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.
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.
A Wealth Building Blueprint
Wealth matters: it delivers material, psychological and societal benefits, not just for individuals and families, but also for communities and the nation. Yet building wealth is a persistent challenge for low- to moderate-income (LMI) Americans who continue to become less…
Conquering the Storm with Resilience
Since June we have been talking with 56 low- to moderate-income households about their financial lives. This report summarizes what we have learned from these in-depth interviews. The extreme volatility and uncertainty in the number of COVID-19 cases, the subsequent…
Designing Children’s Savings Accounts for Equity
Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs) are an increasingly popular mechanism for addressing the struggle to pay for college. CSAs reflect two realities: starting early is the best way to build savings, and dedicating resources to paying for college raises the educational…
A New Framework for Positive Financial Futures
Financial systems must be designed to enable both the financial context and non-financial factors required to build a prosperous and equitable economy. Changing the landscape of financial security and opportunity for people living on low to moderate incomes (LMI) requires…
Building Credit to Build Wealth
Having a good financial credit score is a staple of American opportunity, but for many people it seems out of the realm of possibility. While 77% of Americans living on low to moderate incomes (LMI) have heard of ways to…