Client education seminars might not be as necessary in the future. The reason? High school coursework in 401(k)s. The Reading Eagle in Reading, Pennsylvania reports on the increasing trend in 401(k) education nearby Virginia. The paper notes it’s actually one of many states that offers more personal-finance courses on the heels of the Great Recession, “hoping to instill practical money-management skills to help the next generation avoid the pitfalls that many of their parents experienced.”
“Proponents of the requirement argued that American children were falling behind in financial literacy and that the increasingly complex world of consumer banking demanded a new kind of education,” it writes.
It points to results from the 2012 Program of International Student Assessment, which showed that U.S. teenagers were in the bottom half for financial literacy among the 18 countries that participated, ahead of France and Spain but below Latvia, Russia and China. There are now 17 states that require high school students to take personal-finance courses, according to the Council on Economic Education. In 2007, there were just seven.
An economics and personal-finance class is now a required course for those who want a high school diploma in Virginia, and the Class of 2015 was the first that needed the course to graduate.
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.
