Franklin Templeton Partners With iGrad On Financial Wellness Platform

Franklin Templeton has partnered with San Diego-based financial education company iGrad to develop MyFi Guide™, a financial wellness digital platform designed for financial professionals to share with defined contribution (DC) plan sponsors and participants.

Powered by iGrad’s award-winning Enrich™ financial wellness solution, MyFi Guide features the Your Money Personality™ financial behavior assessment, which analyzes each user’s financial “personality.” The MyFi Guide financial wellness platform also offers:

- Financial education courses with personalized action plans on topics including budgeting, mortgages, healthcare, college savings, student loan repayment, banking, credit, financial planning and more
- Retirement and home affordability analyzers
- A suite of student loan and higher education tools
- Personal finance calculators and a real-time budget tool

The Enrich financial wellness solution uses artificial intelligence to provide employees the most relevant content based on their financial situation and stage of life. Meeting employees where they are in their financial journey increases relevancy of content and engagement around financial topics. This is a critical factor when trying to reach an underserved population that typically lacks access to individualized financial guidance.

Franklin Templeton’s 2020 U.S. Retirement Income Strategies and Expectations (RISE) survey revealed that employees have a wide range of financial priorities, with 30 percent indicating saving for retirement is their top priority, while 40 percent prioritize paying off debt and 45 percent consider saving for unforeseen emergencies most important.

“We can improve the likelihood of American workers reaching their retirement goals through increased personalization,” said Yaqub Ahmed, head of Franklin Templeton’s U.S. Retirement and Insurance. “We know that successful retirement planning is not an isolated exercise. It is connected to overall financial well-being and developing good financial habits. Through MyFi Guide we will help financial professionals take personalization at scale beyond investments to the financial goal level.”

Employers and financial professionals can play important roles in reducing the financial stress of their employees and clients. Nearly 85 percent of Americans say they are stressed about personal finances, according to an October 2020 survey by the National Endowment for Financial Education.

“Financial stress is proven to negatively impact both physical and mental well-being, lower workplace productivity and increase healthcare costs,” said iGrad founder and President Rob LaBreche. “We are thrilled to be partnering with Franklin Templeton on this important financial wellness initiative.”

Enrich is used by more than 20,000 employers and more than 300 financial institutions nationwide to provide behavior-changing financial literacy education, tools and resources to employees, customers and members.

The workplace is the financial hub for many American workers, and MyFi Guide is an important part of Franklin Templeton’s overall workplace digital strategy. Harshendu Bindal, Managing Director, Digital Strategy and Wealth Management, put this new offering into a broader context by stating, “Our goal is to help financial professionals and employers deliver better outcomes to employees in the workplace through an ecosystem of digital solutions that address a range of financial challenges and goals. We aim to achieve this through strong partnerships with companies like iGrad who have a differentiated expertise in their area of focus.”

About iGrad
iGrad is a San Diego-based financial technology company that offers artificial intelligence-powered financial wellness solutions to more than 600 colleges and universities, more than 20,000 employers and more than 300 financial institutions. iGrad’s Your Money Personality™ was recently recognized by the Institute for Financial Literacy with the 2020 Excellence in Financial Literacy Education (EIFLE) Adults’ Education Program of the Year award. iGrad is one of three 2020 honorees in the inaugural Barron's Celebrates: Financial Empowerment, after being selected by a team of judges for its contributions to improving the financial health and security of Americans. iGrad also received the 2019 Eddy Award for Financial Wellness by Pensions & Investments for its Enrich platform. For more information about the iGrad platform, visit https://www.igradfinancialwellness.com. For more information about the Enrich platform for employers and financial institutions, visit https://www.enrich.org.

About Franklin Templeton Franklin Resources, Inc. [NYSE: BEN], is a global investment management organization with subsidiaries operating as Franklin Templeton and serving clients in over 165 countries. Franklin Templeton’s mission is to help clients achieve better outcomes through investment management expertise, wealth management and technology solutions. Through its specialist investment managers, the company brings extensive capabilities in equity, fixed income, multi-asset solutions and alternatives. With offices in more than 30 countries and approximately 1,300 investment professionals, the California-based company has over 70 years of investment experience and approximately $1.5 trillion in assets under management as of January 31, 2021. For more information, please visit franklintempleton.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.