It’s Time to Get Personal – The New Era of Financial Wellness

Providing a financial wellness program to employees has never been more important. Americans are experiencing financial stress due to inflation, rising healthcare and education costs, Social Security shortfalls, and uncertainty around college savings and retirement income. Recent statistics of today’s Americans show:

• 71% are concerned that Social Security will not be there for them when they retire.¹
• The average annual out-of-state tuition at public colleges now approaches $32,000, putting college further out of reach for many families.²
• 66% of employees say financial stress negatively impacts their work and personal life, and 83% of HR leaders worry it’s affecting productivity.³

Employees are increasingly turning to their employers for financial wellness and retirement readiness support. The number of employees seeking help with emergency savings, debt and financial wellness has doubled over the past two years, according to the 2025 Workplace Benefits Report.⁴ In response, employers have expanded their benefits programs to include a wide range of financial wellness tools.

For these tools to drive meaningful outcomes, they must provide employees with a personalized experience that takes into account factors such as age, income, personal circumstances and level of financial acumen. Families saving for college and recent college graduates have different budgeting and debt management needs than employees approaching retirement, who are focused on withdrawal strategies.

Industry findings reveal nearly 60% of plan sponsors want more personalized, data-driven financial wellness experiences, with almost 40% planning to expand their offerings this year.⁵ While demand for personalized financial wellness solution experiences is high, there are some challenges for the organizations that offer them:

• Compliance and security—Any tool offering financial education and guidance must be compliant with regulations, ensuring data is secure, and information is accurate and vetted. Using the open web as a “trusted” resource is not an option.
• Ease of implementation—Financial firms need wellness solutions that can scale easily across thousands of participants without adding complexity to IT, compliance or HR departments. Fragmented systems lead to higher costs and a suboptimal user experience.

The most effective financial wellness solutions must be easy to implement and offer robust security for the firm, while delivering high-touch personalization for the individual.

Introducing Sage: The Next Step in Personalization

The SS&C Personalized Financial Wellness Center is a life-stage-based program designed to meet the needs of all stakeholders—employees, employers, plan sponsors, advisors and financial firms. It offers various financial wellness educational components on a single, customizable platform that can be tailored to the client’s specific needs.

The Financial Wellness Center addresses every stage of an employee’s financial journey, from initial enrollment and asset accumulation to major life events like college savings, buying a first home and retirement drawdown. Our integrated solution provides a seamless, end-to-end user experience, from targeted communications to interactive quizzes, videos, tutorials and more.

Our newest capability is a GenAI assistant, Sage, built directly into our Personalized Financial Wellness Center. Sage brings personalization to the next level by moving beyond static learning modules and empowering employees to have a conversation about financial wellness. Sage covers a wide range of topics, including saving for retirement, college savings, investments, budgeting and long-term planning.

Employees receive tailored education and guidance based on their needs:

• Personalized and conversational: Employees can ask real, complex questions (e.g., "How does getting a mortgage affect my retirement savings goal?") and receive tailored answers.
• Compliant and secure: Sage only draws answers from firm-approved content and documentation, ensuring every interaction is reliable, accurate and compliant. It never searches the open web.
• Accessible anytime, anywhere: As a GenAI assistant, Sage provides instant support on any device, making financial guidance accessible and intuitive as everyday consumer technology.
• Integrated with employer benefits: Sage can incorporate firm-specific benefits information into its guidance, helping employees understand and maximize the benefits and programs available to them.
• Action-oriented guidance: Sage’s call-to-action engine guides employees to relevant next steps and resources, including financial coaches or their plan’s advisor team, bringing together the digital experience and human guidance.

SS&C believes financial wellness should be personalized, accessible and measurable. Sage reflects that commitment, bringing financial education and guidance that is responsive, relevant and actionable. When individuals have the right tools and information, they make more confident financial decisions. And better decisions lead to better financial outcomes.

1 Social Security Turns 90: The Cornerstone of Retirement Income (25th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey)

2 Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid 2025 (CollegeBoard)

3 State of the Workplace 2025 Financial Benefits Study (Morgan Stanley at Work)

4 2025 Workplace Benefits Report (Bank of America)

5 Voice of the Plan Sponsor: 2025 DC Practices Survey (Mercer)