Financial Wellness Seminars™ Support Employee Confidence
by Pat Brault
Regional Director

"Will I have enough to live on?"
"Will I be able to retire when I want?"
"Will I be able to put my children through college?"

These are the nagging questions bouncing around in our heads anytime financial decisions need to be made. With the huge explosion of Boomers coming into retirement and the sad fact that most Americans are not saving enough for their golden years, more employers are taking the opportunity to help educate their employees and alleviate some of their financial concerns.

Consider these trends:

• The Fidelity Research Institute Retirement Index found that working Americans are on track to replace only 58 percent of their income in retirement with Boomers posting the highest rate of replacement income at 62 percent. People will not only live on much less than they are currently, but any unexpected costs could place them in severe financial risk. One in five Generation X employees hasn't started to save anything. This generation also expects to be responsible for much of the care and cost of their aging parents.
  
  
• In a survey of over 1,400 employees, Ameriprise Financial found that 57 percent reported extremely high to moderate levels of stress related to finances. Although they were not as apt to report that it affected their work performance, of those that did, 87 percent felt their job performance would improve if some of their financial stress was alleviated. It was also discovered in the survey that four out of five employees make decisions about their benefits package with no financial advice or financial plan.

Employers have a great opportunity to step in and help their employees navigate murky financial waters. One of the easiest ways is by hosting a Financial Wellness Seminar™.

Wipfli Hewins Investment Advisors, LLC, clearly saw the need to create a program which employers could share with their employees to become better educated and proactive with their finances. We met with several large health care employers in the Upper Midwest and worked with their staff to create surveys so we could understand what information employees were seeking. The surveys revealed that many employees had never done any financial planning and their concerns were abundant. Based on these findings, we created the Financial Wellness Seminar™.

A middle market health care organization in Wisconsin offered their first Financial Wellness Seminar™ in 2005 based on an employee survey that revealed numerous concerns. Attendance has remained strong each of the last three years with no decline in participation. Some of the topics included in the Financial Wellness Seminars™ are:

• Financial Fundamentals
• Advanced Techniques
• Estate Planning Basics
• Education for Children and Grandchildren
• Retirement Independence
• Investment Planning
• Tools and Resources for Better Financial Health
• Advanced Estate, Tax and Charitable Planning
• Investment Planning

The company believed that the biggest indicator of the seminar's success was the number of people who were motivated to take the next step in their financial planning. Now that they had some background information, they felt more confident in their ability to meet with an advisor or financial planner and ask the right questions.

When it comes to finances one size does not fit all. There are financial planning needs at every age and stage of life. The 20s are spent learning the basics of budgeting, credit management and coming to terms with debt. In the 30s, you're possibly starting a family, buying a home, still dealing with debt and planning for educational costs. As you get older, accumulating wealth, investing and saving for retirement take center stage. You also realize that the things you did and didn't do in your younger years are impacting your financial standing now. It's proven that each dollar you save in your 20s can be worth 10 times as much as a dollar saved in your 40s.

By offering both basic and advanced Financial Wellness Seminars™, your company meets the needs of employees at any age or stage. Investing time and money into employees' financial well being is also a great motivator, recruitment tool and message that you care about their future security.

When employees make sound decisions with their benefits package, health coverage and finances, they will show up to work each day with more confidence in their ability to manage their futures. Knowing the answer to, "Will I have enough to live on?" helps the individual and our economy overall.

For more information on our Financial Wellness Seminars™, please contact Pat Brault at 608.785.4193 or pbrault@wipfli.com or your Wipfli Hewins Investment Advisor at 877.636.6468.

[ Back ]