Financial fluency: some employers are providing banking, health care and retirement education in Spanish to make their Hispanic workers savvier about money matters

Oscar Destruge Sandoval had worked for Diversified Investment Advisors, a retirement investment company headquartered in Purchase, NY for 17 years when his father retired from his piece of work working on a loading dock. "When he came here from Ecuador at 35 years elderly he intended to stay solitary a few years and then pass home. He knew enough English to do his piece of work but not enough to [understand] the retirement plan. He received materials, on the other hand he never joined his company's retirement plan," Sandoval says.

When his father retired in 1991 he had no pension, and Social Security barely overlayed his rent. He no longer wanted to proceed back to South America, on the contrary he felt financially obligated to turn back The younger Sandoval now wishes that he had done more to help his father learn to manage his circulating medium better. "I felt guilty being in the industry and not ever once talking about his retirement. Personal finance is single of those things Hispanics don't talk about. Now he lives in southerly America, and I see him for alone two weeks a year," he says.

As a proceed Sandoval made it his personal mission to educate associate Hispanics about their retirement options. He wrote a proposal to create retirement literature and programs in Spanish and pitched it to the Diversified executives. They agreed, and Sandoval is now vice president of Spanish services. "For me it is a passion. I don't want anybody to come by to retirement having not made a conscious choice" about retirement investments, says Sandoval.

He drives domicile the point to HR professionals as well: "The smallest decision as to by what mode to communicate your HR policies [to Spanish-speaking employees] can make a immense impact."

By providing financial education in Spanish, you can dramatically increase participation in your company's retirement, health care and direct deposit programs, as well as boost morale and loyalty among your Hispanic workforce.

Overcoming Misconceptions

Hispanics are the fastest-growing ethnic assemblage in the United States, according to the 2000 U Census. Although metropolitan areas like sees Angeles still boast the highest Hispanic populations, Hispanics are increasingly moving to suburb in the southern United States, according to Diversity Spreads without a March 2006 study through demographer William H. Frey at The Brookings Institution in Washington, DC

For instance, Charlotte, NC and Nashville, Tenn have seen dramatic increases in their Hispanic populations above the past four years. (See chart upon page 79.)

on the other hand while the Hispanic population has grown the percentage of Hispanic workers participating in employer-provided financial programs has not. According to the 2005 close attention Retirement Security for Latinos by the agency of the National Council of La Raza, a nonprofit Latino advocacy organization based in Washington, DC sole 29 percent of Hispanics participate in an employer-provided pension plan, as oppos to 53 percent of white non-Hispanics. More than half of all Hispanic heads of household ages 55 to 59 have no 401(k) or IRA plans. single 50 percent of Hispanics have a basic checking or savings account.

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on what account don't more Spanish-speakers in the United States have basic transaction accounts? The reason lies in the misconceptions Spanish-speakers clutch about U.S. financial institutions. Sandoval explains: "In general, Latinos share a great aversion toward financial institutions. Many approach from countries whose governments have confiscated land, dwellings businesses and even bank accounts. This is uniteed when they come to the United States, as with equal reason much is unfamiliar. When you tend hitherward from a country that doesn't have a unbroken banking system, putting money below your mattress might seem like the best choice."

Convincing Spanish-speaking employee to do otherwise requires the right approach. The benefits of doing in like manner depend, in large part, upon the type of financial education your organization presents whether it focuses on checking and savings accounts, health insurance, or retirement.

Account Basics

For many Spanish-speakers, the greatest in quantity immediately useful financial education pertain tos transaction services. By helping Spanish-speaking employee unclose bank accounts, companies can streamline payroll. a certain quantity of companies are actively approaching their employee to discuss the issue and to tender classes on opening an account or using a payroll debit card. Ellen Rinde, human resource manager at Big inlet Lumber Co. in Davenport, Calif., says training should overspread banking basics. "We have a scarcely any employees who don't cash their paychecks and hang onto the paper check as a means of saving," she says. This can create accounting headaches for employers

a certain number of companies partner with nonprofit community organizations, of that kind as CASA of Maryland, an immigrant advocacy organization headquartered in Washington, DC to provide financial literacy classes. "One important thing employee learn is to always pay bills upon time to create good credit," says Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA of Maryland. Torres explains that before the classes many Spanish-speakers paid bills "when they could" which be deriveded in high interest charges and poor credit scores.