Financial Coaching Initiative: Results and Lessons Learned
May 26, 2021 / Source: CFPB
Consumer education and empowerment
In 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau launched the Financial Coaching Initiative, a pilot program that provided financial coaching services to veterans and economically vulnerable consumers. Professional coaches were embedded into 60 host sites across the country, where they provided free, one-on-one help to consumers to address their personal financial goals. A range of organizations served as host sites, such as one-stop career centers, social services organizations, and legal aid groups.
Over four years, the Financial Coaching Initiative served over 23,000 consumers, demonstrating that financial coaching can be successfully implemented at scale in many different settings for a wide range of consumers.
This report and summary brief describe the basic structure of the Initiative, present data about the program’s results, and summarize key lessons learned for practitioners and organizations interested in coaching. The report builds on the CFPB’s s earlier large-scale, rigorous evaluation of financial coaching for low- and moderate-income consumers and a 2017 symposium on financial coaching.