Veteran Founders Launch Guild, Mobile Investing for the Military Community

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Nov 08, 2021, 13:43 ET

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On Veterans Day, November 11, 2021, Guild will launch its app to give military families and service members unprecedented access to innovative investment platforms and tools. Guild will help meet the urgent need to close the wealth gap for those who serve and their families. The company was founded by a former financial professional and Navy Intelligence officer who joined the military after 9/11.

"As former Secretary of the Navy, the financial stress of our service members and military families is one of my top national security concerns. Guild is helping our military and veteran community build long-term financial health and wealth. I'm proud of the all-veteran team at Guild for tackling this issue and leading from the frontlines of financial innovation." —Hon. Kenneth Braithwaite 77th Secretary of the Navy

Why it matters now: The military community is not being served by the private wealth community. 65% of military families are facing financial stress, which is cited by military spouses more than any other issue. Recently, DOD has shifted from its traditional defined benefit pension retirement system to a 401k style, defined contribution-based system called the Blended Retirement System. Unfortunately, less than 40% of the military are participating, leaving a majority of service members without long term financial planning. There is a lack of effective financial education for military members, including the 1.5 million service members that have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. A large portion of those are left unaffiliated and underrepresented in financial services.

Guild, built for-veterans-by-veterans, aims to reduce the two biggest barriers to investing—lack of trust and lack of knowledge of how to invest. Guild offers paid financial training, depositing $5 into members brokerage accounts each time they complete a financial literacy curriculum. Guild's unique format for investing and education drives financial literacy and stronger investment choices by using collective intelligence—the same strategy used by both military intelligence operations and Wall Street. Users can view and learn from a leaderboard of the top-performing traders on the app, making it the most transparent investing platform on the market.

Guild was a capstone project at NYU's Tandon School of Engineering Veterans Future Lab.

Founding Team:	Sean Bonner, CEO and Co-Founder, Navy Intelligence Officer
	Mike Connalan, COO and Co-Founder, Navy Intelligence Officer
	William McNulty, Strategy & Operations, USMC Intelligence Specialist
	Kaj Larsen, Content & Media, Navy SEAL officer

LINKS FOR TRAILER & SOCIAL:
Guild URL: https://guild.financial/
Social Links: @Guild_Financial for Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. @FinancialGuild for Twitter

MEDIA CONTACT:
Kaj Larsen, Head of Content & Media
323-336-4100
[email protected]

SOURCE Guild