Most Americans Struggle Financially, But Will It Guide Innovation?

A benchmark survey from the Center for Financial Services Innovation released today looked past the headlines and into the lives and habits of Americans across the financial spectrum. The results were troubling, reassuring, and everything in between. The organization’s inaugural U.S. Financial Health Pulse , facilitated by a partnership with the Omidyar Network , MetLife Foundation and AARP , found just 28% of Americans are financially healthy, meaning they're “spending, saving, borrowing, and planning in a way that will allow them to be resilient and pursue opportunities over time.” Another 55% of Americans are financially coping, meaning they’re “struggling with some, but not necessarily all, aspects of their financial lives," while 17% of Americans are financially vulnerable, meaning they’re “struggling with all, or nearly all, aspects of their financial lives.” John Thompson, chief program officer at CFSI, a nonprofit focused on improving America’s financial health, told Bank Innovation that spending, saving, borrowing and planning indicators are interwoven, practically and emotionally. “If a person is doing well, generally, in one area, there is a higher tendency that they are doing well in other areas,” he said. “If someone is struggling with a basic plan, then their spending habits may not be as good, their savings habits may not be as good, and they may have a higher instance of having issues around credit and borrowing or being underinsured.” Of the financially healthy, 42% spent “much less” than their income, 30% had no debt, 53% had 6-plus months of liquid savings, and 57 % were “very confident” in insurance. Of the financially coping, just 9% spent “much less” than income (and another 39% spent “a little less” than income), 57% had a “manageable” amount of debt, only 25% had 6-plus months of liquid savings, and just 27% were “very confident” in insurance (although another 33% were “moderately confident” in insurance). Of the financially vulnerable, 46% spent “about the same” as income while another 26% spent “a little more” than income, 43% had “far more debt than manageable” while another 38% still had debt that was “a bit more than manageable,” 45% had less than a week of liquid savings, and 33% were “not at all confident” in insurance. If the survey results look mostly grim, Thompson would remind you part of its purpose is to break that data down into understandable pieces of information in order to help stakeholders bolster financial health. “It’s our hope that providers of all different types can start to figure out what they do with their services, with their products, and with the way they run their business in order to make an improvement,” Thompson said. Particularly troubling was the survey’s finding that 47% of Americans say their spending equaled or exceeded their income in the last 12 months. About 40% cited volatile income or expenses, 25% said their spending always exceeds their income, 5% drew upon non-retirement savings to stay afloat, and 44% turned to credit to make ends meet. “It’s a stunning figure,” Thompson said. “While income is important, it isn’t the most predictive variable of your overall financial health.” He said improvements are needed across the spectrum and that more financial institutions recognize the “substantive benefits” of tackling the real financial hurdles their customers, and potential customers, face . “This is an evolution of the way we thought about inclusion for many years,” Thompson said. “We said, ‘If we just bring people into the system, chances are things will turn out OK.’ Well, turns out, we still really need to think about their outcomes, and design for their outcomes, when they come into the system.” But whether the data will help guide innovation efforts at banks and FIs to serve a wider range of customers remains to be seen. The current situation also presents an opportunity for fintech challengers such as neobank Moven , which provides more information (such as spending alerts that tell you when money is exiting your account faster than usual) and fewer fees, to capture more market space. As another example, automated investment service Wealthfront recently announced it will open up Path, its financial planning service currently offered to paying clients, to anyone for free by year's end. Wealthfront said in a press release: "We realized we needed to get our financial planning service into more hands after we found that clients who engage with Path are saving 28% more than clients who don’t. This is huge. Our software is encouraging good financial behavior and can scale in a way that the current models cannot. We have the chance to scale our advice to 10 or 10 billion people without sacrificing quality. Americans desperately need access to financial planning and advice and it shouldn’t be behind a paywall." CFSI said it plans to conduct its Pulse survey annually to track financial health trends over time.

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Most Americans Struggle Financially, But Will It Guide Innovation?

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Kony’s Deal with Umpqua to Acquire Pivotus Ventures Was Aided by ‘Cultural Affinity’

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