Financial Education Goes Beyond 401(k)

Each month on Talking Benefits, I join Julie Stich, Kelli Kolsrud and Justin Held, International Foundation benefits nerdthusiasts, to discuss a trending employee benefits topic we think our listeners want to know more about. April is financial literacy month in the U.S. and, although the month is coming to a close, it’s an important topic for employers to master beyond the month of April.

Financial Education Goes Beyond 401(k)

According to International Foundation Financial Education for Today’s Workforce survey report, U.S. employers said about a third of their participants were only a little bit financially savvy, while 5% said they were not at all savvy. About half said that their employees were somewhat savvy but only 17% said very or extremely savvy.

Financial stress is impacting productivity, job performance, ability to focus at work and staff turnover. One way employers are combating financial stress is by offering employees a financial education program. Tune in to find out more about offering a financial education program to your employees or tweaking your current one.

We spoke with Paula Stop, director of benefits at Bell Partners, Inc. in Greensboro, North Carolina. Paula has done some pretty innovative things with her financial wellness program and shares helpful best practices in this episode.

Toward the end of the episode, we talked a lot about free resources the International Foundation has in place for employers to help their employees learn more about financial education. Here’s a handy listing if you’re interested:

Employer Financial Education Tools

Employee/Participant Financial Education Resources

Financial Education Videos

Find even more financial wellness resources on the International Foundation Financial Education and Retirement Security webpage.

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Anne Patterson
Social Marketing and Communications Strategist at the International Foundation

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Anne Patterson

Social Media and Communications Associate at the International Foundation

Favorite Foundation service/product: The innovative member survey efforts and results from the research team.

Benefits-related topics that interest her most: Health care, nontraditional wellness initiatives, employee benefit communication.

Personal Insight: It’s all about balance with Anne. She loves to run and enjoys a good culinary adventure. She’ll jump at the chance to travel or to spend fun times with family and friends, but she’ll also take time to catch her breath with an occasional Netflix binge or diving into a classic novel.

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