Greenlight Debuts Financial Literacy Employee Benefit Tool

Family-centric FinTech Greenlight has debuted its first employer-centric financial literacy tool.

The company announced in a Tuesday (Feb. 28) press release that it is making its Greenlight for Work program available nationwide to “organizations committed to supporting the financial well-being of employees and their families.”

The program is an employee benefit perk that offers access to Greenlight family finance and education products, which help parents teach their kids skills such as how to invest, earn, save and spend wisely.

“Introducing Greenlight for Work allows us to empower millions of additional parents with the resources they need to raise financially-smart kids,” said Greenlight Senior Vice President of Business Development Matt Wolf in the release. “Together with our Greenlight for Work partners, we can help make financial wellness for the entire family more accessible to working parents and caregivers.”

Speaking with PYMNTS’ Karen Webster last year following the release of the company’s Family Cash Mastercard, Greenlight Co-founder and CEO Timothy Sheehan said his firm’s research showed that 90% of parents wish they had saved more for their kids’ college costs and future.

Calling it “a massive problem,” Sheehan and his team recognized the underlying fact that most parents didn’t have the extra money to set aside and began thinking about ways to make investing simpler for these families.

“Is there a way we could come out with something like we have where it’s a 3% cashback card, but the cash back could be automatically invested into [exchange-traded funds] and make sure they’re diversified?” Sheehan told PYMNTS. “But kind of make it automatic so they don’t have to drastically change their behavior?”

Financial literacy isn’t just an issue facing young people. It’s on the decline in America — not that it was that high to begin with — as many people reportedly are unable to understand concepts such as inflation or compound interest.

That’s according to research last year by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). In 2009, the average person who responded to FINRA’s financial literacy survey could answer three out of five questions.

Last year, the number had dropped to 2.6 questions, with only 4% of respondents able to achieve a perfect score.

These numbers have real-life implications as consumers deal with record inflation, forcing them to stretch their dollars and rush to rework household budgets.