Employees Would Use Employer-Offered Advisers

According to Four Seasons Financial Education’s 2015 Financial Wellness Survey, approximately 58% of employees have never met with a certified financial planner (CFP). However, 83% said they would utilize the capability to meet with one if their employer covered the cost. Fifty-nine percent said they would be likely to utilize the capability to meet with one even if they had to share the cost, and 26% indicated they “possibly” would.

Sixty-one percent of employers include financial wellness as part of their wellness programs, up from 28% last year. Seventy-four percent of employees say they feel financial wellness should be part of their employers’ overall wellness programs. Asked to rate their satisfaction with their employers’ benefits packages, employees provided with financial wellness gave an average rating of 8.11, compared to 7.75 for those with a wellness program without a financial component and 6.03 for those with no formal wellness programs at all.

Retirement was ranked as the most important financial issue by survey respondents, followed by investments and budgeting and debt. The youngest age group of 18- to 24-year-olds cited “investments” as their area of most concern, followed closely by “debt and budgeting.” Among those ages 25 to 34, “investments” is the top concern, followed by “retirement.” For 35- to 44-year-olds, retirement and investments were the top two concerns, and for those ages 45 and older, they were retirement and debt and budgeting.

For those employees receiving financial education, the most common topic covered was retirement (24.9%), followed closely by investments (21.5%). Only 12.1% said overall financial matters such as budgeting, saving and debt was covered.

Four Seasons Financial Education’s 2015 Financial Wellness Survey included responses from 572 employees that work full-time within the United States. The survey report may be downloaded from its homepage, www.fsfe.com.