PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2018 - 8

Upfront
Personalizing Financial Education
THE financial education and wellness
programs that employers offer their
workers are, for the most part, ineffective
because they do not speak to each individual's
particular situation and motivate
him to make a behavioral change, says
Martha Brown Menard, Ph.D., senior
researcher at financial wellness software
provider Questis.
" It's challenging for employers to
deliver personalized financial advice, "
Menard admits. " They have limited
resources and opportunities for addressing
a large population that spans multiple
demographics and that is experiencing
diverse life events and needs. "
Chris Whitlow, CEO of Edukate, also
a financial wellness software provider,
says his company's offering asks participants
what financial challenges they
currently face, be those buying a home,
starting a family, paying off student debt
or helping elderly parents.
" Once you understand what they are
struggling with, you can highlight the
right benefit that the employer offers to
help them with these goals, " Whitlow says.
Menard maintains that financial
technology is the key to delivering tailored
education. " Financial technology holds a lot
of promise and is just starting to deliver, "
she says. " It's possible to use existing
technology now-and machine learning/
artificial intelligence, going forward-to
deliver more personalized advice to meet
people where they are. We know people
are more motivated to take action when
information presented to them is relevant
to their immediate situation, with concrete
suggestions on how to take action. "
The technology needs to be paired
with access to financial advisers who can
provide financial coaching, Menard says.
" Ideally, financial wellness programs can
be personalized by people, who can coach
and encourage, and at the same time be
fueled and scaled by technology. Coaching
employs techniques that are consistent
with the concepts and principles of effective
behavioral change, " she says.
A relatively new entrant to the
coaching field, financial coaching differs
" ... financial wellness programs
can be personalized by people,
who can coach and encourage,
and at the same time be fueled
and scaled by technology. "
8 PLANSPONSOR.com April-May 2018 Art by Chris Kwon
from traditional financial advising in that
it tends to focus more on client-centered
goals to guide the process, rather than
just providing specific expert advice or
recommendations, she says.
The coach working with participants,
therefore, will be setting goals, creating
concrete action plans, building motivation
and providing accountability, Menard says.
According to findings from Edukate,
employers assume that saving for retirement
is workers' primary financial goal,
but it is only fifth of the nine financial
goals that the firm's software addresses,
Whitlow says. " The majority [of software
products] focus on paying down debt.
" I do think that the majority of the
products today concentrate on solving a
particular problem, " he continues. " We
pride ourselves on having an open architecture
platform, in terms of the broad
content we provide and benefits we can
then talk about. "
Whitlow feels that broad-spectrum
financial wellness programs can teach
workers who are not financially vigilant
what they need to ask in terms of various
financial goals and, in so doing, become
more at ease with the thought of reaching
out to an adviser. Otherwise, " while you
can offer financial coaching, it's going to
be difficult to attract an individual's attention
if he doesn't feel comfortable where
he is. " -Lee Barney
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PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2018

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