PLANSPONSOR - May/June 2024 - 14

CONFERENCE COVERAGE
Financial Wellness
ROADMAP
Increasingly, plan sponsors are focusing on the overall financial
wellness of their employees. The PLANSPONSOR Roadmap: Financial
Wellness Conference livestream in March equipped plan sponsors
with the information and insights needed to build an effective, broadreaching
financial wellness program. Speakers
shared successful
financial wellness strategies and discussed key considerations for
anyone designing and implementing financial wellness benefits. Below
is partial coverage of the event; the full livestream may be viewed on
demand at plansponsor.com/events/2024roadmap/.
Defining Financial
Wellness
For a retirement plan sponsor, determining
the goals of its plan also helps it
frame the wellness programs and financial
well-being resources it provides to participants,
said speakers at PLANSPONSOR's
latest Roadmap livestream.
" At Fidelity, how we define success for
an individual isn't about a dollar [amount
saved or invested] per year; it's about that
person understanding where she is, where
she wants to go [financially], and having
the confidence to follow that journey, " said
Christine Chiulli, vice president of financial
wellness at Fidelity Investments.
Kerry Woods Tapia, vice president of
participant education and engagement at
SageView Advisory Group, said her firm
takes a multifaceted approach to teaching
financial wellness,
including
fostering
the development of better financial
habits, mindsets and outcomes through
14 PLANSPONSOR.COM May - June 2024
one-on-one financial coaching with certified
financial planners.
For sponsors, financial wellness " has
evolved to encompass so much more in the
form of reducing stress and how that can
lead to changes in [the sponsor's] overall
benefit system and to more productivity at
work, " Tapia said. " We think of it [as] a web
of things tied together and not necessarily
only retirement. " She pointed to generational,
geographic and organizational
differences, all of which have an effect.
For sponsors, to focus on select
aspects of financial wellness can help
them streamline their corporate wellness
programs, the experts said.
Chiulli suggested aiding employees
first with budgeting,
holistically-e.g.,
then later with creating an investment
strategy for a long-term goal such as
buying a home or living in retirement.
SageView focuses on " helping people
through different life phases, whether
they're new to an organization or leaving
it for retirement or otherwise, " Tapia said.
" We also have national wellness workshops
for all our
[sponsor] clients. We
encourage their employees to join monthly,
and that creates a baseline layer of education, "
Tapia said. -Noah Zuss
Holistic Financial
Planning
Employers are definitively moving the
needle on holistic financial wellness
programs, said Rebecca Liebman, CEO
and co-founder of LearnLux, at the session
" Elements of an Effective Program. "
Holistic planning is one of the biggest
industry changes she has seen, she said.
In the past, companies may have had only
executive financial planning programs,
she said. Now they want a program to
support their entire workforce.
" Companies are seeing the highest
rates of 401(k) loans and hardship withdrawals
in decades. If you put all your
assets into retirement, but you can't pay
for day-to-day living, that's a problem, "
Liebman said. " If you have an independent
program, you can help employees with the
real issue, whether that's redoing their
budget, understanding cash flow, paying
off debt or having emergency savings-in
the right order. "
Employees do want holistic financial
wellness-to a point, noted Adelia
Soremekun, senior director of total
http://www.plansponsor.com/events/2024roadmap/ http://www.PLANSPONSOR.COM
PLANSPONSOR - May/June 2024

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