Our Research
Commonwealth conducts original qualitative and quantitative research with financially vulnerable people—including Black, Latinx, and women-led households who disproportionately experience financial insecurity. We also interview industry experts and academics. We take what we learn and translate findings into actionable insights and practical solutions designed to change systems to work better for financially vulnerable people. We work with community groups, employers, financial services firms, fintechs, policymakers, and workplace solution providers to design and test real-world, practical solutions that not only work for individuals and families, but are also scalable and address the business needs of our partners.
We share the results of our work to provide you with innovative ideas, practical insights, and the tools you need to act. Explore our publications below.
Responding to a Tax Time Crisis and Opportunity
This report was updated in December 2021. Many households living on low-to-moderate incomes rely on an annual infusion of cash from tax refunds. The employment disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic made this even more true for 2020, yet major components…
Emerging Technology for All
As has been the case historically, powerful emerging technologies have the unprecedented potential to shape the future of people’s financial lives, often in ways that will be with us for decades or longer. Emerging technologies—today expressed as technologies such as big…
Invest Forward
The median net wealth of white men is 13x that of Black women. The dramatically lower wealth holdings of LMI women—particularly Black and Latinx women—reflect, in large part, long-standing systemic racism and sexism that excludes these women from traditional pathways…
A Framework for Inclusive Investing
Wealth matters. It provides material, social, civic and psychological benefits, not just for individuals and families, but also for communities and the nation. Yet, wealth disparities in the United States are dramatic and growing. Staggering gaps in wealth by race,…
Closing the Fintech Inclusion Gap
America’s financial system has a long history of disparate access and outcomes for marginalized groups. Our current economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated long-standing racial, gender, and income gaps that profoundly impact Americans’ financial security. As the…
The Pivotal Role of Investors in Worker Financial Security
This report by Commonwealth and Putnam details the current state of employer investment in employee financial security, including recent efforts by employers and their benefits providers; makes the case for considering worker financial security within ESG frameworks; and highlights best…
Emerging Technology for All
Because of their transformational nature, emerging technologies—today expressed as technologies such as big data-powered artificial intelligence (e.g. chatbots and virtual assistants), machine learning, and blockchain/distributed ledger solutions— provide new and creative ways to improve financial security and opportunity for all.…
Women Invested
A majority of low- to moderate-income working women want to invest but only one in three currently invest in the stock market, ETFs, mutual funds, and other equity and bond instruments. It’s a significant untapped market in size and reachability.…
Collective Savings
Collective Emergency Savings is an innovative approach to building short term savings as a group. Through Commonwealth’s continued research on savings programs for low- to moderate-income (LMI) people, we partnered with fintech Esusu in a yearlong pilot to help low-income…
Eye on Systemic Change in the Retirement Industry
This report summarizes a series of interviews with nine of the largest recordkeepers in the United States and seven plan sponsors, and provides insights for developing emergency savings products.