CIA-III education - The Certified Internal Auditor Part 3 Updated: 2023

Acquisition will help Origin users Boost global financial literacy and debt management with more complete toolkit for smarter financial planning

Origin acquires Finny to Fill a Critical Gap in Workplace Financial Education

BOSTON, June 05, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Origin, the startup reimagining financial wellness in the workplace, announced today it has acquired Finny, a financial health startup. Origin will integrate Finny's financial education, content, curriculum, and debt management tools into its financial wellness platform addressing the urgent need for improved financial literacy. Terms were not disclosed.

Money is the #1 source of stress - more than jobs, health, and relationships combined. That stress is exacerbated in the current economic environment, which is presenting people with once-in-a-generation financial challenges. Origin is tackling this problem head on by expanding access to wealth management for those who have historically been boxed out due to high barriers to entry. The Origin platform simplifies finances for individuals making it easy to track spend, get expert advice, manage investments, and take action to hit financial goals.

By acquiring Finny, Origin will now be able to offer its customers the valuable resources and financial education content necessary to empower employees to make more informed decisions about their financial future. For instance, people can now learn about credit reporting, understand the nuances involved in calculating a credit score, and then access their own credit score and get actionable advice on how to Boost it.

Origin Co-Founder and CEO Matthew Watson started the company in 2019. Despite starting his career working in finance on Wall Street, Watson couldn’t find resources widely available to easily manage his personal finances, and saw the same pattern for others. “Most people are simply priced out of financial planning tools, and financial advisors traditionally only work with high income individuals. This leaves tens of millions of Americans in the dark, left with unnecessary fees as well as missed investment and tax opportunities that can cost them thousands of dollars a year,” Watson shared.

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With tremendous demand for an all-in-one, more accessible financial planning platform, Origin has grown quickly, more than doubling its revenues year over year. To date Origin has raised $70M from top VC funds including 01 Advisors, where Managing Partner Dick Costolo experienced Origin’s customer pain point firsthand at Twitter. “During my tenure as CEO at Twitter, I witnessed firsthand the knowledge gap that exists among employees and even HR teams when it comes to understanding equity and financial benefits,” said Costolo. “I strongly believe that Origin can bridge that gap and revolutionize financial literacy and education in a way that has not been achieved before.”

Today Origin is offered to individuals as an employee benefit to help employees alleviate financial stress and help them be happier and more productive. Offering Origin as a benefit also helps to attract and retain staff: 93 percent of employees want their company to offer increased access to financial planning (but only 28 percent do so). Plus Origin acts as extra support for powering the People teams, helping with comp, benefits, equity grants, and reducing employers’ liability by bringing in a third-party registered financial advisor as a resource for employees.

Lattice is one of the many companies offering Origin as a benefit to its employees. “Origin has been an extremely popular benefit among our employees, providing them with valuable insights into their finances, compensation, and equity,” said Cara Allamano, Chief People Officer at Lattice. “Now with Origin’s acquisition of Finny they’ll have more financial resources at their fingertips. Our employees have been looking for this type of educational content and tutorials, and having this all in one place within the Origin platform is incredibly beneficial.”

On the employee side, Origin members are matched with a certified financial planner to discuss their finances, goals, and develop an action plan. The planner will provide personalized advice that helps them make smarter money decisions and prepare for life’s biggest milestones from buying a home, starting a family, paying off student debt, or planning for retirement to name a few. Individuals can also use the Origin platform and mobile app to track and visualize all their finances – connecting accounts, and then creating budgets, managing investments and retirement savings. Origin can also help them understand equity compensation and tax consequences of selling. Each person is matched with a CFP that they work with on an ongoing basis.

The acquisition of Finny is a significant milestone for Origin, as it demonstrates the company's dedication to offering a comprehensive and well-rounded financial wellness platform. Finny has been working with employers and over 60,000 consumers to provide top-notch financial education. Integrating Finny's financial education resources and debt management tools will enable Origin to make an even more significant impact on employees' financial health.

"Finny's expertise in financial education and focus on debt management will be an invaluable addition to the Origin platform," said Watson. "We believe that addressing the educational gap in employee financial education is key to helping individuals achieve financial security."

"Origin's commitment to simplifying money management for employees aligns with Finny's mission to Boost global financial literacy," said Chihee Kim and Milan Kovacevic, Co-Founders of Finny. "Together, we share a common goal of helping individuals achieve a secure financial future, and we're excited to join forces to further expand our reach and impact."

About Origin
Origin is reimagining financial wellness in the workplace, with the most comprehensive all-in-one financial planning platform. Combining proprietary technology with Certified Financial Planners, Origin is an all-in-one software based financial management platform that enables people to track spend and income, get expert advice, take action, and manage their money confidently and with ease. Origin is offered by hundreds of innovative employers including Lattice, Roku and Udemy. Learn more about Origin at useorigin.com.

Media contact:
Kerry Metzdorf
Big Swing Communications
978-463-2575
kerry@big-swing.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8d44297d-939f-46af-a491-ae40233457c4

Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.

Photo courtesy DepositPhotos

For new college graduates, receiving that first post-degree paycheck can be almost as exciting as getting the diploma itself. But it also presents a challenge: Given the many demands on a young person’s budget, how should those funds be managed?

We asked five money experts to share their best personal finance strategies to help this year’s college grads successfully launch their financial lives. Here’s what they said.

FIND YOUR BUDGETING STYLE

To figure out how to allocate your money toward needs, wants and everything else, Erin Lowry, author of the “Broke Millennial Workbook,” says that instead of following the latest budgeting trend on TikTok, it’s helpful to just sit down with a pen and paper. “Write down what your big expenses are,” she says.

After accounting for large items like rent, car payments and food, you can then see what nonessentials also fit. “You might want to go out to dinner with friends, build up new work attire or adopt a dog,” Lowry says. Writing out the budget helps you figure out what you can afford and when, she adds.

“We conceive of budgets as restrictive things that keep us from having fun, but you should be thinking of it as a way of controlling how your money is spent. If you don’t know, you’ve sacrificed all control,” Lowry says.

FACTOR IN TAXES

Melissa Jean-Baptiste, a financial educator and the author of the book “So… This Is Why I’m Broke,” says it’s easy to forget to account for taxes, so you might have less take-home pay than you anticipated. Retirement contributions and other deductions can further lower that amount.

Jean-Baptiste suggests setting aside some time to really understand your first paycheck and all those deductions. “Take yourself on a money date so you understand how much you’re bringing home and how much you have left to save and invest,” she says.

SAVE SMARTLY

Even if they’re paying off debt, Alex Rezzo, a certified financial planner and the founder of Andante Financial in the Los Angeles area, urges new grads to start saving for retirement right away. “There will always be a more immediate excuse to delay saving for retirement,” he says, but he urges people to find a way to save at least 1% of each paycheck and to increase that amount over time.

He also suggests parking your direct-deposited paycheck funds in an online bank that offers a competitive high-yield account and is backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. That way, the money likely will earn more than it would sitting in a traditional bank’s checking or savings account.

PROTECT YOUR CREDIT

As you build your independent financial life, making at least the minimum payments on your student loan and credit card accounts can help protect your credit. Missing a payment, Lowry says, could damage your credit score. She suggests focusing on paying down any high-interest debt first to reduce the total amount going to interest.

Lowry also suggests freezing or locking your credit, which makes it much harder for identity thieves to apply for new credit in your name. Just remember that if you freeze your credit, you’ll also have to thaw it if you want to apply for credit yourself, she says, adding, “you might want to wait until you’re through a period of time when you’re applying for new accounts.”

MAKE MISTAKES AND LEARN FROM THEM

Kennedy Reynolds, chief education officer at Acorns, a financial services company, says mistakes are part of the learning process, whether it’s overspending or accruing credit card debt, but the key is to learn from the experience. “If you have debt to pay down, take that paycheck and split it up” toward those bills until they are paid off, she says.

“Try to picture yourself later and know that the choices you’re making now will have a long-term impact,” she adds.

LOOK BEYOND YOUR PAYCHECK

Linda Whiteman, a personal finance teacher at Outschool, an online learning platform for kids, teaches her students to think entrepreneurially. After all, she tells them, most millionaires are business owners.

“You don’t have to work for someone,” she says. She asks her students to consider what they can teach others, whether offering piano lessons online or creating digital art. Pursuing additional income streams outside of a paycheck can help grow wealth, she adds.

Jean-Baptiste found success doing exactly that: She used her experience as a teacher to create and sell lesson plans online. “I was bringing in $10,000 a year that I could put toward debt,” she says. Her lesson plans eventually turned into the financial literacy business that she operates today.

Earning additional income outside of a paycheck, she says, “can be a game-changer” — financial wisdom that applies at any age.

This column was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet. Kimberly Palmer is a personal finance expert at NerdWallet and the author of “Smart Mom, Rich Mom.” Email: [email protected] Twitter: @KimberlyPalmer.

For new college graduates, receiving that first post-degree paycheck can be almost as exciting as getting the diploma itself. But it also presents a challenge: Given the many demands on a young person’s budget, how should those funds be managed?

We asked five money experts to share their best personal finance strategies to help this year’s college grads successfully launch their financial lives. Here’s what they said.

To figure out how to allocate your money toward needs, wants and everything else, Erin Lowry, author of the “Broke Millennial Workbook,” says that instead of following the latest budgeting trend on TikTok, it’s helpful to just sit down with a pen and paper. “Write down what your big expenses are,” she says.

After accounting for large items like rent, car payments and food, you can then see what nonessentials also fit. “You might want to go out to dinner with friends, build up new work attire or adopt a dog,” Lowry says. Writing out the budget helps you figure out what you can afford and when, she adds.

“We conceive of budgets as restrictive things that keep us from having fun, but you should be thinking of it as a way of controlling how your money is spent. If you don’t know, you’ve sacrificed all control,” Lowry says.

Melissa Jean-Baptiste, a financial educator and the author of the book “So… This Is Why I’m Broke,” says it’s easy to forget to account for taxes, so you might have less take-home pay than you anticipated. Retirement contributions and other deductions can further lower that amount.

Jean-Baptiste suggests setting aside some time to really understand your first paycheck and all those deductions. “Take yourself on a money date so you understand how much you’re bringing home and how much you have left to save and invest,” she says.

Even if they’re paying off debt, Alex Rezzo, a certified financial planner and the founder of Andante Financial in the Los Angeles area, urges new grads to start saving for retirement right away. “There will always be a more immediate excuse to delay saving for retirement,” he says, but he urges people to find a way to save at least 1% of each paycheck and to increase that amount over time.

He also suggests parking your direct-deposited paycheck funds in an online bank that offers a competitive high-yield account and is backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. That way, the money likely will earn more than it would sitting in a traditional bank’s checking or savings account.

As you build your independent financial life, making at least the minimum payments on your student loan and credit card accounts can help protect your credit. Missing a payment, Lowry says, could damage your credit score. She suggests focusing on paying down any high-interest debt first to reduce the total amount going to interest.

Kennedy Reynolds, chief education officer at Acorns, a financial services company, says mistakes are part of the learning process, whether it’s overspending or accruing credit card debt, but the key is to learn from the experience. “If you have debt to pay down, take that paycheck and split it up” toward those bills until they are paid off, she says.

“Try to picture yourself later and know that the choices you’re making now will have a long-term impact,” she adds.

Linda Whiteman, a personal finance teacher at Outschool, an online learning platform for kids, teaches her students to think entrepreneurially. After all, she tells them, most millionaires are business owners.

“You don’t have to work for someone,” she says. She asks her students to consider what they can teach others, whether offering piano lessons online or creating digital art. Pursuing additional income streams outside of a paycheck can help grow wealth, she adds.

Jean-Baptiste found success doing exactly that: She used her experience as a teacher to create and sell lesson plans online. “I was bringing in $10,000 a year that I could put toward debt,” she says. Her lesson plans eventually turned into the financial literacy business that she operates today.

Earning additional income outside of a paycheck, she says, “can be a game-changer” — financial wisdom that applies at any age.

This column was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet. Kimberly Palmer is a personal finance expert at NerdWallet and the author of “Smart Mom, Rich Mom.” Email: kpalmer@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @KimberlyPalmer.

“[W]e are committed to ensuring that all Canadians have access to trusted, professional and qualified advice,” Tashia Batstone, president and CEO of FP Canada, said in a release announcing the change. “Central to this mission is ensuring that all QAFP professionals and CFP professionals are equipped with the best possible technical and professional skills.”

Jason Knell, academic director, curriculum and corporate training programs with SeeWhy Learning in Mississauga, Ont., said taking education in-house allows FP Canada to “close any gaps in proficiency,” especially considering that multiple designations have been approved for use of the “financial planner” title in Ontario. In addition to the QAFP and CFP, these include designations overseen by the Canadian Securities Institute (CSI), Financial Advisors Association of Canada (Advocis) and Canadian Institute of Financial Planning (CIFP).

The designations are “not all equivalent,” Knell said. “For that reason, I’m a big advocate that FP Canada has taken a leadership approach like this to set the bar high.”

CSI, Advocis and the CIFP, along with Business Career College (BCC), are national education providers for FP Canada’s designations. They’ve been providing technical education, as have post-secondary institutions, and can continue to do so.

“FP Canada recognizes that different candidates are interested in pursuing different education and certification pathways,” the certification body said in an emailed statement.

As education agreements come due, “we encourage the national providers to reapply for another agreement with us to deliver the materials that lead to certification,” said Alexandra Macqueen, vice-president of learning, development and professional practice with FP Canada. “Competition is healthy.” (Post-secondary institutions can also renew their education agreements.)

In an emailed statement, Jason Watt, vice-president of BCC in Edmonton, said, “Given the usual quality of FP Canada’s content, I believe other providers (like us) will have to step up our game. I hope this results in an overall better experience for all students, with any provider, pursuing certification.”

But Keith Costello, president and CEO of the CIFP, said that as FP Canada becomes the dominant education provider for the CFP over time, “the most obvious outcome is going to be lack of competition [in education].” Less competition means candidates could end up paying more for content that’s not necessarily best-in-class, he said.

FP Canada said it isn’t accepting applications from new national providers to provide technical education. And the current national providers can’t offer end-to-end programming for the QAFP and CFP because, as non-degree-granting institutions, they’re ineligible to be accredited to offer the professional education program.

The certification body said its technical education was priced to ensure competitiveness, and bundle pricing is available. Those with industry qualifications get cost savings from exemptions.

Costello foresees more competition under title regulation, with education providers creating financial planning designations in line with established regulatory requirements.

With Ontario’s multiple-credential title protection regime, which could be replicated in other provinces, more designations were inevitable, he said: “FP Canada bringing their education in house — that will only speed that process up.”

As more designations are approved, a positive result will be “choice for the advisor, so they can get the best price and the best content available to be a financial planner,” Costello said.

The fear with a multiple-credential title regime is that it could cause individuals and firms to look for the lowest-cost credential, Knell said. However, “smart students are going to realize, ‘I need a quality program’” to serve clients well, he said.

In addition to regulatory approval, any new credential would face the hurdle of industry acceptance, Knell said: “Most of the big employers … have already identified what they deem to be an acceptable designation.”

He suggested third-party providers may find greater business opportunity in focusing on QAFP and CFP exam-prep materials. “There are so many students looking for help in attaining these designations,” he said. Third parties provide exam prep for the chartered financial analyst designation, he noted, while the CFA Institute* provides the primary curriculum.

And changes to QAFP certification announced last month will include a live interactive client discovery to the professional education program. The live discovery is “a very nice way to build client-facing skills for certificants, so they arrive to the marketplace … having modelled those client skills very directly,” Macqueen said.

FP Canada said it will soon review the CFP professional education program too, with plans to add live components after getting feedback on the QAFP professional education program.

* A previous version of this story said that the CFA Society provides the primary CFA curriculum. In fact, the CFA Institute provides the curriculum. Return to the corrected sentence.

© Provided by Retirement Daily on The Street

DENVER (June 1, 2023) – Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, traditional investment vehicles have been challenged by trending investment opportunities that have burst onto the marketplace. But despite these opportunities, financial advisers seem to maintain a strong preference for those investment vehicles that have stood the test of time, according to the 2023 Trends in Investing Survey, conducted by the Journal of Financial Planning and the Financial Planning Association (FPA), the leading membership organization for Certified Financial Planner professionals.

In the wake of a challenging year in 2022, investors sought guidance from their financial professionals on navigating the evolving investment landscape. Against this backdrop, FPA and the Journal of Financial Planning surveyed 191 investment professionals from February 14, 2023, to April 7, 2023, to gauge their perspectives on emerging opportunities for their clients. The survey focused on the utilization of alternative investments and the growing interest in exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

While the survey revealed a stronger interest in alternative investments among professionals (28%) since before the pandemic, concerns regarding liquidity (48%) and cost (41%) remain prevalent. Furthermore, some respondents expressed reservations about the ability of these products to meet clients' needs (38%).

"As traditional stock and bond asset classes suffered from losses and volatility in 2022, it's not surprising that interest in alternative investments increased among financial professionals. However, overall use of alternatives remains relatively low,” 2023 FPA President James Lee, CFP, CRPC, AIF, said in a press release. “Going forward, advisers will need more education on how alternative investments can provide potential diversification and risk mitigation benefits to overcome concerns about liquidity, fees, and expenses."

While alternative investments are catching the attention of some financial advisers, the survey highlighted that over 90 percent of investment professionals currently use or recommend exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Notably, half of the respondents indicated plans to increase their utilization of ETFs over the next 12 months (50%), while only three percent plan to decrease their use. Investment professionals are embracing a balanced approach, combining active and passive strategies, after a shift toward either one in exact years.

Other key survey findings include:

• Other commonly used investments include cash and equivalents (76%), non-wrap mutual funds (64%), individual stocks (51%), and bonds (47%).
• Despite a generally bearish economic outlook, over 71% of respondents expressed confidence in the traditional 60/40 portfolio's ability to deliver historical returns.
• General volatility (85%) and inflation (82%) ranked as the top concerns among investors. While interest in COVID-19's impact on financial situations waned (15%), the survey noted a decline in client interest in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) or socially responsible investing (22%) compared to previous years.
• The survey findings also emphasized the importance of regular portfolio re-evaluation. Approximately two-thirds of respondents reported revisiting allocations as part of their ongoing strategy (68%), driven primarily by economic factors (63%) and concerns about inflation (53%).
• Despite the increasing utilization of ETFs, the survey highlighted that investment professionals continue to adopt a balanced approach, with 64% implementing a combination of active and passive strategies.

Of those surveyed, 79 percent are Certified Financial Planner™ professionals, 53 percent indicated they work as an independent IAR/RIA, and 47 percent say they have more than 21 years of financial services experience. The 2023 Trends in Investing Survey provides valuable insights into the current investment landscape and the strategies employed by investment professionals to navigate evolving market conditions.

Additional research by FPA is available at www.financialplanningassociation.org/learning/research.

Pennsylvania’s children — many of whom face academic and social-emotional challenges — deserve high-quality, well-prepared teachers, but due to teacher shortages many school districts are struggling to hire and retain well-qualified candidates.

The teacher shortage is real and alarming, but there is hope.

The shortage has been building for many years. Since 2010, new in-state teacher certifications have decreased by nearly 70 percent to record low levels. In response, the state has issued more emergency teaching permits than new certificates. According to 2021-22 data, 6,366 people with bachelor’s degrees received an emergency permit with only 4,220 new graduates earning teaching certificates.

The shortages of teachers exist throughout the profession, but are most acute in math, science and special education — all subjects where students need great state-certified teachers to help them master courses and prepare for the future.

There are real consequences for students when their schools cannot fill vacant teacher positions or hire quality candidates. Some school districts have been forced to increase class sizes, have non-instructional school employees cover classrooms, and even shut down face-to-face instruction and switch to remote learning modes, which leaves students in less-than-ideal learning environments when not implemented properly.

Because of this shortage of qualified teachers, some classrooms are being led by staff who — while dedicated to caring for our students — lack appropriate knowledge and skills to deliver instruction. Shortages of qualified teachers disrupts the learning environment; further marginalizes students of color, students with disabilities, and students from low-income families; and limits the development of positive relationships between students, families and teachers.

I know this as someone who is in close contact with school districts, as interim dean of the College of Education and Communications at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. School leaders contact me almost daily, searching for help to fill vacant positions in classrooms.

Universities like ours and local schools are engaging in innovative efforts to address the problem, though they’re not enough. For example, we partner with some local school districts to have graduate students in our Literacy/Reading Specialist program work up to 20 hours a week as graduate assistants, while continuing to take graduate classes.

The IUP students are already state certified and can help K-12 students by serving as literacy instructors, assisting teachers in the classroom, and serving as substitute teachers. This collaboration benefits everyone. K-12 students learn from high-quality teachers, local schools temporarily fill open positions with certified educators, and IUP students get more experience and a paycheck.

Unfortunately, those efforts are not enough. Pennsylvania will need an estimated 10,000 more teachers by 2030. Meeting that demand and easing the current teacher shortage will take investment from Harrisburg.

The harsh reality is the teacher shortage will continue unless more people can afford the college education necessary to gain the skills and knowledge to become certified teachers. There are not enough people with incomes high enough to fill all the jobs. We must reduce the cost to students so more people from low- and middle-income families can become teachers, and that requires creative solutions.

Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), which includes IUP, is asking the General Assembly for $112 million so our universities can provide more financial aid to education students and a handful of other majors with worker shortages. The investment would save each education student an average of $1,500 a year and students with high needs around $6,500 a year.

That additional direct-to-student financial aid would be life changing for many PASSHE students. Despite attending a state-owned public university, many students must work one or two jobs while taking a full course load, and they still struggle to make ends meet.

PASSHE’s proposal tackles the affordability problem by boosting university-funded financial aid to lower the price that teacher candidates pay. With the reduced cost, more students will be able to afford to start college, stay through graduation and enter the workforce. Plus, the state’s return on investment is greater because our universities already produce graduates at a lower cost per student.

Pennsylvania has a shortage of teachers, but not a shortage of great people who would make outstanding teachers. Addressing the shortage requires our state to ensure more students from low- and middle-income families can afford college teacher preparation programs. The state system’s plan strategically targets financial aid that opens the door of opportunity to more people to become the high-quality teachers that children need and deserve.

The plan is good for our students, our schools, and our communities in every corner of the state. It’s the hope and solution that Pennsylvania needs, but it requires state investment to achieve.

AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) —From getting an emergency savings account in order, to helping you get out of debt, the Education Credit Union is highlighting some of the work that their Certified Financial Counselors can do.

You can book an appointment or send a question to a counselor. This service is free.

Click here for more information.