Need an indication of the demand for financial wellness?
Consider:
- 54 percent of Middle Americans—those with household incomes of between $35,000 and $150,000—worry about their household financial situation.
- Their top financial concern is debt, and four in 10 say they bring their financial problems to work at least once per week.
- And according to a recent report by PricewaterhouseCooper, 50 percent of American workers are spending three or more hours each week at work dealing with personal financial issues.
- Fully 12 percent of employees admit to missing work occasionally due to financial worries and 28 percent or workers say that their health has been affected by financial worries.
They’re a few of the reasons investment and retirement plan advisory giant intellicents has launched intellicents university with a heavy financial wellness focus.
“Many Americans are not ready for retirement,” Brad Arends, CEO and co-founder of intellicents, said in a statement. “Yet, it is difficult to expect dramatic behavior change regarding savings rates for ‘tomorrow’s money’ when they are not financially fit in regard to ‘today’s money.’”
The wealth management industry is addressing these issues for business owners, upper management, and the affluent, Arends noted, often referred to as the wealthiest “1 percent” of Americans.
“But this same industry acknowledges that they have little time or interest in providing this service for the 99 percent that they openly refer to as ‘the under-served.’ That is the passion of us here at intellicents, and we invite other like-minded advisors and employers to join us in this crusade to implement a workplace financial wellness program that really works for everybody.”
“intellicents university provides financial wellness curriculum for employers, their employees, and retirees,” Grant Arends, president of Retirement Plan Services and co-founder of intellicents, added. “Users pick their path, review the syllabus outlining the subjects in their chosen course of study, and can then contact our advisors or Certified Financial Planners to not only learn about the topic, but actually get planning and advice if desired.”
Course descriptions are in either video or written form and include subjects such as:
- fiduciary duty,
- the hidden cost of delayed retirements,
- taking a defined contribution approach to health insurance programs,
- business succession planning for employers,
- retirement planning,
- choosing the right health insurance plan,
- maximizing your HSA,
- budgeting and credit management,
- claiming Social Security, and
- buying or leasing a car for individuals.
“We currently are offering 17 different topics for employers, 23 for the American worker, and 10 for retirees. We anticipate adding more in the future,” Grant Arends explained.
Arguing that the typical American gets the vast majority of their financial needs taken care of at work, “Think about the complexity of the decisions we are asking them to make every year at benefits enrollment time,” Brad Arends concluded. “The decision that they make on one benefit option can impact the decisions they have to make on other benefit options; and these are no longer just benefit questions, but financial planning issues. Consequently, we already have several clients that have made financial planning an employee benefit.”
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.
