Informed by work with behavioral economists and its advisory board of academics and former top public policy officials, the new functionality implements leading behavioral economics ideas to help clients improve financial planning and management decisions.
“It is an exciting time to be on the leading edge of using technology in new ways to build wealth for households,” said Matt Fellowes, United Income’s CEO, Morningstar’s former Chief Innovation Officer, and a former Brookings Institution Fellow. “New technology we’ve invented has unlocked wealth building levers that were not possible in the past.”
To date, United Income boasts 99 percent client retention, and over 25 percent of its clients have brought over additional assets since enrolling in the company’s wealth management technology.i The company estimates that it has grown more than 3x faster than other leading technology-based wealth management solutions at this stage.ii With these new features informed by behavioral economics, the company hopes to help boost the percentage of its members that are expected to have enough money to reach their goals and pay for retirement.
Included in the new suite of behavioral economics functionality, United Income members can now see expected future life milestones, along with personalized lifespan, spending, and tax projections that the company has made available since launching. This functionality is based on academic work that has found people are more likely to plan for their future well-being if they can better relate to what that future may look like.iii
These new features complement United Income’s existing functionality that simulates millions of combinations of potential life and market futures to optimize its financial plans and investment allocations for members.
New functionality also includes the ability for United Income clients to see how their wealth may change in the future, which can now be adjusted for different inflation scenarios. “Too often, wealth projections are misrepresented by ignoring that the buying power of dollars tends to fall over time,” says Andrew Vincent, United Income’s head of product. “Using our new technology, we’ve created inflation projections for major budget categories, like healthcare, and assets, like houses, so our members can see a more nuanced picture of how their wealth may change in the future.”
United Income has also implemented new peer comparisons, which allow members to compare how much wealth they have built compared to other households, with specific recommendations for how to build wealth. Fellowes said the inspiration came from HelloWallet, a financial guidance software company that he previously founded. “We learned that peer comparisons were one of the most powerful tools in the behavioral economist’s tool-chest to drive improvements in the financial health of households. We’re thrilled to now utilize those lessons at United Income to help our members.”
This unique combination reflects United Income’s commitment to continually expand its unified system of consumer finance that can analyze the interdependency of different life, market, and public policy decisions and potential outcomes. Using this robust understanding of how the world works, the company believes it is better positioned to help its members reach their financial goals and build wealth through their lifetimes.
Source: Company Press Release
