Pilot program to enable college grads to receive TrustPlus™ financial coaching, build foundation for financial health as they enter a challenging job market
TrustPlus is the first in a suite of tools and products that A.M. Money will offer over the next year.
CHICAGO, IL — July 28, 2020 — A.M. Money, a Chicago-based student loan company that provides low-interest, no-cosigner loans to low- and middle-income college students, is partnering with the nonprofit Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners, a national leader in the field of worker financial health, to provide TrustPlus, a financial coaching benefit delivered via employers and FinTechs, to recent college graduates.
College graduates who have a student loan from A.M. Money will have access to the financial coaching app as part of A.M. Money’s job onboarding package. TrustPlus is the first of a suite of tools and products A.M. Money will begin to roll out over the next year to help its student loan borrowers successfully navigate the post-college effort to secure employment and start a career.
“We know this is a very important and complex financial moment, and we’ve learned that for many of our students, they are more or less thrown out into the working world with no support whatsoever,” said Daniel Rogers, Founder and CEO of A.M. Money. “For years we’ve been spending hours to informally counsel our students through this moment. The ability to partner with a best-in-class service like TrustPlus will provide a great opportunity for us to formalize and scale up this support for all of our graduates.”
“We’ve seen time and again how student loan debt can impact not only how workers manage their hard-earned money, but also what jobs to take and when or whether to buy a home or start a family,” said Justine Zinkin, CEO, Neighborhood Trust. “We built TrustPlus to be the human coaching feature of industry leading FinTechs that solve for workers’ financial precarity. TrustPlus Financial Coaches will serve as an important feature of the A.M. Money experience, easing the burden of student loan debt and other financial challenges for new grads and helping them create financial security as they launch their careers.”
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, college students graduating this year are entering one of the toughest job markets since the Great Depression; more than 45 million people have applied for unemployment insurance since March and the number of entry-level job postings (typically filled by recent college graduates) has fallen 73 percent over the past three months. Additionally they join the nearly 45 million people holding $1.6 trillion in student loan debt in the U.S. With research showing that the economic effects from entering a job market during a recession can last 10 to 15 years, new grads will likely be making tough decisions that will have a reverberating effect on their financial health now and in the years to come. A.M. Money seeks to provide their student loan borrowers with support and resources like TrustPlus financial coaching to help them navigate the economic environment and create financial stability.
The partnership between A.M. Money and Neighborhood Trust is launching with a three-month pilot to 20 recent graduates to learn how they respond to and utilize TrustPlus, with a goal to eventually expand the service to provide support to thousands of students in the coming years.
About A.M. Money
A.M. Money is a student loan company that offers a healthier approach to financing higher education. Their mission is to ensure that financial challenges do not prevent students from completing college and pursuing their careers. The company is the first private lender to offer affordable credit to students without the need for cosigners or credit scores, while providing flexible income-based repayment terms to qualified students to help manage inevitable periods of financial instability. For more information, please visit www.chicagostudentloans.com.
About Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners
Neighborhood Trust is a nonprofit social enterprise empowering workers to take control of their finances and achieve financial health. With nearly 25 years of financial coaching experience, we blend our trusted financial guidance with innovative technology solutions and actionable financial products to help workers make their paychecks go further. Neighborhood Trust embeds our services where workers get paid, access financial services and make financial decisions. Annually we reach nearly 10,000 low- and moderate-income workers across the country. For more information, visit www.neighborhoodtrust.org.
About TrustPlus
TrustPlus is a financial wellness benefit that helps workers make the most of every hard-earned paycheck. A service of Neighborhood Trust, our coaches demystify personal finance with empathy, providing on-demand, one-on-one support and expert guidance. Our unique approach blends human connection with action-oriented tools and workplace products to ease the burden of workers’ everyday money worries. In addition to serving as an employee benefit, we also are offered as the human coaching feature of worker-focused FinTechs. Learn more at www.mytrustplus.org.
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