A typical employee does not leave his financial problems in the parking lot before he enters the workplace, any more than he leaves his other worries there. Employers have been providing employee assistance programs (EAPs) for years to help their employees deal with things like marital problems and drug and alcohol abuse.

Two St. Louis entrepreneurs recognized some years ago that those same assistance programs might also offer assistance with financial matters as well. When Stephen H. Wedel, a founding partner of Four Seasons Wealth Management, and Tim Hobart, CEO of H&H Health Associates were beginning their careers nearly 30 years ago, they had a conversation that was a "light bulb moment." They realized employees were just as distracted at work by their financial concerns as they were by other problems. Yet their employee assistance programs did not deal with money issues.

They decided to collaborate, and have been doing so since their partnership began in 1983. "We were on the right side of the curve nearly 30 years ago, when almost all EAPs only dealt with negative issues," says Hobart, whose firm H&H provides employee assistance to midsize companies averaging 200 to 500 employees. "We were squarely in the intersection of employers who wanted highly productive employees and EAPs that did not provide the type of help Steve and I thought we could provide."

Hobart had the contacts with employers and could approach the companies about providing different services such as financial education and advice. Wedel, a CFP, had the financial skills.

There was one stumbling block. They had to assure employers that Wedel, and whoever else he brought in from his firm for the financial programs would not use the sessions as a marketing tool and would not be selling any products or services.
"When we started our collaboration, it was cutting-edge work because almost no one else was doing it," says Hobart. "Back then, as well as today, we assure employers and their employees that the financial advisor is not a wolf in sheep's clothing. Under no circumstance will we allow a salesman into the workplace. Each employer is assured that the financial programs offered are academic and educational only."

"My financial planning services, as well as Tim's employee assistance programs, are separate advisory functions and always will be," Wedel says. "When you recognize and address the fact that for more than a century the educational system has failed to help people with their finances, then a logical solution is to introduce the education in the work environment where personal financial problems are creating a negative impact on performance. This solution created the alliance between financial planning and the EAP."

Companies that hire H&H Health Associates to handle employee counseling can include as one of the offerings financial education and advice. In the beginning, Wedel did all the educational programs himself, at the same time he was building his own financial services practice. He now has 15 advisors on staff, about 150 clients and $250 million in assets under management, and his advisor team now presents the employee assistance programs.

Four Seasons' typical clients have investable assets averaging from $50,000 to $1 million. The firm works on a combined commission and fee basis with fees ranging from 0.8% to 1.2%.

Wedel has refined the presentations since he and Hobart started the collaboration and added more subjects and different levels of complexity, depending on the employee audience. His educational programs range from a "Financial Boot Camp" (a Finance 101 course), to expansive and comprehensive retirement and estate planning presentations.

The first session usually draws a diverse population with many different issues covered, and subsequent sessions draw people with more specific issues. Line employees usually attend the first of the sessions, but Wedel says owners and managers start attending as the programs grow more complex. "We never reveal employee information to an employer about anything we are told or asked, but we do take a survey to see if the attendees feel the sessions are useful and we report that to the employer," Wedel says.

Attendees are given an opportunity to ask the advisors specific questions during and at the end of the presentation. In addition, each attendee is offered a one-on-one private meeting to cover more personal issues, or Wedel's team will work with the employee's current advisor to make sure the employee's financial concerns are addressed.

"We are only there to provide education," he says. In addition, Wedel acknowledges that in many instances he may be providing his competition with new clients, because no one is advised to go to Four Seasons. All services at the EAP workshops are provided free of charge to employees.

"Employers are looking for a competitive advantage to keep good employees," Hobart explains, "and a useful EAP program is one way of doing that."

Wedel says, "The majority of my new business today comes from the introductions given by existing clients. However, over the past 28 years, the introductions to hundreds of business owners, top management, HR directors and employees through the EAP have been significant. The cumulative results of those relationships have had an important impact on my practice."
Gary Schaeffer, a semiretired former senior executive with Guarantee Electrical in St. Louis, is one of those clients Four Seasons gained from an EAP session. Schaeffer signed up for a lunch seminar on finances sponsored by H&H at his company in the early 1990s.

"I had an advisor then, but I was not happy with the firm. [Wedel was still doing the seminars himself at that time.] "I was impressed by the breadth of knowledge Steve had," Schaeffer says.

Schaeffer ended up going to Four Seasons for a review of his finances and has had the firm handle his investments since then. He says he "rode out the recession" without too much damage. "The real estate portion of my investments is coming back and I am now working with Steve on other retirement planning," he says.

Clayton Corporation is one of the St. Louis-area firms that hired H&H for EAP services, including financial planning. Lynn Green, the company's human resources manager, says she would advise other companies to provide similar services. For the "Financial Boot Camp" session, eight employees out of 130 attended. The second session on "Reinventing Retirement" drew 25 and the firm is now getting ready to organize a third session on estate planning.

"We were impressed," Green says. "Our average employee is 47 years old, and the feedback we got is that they appreciated the financial program. We want to do what we can to show we care about our employees."

Green says she engaged a financial planner for herself after hearing the presentations. "The firms that care about their employees are the ones that are going to provide EAP services," Wedel says.

"Employers who use an EAP see their employees as assets to be kept, versus commodities to be consumed, and they have a strong paternalistic attitude toward them," says Hobart.

The "Financial Boot Camp" is the current version of Wedel's original "11 Financial Tips You Can Implement Today" and his "10 Commandments of Money Management." Wedel observes that "the EAP educational programs are appreciated by employees, and they get involved in the presentations since the subject matter is all about them and how they can improve their lives."
A recent study by Deloitte Consulting LLP and the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists shows 77% of those employees surveyed are worried about their ability to afford retirement and 60% are worried about staying employed. Also, 45% plan on contributing more to their 401(k) or other benefit plan, up from 33% in 2009.

The study also found that 78% of the employers who responded anticipate changing their benefit programs over the next 12 months. The number one anticipated change is adding and/or redesigning their learning and development programs.
"These results demonstrate the significant need for employer-sponsored educational programs," Hobart says. The study also confirms what these two industry pioneers observed in the early 1980s-that both employees and employers benefit from the worksite educational programs.

"I have to admit the recession has been good for us," Hobart adds. "In the last 18 months, we have had a fourfold increase in the number of requests from employees for our financial programs. But whether it is good times or bad times, employers seem more aware now about the connection between the employees' emotional and financial wellness. The return on the investment for the employers when they assist employees is significant."

Wedel agrees that a dollar spent on EAP services is returned to the employer in multiples of the expenditure. "The return on life is what the employees are constantly seeking, not the return on investments, as most advisors assume," he says.
Hobart adds, "An employer can measure absenteeism from illness or drugs or alcohol, but he can't measure the 'presentee-ism' when people are at work but not productive because they are worried or distracted. That's what an effective EAP financial program will attack."