Why is Financial Fitness a Problem in America?
The cost of financial stress impacts more than a consumer’s bank accounts. Financial challenges can affect someone’s health, workplace effectiveness, and long-term financial stability. 64% of the American workforce is living paycheck-to-paycheck, and when economic downturns happen, it can cause even more stress for those individuals.
It's been proven that financially unfit employees cost employers on average $2,000 in lost productivity each year. Additionally, 67% lack the knowledge to make sound financial decisions, and 1 in 3 consumers take a hardship loan from their 401(k) annually.
People don't just want to be well; they want to be fit. The Financial Fitness Challenge provides the tools and mechanisms to get participants on the right track.
What Is the Iowa Financial Fitness Challenge?
The Iowa Financial Fitness Challenge is an event-driven wellness program that provides interactive, effective, unbiased online instruction in personal finance and investing fundamentals.
Thanks to the Iowa Insurance Division, your organization can now provide your employees with the most effective online 
financial wellness program in the industry. The best part - zero cost to participate.
Here are some of the reasons the Iowa Financial Fitness Challenge makes good business sense for an organization of any size:
- 3:1 program ROI
- Lowers absenteeism, tardiness, distractions at work
- Increases employee productivity
- Drives higher 401(k) participation and contributions
- Easy to implement and use: one-hour-a-week commitment for staff and employees
- The unbiased curriculum fulfills ERISA 404(c) requirements
- An additional ongoing, cost-effective, standalone program that can also work with existing programs
To learn more and see a demo of the platform, watch our informational webinar.
Why the Challenge Works
How Does the Iowa Financial Fitness Challenge Work?
The financial wellness program is offered to every organization in the State of Iowa through the Iowa Insurance Division. The Financial Fitness Challenge happens twice per year, once in April and once in September, and it's easy to get started!
Simply apply to the program to initiate the sign-up process for this FREE financial wellness program. Our team will then help you implement the program for your entire organization. We provide marketing materials that help administrators promote the program to gain maximum exposure.
Here's how it works:
- Your organization's platform will come with 5 pre-loaded course topics that end-users can access.
- Throughout the challenge, participants are quizzed after each course, to set a baseline for where they should focus their attention. The platform then intuitively recommends other courses to the participants based on where they lack aptitude, behavior, and confidence.
- After completing the last course, employees are assessed based on metrics from the quizzes they take throughout the program.
- The platform sends out engagement emails to get users into the program and then keep them engaged to learn continuously.
- At the end of the Financial Fitness Challenge, each organization is issued a final report that illustrates changes in financial wellness scores, knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes.
Each course takes about 1 hour to complete and is accessible anytime, anywhere from any computer, tablet, or smartphone. Spending as little as 10 minutes a day, users can go at their own pace, taking as long or as short a time as they would like to complete the program during the campaign period.
