Many forward-thinking companies are giving their employees access to financial wellness services to help them make sense of their finances.
Financial Finesse, a company that specializes in offering such services, has released a new study indicating that employees who participate in multiple live interactions with a Certified Financial Planner experience a much higher improvement in their financial behavior than those who rely only on online advice.
For example, 80 percent of employees who had five or more live interactions with a CFP have a better handle on cash flow, compared to 66 percent of online-only users. In addition, 72 percent of employees with multiple CFP interactions have an emergency fund, compared to 50 percent of online-only users.
A whopping 98 percent of employees who interacted five or more times with CFPs contribute to their retirement plan, compared to 89 percent of those rely just on online help.
While 48 percent of employees are on track with their retirement planning when they interact multiple times with CFPs, the same can be said for only 21 percent of online-only users of financial wellness programs.
On top of that, 64 percent of those surveyed said they are confident in their investment strategy when they interact with CFPs, compared to 42 percent of online-only users.
Employees who repeatedly engaged with their workplace financial wellness programs made more progress last year than in the previous year of the survey. Of these repeat users, 66 percent said they are comfortable with their debt in 2015, up from 63 percent in 2014. In addition, 39 percent indicated last year they are confident they are on track for retirement, up from 34 percent in 2014. Fifty-five percent of them said in 2015 they are confident their investments are allocated appropriately, up from 52 percent in 2014. And 31 percent report having taken a retirement plan loan or hardship in 2015, down from 33 percent in 2014.
A larger percentage of women employees repeatedly interacted with their financial wellness program last year compared to prior years. A look at 31 key financial wellness questions revealed that Financial Finesse’s overall Gender Gap in Financial Wellness declined from seven percentage points in 2014 to five percentage points in 2015. Of employees who were repeat users of their employers’ financial wellness program in 2015, 71 percent were women.
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