Financial Finesse Announces Release of Industry's First Online Continuing Education Course on Financial Wellness

CE Credits Available for Certified Employee Benefits Specialists®, SHRM's Professional Development Credits, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERS™, among others

News provided by

Financial Finesse

Aug 21, 2018, 10:43 ET

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Aug. 21, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Liz Davidson, Founder of Financial Finesse and widely recognized as the pioneer of the financial wellness movement, announced the release of the nation's first online continuing education course for HR and financial professionals on Creating an Effective Financial Wellness Program.

The comprehensive, 4-hour CE course, available on FiduciaryEducation.com, offers employers and retirement plan consultants guidance for planning and implementing a holistic financial wellness benefit focused on providing employees with life-changing guidance around all aspects of their finances. It focuses heavily around helping employers reduce financial stress in their workforce, improve employees' retirement preparedness, and fulfill their responsibilities as retirement plan fiduciaries. The CE credits are approved for designations offered by the HR Certification Institute™ (HRCI^®), Society of Human Resources Management Professional Development Credits (SHRM-PDC), CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERS™ (CFP^®), and eligible for both Continuing Professional Education (CPE) and Certified Employee Benefits Specialists (CEBS) self-reported CE credit.

This announcement follows several major developments in the financial wellness space, including headlines regarding the future of the DOL fiduciary rule and LearnVest, which collectively confirm the desperate need to establish a set of standards and best practices to combat confusion brought on by bad actors in the space who sell financial products and services under the guise of providing financial wellness programs to employees. In the last year alone:

Prudential released a study which revealed that 83% of employers believe that providing employees with financial wellness is the right thing to do.
The Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) established a Financial Wellbeing Research Center which is conducting employer focus groups around the country.
The 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling vacating the DOL fiduciary rule, leaving employees in greater need for unbiased financial guidance. Recent PwC research found that 54 percent of employees want to make their own financial decisions but want someone to validate that decision.

The course draws upon Financial Finesse's 19 years of experience designing financial wellness programs for many of the nation's most respected employers, to help employees better manage their compensation and benefits in their mission to become financially secure and independent. It shares what Davidson calls "a peek behind the curtain" to reveal the inner workings of actual award-winning financial wellness programs and universal best practices that companies of all sizes can apply to make financial wellness a critical employee benefit.

As the pioneer of the financial wellness movement, Financial Finesse was the first and only choice to develop this course, according to Brent Willey, Founder of FiduciaryEducation.com, a company dedicated to offering continuing education for plan sponsors, HR, benefits, and financial professionals. Willey says that "Davidson and her team at Financial Finesse have created a model for financial wellness benefits that has an unparalleled track record in the industry", including:

89 percent of employees who use Financial Finesse's financial wellness programs reported taking at least one major step to improve their finances following their first engagement with their financial wellness benefit, with reducing debt, cutting expenses, and saving more for retirement among the 5 most common steps.
Repeat participants in programs in place for three years or longer are twice as likely to be on track for retirement (43%) than new participants (19 percent) and are half as likely (14%) to suffer from unmanageable financial stress vs. new users (27%).

More information and course registration can be found here: https://fiduciaryeducation.com/p/creating-an-effective-financial-wellness-program

About Financial Finesse

Financial Finesse is the largest independent provider of unbiased workplace financial wellness programs in the country, delivering holistic financial coaching and guidance that helps employees improve their financial wellness. Financial Finesse's programs are proven to change lives and are provided by CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals who do not sell any financial products or manage assets. www.financialfinesse.com

About Fiduciary Education

Fiduciary Education is an online learning and certification hub for retirement plan sponsors, fiduciaries, HR, benefits, and financial professionals. The company believes people are intimidated by the retirement plan liability and complexities; therefore, they created an easy to use, quality online resource portal for Fiduciary Education. www.fiduciaryeducation.com

CONTACT:
Cynthia Meyer
cell 908-963-1892

SOURCE Financial Finesse