Recordkeeping giant Ascensus added artificial intelligence (AI) to its financial wellness offering to encourage better economic decision-making and behavior among the participants it serves.
El Segundo, Calif.-based financial wellness provider Financial Finesse developed the AI platform dubbed Aimee, an acronym for Artificial Intelligence Motivating Employees Everywhere.
Aimee acts as a virtual coach and is available to all Ascensus and institutional partner plans that offer Financial Finesse’s program to savers. It uses machine learning to provide employees with personalized, real-time guidance to help build short-term financial resiliency while considering long-term financial goals.
For advisors looking to deliver innovative retirement plan solutions that include financial wellness to employers, Aimee further deepens the value and attractiveness of the financial wellness benefit.
Aimee’s launch is the latest in what Ascensus says is a series of strategic technology investments it has made to provide more personalization and guidance to employees about retirement planning.
In 2020, the firm launched the READYSAVE retirement mobile app and announced expanding its managed account investment offerings, with plans to onboard additional managed account providers in 2021.
Beginning in May 2021, Ascensus’ digital financial wellness “experience” will benefit from these Aimee-enabled enhancements:
- Greater personalization: Real-time guidance and custom action plans are designed to help achieve individualized milestones.
- Increased engagement: Dynamic financial wellness scores and dashboard motivate employees to continuously track and improve upon their progress.
- Enhanced reporting: Aimee captures insights on employees’ key financial questions and priorities to illuminate workforce wellness trends for employers.
“In today’s world, providing employees access to personalized guidance and education services like Aimee can lead to more informed financial choices,” Kevin Cox, Ascensus’ president of Retirement, said in a statement. “Ascensus is proud to partner with Financial Finesse, which continues to deliver innovative solutions for advisors seeking to offer plan sponsors, and their employees, tools that can lead to a more secure retirement.”
AI and Aimee
Financial Finesse has provided their Fortune 1000-level financial wellness benefit through Ascensus since 2018. The firm built Aimee based on learnings from years of one-on-one financial coaching, input from its network of CFP® professionals, two decades of proprietary data from its Think Tank, and behavioral psychology research.
Financial Finesse never solicits, promotes, or cross-sells products, making them a well-aligned partner to Ascensus and a complementary source of insights and tools to advisors and their clients.
“Ascensus is paving new ground with the launch of Aimee to bring unlimited, personalized financial coaching to every single retirement plan participant, regardless of income, job type, or any other factor,” added Liz Davidson, founder, and CEO of Financial Finesse. “To my knowledge, they’re the only recordkeeper that has made an investment of this scale in an independent financial wellness program to create retirement plans that truly prioritize participants.”
“The launch also underscores Ascensus’ commitment to supporting its retirement plan advisors, who can now easily combine best-in-class financial coaching with their own best-in-class offering,” Davidson concluded.
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.