March 25, 2025
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Being visible is a key part of becoming, and staying, your client’s financial professional of choice. There are many ways to be seen.
One compelling way is by sharing knowledge that fulfills a need, such as information that shows plan participants that money can help them build futures, as well as pay their bills.
Doing this would show plan sponsors you are focused on helping their employees, while also connecting with early-, mid-, and late-career/C-suite employees as a resource they can rely on for guidance at any stage.
What makes financial literacy an effective way to create sponsor and participant relationships is that everyone needs help with finance, even, as the FT reports, the children of Wall Street bankers. Not every financial professional offers this sort of service, which can make you and your practice stand out even more.
Too few adults know enough about finance to make informed decisions about matters including debt and investing, and the whys and hows of saving for retirement. With research from distinct sources including “Financial Literacy and Student Debt: Survey of College Students from Auburn University”* that tie low financial literacy with less wealth, the cost can be substantial.
Sharing what you know, you could help fill in some important gaps, which, ideally, could lead to more education and the better financial results that can come with it.
An expanded opportunity is to use this same presentation to introduce yourself as a family-wide resource by offering to share these basics with participants’ families as milestones approach.
Consider downloading our “Day one, dollar one” presentation to get started. It covers much of the same information I used to share with high school students as an off-hours project before I joined Capital Group. It’s work I am still proud of because it provided students with tools to help them take control of their financial futures. This presentation can help you do the same for your plan participants.
Ryan Tiernan is an institutional retirement strategic growth counselor with 24 years of industry experience (as of 12/31/24). He holds a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst as well as the Certified Employee Benefit Specialist® and Certified Investment Management Analyst® designations.
*Davila, Hipolito and Hilliard, Jitka. “Financial Literacy and Student Debt: Survey of College Students,” May 21, 2024.
