This guide is for BUSI 354 Week 5 Client Interview, start to submission. Watch the video interview with a potential client, analyze the family's probate and tax situation without an estate plan, identify the planning issues and begin outlining a plan.
BUSI 354 is Estate Planning, 3 credit hours, in Liberty University's BS in Business Administration. Canvas and the course guide file print the code as BUSI354; it is the same course.
| Course | BUSI 354 Estate Planning |
|---|---|
| Module/Week | 5 |
| Points | 200 points |
| Length | Not set in the guide; follow the assignment instructions |
| Sources | The interview and the textbook |
| Faith integration | Not required by the guide |
| Format | As instructed in the course |
What BUSI 354 Week 5 Client Interview asks for
You respond to a video interview with a potential client. Based on the interview, you submit a document that analyzes the probate and tax status of the client's family without an estate plan, identifies the family's estate planning issues and begins to outline the estate plan. It is due in Module/Week 5 with Dalton and Langdon chapters 8 and 11 (pages 450 to 455). At 200 points it is tied for the largest assignment in the course.
Where it fits in BUSI 354
In the published schedule, Client Interview is one of 8 graded written assignments in BUSI 354. It follows Week 4 Discussion Board Forum 4 and comes before Week 6 Discussion Board Forum 5.
How BUSI 354 Week 5 Client Interview is graded
Liberty grades Client Interview with the rubric attached to the assignment in Canvas, worth 200 points in the published guide. That is about 20% of the course's 1,010 points. The rubric rows are the real instructions. Draft against them, and you will rarely be surprised by the grade.
Course grades in BUSI 354 use Liberty's point scale: an A is 900 to 1010 points of the course total. Missing the length or source minimum usually costs points on several rows at once, which is why the checklist below starts with them.
Timing in the published guide: Each course module/week (except Module/Week 1) begins on Tuesday morning at 12:00 a.m. (ET) and ends on Monday night at 11:59 p.m. (ET). The final module/week ends at 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Friday. Check the due dates in your Canvas section, which govern.
The BUSI 354 Week 5 method, step by step
Read the case for facts, not impressions
List the facts of the case first. Analysis that rests on a misread detail is the most common way case answers lose points.
Name the central problem
Decide what the core problem is and say it plainly. The rest of the analysis should be organized around it.
Apply the course framework
Use the model or concepts from Estate Planning to analyze the case. Name the framework, then work through it with the case facts, step by step.
Weigh the options
Lay out two or three realistic options, with the benefit and the cost of each. Graders look for judgment, which means showing what you rejected and why.
Recommend and justify
Make a clear recommendation supported by sources (The interview and the textbook), with the first steps of implementation.
Answer every question asked
Check the case questions one last time. Each one needs a direct answer, clearly labeled, within Not set in the guide; follow the assignment instructions.
Apply the state intestacy rules the course uses to show who would inherit without a will, then estimate probate costs and any estate tax. The gaps between that result and the client's goals are your planning issues.
A structure for BUSI 354 Week 5 Client Interview
Word targets are planning numbers for about 1,300 words of body text, set by the length in the guide; the rubric decides where to spend more.
| Section | What it must do | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Client facts | Family, assets, titling and goals from the interview. | ~260 words |
| Without a plan | Intestate distribution, probate assets and estimated taxes. | ~420 words |
| Planning issues | Problems the family faces. | ~340 words |
| Plan outline | Documents and strategies to address them. | ~290 words |
A topic angle that works
Build a simple asset table from the interview with each asset's value and how it is titled; titling decides what goes through probate and who receives it under intestacy.
Model paragraph with notes
An original paragraph written by our desk to show the register that earns full rubric credit. It is study material: learn the moves, then write your own.
Without a will, the client's separately owned rental property and brokerage account pass under intestacy, which in many states splits the estate between the surviving spouse and the children, not all to the spouse as the client assumes. The home, held jointly with right of survivorship, passes outside probate. The life insurance names a deceased parent as beneficiary, so its proceeds would fall into the probate estate. These three facts are the plan's first issues.
- Uses titling.
- Applies intestacy.
- Finds issues.
Mistakes that cost points on BUSI 354 Week 5
- Ignoring titling.
- No intestacy analysis.
- Missing beneficiary problems.
Checklist before you submit
- Length: Not set in the guide; follow the assignment instructions
- Sources: The interview and the textbook
- Every case question answered under its own heading
- A clear recommendation with its justification
- Each rubric row read against the section that answers it
Questions students ask
When is the BUSI 354 client interview assignment due?
In Module/Week 5.
How many points is BUSI 354 Week 5 Client Interview worth?
200 points in Liberty's published course guide for BUSI 354, out of a course total of 1,010 points (about 20% of the grade). The rubric attached to the assignment in Canvas shows how those points are divided.
Is BUSI 354 Week 5 the same in every section of BUSI 354?
This guide follows Liberty's published course guide for BUSI 354. Liberty notes that course content can change from term to term, so if your Canvas section shows different instructions, a different week or different points, follow Canvas and your instructor.
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