LPL Teams with Dave Ramsey in Financial Wellness Program

Retirement plan advisers and plan sponsors of LPL Financial will be able to offer the financial wellness program, SmartDollar, to their participants. SmartDollar is the creation of Ramsey Solutions, Dave Ramsey’s personal finance organization. The program adds to the financial planning and financial education resources available on LPL’s Worksite Financial Solutions platform.

Created by financial expert Dave Ramsey, SmartDollar is designed to educate, inspire and empower employees to proactively take control of their money and get on track for retirement. It aims to help participants change their behavior toward money, and use their income to save and invest instead of paying consumer debt. SmartDollar will be offered as part of LPL’s Worksite Financial Solutions platform.

LPL’s Worksite Financial Solutions delivers services to employees who participate in retirement plans managed by LPL plan advisers. The goal is to provide employers with a guidance-based, beginning-to-end retirement solution to help employees become more confident financially. Employees can use a range of services to save, track retirement plan assets and appropriately invest their savings.

Access to the program will better position workers to reach long-term goals, according to David Reich, executive vice president and head of Retirement Partners, LPL Financial. “We strive to provide the best options to advisers and plan sponsors so that they can customize programs to best address their needs,” he says. “We understand that there is no one-size-fits-all approach for employers and advisers to take in planning for the future.”

“With so many Americans living paycheck to paycheck, it’s no wonder that employees are not on track for retirement,” said Brian Hamilton, vice president of Financial Wellness for Ramsey Solutions. “SmartDollar is designed to get to the root of the problem and helps employees have a step-by-step plan to get on a budget, build their emergency savings and get out of debt so they free up their largest wealth-building tool: their income.”

Last September, LPL entered into an arrangement with Financial Finesse to provide wellness content through interactive webcasts and workshops. According to an LPL spokesman, Financial Finesse is no longer the exclusive vendor for LPL’s Worksite platform. New subscriptions to Financial Finesse’s learning center and platform must be established through Financial Finesse.