MetLife And EY to Deliver Financial Wellness Solution

MetLife announced that it has formed a strategic alliance with EY to deliver a workplace financial wellness solution, scheduled to launch in spring 2018. The solution – called PlanSmart Financial Wellness – will focus on behavioral change, giving employees the tools, guidance and support they need to improve their financial wellbeing. The result will be a customized, goal-oriented approach to financial wellness that will meet employees where they are, offering the tools via channels they prefer. This will include online and phone support, both offered by EY.

The offering builds on MetLife’s PlanSmart workplace financial education program, which has offered workshops and one-on-one consultations for more than 20 years to over 2,000 Group customers. MetLife’s experience in this space, along with in-depth research and customer feedback, will help shape the solution’s new capabilities.

“Employees are stressed about their finances – MetLife research has found just over a third (38%) feel in control of their finances, compared to 44% in 2015 – and they are looking to their employer for help. The combination of MetLife’s understanding of employee needs and EY’s leading employee financial wellness services uniquely positions us to give employers the robust program they need to help empower employees to take action” – James Reid, executive vice president at MetLife.

“We’ve designed a hybrid digital/human financial wellness service that supports users as they manage the twists and turns of their financial life journeys. PlanSmart Financial Wellness will be an exciting new change in our ability to service and engage employees with varying levels of comfort with financial concepts and new digital technologies” – Lynn Pettus, national director of employee financial services at Ernst & Young.