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By Gerri Walsh, Senior Vice President FINRA Investor Education Foundation

FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, is an independent, not-for-profit organization with a public mission: to protect America’s investors by making sure the securities industry operates fairly and honestly. The mission of the FINRA Investor Education Foundation is to empower underserved Americans with the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary for financial success throughout life.

The FINRA Foundation partners with organizations across the United States at the national, state and community level to bolster Americans’ financial capability. We embark on research initiatives, develop educational programming, and engage in diverse outreach efforts to help all Americans meet their financial needs at every stage.

Among our many initiatives, we partner with organizations to educate and protect people against fraud and financial exploitation, work closely with military families to foster their financial readiness and security, provide workplace educational tools and resources for low-wage workers, and bolster the capacity of public libraries to help Americans, of all walks of life, achieve their financial goals. Central to our mission and embedded in all our initiatives is advancing diversity, inclusion, and equity when it comes to access to high-quality financial education

Find us in the Jump$tart Clearinghouse!

Although many financial education initiatives been adopted nationwide and across the globe, the effectiveness of financial education continues to be debated in fundamental ways. A set of prominent researchers sought to contribute to the debate with a comprehensive research study that asked: Does financial education work? The FINRA Foundation and the National Endowment for Financial Education collaborated with the researchers to release a research brief summarizing the research results.

So, does financial education work? Yes! The findings reveal that financial education is a cost-effective way to increase financial knowledge and improve a host of financial behaviors – including those related to budgeting, saving, credit and insurance. The study is particularly critical because it the most robust examination of financial education to date, employing a stringent statistical tool called a meta-analysis to examine the results of 76 independent and high-quality studies that were conducted across 33 countries and covering 160,000 individuals.

Knowing that financial education works – what can you do? If you are interested in opportunities to bolster financial education in your community, visit FinraFoundation.org to leverage the tools and resources we provide in your backyard. And as you advocate for financial education – whether in K−12 curricula, at the university level, in the workplace, or elsewhere – use this new, robust research to bolster your arguments.

You’ll find a blog post co-authored by Billy Hensley and Gerri Walsh with plain language summary of this important new research on both NEFE’s website and on FINRA’s website.

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New Research evaluating 76 intervention studies across 33 countries finds that financial education is cost-effective and improves a host of behaviors key to sound decision making, including budgeting, saving, credit and insurance. #financialcapability

Contact:
Gerri Walsh
(202) 728-6964

This week, Jump$tart hosted a Financial Literacy Briefing with Honorary Co-Hosts U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Tim Scott (R-SC) on the state of the national financial literacy effort, evidence of what is working, and the challenges and opportunities coming our way. For a recap on the event, please see our webpage for panelist presentations and a special message from Senator Reed.

Thank you to all of our partners, state coalitions, teachers, students, and countless others who are committed to raising awareness of the importance of financial education during Financial Literacy Month 2022! Please visit our Jump$tart FLM Toolkit for graphics and messages to promote on Facebook and Twitter.