Origin Founder & CEO, Matt Watson on Improving Employee Financial Planning
Welcome back, or welcome for the first time. Today I'm really excited to be joined by Matt Watson. Matt is the founder and CEO of Origin. We had a much-needed chat about financial wellness in the workplace and how Matt's experience led him to help others with his financial health and security platform.
"I've been an entrepreneur now going on seven years. I have started two companies, all in the financial services and technology industry. The business that we're building right now is a financial wellness company called Origin."
"Generally large and growing employers help their employees understand their money better. And what we found was that there was a huge gap in the world where folks who work very hard to make great income. They have nowhere to go to talk to anyone about money without being, without having a product sold to them."
Take a little time out of your day to sit down with Matt and I to discuss employee financial planning and how it is helpful to everyone.
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Ep 97 Origin Founder & CEO, Matt Watson
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Why Improving Employee Financial Planning is Important
The first thing that Matt discusses is the impetus behind his decision to create Origin. I wanted to know what he sees as the gaps people have around financial planning and why it is essential.
Matt points out a startling stat about financial anxiety, "60% of U.S. adults say that finances are their number one source of stress." And, he delves into more than just a number, "We want people to understand their equity more. And we want them to take advantage of their benefits, and we want to set them up for retirement. And as we looked at all the problems that people were trying to solve these companies. So many of these come back to financial stress."
"Big transitions in life that are very stressful generally have a significant financial component to them, and that can really stress people out and reduce their productivity." Additionally, "It's really hard for employees to manage money or understand money."
On how Matt decided Origin could fill an employee financial planning void, "Like there's nowhere for these people to go to just get really good advice" without feeling like institutions are trying to sell them a service.
What Origin Does to Make Financial Planning Easier
I wanted to know more, and Matt was more than willing to help everyone understand how Origin’s relationships with clients work and how their services support employees.
“I think we have an opportunity to change the way the service is delivered and really change the way that adults in the United States think about financial planning, where we can change it from, ‘Okay, I’m getting fed to the wolves who are going to try to sell me stuff. And it’s so complicated. I don’t understand it.’ [to] ‘the employer is sponsoring this benefit, [and] the employee can feel really safe.”
“The easiest way to think about Origin is you use our service to get matched one-on-one with a certified financial planner. That’s your certified financial planner for you and your family.” Matt continues, explaining why they aren’t the best ones for the job, “We’re a technology company, so we have all this great technology that helps collect all the information that the financial planner needs to create that financial plan for you.”
Matt explains that Origin is more than a one-stop platform and why that’s crucial, “One of the big things that we realized early was that continuity of care is really, really important.”
“People who use other services may be bounced around internally and speak with a different financial planner at different times. Not so with Origin. “We really like that one-on-one connection, and we think that that’s very important.”
Evolving Our Understanding Employee Financial Planning
The conversation in HR around benefits has certainly been evolving. We’ve generally had a pretty narrow view of supporting our employees and the types of benefits that we should provide to support them. If you look at the world now, those conversations are changing dramatically from mental health support to financial wellness.
I asked Matt why he thinks now is the right time for having these types of conversations around organizations supporting financial wellness.
“These days, companies will win or lose based on “how well [those] companies retain folks and how well they’re able to recruit.”
“Employees have never had more choice. If you’re a strong employee, you could probably pick up the phone and get a job offer by lunchtime today.”
Matt understands how employee financial planning strengthens organizations “Companies are recognizing, ‘Okay, this is actually a very good bottom-line business decision for us to increase our investments in our employee experience.’”
Come listen in. We covered so much more ground, and it is important for companies and their employees alike.