Need Help Managing Your Money and Planning for Your Future? Read further….

From Diane: In line with our firm’s commitment to financial education I suggest reading this short article about the CFPB’s focus on helping manage money, achieve financial goals and attain greater financial stability.  The following are some very helpful tips on rebuilding credit, plus lots more.

The following is a reprint of: Prepared Remarks of Richard Cordray Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “CFPB”
Financial Literacy and Education Commission Meeting Washington, D.C. June 29, 2016
Over the past five years, the Bureau has focused on helping to create a financial marketplace that works for consumers, not against them. We try to do this by both protecting and supporting consumers. Our work to protect consumers involves making the rules governing the marketplace more effective, consistently and fairly enforcing those rules, and engaging in evenhanded oversight of financial institutions. Our work to support consumers includes creating resources and information directly for the public to use and engaging in foundational research to spread effective approaches to financial education.
As is true of the Financial Literacy and Education Commission itself, we recognize that promoting financial education depends on creating and fostering a diverse array of partnerships and collaborations. Currently, we are engaged around the country with libraries, social service providers, community groups, state and local policymakers, and various other partners.
All of these groups share our interest in helping the people we serve better achieve their financial goals and attain greater financial stability in their lives. In particular, we have come to value our partnerships with legal aid groups. They have helped us reach out to low-income consumers and those who are economically vulnerable. They play crucial front-line roles to ensure access to justice and promote financial security for consumers who may be unbanked, under-banked, or credit invisible.
With our Your Money, Your Goals initiative:
Nearly two years ago, we partnered with social service providers and trained them to provide financial education and tools to their clients. We then expanded on this work to offer the same resources to legal aid groups. The toolkit we have developed as part of the Your Money, Your Goals initiative addresses topics such as emergency savings; building credit history; managing debt; cash flow budgeting; and identifying financial products that consumers can use to pursue various financial and life goals.
The toolkit also includes templates for organizations that are interested in developing a resource and referral network so their clients know how to access help from specialized providers in their local communities. Since we launched the initiative, we have reached more than 450 legal aid staff and volunteer lawyers with in-person and webinar trainings.
Another resource that legal aid organizations may find useful is our Managing Someone Else’s Money guides. The guides are aimed at lay fiduciaries who have been named to manage money or property for a relative or friend who is unable to pay bills or make financial decisions. These financial caregivers include agents under a power of attorney, court-appointed guardians and conservators, trustees, and government benefit fiduciaries.
The guides are written in plain language to explain the duties and responsibilities of people who are acting in each of these fiduciary roles. They also describe how to watch out for scams and what to do if a family member or friend is a victim of financial exploitation. The guides can be distributed to low-income populations by legal services programs; they also can be distributed to adults aged 60 and older by legal services programs funded under the Older Americans Act. They can be shared with older adults who are deciding whom to name as their fiduciaries as well as with individuals who will themselves act as fiduciaries. Since the program launched nearly two years ago, we have distributed over 600,000 printed copies of the guides nationwide.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a 21st century agency that helps consumer finance markets work by making rules more effective, by consistently and fairly enforcing those rules, and by empowering consumers to take more control over their economic lives. For more information, visit consumerfinance.gov.
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