Theplethora of financial wellness options creates an opportunity foradvisors to help plan sponsors try to ease employee financialstress. (Photo: Getty)

Employee A cashes out a retirement plan to help with the costsof buying a house, then learns the tax penalties will be higherthan he thought. Concerned about that and credit card debt from themove, he cuts back on his current 401(k) contributions.

Employee B has four active kids, and although she hasemployer-sponsored health insurance for the family, theout-of-pocket costs mean she, too, cuts back on her 401(k)contributions. She also neglects medical care for herself, choosingto ignore potential warning signs in an attempt to lower thefamily's health care costs.

As if common scenarios like these weren't enough, financiallyfragile employees are barraged with advice from superstar financialgurus,  hometown consumer finance bloggers, and everyonein between.

'Don't get that latte at Starbucks and you'll save five dollarsa day!' 'Pay down your highest interest credit card first!' 'Set upan automatic withdrawal from your paycheck to a savings account!''Don't buy a new car!' And so on.

Some of that advice is good. Some unfortunately assumes that allworkers actually have extra money to start a savings account or payextra to a credit card debt.

But the latte-shaming is the worst. Workers read in the news howKardashians are robbed of $10 million rings, CEOs are lapping upbonuses equivalent to all of their employees' salaries combined,Trump nominees are “forgetting” about a couple hundred million theyown in investments, and some reporter or financial expert isslapping them on the wrist for splurging on a $5 coffee?

No wonder employees are stressed out.

Poor employee financial literacy and health costs employersthousands in productivity and health care costs, not to mentionemployee morale. It also costs advisors, as employees cutretirement plan contributions — or never even start.

And employees want help. A recent Mercer study found that 85percent of all adults, and 93 percent of 18–34-year-olds, areinterested in online financial tools to help manage their finances,but, the study notes, “they must be secure and easy to use.”

It's a trend that sponsors and advisors can't ignore.

But when plan sponsors look for financial wellness programs thatthey hope will help employees' financial lives, they find abewildering array of offerings. Mercer puts the number of financialwellness vendors “at well over 300.” Even a quick search atShortlister turns up companies with all kinds of programs,coaching, and technology.

This chaotic array of offerings poses a challenge, but also anopportunity for advisors to help plan sponsors make sense of itall.

Advisors need to remember that just as every plan sponsor isdifferent, so are workforces and employer goals. As advisors diveinto the smorgasbord of financial wellness solutions on the market,they might want to start by considering common features mostfinancial wellness programs have. Researchers at WashingtonUniversity in St. Louis found that most financial wellness programsincorporate the following:

·        Rewards for saving, budgeting or other helpful financialactions

·        Personalization for individual employees' situations

·        Easy access and interactive features for employees

·        A focus on proactive rather than reactive behavior

Typical features the researchers found that are commonlyrecommended in financial wellness plans include the following:

·        Financial education, counseling, and planning

·        Targeted benefit and retirement counseling

·        Online access to personalized financial management tools

·        Automatic credit reports

·        Employer-sponsored lending programs

But just as important, there are three more things manyemployees would want in a financial wellness program that plansponsors and advisors should note:

·        They want financial wellness to be interesting, a fun challenge,not yet another depressing thing to do.

·        They want security for their data and reassurance that no one elsewill know about their financial status.

·        And last, but not least, they want and need support andencouragement along the way, with no “latte-shaming” allowed.