Human Resources: Survey on Financial Planning Resources

The Xylo Report

The March 2001 Xylo Report: Financial Planning Resources in the Workplace analyzes the depth in which employers are providing key financial planning resources and offers insight into which services are most important to employees and how they affect stress levels around tax time. Â Specific topics include:

Â· Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Access to financial planning services at work and which services are most commonly provided.

Â· Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Financial planning services that employees want at work but do not have.

Â· Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Stress levels during tax season and how financial planning services increase or decrease these stress levels.

Key Findings

Seventy-six percent have access to financial planning services at work - retirement planning and insurance advice most prevalent.

According to the employees surveyed, over three-quarters (76 percent) of employers provide some type of financial service for their employees. These services include:

66 percent Â Â Â Â Â Retirement planning

50 percent Â Â Â Â Â Insurance advice

42 percent Â Â Â Â Â Investment advice

20 percent Â Â Â Â Â Tax planning

18 percent Â Â Â Â Â Debt management

18 percent Â Â Â Â Â Budgeting / Personal finances

Nearly three-quarters of employees who do not have access to financial planning services would use them if offered by their employers.

Of the employees surveyed without access to financial planning services at work, 71 percent indicated that they would use some or all of the services provided. Â The top preferences mapped closely with the choices actually offered by employers, although the options of tax planning (35 percent), debt management (30 percent) and budgeting/personal finances (35 percent) ranked much higher in preference than they did in practice (each were offered to 18-20 percent of employees), indicating that employers are slightly behind employee demand in providing these three services.

Â	Services Offered By Employers	Services Employees Want But Are Not Offered
Retirement Planning	66 percent	60 percent
Insurance Advice	50 percent	45 percent
Investment Advice	42 percent	43 percent
Tax Planning	20 percent	35 percent
Budgeting or Personal Finances	18 percent	35 percent
Debt Management	18 percent	30 percent

Women were significantly more interested than men in using the most popular services, including tax planning (40 percent and 32 percent, respectively), retirement planning (67 percent and 54 percent, respectively) and insurance advice (52 percent and 39 percent, respectively).

Â	Women	Men
Retirement Planning	67 percent	54 percent
Insurance Advice	52 percent	39 percent
Investment Advice	41 percent	45 percent
Tax Planning	40 percent	32 percent
Budgeting or Personal Finances	34 percent	36 percent
Debt Management	29 percent	31 percent

One-quarter of employees believe access to financial planning resources in the workplace would help reduce tax season stress.

Over one-third of employees (35 percent) indicated that tax season noticeably increases stress levels.

Younger women are significantly more stressed than men during tax season (41 percent versus 24 percent), whereas older men are significantly more stressed than women during this same season (42 percent versus 26 percent).

Â	Age 18-34		Ages 35-54		Age 55 and Over
Â	Men	Women	Men	Women	Men	Women
Tax Season Increases Stress	24 percent	41 percent	36 percent	37 percent	42 percent	26 percent

It is not surprising that people with children are more stressed during tax season than people without children (83 percent versus 63 percent), and single parents are the most stressed (46 percent).

Â	Single w/o children	Single w/children	Married w/o children	Married w/ children
Tax Season Increases Stress	27 percent	46 percent	36 percent	37 percent

Given access to financial planning resources through their employer, nearly one quarter (24 percent) believe these stress levels would lessen. Â

Â	Age 18-34		Ages 35-54		Age 55 and Over
Lower Stress if Given Financial Planning Resources	Men	Women	Men	Women	Men	Women
Lower Stress if Given Financial Planning Resources	8 percent	40 percent	27 percent	32 percent	15 percent	32 percent

This data is from a national quorum on work/life issues conducted monthly by Wirthlin Worldwide

March 2001: Financial Planning Resources in the Workplace

Interview dates:	March 1-4, 2001
Respondents:	1,003 respondents. Sixty-eight percent of the 1,003 respondents qualified for this survey by being employed (margin of error = +/- 3.7 percent, n = 684)
Conducted by:	Wirthlin Worldwide
Commissioned by:	Xylo, Inc.
Methodology used:	Telephone interviews