Summary of Financial Literacy and Education Commission Public Meeting

Wednesday, November 5th, 2014

U.S. Department of the Treasury, Washington D.C. – Cash Room

9:00am – 11:30am

MEETING MINUTES

Present Commission Members:

 Matthew Rutherford, Acting Under Secretary for Domestic Finance, U.S. Department of 

the Treasury

 Richard Cordray, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

 Anna Alvarez Boyd, Federal Reserve Board of Governors 

 Brittany Borg, Small Business Administration

 Maria Arista-Cuchna , Social Security Administration

 Elizabeth Coogan, Department of Education

 William Glavin, Department of Housing and Urban Development

 Marietta Jelks, General Services Administration

 Karen Marsh, Federal Emergency Management Agency

 Cristina Miranda, Federal Trade Commission

 Becky Monroe, White House Domestic Policy Council

 Judy Mares, U.S. Department of Labor

 Janneke Ratcliffe, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

 Luke Reynolds, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

 Susan S. Shockey, U.S. Department of Agriculture 

 Alan Sorcher, Securities and Exchange Commission

 Barry Wides, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

 Kenneth Worthey, National Credit Union Administration

Also Present: 

 Melissa Koide, Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of the Treasury

 Amias Gerety, Acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions, U.S. Department of 

the Treasury

 Caroline E. Crocoll, U.S. Department of Agriculture

 Greg Long, Executive Director, Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board

 Kathy Grantland, Agency Benefits Officer, Social Security Administration 

 Teresa Marler, Benefits and Worklife Lead, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 

 Jeff Larrimore, Economist, Division of Consumer and Community Affairs, Federal 

Reserve Board of Governors

 Marvin M. Smith, Senior Community Development Research Advisor, Federal Reserve 

Bank of Philadelphia

 Portia Wu, U.S. Department of Labor 
Opening Remarks:

Amias Gerety, Acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions, US Department of the 

Treasury, opened up the meeting by introducing Matthew Rutherford, the Acting Under

Secretary for Domestic Finance, U.S. Department of the Treasury. 

Under Secretary Rutherford emphasized the importance of workplace financial capability, 

describing the critical importance of creative and innovative workplace retirement savings plans, 

especially as employers shift from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans. He also 

highlighted the need for the myRA program, a new retirement savings plan designed for lowwage, part-time, or seasonal workers who may not qualify for an employer-sponsored retirement 

plan. Later, he described the importance of financial education for federal workers. He noted the 

efforts of FLEC’s Early Career Committee to help federal workers prepare for their financial 

futures using existing Federal resources.

Next, Richard Cordray, Vice Chair of the Commission, spoke to the importance of financial 

education in the workplace. He described how financial wellness programs in the workplace 

serve to enhance engagement and productivity in the workforce. He mentioned the Consumer 

Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Financial Wellness at Work report, and explained a few of 

the best practices that emerged from their study of innovative employers providing financial 

wellness tools to employees, such as educational financial gaming. He also talked about FLEC’s 

collaborations with the Department of Labor and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to 

expand employee financial planning and utilization for all federal agencies. 

Portia Wu, Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training for the U.S. Department of Labor, 

began by discussing the recently signed Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), 

and the benefit it will provide to workers. She spoke about the statute’s focus on disconnected 

youth-- aged 16-24-- that have dropped out of the educational and working worlds. WIOA will 

require states to allocate 75% of their youth funding to supporting disconnected youth, providing 

this cohort with much needed job training and career resources. She concluded by expressing her 

interest in working with the FLEC agencies to help states develop the new workforce plans 

prescribed by the new law. 

Melissa Koide, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, then 

introduced Greg Long, Executive Director of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board

(FRTIB). 

Mr. Long described some of the recent successes of the FRTIB, particularly the effectiveness of 

automatic enrollment on increasing the participation rates of young federal workers in the 

Federal Employee Retirement Savings program (FERS). He also discussed some of the 

challenges facing FRTIB, specifically with the lower investment rates in groups over 30 years of 

age and high rates in the G-Fund. The FRTIB plans to address this by defaulting participants to 

the “lifecycle” option and by providing more effective education on its usefulness. Then he 

described a few of the emerging opportunities on the horizon for FRTIB like Take FIVE, a 
communications campaign designed to educate young federal workers on the recommended 

investment levels for a financially strong retirement. 

After concluding his presentation, Mr. Long opened the floor for questions from the Commission

members. Commission members asked about how FRTIB balances the flow of information 

among various sources for new federal employees, FRTIB’s best practices in employee financial 

wellness/capability and it applicability to the private sector, and the benchmarks for different life 

cycle funds. The members also inquired about the availability of agency-specific data relative to 

FERS/TSP participation and the peer training for Take 5 campaign. 

Mr. Long stated that FRTIB sends trainers out to provide guidance to agency Human Resources

personnel and also uses simple, concise communications methods to deliver an effective holistic 

message. He also stated that while the private sector’s approach to employee financial wellness 

is gravitating toward federal trends, there is still much work to be done before public and private 

sectors’ financial plans for employees resemble each other. He stated that FRTIB is challenged

by the low number of available training staff relative to the high need, but he is focused on 

acquiring resources in the future to address these needs. 

Next, Deputy Assistant Koide introduced Judy Mares, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the

Employee Benefits Security Administration, U.S. Department of Labor. Deputy Assistant 

Secretary Mares served as the moderator for the FLEC panel on Promising Practices in Federal 

Agency Financial Education.

Meeting Panel: Federal Agency Financial Education Promising Practices

Ms. Mares formally introduced each member of the panel and asked them why their respective 

agencies sought to expand employee financial education beyond the typical federal offerings, 

what methods they used to ensure employees’ access to financial education and training 

resources, and how they approached the disparate needs of older workers and younger workers in 

their training/educational programs. 

Kathy Grantland, Agency Benefits Officer, Social Security Administration 

Ms. Grantland stated that upon receiving the mandate to develop financial education plans for 

employees, her agency decided to expand an existing program (“All Stages, All Ages”). She also 

stated that her agency ensures access to financial education tools through the agency’s website, 

offering written materials, videos, guest lecturers, and frequent communications for their 

employees. For new employees, her agency offers a full-day training specifically pertaining to 

benefits with regular follow-ups and online resources to ensure they are well-informed on how to 

capitalize on their available financial resources. For near-retirement employees, her agency 

offers personal counseling meetings with benefits officers for older employees who may be 

unaccustomed to using online interfaces. 

Caroline Crocoll, Director, Division of Family and Consumer Sciences, National Institute of 

Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Ms. Crocoll described her agency’s efforts to direct much of their research-based expertise 

toward their own financial education processes to inform and empower staff who may be 
struggling in different areas. Her agency regularly conducts lunch-time seminars, outreach 

events, webinar series, and educational programs with guest lecturers on financial capability. 

Teresa Marler, Benefits and Worklife Lead, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 

At CFPB, Ms. Marler ensures access to their financial education tools by providing resources 

through as many venues as possible. Through their intranet, they disseminate blogs, articles, 

informative briefs, and communications for upcoming educational events. CFPB also conducts 

regularly-scheduled financial planning seminars and spreads financial advice from their senior 

executive leaders through articles/memos. Regarding early-career federal workers, CFPB 

provides lunch-and-learn sessions on and also provides a “paying for college” workshop for 

workers dealing with student loan debt. 

Next, Ms. Mares opened the floor up for questions from the Commission members. 

The Commission members asked about the panel’s experiences using national events/activities to 

enhance their efforts in employee education, how they have approached a discussion around 

large-scale events in an employee’s financial life (buying a house, car, etc.), what they have 

observed from employees’ conducting hardship withdrawals from their accounts, and how 

training/guidance has been delivered to those that have done so. 

The panelists responded that while they do coordinate their efforts with special programs and 

events, not much has been done to utilize national observances or initiatives for financial 

education. They also stated that they have worked to expand the discussion beyond retirement 

benefits, and that much more could be done to incorporate significant financial events into their 

educational framework. Teresa Marler stated that CFPB cannot officially provide employees 

with advice on hardship withdrawals, but they do try to provide them with the most clear and 

relevant information and resources where financial advice can be accessed. Greg Long suggested 

that the recent economic crisis may have caused a spike in the number of hardship withdrawals, 

but that the number has normalized with improving economic conditions. 

FLEC – Research Update

Next, Deputy Assistant Koide introduced Anna Alvarez Boyd, Senior Associate Director of the

Division of Consumer and Community Affairs, Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Ms. Boyd 

then introduced the speakers of the panel and gave the floor to Susan Shockey, National Program 

Leader for the Division of Family and Consumer Sciences at the U.S. Department of Agriculture

and Co-Chair of FLEC’s Research and Evaluation Committee. 

Dr. Shockey provided an update of the findings presented at the FLEC Research Symposium 

held in September 2014. The researchers focused on a range of research topics centered on the 

theme of “Starting Early for Financial Success: Turning Capability into Action.” The research 

explored the connections between financial education and capability interventions and the 

measurable changes in financial behavior and outcomes. It is hoped that the findings of this 

research will generate new learnings and insights to fuel innovations in policy and practice that 

will increase financial capability for American households.
After her description of the FLEC Research Symposium, Dr. Shockey gave the floor to the panel 

of researchers so they could present their findings. 

Jeff Larrimore, Economist, Division of Consumer and Community Affairs, Federal Reserve 

Board of Governors (FRB)

Mr. Larrimore presented selected findings from the FRB’s Survey of Household Economics and 

Decision-making, focusing on the data pertaining to respondents’ overall economic well-being 

and their savings/retirement planning. His findings revealed that a significant minority of 

households are experiencing difficulty managing their finances and indicated that persons with 

lower incomes were less prepared to withstand a financial emergency. Larrimore’s findings also 

revealed that persons of younger age groups and lower income levels gave little thought to 

retirement planning, they indicated that persons making over $50,000 were chiefly concerned 

with addressing long-term financial issues (income, retirement, home, etc.), and suggested that

those making under $50,000 were primarily worried about short term financial matters (job, pay, 

bills, etc.). 

Marvin M. Smith, Senior Community Development Research Advisor, Federal Reserve Bank of 

Philadelphia

Dr. Smith presented his findings from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s research into 

the effectiveness of homeownership counseling. The study randomly assigned participants into 

two groups, with one receiving a two-hour financial education workshop and the other receiving 

a two-hour workshop plus one-on-one counseling. By tracking specific financial behavior 

outcomes (total debt, credit scores, etc.) as evaluative outcome criteria, the study found that 

counseling matters in challenging times, that increased counseling has an exponentially 

beneficial effect on homeowners, and that counseling benefits future homeowners as well as 

those who opt against homeownership. 

The Commission members asked the panelists about the dissemination and usage of their

research findings, the inclusion of credit ratings in their research, and the possible indication of 

consumers’ reliance on personal savings vs. borrowing during a financial emergency.

The panelists stated that they plan to work with FLEC, the President’s Advisory Council on 

Financial Capability for Young Americans, and other federal entities to spread their findings and 

expand support for related research. Mr. Larrimore stated that while he has not integrated credit 

scores with his analysis of various income levels, he plans to do so in the future. Dr. Smith stated 

that he did not track the impact of the participants’ increased credit scores on their housing 

circumstances, but he did anticipate that as a result of improved credit scores their housing 

situations would have improved. Mr. Larrimore also indicated that his study’s participants were 

much more likely to rely on borrowing from friends/family or an alternative financial provider 

than their personal savings to cover three months of lost income. 

Next, Dr. Shockey spoke to the current and future efforts of FLEC’s Research and Evaluation 

committee. She provided a brief overview of the 2013 FLEC Strategic Research Priorities and 

described the committee’s plan to work with the Journal of Consumer Affairs to publish a special 

issue in March 2015. 
Deputy Assistant Koide thanked everyone for their efforts and attendance, and concluded the 

meeting at 11:25am.