A problem among companies and organizations that offer employee financial education is determining appropriate financial materials and programs to offer.

Financial institutions, which have a bias toward using their financial services, create many free existing financial educational programs. HR/benefits managers may be tempted to use these freebies along with free help offered by community "experts" who sell financial services and products.

Offering employees free financial materials and free expertise, while appealing - especially in our current economic environment - can lead to problems. Let me give you an example from my own experience.

I received a contract by a large multinational company to help them with a plant closing. The company wanted me to assist employees in dealing with personal financial issues caused by unemployment.

When my team arrived at the plant, I asked HR if employees previously had received any financial education. The HR manager told me, "Yes, of course, we've provided employees with a steady stream of financial education delivered through both print materials and live presentations by financial experts."

During one of our presentations, one of my team members mentioned not holding more than 20% of their retirement portfolio in company stock. Employees' anger visibly burst out; some people even began to cry. I stopped the presentation and asked what was wrong. Someone in the audience blurted out, "We've never heard this type of presentation before."

I asked, "Who normally presents to you?" They replied, "The company has different financial people from town come in, and they're always trying to sell us something. Also, no one told us that we shouldn't be holding most of our savings in our company's stock."

The takeaways

Two takeaways from this episode are worth mentioning:

1. Employees can see the differences between real financial education and free financial-industry hype materials, and the financial salespeople who present financial education at no charge in order to sell products and services

2. These differences affect the financial well-being of employees.

Thus, HR/benefits professionals face a triple bind. Only about 25% of Americans graduate from college, financially literacy has fallen to an all-time low among high school graduates, and company money is tight. Where can practitioners turn to find quality financial education materials written at a high-school level that are free of charge and (mostly) free of bias?

In 2003, Congress created the Financial Literacy and Education Commission to improve the financial well-being of the nation. One useful source of materials is the Commission's clearinghouse for financial education instruction at www.MyMoney.gov. This site offers content on almost any financial education topic free of charge.

Also at the national level, another great source for free and unbiased financial information is the Federal Reserve Education Web site, www.federalreserveeducation.org/PFED.

However, many of the best free educational programs operate at the community level. The Commission sponsors a Web site, www.flecnationalnetwork.org, which contains local and state government efforts at financial literacy. In addition:

* The Council of Economic Education offers free financial education through university-based centers.

* The Department of Health and Human Resources, through its Administration for Children & Families, offers free financial education and help to low-income families.

* The Department of Housing and Urban Development offers free help on home buying and foreclosure.

* The Department of Treasury, through its Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (www.cdfifund.gov/who_we_are_/about_us.asp), offers counseling services to prospective homebuyers to improve their decision-making.

A major source of financial education materials aimed at K-12, and thus appropriate for many high-school educated employees, is the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy at www.jumpstart.org.

Jump$tart offers an online clearinghouse that includes a comprehensive collection of financial educational materials that are age and reading-level specific.

In selecting financial educational materials and programs for employees, it is important to begin by first thinking about goal outcomes. Once this is accomplished, selecting educational materials and programs from one of the sites recommended will be a lot easier.

Even if you hire a professional financial educator to do in-house workshops, make sure he or she is not using biased materials produced by a financial institution whose goal is to get your employees to use their services. -M.N.

Contributing Editor Mark Nadler is an economist and professor at Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio. He is a member of The Financial Education Co. and president of Vincuro, a financial stress reduction firm.

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