Hilton Garrison
Effective Financial Wellness Programs for Small Business

Hilton Garrison provides independent financial planning for closely held businesses. In an interview with Manage HR, Paige Garrison, the founder of Hilton Garrison, discusses how her company empowers her client’s employees through financial education and personalized guidance. Through the nationally tested Wealth Steps® program, her team teaches fundamental habits around money designed to increase financial security and often improve employee morale.

Tell us about Hilton Garrison and your decision to participate in the Corporate Financial Wellness marketplace?

Our firm offers a comprehensive consulting process to protect the business owner, grow the business through the retention of key people, and assess exit planning options to create the required cash flow at retirement or sale of the business. As the successful business is about their people, it made sense for us to address how the employees feel and on ways to improve their performance. A national survey reported 43% of employees are stressed about their finances which affects their productivity at work and 15% of them miss work occasionally.¹ To help the employees reduce these anxieties, we introduced Wealth Steps® as an enjoyable learning experience that offers both interactive and personalized guidance to instill financial confidence in employees.

We know that most workers rely on their employers for access to health insurance and retirement savings plans. Providing a financial wellness program, through Wealth Steps® helps employees optimize and appreciate their benefits. Financial confidence is shown to rise when a professional conducts the sessions. Participating in this financial journey learning program helps get people on the right track and creates more confidence in their financial future.

How do you manage the offering of Wealth Steps® and address concerns the business owner may have?

We start by suggesting the business try a complimentary pilot program starting with the owner and including a handful of their key executives. These people often serve as ambassadors by letting the other employees know the program was helpful and encouraging attendance in future sessions. As our program is built on a robust, secure, and interactive web-based platform, we have easily adapted to on-line meetings until the pandemic subsides. Weschedule our meetings around the lunch hour to avoid interrupting work schedules. Each employee has their own secure Wealth Steps® website which offers them the opportunity to request a private consultation with a qualified financial professional. We promptly schedule webcast consultations with them after hours or on a Saturday and their partners or spouses do participate.

“We understand Hilton Garrison uses a unique and comprehensive planning process which puts clients first and products second. The fundamentals of the Wealth Steps® program are built on this planning philosophy.” Please explain.

Wealth Steps® focuses on the basic building blocks of financial security. Our employee curriculum offers clear explanations and interactive exercises which organizes their financial life into four categories: Protection, Savings, Liquidity and Debt management

We start with Protection. If your employee becomes disabled or dies, their family will need cash flow protection. Here the employee benefits are highlighted, and it is easy to see if supplemental personal protection is prudent or not.

The next step is Savings analysis. The U.S. has the lowest savings rate of any major industrialized country at around 4%. Our philosophy is the rate of savings is more important than the rate of return and we encourage clients to gradually increase their savings to 15% or 20% of their income. There are often unrealistic rates of return assumed on retirement plan projections and we would rather the employee save more and assume a conservative return. Many employees do not take advantage of 401(k) match money which we recommend they do as they are leaving money on the table.

Liquidity is the third priority. 48% of Millennials and 41% of Baby Boomers admit to not having enough emergency savings for unexpected expenses.² This is one of the reasons Americans have such high credit card debt. Instead of having all their savings in a retirement plan, employees are encouraged to create a liquid asset which is accessible without taxes or penalty for close to a year’s income.

The last step is Debt Education. We place this last as we would rather the employees be adequately protected and increase their savings prior to sending money to the banks to service debt. We are not anti-debt like some wellness programs but encourage the minimizing of short-term debt like car loans and credit cards.

Each employee receives a personalized Scorecard after completing all the exercises which serves as a snapshot of the current situation. Employees can contact us from their Wealth Steps® website to request a private webcast consultation. On these calls we go over their scorecard and its implications. We address their personal concerns, answer clarification questions, and describe some of the tactics to improve their circumstances. Ultimately, we want the employee to understand the importance of cash flow which is where everything starts and stops.

For those who prefer more detailed financial planning, we have the capability of offering a separate comprehensive process via our proprietary planning platform, The Living Balance Sheet®. Accessible via www.hiltongarrison.com, this is a robust personalized website which, allows us to get them organized, and assess multiple detailed cash flow analyses toward retirement or other goals.

Could you cite a case study where you enabled clients to overcome hurdles and attain desired outcomes with your solutions?

While reviewing our Wealth Steps® program, the owner of a manufacturing company revealed he wanted to retire and sell the company in the next decade. He recognized two younger key people would be essential to retain to keep the business going and he preferred selling the company to them vs. an outsider; yet he knew they had no money to purchase it. We suggested setting up a Retention Bonus with a One Way Buy -Sell Agreement.

This incentive program was designed to provide a tax-advantaged bonus to the employee for remaining with the company for a specified period. Due to the favorable tax treatment, the plan was funded with a whole life insurance policy that insures the employee and is paid for by the company. The bonus is paid out to the employee at the conclusion of the agreement and the lump sum is used as down payment in an installment sale to purchase the owner’s share in the business.

The business continuation agreement creates a sense of stability for the client’s customers and suppliers. The insurance policy can serve as collateral for the employees to secure a loan from the bank to finance the remainder of the buy-sell agreement. The agreement also permitted the key employees to secure a life insurance policy on the owner to provide the liquidity to purchase his share from his estate if he passed prior to initiating the sale.

We also instituted Wealth Steps® which resulted in getting more employees to participate in the company 401(k) plan.

What gives Hilton Garrison and Wealth Steps® a competitive edge in the Financial Wellness market?
Long- term commitment to both owners and employees is our key value. Not only do we educate on many areas of personal finance in the financial wellness webinars, but for those employees who want to do a deeper dive, we offer The Living Balance Sheet® process to monitor their financial life. Instead of using Robo-Advisors, this platform allows us to personally follow their progress together and permits us to stay in touch, coaching them and implementing solutions as their lives change. By contract, we serve as fiduciaries in our personal financial planning engagements.

¹ 2018 PWC Employee Financial Wellness Survey
² 2017 PWC Special Report: Financial Stress
Wealth Steps® is a service mark of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian), New York, NY 10001. © 2021 Guardian Trademarks of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian) are used with express permission. ©Copyright 2021 Guardian
Registered Representative and Financial Adviser of Park Avenue Securities, LLC (PAS). OSJ: 901 MoPac Expy. Barton Oaks IV, Suite 150, Austin, TX 78746.
(512) 651-2009. Services offered through PAS, member FINRA/SIPC. Financial Representative of the Guardian Life Insurance company, wholly owned subsidiary of Guardian. Hilton Garrison is not an affiliate of or subsidiary of PAS or Guardian.
2021-117768 exp. 03/2023