John Hancock Creates Financial Wellness Tool to De-stress Participants

After its Financial Stress Survey found that 66% of respondents suffering moderate to extreme stress blamed it on their finances, John Hancock Retirement Plan Services created a new financial wellness tool to de-stress and engage plan participants.

The Financial Wellness Assessment—which, according to John Hancock, will be free to all of its plans—provides tips on budgeting, debt management, saving, investing and other areas of personal finance that can be stressful. The resource also presents participants with a questionnaire about paying off debt, creating an emergency fund, saving for retirement, estate planning and health care. From the person’s answers, the tool assesses his needs and creates an action plan to address them. Additionally, it offers tips for customizing plan education programs.

“Our most recent Financial Stress Survey shows that much of the population still experiences financial stress and people need help managing their overall financial picture to alleviate [it] – and enable saving for retirement,” says Patrick Murphy, John Hancock president. “We see retirement as part of a holistic financial journey, and the more we can help our participants address the issues that may be a barrier to saving and reduce financial stress, the more we’ve achieved our ultimate goal of improving retirement readiness.”

The Financial Stress Survey was conducted in June 2017; more than 2,000 workers participated.