Financial Wellness Programs Key to Retirement Readiness
Financial wellness programs are a key component of employee retirement readiness. Not only do they boost morale, and enhance the overall health of company culture, but they also assist in financial literacy and learning. It may be safe to argue that companies that don’t incorporate financial wellness programs into the workplace, do their employees a great disservice.
Upon the conclusion of The Plan Sponsor University (TPSU) Fiduciary Education Program held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Founder and CEO Fred Barstein spoke with Adjunct Lecturer Shir Keidan McGettigan, Financial Advisor / 401(k) Specialist at BLS Wealth Management.
Shir offered her take on what’s working in today’s 401(k) plans. High on the list? Implementing Financial Wellness Programs in the workplace. A good follow up, is incentivizing employees to attend group meetings where they can ask questions from financial advisors to help increase financial literacy and increase overall financial wellness. Providing a financial wellness program is critical to improving retirement plan outcomes.
Read the Full Transcript Here
Fred Barstein :
Greetings. This is Fred Barstein, CEO and founder of TPSU. Just completed a TPSU program here at Nova Southeastern in Fort Lauderdale. And I’m here with our adjunct lecturer, Shir Keidan. Did I get that right?
Shir Keidan:
Yes.
Fred Barstein :
I did. Wow. That’s fortunate. So wanted to ask you a few questions. Okay if we ask you a few questions?
Shir Keidan:
Yep, absolutely.
Fred Barstein :
Okay. Before we do, tell us a bit about yourself and your firm.
Shir Keidan:
Great. So we are a local financial planning firm in Fort Lauderdale, BLS Wealth Management. And we have a few different departments within our firm. I manage our retirement plan department, corporate retirement plans. And I’m very passionate about the retirement plan space because I think we get to provide a lot of really good information education for a lot of people rather than just working on an individual basis.
Fred Barstein :
So today, we had a lot of interest and comments about financial wellness. I know that you’re very passionate about that. Tell us what’s working and not working in your experience with financial wellness or with plan sponsors and employees.
Shir Keidan:
Yeah, great question. So financial wellness can be really helpful in improving participant outcomes, employee morale, employee engagement. Employees that feel that their employer cares about them usually are happier at work, they want to stay at work, but also a lot of people are lost. And oftentimes, people are making bad decisions, not necessarily because they’re reckless, but because they don’t have the information to make a good decision.
So implementing a good financial wellness program in your company can really help improve participant outcomes, morale, productivity, and get employees engaged to making good decisions and retiring with dignity, which is really what we’re all looking to accomplish.
Fred Barstein :
So specifically, what programs like it works and you’re seeing an effect and where does it not work?
Shir Keidan:
So where it’s working, is where we’re implementing group meetings. We’ll do them in person and through Zoom, depending on the group. Or sometimes we do a combination of both. And then as a follow up, one-on-ones. The one-on-ones are are key-
Fred Barstein :
A combination.
Shir Keidan:
Right? Because people are going to sit in a group setting and they’re not going to ask the questions they want to ask. So then having the follow ups to meet with advisors on our team to do the one-on-ones, is what’s really made the wellness program successful. What’s not working is if the company isn’t engaging their employees to get excited about their financial wellness. Those companies that we work with that incentivize the employees to come to meetings, communicate with them well, to get them engaged, to come to the meetings, do the one-on-ones, you end up seeing more participation and then the employees continue to attend and get engaged in their financial life.
The employers who aren’t really taking action, they’re offering it because it’s a service we offer, but the communication isn’t there. They’re not really spearheading the financial wellness program. I can only do so much if someone’s not attending my meeting because they’re not getting that communication from the employer, then the financial wellness campaign isn’t going to be as successful.
Fred Barstein :
And having raffles and food helps, right?
Shir Keidan:
Absolutely. Doing a lunch and learn is always great. One of our groups, every meeting that we have, someone is going to win a raffle, $25 Amazon gift card just for attending. And we notice that people, yeah, they’re coming for the gift card, they want to be in the raffle, but what they’re also coming for is education because they’re engaging, they’re asking questions and it’s getting them to take more control over their financial life.
Fred Barstein :
So final question is this was your first TPSU. First, what did you think and why do you think plan sponsors should come to this program?
Shir Keidan:
So I think this was a really great program. It provides a lot of important information. Education is really important for the employees, but it’s just as important if not more important for the employers. And a lot of employers have so many things going on, they’re wearing a lot of hats and maybe they’re not focusing in on the retirement plan. So being able to come to something like this get a lot of really good information, access to good advice.
Also, I think the collaboration, talking to other plan sponsors, hearing what they’re doing. This is a really awesome day. I kept hearing feedback that the day went by fast, which is a good thing. That means people aren’t watching the clock, waiting for the day to end, they’re actually engaged and wanting to be here.
Fred Barstein :
Great. Well, thank you for participating. I know it’s a lot of work. And thank you for watching 401K TV. Please stay tuned.
