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Advisors to retirement plans might want to have a look at the latest in a new series of research briefs on retirement literacy issues released by Financial Finesse in partnership with the Society of Actuaries Aging & Retirement Strategic Research Program—and then recommend them to their plan sponsor clients.

Companies struggling to keep up with the needs of a wide range of employee financial and personal needs, says Financial Finesse, could benefit from the research briefs.

Liz Davidson, CEO of Financial Finesse, said, "[W]e are seeing traditional retirement planning practices being replaced by holistic financial wellness programs capable of engaging all employees and providing immediate value to the entire workforce from day one."

But evaluating the offerings of some three hundred-plus vendors offering financial wellness programs is a challenge even for the best informed of plan sponsors. How do they identify what constitutes a true financial wellness offering? How can they evaluate its success?

Greg Ward, director of the Financial Wellness Think Tank at Financial Finesse and coauthor of the research series, is quoted saying, "The goal of our work is to blend the beauty of actuarial science with the principles of financial planning such that every American is able to pursue their retirement goals with confidence."

The research that went into the series of briefs can help to resolve some of the quandaries surrounding the "historically fuzzy field of financial wellness," with titles so far available in the series including "Retirement Health & Happiness," "Retirement Planning from Start to Finish," "A Spending Plan for Retirement: Estimating Expenses" and "Retirement Planning Tools."

According to Financial Finesse, the briefs "are intended to help both employees and employers better understand how different retirement planning tools are used," so that they are better able to estimate how much money they need to save for a secure retirement.

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