TIFIN, Franklin Templeton Launch Financial Wellness Solution

TIFIN, an artificial intelligence-driven financial advice provider, and Franklin Templeton have announced a partnership to launch TIFIN @Work, a solution designed to enhance employee financial well-being.

TIFIN @Work, announced Thursday, is intended to help employees assess their financial situation, get actionable advice and adjust their benefits to achieve better financial outcomes.

The solution will be delivered via plan advisers and benefits consultants that work with plan sponsors, according to a joint email response from Franklin Templeton’s Yaqub Ahmed, head of retirement, insurance sub-advisory and 529 college savings, and Kevin Murphy, head of workplace retirement distribution.

“The idea here is for advisers to expand their practice further, beyond in-plan [assets under management], bridging their plan participant base across into digital wealth serving an underserved market of mass affluent and sub-mass affluent,” the executives wrote. “The financial wellness/digital education offering, which participants can access via single sign-on or a link from their benefits portal, has active calls to action and a clear path for participants to act on the knowledge they gain (open an emergency savings account, for example).”

TIFIN @Work joins a large field of financial wellness offerings for plan sponsors, offered directly by plan advisories, by recordkeeper platforms or through third-party vendors. Demand for these options appears to be strong: In a recent survey of PLANADVISER’s top retirement plan advisers, financial wellness options ranked as the top focus area for advisers in working with clients in 2024, followed closely by participant education.

When it comes to standing out from the competition, Ahmed and Murphy wrote that the TIFIN @Work calls to action are “quite unique,” in part due to an AI assistant offering personalized solutions to employees.

TIFIN will partner with Franklin Templeton’s workplace retirement distribution business to deliver TIFIN @Work to plan advisers and their clients, according to the executives. The announcement of TIFIN @Work builds on the existing strategic relationship between the firms that began during TIFIN’s Series D round of funding in May 2022, they noted.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with Franklin Templeton to bring TIFIN @Work to the market,” Vinay Nair, founder and CEO of TIFIN, which stands for Technology In Finance, said in a statement. “This partnership combines TIFIN’s technological innovation in AI with Franklin Templeton’s deep plan adviser network and expertise in the defined contribution industry. Together, we can empower employers to deploy a holistic solution that fosters better financial outcomes for their employees.”