MetLife launches financial wellness tool

MetLife has partnered with Ernst & Young to add another tool to employees’ financial wellness arsenal.

The new offering, called PlanSmart Financial Wellness, features a multi-channel experience that combines human and digital help that focuses on behavioral change. It includes tools and guidance that aim to empower employees to build financial literacy, confidence and wellbeing.

PlanSmart Financial Wellness is a group benefit offering that MetLife is making available to employers with 5,000 or more employees, and will be free for them to use.

“In order for a financial wellness program to be transformative, it must motivate employees to change the way they engage with their finances,” Meredith Ryan-Reid, MetLife’s senior vice president of group benefits, told EBN. “Employees across all life stages need robust and relevant educational content, tools and guidance to help them take actions necessary to manage their current personal financial situations, protect against unplanned risks and prepare for future life milestones.”

The offering builds on MetLife’s PlanSmart workplace financial education program, which offers workshops and one-on-one consultations.

Employees can visit the PFW website and create a financial wellness plan focused around one specific goal. Workers can select a goal they want to achieve — paying down debt or planning for retirement, for example — and are then provided a personalized plan broken down into bite-sized activities, along with unlimited access to online resources and tools. Workers also have access to online and in-person coaching, seminars and consultations.

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In addition, the solution’s “smart” platform saves the employee’s activity so they can pick up where they left off. Employees also are encouraged to remain engaged and take action through proactive features, such as checkups and reminders.

Employees are struggling when it comes to their finances, Ryan-Reid says, pointing to MetLife’s recent annual benefits survey, which found that just over a third of workers feel in control of their finances. “These concerns can impact other areas of employees’ lives, including their productivity at work. By investing in financial wellness, employers can help their workforce become more engaged and productive.”

“We believe employee benefits are the foundation for a successful financial future,” she says. “By integrating the employers’ benefit options at the center of PlanSmart Financial Wellness, this solution connects guidance back to resources available at the employees’ workplace.”