"Make" Shift
Financial literacy has long been touted as something of a “silver bullet” in helping workers make better financial decisions – and now there’s a call to make it a mandatory employment offering. Now, we all know that lots of workers get their first (and for many only) exposure to financial markets via their workplace retirement plan. Ditto their only education about investing, diversification, or even mutual funds. Little wonder that those who are tasked with delivering those lessons have long championed the need for some basic level of financial education in school curricula. The issue was most recently raised earlier this year in a paper titled “ Defined Contribution Plans and the Challenge of Financial Illiteracy .” Authored by Jill Fisch of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, as well as financial literacy icon Annamaria Lusardi and Andrea Hasler from George Washington University School of Business, the paper compares the relative financial acumen of w...