Financial Health Frontiers: Shaping the Future of Financial Health

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Shaping the Future of Financial Health

Twenty years ago, a movement launched to address a persistent problem: How can we bank the unbanked? Many households lacked bank accounts, forcing them to rely on costly alternative financial services and face significant barriers to building wealth. Advocates, financial institutions, governments, regulators, and other leaders joined forces to address this challenge. Today, the proportion of unbanked households has dropped dramatically – yet our understanding of the challenge itself has changed.

While bank accounts are important, individuals need much more to achieve financial health – to spend, save, borrow, and plan in ways that enable them to be resilient and pursue opportunities. Only 30% of Americans today are Financially Healthy, and deeply entrenched inequities by income and race are glaring and largely stagnant.^{1, 2, 3} At the same time, trends like technology, climate change, an aging population, increasing racial diversity, and the evolving nature of work are poised to profoundly shape our financial lives in the years ahead. How can we harness these trends to expand financial health broadly and equitably? And, importantly, who needs to be at the table to explore solutions?

In the inaugural report from Financial Health Frontiers, a bold new cross-sector initiative supported by Citi Foundation and guided by a diverse group of experts, we explore the evolution of the movement and the trends that will influence our financial lives – and our country’s future – in the years to come.

What You’ll Learn

Explore the full report for a deep dive into the past, present, and future of financial health.

Reflect on how the landscape has changed in the past 20 years and what those changes mean for our movement.

Assess the state of financial health today, including the persistent barriers to financial well-being.

Explore critical trends that will shape financial health in the future, from climate change and a demographic shift to artificial intelligence.

Read the Report

Inside the Trends

These key trends present significant challenges as well as opportunities to shape financial health over the next generation.

Technology
Innovations like AI bring both potential and risks for financial health. At the same time, 1 in 5 households still lack internet access.⁴

Climate Change
Staggering costs threaten to erode financial health further, with climate-related U.S. health costs already topping $800 million annually.⁵

Demographic Shifts
22% of Americans will be over 65 by 2050, while racial and ethnic diversity continue to grow – creating vast implications for financial health.⁶

Future of Work
As the workplace undergoes massive shifts, 76% of people believe workplace automation will widen economic inequities for workers.⁷

Central to my agency’s work is a baseline recognition of the myriad root causes and consequences of the racial wealth gap and financial insecurity among people of color in the United States, and how it affects their health and well-being. Rather than focusing on theoretical concerns, the applied research approach of the Financial Health Frontiers initiative will play a crucial role in addressing practical problems that impact our daily lives, work, health, and overall economic life chances, while untangling the structural factors that contribute to financial disparities, as well as potential solutions and policies that can address them.

Cy Richardson

Senior Vice President for Programs, National Urban League, and Financial Health Frontiers Advisory Council Member

About the Financial Health Frontiers Initiative

Supported by the Citi Foundation, Financial Health Frontiers is an ambitious initiative that works with stakeholders to envision needs, challenges, and opportunities for the next era of financial health solutions. Through collaboration with visionary experts and leaders, the Frontiers initiative asks:

1. What are the trends that will most influence financial health over the next generation?
2. How can we harness them for greater and more equitable financial health?
3. Who is not at the table now, but has a critical stake in the financial health movement?

In this initial publication, we look back at the evolution of the financial health field over the past 20 years, understand successes and challenges, and explore critical headwinds and tailwinds that will shape financial health in the years to come. Future publications will explore opportunities to increase financial health broadly and equitably.

Our Supporter

This report is made possible through the generous support of the Citi Foundation.

Endnotes

Kennan Cepa, Wanjira Chege, Necati Celik, Andrew Warren, & Riya Patil, “Financial Health PulseⓇ 2023 U.S. Trends Report,” Financial Health Network, September 2023.
“Distribution of Household Wealth in the U.S. since 1989,” Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, March 2024.
Aditya Aladangady, Andrew C. Chang, Jacob Krimmel, & Eva Ma, “Greater Wealth, Greater Uncertainty: Changes in Racial Inequality in the Survey of Consumer Finances,” Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, October 2023.
Adie Tomer, Lara Fishbane, Angela Siefer, & Bill Callahan, “Digital prosperity: How broadband can deliver health and equity to all communities,” Brookings Institution, February 2020.
Donald De Alwis & Dr. Vijay S. Limaye, “The Costs of Inaction: The Economic Burden of Fossil Fuels and Climate Change on Health in the United States,” Natural Resources Defense Council.
Jonathan Vespa, Lauren Medina, & David M. Armstrong, “Demographic Turning Points for the United States: Population Projections for 2020 to 2060,” United States Census Bureau, February 2020.
Kim Parker, Rich Morin, & Juliana Menasce Horowitz, “Looking to the Future, Public Sees an America in Decline on Many Fronts,” Pew Research Center, March 2019.

Written by

Meghan Greene

Policy & Research Advisor

Angela Fontes, Ph.D.

Vice President, Policy and Research