How can leading companies promote employee financial wellness? Below are insights from Grant Karsas, VP, Client and Member Success at HelloWallet. Grant has spent 12 years in the financial services industry with the past 6 helping to establish HelloWallet as a leading financial software company. HelloWallet provides independent financial guidance to employees at Fortune 500 companies. In 2013, HelloWallet won a Webby for best financial services website and in 2015, HelloWallet was acquired by Morningstar. As one of the first employees at HelloWallet, Grant helped to build and establish methodology on how HelloWallet works with its clients and users. Eventually, this methodology lead to the building of HelloWallet’s current client and member success teams. Under HelloWallet’s new parent company Morningstar, Grant now leads the overall client service team for the Retirement and Workplace Solutions group.
What is HelloWallet?
HelloWallet is a financial app and website that gives you a full picture of your financial world. You can link the app to your bank accounts, investments, and credit cards, and we give you a customized guidance path to help you achieve financial goals.
How does HelloWallet work with Yodlee® Interactive?
We have leveraged the Yodlee Interactive Aggregation API to power our financial wellness products for employers since 2011. The Yodlee platform enables us to make financial guidance both personalized and immediate by providing real-time access to account and transaction data. With one login to the Account Aggregation dashboard, members can securely add accounts and access transactions and balances for a holistic view of their finances. 
We take that data and build the guidance path for each client. As a result, employees are able to optimize their paycheck and make the most of their salary and benefits.
How does HelloWallet work?
We use the metaphor of a financial wellness ladder. The five elements of financial wellness include: spending, emergencies, guidance, benefits, and investments.
- The first rung is related to budgeting and spending less than you earn. It's about effectively managing day-to-day finances.
- The second is about saving for emergencies, and being able to handle them without dipping into retirement savings or using credit cards.
- The third is long-term guidance in planning for the future. This involves taking care of debt through a step-by-step approach.
- The fourth is maximizing your benefits, including healthcare and insurance.
- The very top of the ladder is investing for the future and preparing for retirement.
We move people through these rungs with our guidance path to help them reach the top of financial wellness. We want employees to invest for their future and enjoy a comfortable retirement with families.
Who uses HelloWallet?
HelloWallet is made available to over 1 million U.S. based employees from our client populations. The goal of client success is to drive adoption of our products and show our clients how we’re helping to improve the overall financial wellness of their employees. We have specific quantitative and qualitative metrics to measure success for our clients throughout their lifecycle with us. Many of our clients use the data to improve or even start internal financial wellness programs. Companies interested in helping employees make the most of their paycheck and benefits can view a demo on www.hellowallet.com. Lastly, I’d like to congratulate HelloWallet on winning Best of Show at FinovateFall 2015 in New York! HelloWallet was recognized for its Retirement Explorer solution, an approachable and actionable online planning tool that helps employees model and work toward specific retirement outcomes. If you'd like to learn how to use Yodlee Interactive Aggregation API for your own financial app, check out the developer portal.
