SoFi launches employee benefit programme to reduce student debt
SoFi announced today the creation of SoFi at Work, a benefit program for companies to help their employees reduce their student loan burden and build financial wellness.
The program encompasses over 600 participating companies across the United States, with recent additions including Meredith Corporation and Northrop Grumman.
“When it comes to employee benefits, we believe student loan help is the next 401(k),” said Mike Cagney, CEO, Chairman & Co-Founder at SoFi. “This is especially true for the Millennial generation, now the largest percentage of the workforce, who are starting their careers with record-setting student loan debt and deferring important priorities like retirement savings or buying their first home.”
Included in the more than 600 companies and associations who are adopting SoFi at Work are seven of the top 10 tech firms in the Fortune 500, 58 of the Vault Law Top 100 law firms, and eleven of the 2017 Vault Banking 50.
SoFi at Work currently includes two benefits:
Student Loan Contribution Benefit: Administered by SoFi, companies make regular contributions directly to their employees’ existing federal or private student loans, reducing loan balances and saving interest expense.
Student Loan Refinancing Benefit: At no cost, companies make SoFi Student Loan Refinancing available to employees to help them save money and pay down their loans faster, with incentives like educational resources and a welcome bonus.
More information on the program is available at SoFiatWork.com.
SoFi’s nontraditional underwriting approach considers an individual’s financial well-being to determine creditworthiness, with factors such as employment history and free cash flow. SoFi also offers borrowers benefits that can’t be found elsewhere, such as unemployment protection, an entrepreneurship program, career counseling and member events.
“People often face a hard choice between saving for retirement or paying down student debt when the answer is they should and can do both,” said Catesby Perrin, Head of Business Development at SoFi. “Forward-thinking companies like our partners are thinking about the most meaningful ways to address these stresses and their employees’ overall financial wellness.”
In a recent study conducted by SoFi through an independent third party, 70 percent of student debt holders hold back from saving for retirement due to student loans. Legislation has been introduced in both the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R.3861) and Senate (S. 2457) that would treat an employer’s contribution towards its employees’ student loans as a non-taxable benefit, further assisting debt-burdened American workers.
