Fintech Friday: It’s Time to Get Emotional About Participant Engagement

It’s all about engagement.

Basic psychology tells us that groundwork must be laid before getting someone to act. Yet too many tools in the retirement plan and financial services industries fail this basic tenet, resulting in low engagement and lower participation.

Moniwell isn’t one. The firm is revolutionizing how plan sponsors communicate with their employees, mainly through its “moniconfident” program, which seeks to align emotions tied to money with financial engagement.

“It’s things like psychology-first, just-in-time text messages, but they are not reminders,” Jennifer Rayner, Moniwell’s Founder and CEO, explained. “Reminders are built into it and dripped, but you first must get people on a ‘money journey.’ Employers love it because we’re not immediately saying, ‘Do something!’ We’re putting them on a journey that gives them resources that aren’t currently available in the market. By starting there, we’re getting tons of engagement.”

The messages, branded as coming from the employer, include things like, “Financial stress impacts everybody’s life. Here are three tips to help reduce it.”

“We’re talking about money, mental health, and providing resources that help build somebody’s confidence,” Rayner added. “We understand that not everybody is ready to make a change or engage in the solutions we offer.”

News broke Wednesday that Dr. Daniel Kahneman had passed away at the age of 90. The pioneer in behavioral economics won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his research in the discipline. As a psychologist, he was the first non-economist awarded the prize, reinforcing the link between the two. It was a timely reminder of behavioral economics’ financial and societal impact.

Not surprisingly, it’s also something on which Moniwell heavily leans, offering automatic enrollment and other services that flip our often self-defeating biases to our advantage.

“I am also a plan advisor,” Rayner said.” Our entire industry is built [on the notion] that if people do these amazing things offered in our financial wellness solutions, they’ll feel better. In actuality, science has proven, even in economic behaviors, that if you start with helping somebody feel confident and empowered from the beginning, they now are intrinsically more motivated.”

Each employee receives one or two text messages a week, which Moniwell Co-Founder Lauren Loehning described as “bite-sized, emotive, fun, and nonfinancial oriented,” referencing yet another behavioral economist, Richard Thaler, in calling them nudges to help build their “moniconfidence.”

“It helps them overcome those negative emotions that often get in the way of taking that next step,” Loehning said. “So, you never want to think of Moniwell as the solution. We’re an engagement tool with a focus on financial well-being. We’re driving engagement in the solutions that are readily available, and at the same time, enhancing employee well-being by directly addressing the emotional side of money.”

Rayner emphasized that the texting program is a primer or a prerequisite.

“Engagement is the prerequisite,” she concluded. “It’s getting people to a point where they’re ready to click and act. We always say financial wellness programs are getting about 20% engagement at best. We will help you get the other 80%. We’re simply saying there must be a solution for the masses, and that’s what we can deliver through our texting program.”