Over the past six years, the Financial Solutions Lab has run an annual fintech accelerator that has supported more than 40 companies with investments, resources, mentorship, and more to improve the financial health of people across the U.S. These companies have reached more than 5 million low- to moderate-income consumers – and over 10 million […]

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” The opening lines of Charles Dickens’ iconic novel A Tale of Two Cities perfectly capture the paradoxical nature of this moment in time. Since March, the news has often featured contradictory narratives about the impact of the ongoing pandemic on people’s financial lives….

There are more than 44,000 federal, state, and local restrictions that block access to public benefits, employment opportunities, and other crucial services that returning citizens need to establish stability and build their financial health.

Today, many digital-only banking startups are focused on offering financial health-centric services. A shift toward advancing consumer financial health would be a positive for everyone.

There is no shortage of macro-level data showing that employees across the country, and in every industry, are struggling financially. As organizations think about assessing and improving the financial health of their workforces, here are some best practices to keep in mind.

Our new report, “Race, Ethnicity, and the Financial Lives of Young Adults,” sheds light on the different financial challenges faced by young adults, especially Black and Latinx young adults.

It’s critical that small businesses — especially those in underserved communities — get support from government and philanthropies to rebuild, and that owners also receive personal financial health support so they can build resilience over time and weather future financial shocks.

The challenges posed by deepening financial insecurity are having a profound and long-term impact on individuals and families, and solutions will require cross-sector collaboration and partnership. To support these solutions, the Financial Solutions Lab intentionally recruited members to its new Advisory Council who bring a vast range of experience and backgrounds, from organizational strategy to […]

Since consumers clearly want the personal finance tools developed by fintechs and other innovators, why are banks and credit unions not offering them widely? The core challenge is to get fintech apps to talk with banks’ existing technology stacks and build a shared business case across the organization.

We’re excited to welcome two experts to the team that will drive workplace and healthcare financial health strategies forward: Matt Bahl and Adrienne White-Faines.

Lack of access to the social safety net has consistently hindered pathways to financial health for undocumented immigrants. Expanding eligibility for benefits to undocumented immigrants, during the pandemic and beyond, would increase financial stability for their families and most likely bolster the economy as a whole.

According to the eligibility rules of the CARES Act and the newly proposed “HEALS Act,” individuals are required to have a valid Social Security number in order to be eligible for an Economic Impact Payment.

By Thea Garon, Senior Director,  Necati Celik, Associate and Andrew Dunn, Manager, Financial Health Network Since mid-March, the United States has lost more than 21 million jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to help people get by, the Treasury Department began distributing recovery rebates, or “stimulus payments,” on April 11 as part of the…

Fintech has a powerful role to play in solving financial health challenges in a more inclusive way.

By Jacquelyn Reineke, Manager and Heidi Johnson, Director, Financial Health Network There is no denying that the COVID-19 crisis has turned the world upside down. Everyone has had to deal with daily changes to their routines and come to terms with a new normal, but vulnerable populations — in particular, aging Americans — have faced the most devastating consequences…

By Sarah Parker, Senior Director, Financial Health Network In the midst of the economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers are realizing that insurance is not a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have. Life insurance carriers report a marked increase in interest from new customers who want to purchase policies, as people recognize the importance…

By Josh Sledge, Senior Director and Arjun Kaushal, Associate, Financial Health Network The tragic murder of George Floyd at the hands of police has once again brought the inequities of the criminal justice system into focus. The violence captured on film has rightfully drawn a passionate response, as protestors demand justice for Floyd and an…

This blog by Jennifer Tescher was shared with the Financial Health Network staff in the wake of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police and the protests and civil unrest that have followed: Putting emotions into words is hard right now.

By David Silberman, Senior Advisor, Financial Health Network The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread economic dislocation. Tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs, at least temporarily, and millions more have seen their hours drastically cut. Those job and wage losses have fallen disproportionately on low-wage workers, especially blacks and Latinos, who are concentrated…

To measure the financial health of customers amid the economic devastation of COVID-19, organizations can leverage their own existing data and evaluate the rate of change in these metrics over time.

For older generations, who face the greatest health risks from COVID-19, the need to shift their financial management systems online is critical, but several key barriers deter older adults from adopting fintech products and services.

More than 33 million Americans have filed for unemployment since March – a new record. Yet even during the economic expansion of the last decade, the U.S. Financial Health Pulse shows that only 29% of Americans are considered financially healthy.

We have compiled behavioral science research on financial decisions to understand the challenges people may be facing and share our tips for how to spend savings and rework bills and debt to support financial health in a pandemic.

By Thea Garon, Senior Director and Andrew Dunn, Manager, Financial Health Network The COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout are likely to have the largest impact on those who are already struggling financially. Survey data from the University of Southern California and the U.S. Financial Health Pulse show that Financially Vulnerable Americans believe they are…

Even before the pandemic, the lives of financially struggling students were overwhelmingly complex. For financially vulnerable students, a disruption this large can have devastating long-term impacts, including failure to re-enroll once the pandemic ends.

By Steve Arves, Manager, Financial Health Network The economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has taken an exacting toll on many people’s retirement savings. Over the last month, the stock market took its largest dip in years, wiping out trillions of dollars in savings overnight. While it’s too soon to say whether these losses will…

There is also an opportunity to advance large employers’ understanding of the financial health challenges of workers, so they can better assess and implement financial health interventions in the workplace.

By Beth Brockland Senior Director, Financial Health Network March 26, 2020 Reading about the coronavirus pandemic feels a little bit like watching the world unravel before our very eyes. Every day brings new stock market lows and emergency measures. At the same time, people all over the country are demonstrating remarkable acts of humanity, practicing…

Gig workers comprise a growing portion of the American workforce, with 1 in 10 U.S. workers relying on gig work as their primary source of income. Without adequate health insurance, many gig workers are unprepared to deal with the financial shock of a major injury or illness.

We used the Financial Health Network Compass Principles, a set of quality standards for products and services that support financial health, to assess HSAs and IHRAs.

By Tanya Ladha, Senior Director at Financial Health Network Saving money is hard. So hard, in fact, that experts and academics have spent decades studying human behavior in an effort to make it easier for us, designing tricks and hacks that help us save — automating savings (think 401k retirement plans, created for us to set-it-and-forget-it), turning…

By Hannah Gdalman, Stevenson Fellow, Financial Health Network The recent open enrollment season means that for many of us, insurance is still top of mind. Other key moments such as the start of a new year, tax season, a new job, or family additions also provide a chance to reflect on insurance throughout the year….

By Chandni Ohri, Director, Financial Health Network In October 2019, Etsy signed on to BlackRock’s Emergency Savings Initiative as one of the inaugural partners because they recognize the challenge and importance of emergency savings for their sellers. Emergency savings is one of the building blocks to improving financial health. In fact, the recent U.S. Financial…

With 70% of recent graduates going into the workforce saddled with student debt, Laurel Taylor saw a massive opportunity to rethink the way debt repayment, roundup, and refinancing was handled. Her startup, FutureFuel.io, uses machine learning and technology to reimagine how employers can use student debt repayment as an attractive recruiting and retention tool. Taylor […]

By Thea Garon, Director, Financial Health Network A few weeks ago, the Financial Health Network released new data from the U.S. Financial Health Pulse, a groundbreaking study designed to provide ongoing snapshots of financial health in America. Launched last year, the study draws upon consumer surveys and transactional data to assess how people are spending,…

By Jose Galindo, Workplace Financial Health Program Director, Financial Health Network I know first hand — as the founder and former CEO of moneymio.com, the first bilingual online platform dedicated to empowering Latinos in the United States with personal finance education — the challenge young fintech companies face, especially those who are focused on improving the financial health of…

How do we open up our industry’s mindset and encourage banks to restore choice to consumers who want to retake control over their own financial behavior? I have two modest proposals for banks and credit unions to adopt the retronovations as part of their account offerings.

The Financial Health Network joined forces with BlackRock and fellow nonprofit leaders Commonwealth and Common Cents Lab to address the savings challenge with a focus on finding corporate and organization partners that are committed to helping their employees, students, and communities change their savings behavior and thrive.

Ronnie Washington founded Onward to enable workers of all income levels to build financial security. Onward is a non-profit employer-based mobile savings and credit app that helps workers save effortlessly, build financial knowledge, and access responsible credit when emergencies strike. What the 401k is for long-term retirement savings, Onward is for short-term emergency savings. Ronnie […]

By John Thompson, Chief Program Officer, Financial Health Network A main goal of the BlackRock Emergency Savings Initiative is to build and integrate better savings tools to help individuals, especially those with low-to moderate-income, save. My team at the Financial Health Network has done extensive research on the current savings crisis to better understand the…

The features of the financial services landscape that have brought today’s consumers convenience, reduced friction, and easily accessed revolving credit have now been with us for so long that we view them as fixed infrastructure. These gains have been accompanied by a loss of some of the tools and habits of mind that helped the grandparents and great-grandparents of today’s Millennials make it through two world wars and the Great Depression.

By Tanya Ladha, Director, Financial Health Network Financial technology companies, or fintechs, have altered consumer’s approach to their financial lives and financial health. Whether someone wants to save more, budget better, track their spending, or all of the above, there are many apps to support those efforts. Fintech companies can reach consumers anywhere, anytime, with…

Anuraag Tripathi and Meenakshi Lakshmanan founded Manifest to create a seamless retirement transfer solution. Currently, most 401(k) transfers are done manually, which is a tedious process. It’s estimated that nearly 90% of people who start a transfer, don’t complete the pen, paper, fax, and mail process. With more people changing jobs, the number of accounts […]

MedPut is an employee benefit program that provides 0% financing and bill negotiation services for out-of-pocket medical bills, with no impact to an employee’s credit score. Founders Stefan Sharma and Harsha Puvvada share their story. Q. What was the problem in the world that inspired you to start your company? We launched MedPut after observing […]

Data plays an important role in improving consumers’ lives. While there are some risks to sharing data online, with the right safeguards in place, consumer data can provide powerful insights into people’s financial lives that financial service providers can use to develop products, programs, and solutions to improve their customers’ lives.

By Laura Cummings, Director, Financial Health Network Amazon’s new Credit Builder secured card has ignited debate and dialogue about access to credit and the role secured cards can play in helping or harming consumers. We often hear about the millions of Americans who are deep in credit card debt, which points to the downside of…

Keeping a cache of savings for use in emergencies is hard. And it’s hardest for low and moderate income households whose incomes are often volatile and who thus need to tap emergency savings most often.

Installment loans’ appeal, in comparison to credit cards, are the fixed terms — a year or two or three — and equal payment amounts that automatically commit a borrower to paying off the debt.

Our research shows that employees are struggling financially and are looking to their employers for solutions. The EMERGE workshop represented a doubling-down on our commitment to working with employers, payroll and benefits providers, workers’ representatives, thought leaders, and policymakers to solve employees’ financial challenges.

As our research into measuring financial health shows, improving savings can unlock meaningful opportunities for people to improve their lives.