“Employee engagement is the greatest opportunity and challenge in financial wellness,” Vishal Jain, Head of Financial Wellness Strategy and Development with Prudential Retirement, said at the outset of a session dedicated to the topic Monday morning at the Wealth@wor(k) conference in Las Vegas.
“Insurance companies, fintechs, financial service companies, benefit companies, and other advisors are all speaking with your clients about financial wellness,”
Daniel Bryant
Tilted “Financial Wellness 2.0: How to Engage Participants in the Financial Wellness Journey,” the Vistria Group’s Daniel Bryant joined Jain to explore the gap between employers who offer financial wellness and employees who need it most, an ongoing and frustrating issue.
Addressing the “workplace financial wellness imperative and challenge,” they cited research that found:
- 60% of Americans feel anxious about their finances,
- 80% of employees say financial challenges hurt their mental and physical health, and
- 90% expect their employer to play a role in their financial well-being.
“Financial wellness solutions are demonstrating their effectiveness,” Bryant said. “The financial wellness ship has sailed, and it makes sense why it matters. We know it’s effective in lowering benefit costs for employers, as well as lowering turnover and increasing retention.”
The aforementioned gap exists for five reasons, he added. First, no one has a monopoly on the financial wellness space.
“Insurance companies, fintechs, financial service companies, benefit companies, and other advisors are all speaking with your clients about financial wellness,” Bryant said.
The second is a lack of HR bandwidth, and no matter how much of a priority a CFO makes a financial wellness initiative, there is only so much time in that day.
The third is a lack of understanding about what’s in the benefits package, who provides what, and why it’s critical for the advisor to have “that 360-degree view.
The fourth is a lack of follow-up, and while a company might initially be gung-ho about financial wellness, it will invariably fall off, and the advisor must be persistent.
The fifth and final reason is a lack of targeted data when developing the financial wellness program, and better data must be used going forward.
“Retirement advisors have an opportunity to seize the high ground,” Bryant concluded. “If you lean in, you can crowd out the noise your clients hear from other areas and advisors.”
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
