Financial wellness for employees

Our goal is to help your employees — no matter where they are on their financial journey — feel cared for and supported with the opportunity to live their best financial lives. We believe financial wellness is a holistic view of an employee’s financial situation paired with personalized guidance that goes beyond traditional benefits to provide more of what employees need to manage their day-to-day finances while preparing for the future — whether creating a budget, preparing for emergencies, saving for health care or planning for a steady stream of income in retirement. 

 

Financial education and guidance

Your employees will have access to education and guidance to help them take control of their financial lives. We work with them to create a financial strategy that equips them with the financial confidence they need to understand the impact of their financial decisions, prepare for life events, take action to pursue their goals and stay engaged.

 

High-tech, high-touch experience

We meet your employees where they are with high-tech and high-touch solutions that make financial wellness personal and actionable at every life stage to help them take the best next step.

 

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In-person

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Mobile app

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Benefits OnLine®

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Targeted communication programs

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24/7 Customer Care Center

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Erica® Virtual Financial Assistant

Personalized, comprehensive and engaging

Our goal is to provide a personalized experience for your employees bringing together what we know about the individual with trends, behavioral insights and consumer data to provide intelligent guidance and suggestions based on their financial situation. Our approach starts with assessing an employee’s financial health, then providing the suggested actions they can take to help them reach better outcomes by offering:

 

Financial Wellness Tracker

Supported by industry research and our insights from working with millions of employees, the Financial Wellness Tracker is a proprietary assessment that calculates a financial wellness score based on where an employee is today. Easily accessed through Benefits OnLine®, our participant website, it delivers a suggested action plan detailing the personalized steps employees may want to consider to help improve their financial lives.

 

Comprehensive education

Provide your employees with actionable information, tools and guidance to help them gain financial confidence. Our resources provide accessible, engaging content that features insights from our Chief Investment Office as well as financial education material from Better Money Habits®. Whether it's through seminars, webinars or access to our online education center, your employees get on-point instruction how and where they want it.

 

Investment guidance and advice programs

You can choose to offer your employees advice through one of our online investment advisory programs. Our two programs, Advice Access and Personal Retirement Strategy, easily accessed through Benefits OnLine, are designed to help employees establish and pursue their retirement income goals by providing investment guidance, advice and tools as well as optional discretionary managed account solutions.

 

Personalized guidance

Working with trained financial wellness specialists across the country, in-person or over the phone, your employees can pursue what’s important to them, no matter their level, life stage or goal.

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Personal Retirement Strategy and Advice Access are online investment advisory programs sponsored by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. ("MLPF&S" or "Merrill") that uses a probabilistic approach to determine the likelihood that participants in the program will accumulate sufficient total assets to achieve their annual retirement income goal. The recommendations provided by Personal Retirement Strategy and / or Advice Access may include a higher level of investment risk than a participant may be personally comfortable with. Participants are strongly advised to consider their personal goals, overall risk tolerance, and retirement horizon before accepting any recommendations made by Personal Retirement Strategy and / or Advice Access. Participants should carefully review the explanation of the methodology used, including key assumptions and limitations, as well as a description of services and related fees which is provided in the Personal Retirement Strategy Brochure (ADV Part 2A) or Advice Access disclosure document (ADV Part 2A). It can be obtained through Benefits OnLine or through the Retirement Benefits Contact Center.

 

Merrill offers a broad range of brokerage, investment advisory and other services. There are important differences between brokerage and investment advisory services, including the type of advice and assistance provided, the fees charged, and the rights and obligations of the parties. It is important to understand the differences, particularly when determining which service or services to select.

 

IMPORTANT: The projections or other information shown in the Advice Access program and/or the Personal Retirement Strategy program regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results and are not guarantees of future results. Results may vary with each use and over time.

 

1Investment products are available from Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated. 

2Bank products are available from Bank of America, N.A., and affiliated banks.

3The J.D. Power Certified Contact Center ProgramSM focuses on critical areas of customer satisfaction by rewarding best practices that are aligned with customer needs. To become certified for live phone interactions, a contact center operation must successfully pass a detailed audit and also perform within the top 20 percent of customer service scores, which are based on benchmarks established in J.D. Power’s cross-industry customer satisfaction research. The evaluation criteria include the customer service representative’s courtesy, knowledge and concern for the customer; promptness in speaking to a person; and timely resolution of the problem or request. Additionally, the experience with the automated phone system is evaluated based on the clarity of the information provided, the ease of navigating the phone menu prompts and the ease of understanding the phone menu instructions. J.D. Power 2022 Certified Customer Service Program recognition is based on successful completion of an evaluation and exceeding a customer satisfaction benchmark through a survey of recent servicing interactions. The ranking or ratings shown here may not be representative of all client experiences because they reflect an average or sampling of the client experiences. These rankings or ratings are not indicative of any future performance or investment outcome. For more information, visit https://www.jdpower.com/ccc. Participation in the certification audit was paid for by Bank of America.

4For the year ending 2021, DALBAR, Inc. examined defined contribution (DC) statements from 31 financial service providers, and total retirement (TR) statements from 5 financial service providers. Statements are scored on a 100-point scale in criteria grouped into four broad categories: Calculated to be Understood (Statement Clarity), Primary Content and Secondary Content (Statement Content), and Design and Statement Formats (Statement Design). Statements that earn 80-100 points are designated “excellent.” Statements that earn 70-79 points are designated “very good.” The DC statement earned a score of 90.90, the highest awarded in its category. The TR statement earned a score of 88.05, the highest awarded in its category. The ranking or ratings shown here may not be representative of all client experiences because they reflect an average or sampling of the client experiences. These rankings or ratings are not indicative of any future performance or investment outcome.