Almost 30 years ago, before financial wellness was a line item in anyone's benefits package, before it was a buzzword that we all throw around in this space, my guest today was watching something unfold that most people missed entirely. She was raising money for a hedge fund during the dot-com boom, sitting across from entrepreneurs and high-net-worth investors, watching them take wild risks with money they'd worked incredibly hard to build, and she had this realization: If these wealthy, sophisticated people were this exposed, what about everyone else? What about the assistant down the hall with paper equity and no safety net? Nobody was in their corner, so she built the thing that didn't exist.
That's Liz Davidson, founder and CEO of Financial Finesse, the company that's widely credited with inventing the workplace financial wellness industry as we know it. She's the author of Money Strong and What Your Financial Advisor Isn't Telling You.
Today, we're getting into what her company's brand-new 2026 research reveals about who's actually stressed about money right now, and it might surprise you. We're talking AI's growing and complicated role in how people learn about their finances, the quiet epidemic of high earners living paycheck to paycheck, and benefits maxing, which might be the most underused free money sitting in your employee portal right now.
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