Financial wellness has been labeled “hot” for so long, one wondersif it hasn’t reached the point where it, too, has jumped theshark.

There comes a time in every popular television series when fansdecide “enough is enough” and viewership begins the slow declinetowards cancellation. This is usually precipitated by an over-hypedevent. For the hit show Happy Days, this event occurred when Fonziejumped the shark. So infamous has this event become that the term“jumped the shark” has entered the lexicon to denote when anythinghas peaked.

Financial wellness has been labeled “hot” forso long (Forbes published an article with the headline “WhyWorkplace Financial Wellness Programs Are Hot” in May of 2017), onewonders if it hasn’t reached the point where it, too, has jumped the shark.

Related: Financial wellness programs need nurturing tosucceed

It seems every other day we see an article boasting the meritsof offering a financial wellness program. For all this spilled ink,though, there remains no clear consensus on how to measure thesuccess of such programs.

Christopher Carosa, CTFA, ischief contributing editor for FiduciaryNews.com, a leading providerof essential news and information, blunt commentary and practicalexamples for ERISA/401(k) fiduciaries, individual trustees andprofessional fiduciaries.

According to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP),“financial well-being is a state of being wherein a person canfully meet current and ongoing financial obligations, can feelsecure in their financial future, and is able to make choices thatallow them to enjoy life.” Words and phrases like “ongoing,” “feelsecure,” and “enjoy life” entail immeasurable subjectivity. It’shard to define success if you can’t measure it.

Today, more than half the companies surveyed by EBRI offer afinancial wellness program. Other surveys suggest the percentage ishigher for big companies. This means a large number of workers havealready been exposed to the fruits of financial wellness. What dothey think of these programs? Just under half of them continue toshow no interest.

If employees cannot see the value in financial wellness, how cancompanies continue to justify the costs? Indeed, half of thecompanies cite “cost” as a top consideration when determiningwhether to invest the resources into creating and offeringfinancial wellness programs.

Obviously, the financial well-being goal as defined by the BCFPis laudable. It addresses the generally accepted belief regardingthe overall lack of financial literacy. It seems too much of thefinancial wellness hype appears nothing more than throwing dollarshaphazardly at an educational shortcoming in hopes something willstick. If we are to believe the statistics concerning secondaryschool students, this strategy hasn’t worked for general education.Why would we expect it to work for financial literacy?

What’s a better way to address financial wellness? Maybe byfocusing on the root cause of most financial problems: behavior.Over the past two to three decades, we’ve accumulated a vast arrayof research in behavior finance. This research, in turn, hasidentified strategies one can employ to discourage baddecision-making (one of the key criteria in the BCFP’s definitionof financial wellness).

We should therefore avoid the “textbook” solutions currentlybeing offered in financial wellness programs. Instead, we shouldemphasize behavioral modification techniques. These can be gamifiedto make the road to financial wellness less stultifying and morefun.

Read more:

• 3 tips to consider when implementing financialwellness programs
• The ‘best-kept secret’ in benefits? There really isa definition of financial wellness
• How to raise the bar for financialwellness