will examine our consumer society and expose you to the major reasons why people spend and save. The aim of the course is to provide you with sufficient information to make judgments for yourself about your consumption patterns and long-term financial health.

Qualified students working on an individual basis with professors who have agreed to supervise such work.

An honors thesis is required of all the students graduating with honors. Students ordinarily sign up for this course as a two-semester sequence. The first semester the student performs research under the supervision of a faculty member; the second semester the student writes an honors thesis.