2025 Financial Wellbeing Symposium

Thursday, December 11, 2025
Washington, D.C.

For more information, contact Masha at romanchak@ebri.org

Agenda:

7:45 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. — Breakfast & Networking

8:00 a.m. – 8:45 a.m. — HSA Policy Discussion

This timely session will explore the latest legislative and regulatory developments and their implications for employers, sponsors, and consumers.

This special session is optional and for in-person attendees only.

9:00 a.m. – 9:15 a.m. — Welcoming Remarks

Recent policy changes, what’s ahead for policy, and the impact of health care costs.

Panelists:

Sara Vipond, Mercer
Craig Copeland, EBRI

9:15 a.m. – 10:05 a.m. — With the SECURE Act Just Beginning, What Have We Seen and Where Are We Going? Is Flexibility the Future?

With the SECURE 2.0 Act now partially implemented, many new benefit options have become available. From student loan matching contributions to emergency savings options, SECURE 2.0 has introduced innovative provisions that allow plan sponsors to tailor benefits to meet diverse employee needs. This panel will explore the early effects of these changes, the considerations plan sponsors face when deciding whether to adopt them, and what might be on the horizon. The next iteration of benefits legislation is pointing to a new era of flexibility; how much flexible choice is desired in benefit design, how can it be added, and how are employees responding?

Panelists:

Priya Punatar, Fidelity
Holly Tardif, WTW
Bridget Bearden, EBRI (moderator)

10:05 a.m. – 10:25 a.m. — Networking Break

10:25 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. — Motivations Behind the Money: Understanding FSA and HSA Behavior

This session reveals how new research on FSAs and HSAs, along with evolving consumer behaviors and digital payment trends, can empower employees’ financial decisions and help benefit leaders drive engagement and measurable value.

Heather Ruff, VISA

10:50 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. — Designing Benefits for Meaningful Engagement

Hear insights from new research on barriers to engagement, the impact of financial stress on employee and employer outcomes, and ways to align benefits with what employees value most. Panelists will discuss the importance of “where and when” for employee engagement, with specific attention to field, frontline, and other non-desk workers compared with those in traditional office settings.

Panelists:

Kathleen Slovin, Fidelity
David John, AARP
Craig Copeland, EBRI (moderator)

11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. — Financial Wellbeing Employer Survey

This presentation will review the results of the 2025 Financial Wellbeing Employer Survey, featuring comparisons between large and small employers.

Panelists:

Jake Spiegel, EBRI
Sarah Faye Pierce, Paychex

12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m. — Networking Lunch

12:30 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. — Fireside Chat: Retirement Bites — A Gen X Guide to Securing Your Financial Future

A conversation exploring Retirement Bites, the new book by personal finance expert Kerry Hannon, and the unique challenges and opportunities facing Generation X in planning for retirement and long-term financial security.

Conversation Between:

Kerry Hannon, Personal Finance Expert and Author, Retirement Bites
Barb Marder, President and CEO, Employee Benefit Research Institute

1:15 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. — From Child Care to Elder Care: Designing Caregiving Benefits Across Life Stages

This session explores how employers are supporting employees as caregivers across life stages — from raising young children to caring for aging parents and relatives. Panelists will discuss benefits for young families, including early wealth-building supports, employer-subsidized child care, and flexible schedules that help working parents balance career and family responsibilities. The session will also examine programs and policies that address long-term care, such as caregiver leave, elder care referral services, and innovative approaches to life and critical illness benefits.

Panelists:

Elizabeth Myers, Bright Horizons
John Bowe, Johns Hopkins Health Systems
Brandon Massie, Kaiser Permanente
Rodney Bolden, Morgan Stanley (moderator)

2:00 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. — Financial Wellbeing Demands, Outcomes, and Outlook

This session will review approaches to measuring the success of financial wellbeing programs, featuring new research from AARP and USC that focuses on the relationship between employee benefits and financial wellbeing, productivity, and satisfaction, among other measures. Additional research by Bank of America will highlight employee perceptions on needs, gaps, and trends in optimism across wellness spectra.

Panelists:

Alana Baray, Commonwealth
Manita Rao, AARP
Lisa Margeson, Bank of America

2:45 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. — Networking Break

3:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. — Putting AI To Work: The Opportunities and Risks of AI in Workplace Benefits

AI is everywhere. For HR leaders, it can offer a more customized, engaging workplace benefits experience for employees. In this session, panelists will discuss the current landscape of AI in workplace benefits, business use cases of this evolving technology, steps that can be taken to identify and mitigate machine learning biases, current workplace benefit applications of AI, and the role of AI in financial exploitation.

Panelists: