Iowa Insurance Division Announces Participation in the EVERFI Financial Literacy Bee to Support Youth Financial Education

DES MOINES, Iowa, March 31 -- The Iowa Department of Commerce's Insurance Division issued the following news release:

The Iowa Insurance Division today announced that it is sponsoring the EVERFI Financial Literacy Bee, taking place April 1-15, 2021. The EVERFI Financial Literacy Bee is a nationwide financial literacy challenge for high school students.

The EVERFI Financial Literacy Bee provides an opportunity for students to learn the critical importance of saving and budgeting for short-term and long-term financial goals.

The virtual challenge, created by EVERFI, and supported by leading financial institutions nationwide, features four short digital lessons followed by a capstone essay contest in which students share a short-term or long-term savings goal and outline their plan to achieve that goal. Winners of the EVERFI Financial Literacy Bee will receive a total of $20,000 in college scholarships. In addition, the top three essays from students in Iowa will be awarded visa e-gift cards of $200, $100 and $50 respectively to help them reach the savings goal they wrote about in the essay.

"The Iowa Insurance Division is especially committed to increasing financial literacy, and driving impactful change in Iowa communities," said Iowa Insurance Commissioner Doug Ommen. "We are proud to be supporting parents and students at this time through the Financial Literacy Bee and hope it will help drive dinner-table conversations about important financial topics."

By competing in the challenge, participating students will gain new skills to create a personalized financial decision-making framework that they can apply to their lives now and in the future.

Topics include how to save, set financial goals, budget, and invest.

"The pandemic has shone a bright light on the financial vulnerability of most Americans, with 40 percent of American consumers reporting that they had trouble paying at least one bill or expense in 2020," said Ray Martinez, co-founder and president, EVERFI. "We've always been committed to helping students increase their financial literacy, and during this historic time, we are also working to help parents feel more comfortable having dinner-table conversations about money. The Financial Literacy Bee is a fun way for students to learn important strategies to increase savings."

In addition to supporting the EVERFI Financial Literacy Bee, the Iowa Insurance Division works with EVERFI to provide the Iowa Financial Literacy Program. Any Iowa high school is allowed to utilize the program at no cost. Since 2015, over 300 Iowa schools have used the Iowa Financial Literacy Program in their classrooms and more than 71,000 high school students have benefited from an online financial literacy platform that is both engaging to students and aligns with the Iowa Core essential financial literacy concepts and skills for high school students.