Financial Finesse’s review of financial wellness in 2018, released Tuesday, found that employees who used their financial wellness program regularly improved in all areas of financial planning.
The greatest improvement showed up in retirement preparedness. In 2013, 21% of study participants said they were prepared for retirement. By last year, that number had risen to 57%.
The study also showed that average retirement plan contribution rates rose to 9.4% from 6.3%, and average contributions to a health savings account increased by 41%, to $1,319 from $934.
Sixty-nine percent of employees who used financial wellness programs reported feeling confident in their investment strategy, up from 43% in 2013.
The study includes results of a multi-year study focusing on 2,458 employees who regularly engaged with their employer’s personal financial wellness program from 2013 to 2018 to determine how they progressed financially.
“The study’s findings have significant implications for what some industry experts have called a retirement crisis,” Financial Finesse’s chief executive Liz Davidson said in a statement.
“Employers have spent millions of dollars trying to address this problem, through incentivizing employees to save by matching their retirement plan contributions, automatically enrolling employees into their retirement plans, and providing employees target date fund and professionally managed accounts designed to invest their assets in line with their retirement goals.”