RESEARCH
CFS is proud to have conducted and commissioned important research into the lack of financial literacy and the lack of financial experts in some communities.
Our work includes:
National Survey Details Financial “Savings, Knowledge Gap” Among Americans
This joint survey survey by CFS and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) found that nearly 60 percent of adult Americans do not have an IRA or other investment products, like stocks, bonds and mutual funds, and many don’t have life insurance.
Financial Education Is Key to Better Savings Habits
The op-ed by CFS’s founding advisory board members made the case for more financial education in schools. Most Americans would agree that our nation has made dramatic progress since the Great Depression. Advances in areas such as technology, healthcare and transportation over the last seventy-five years have brought in a new era, and a new century. Yet last month the Commerce Department announced that the savings rate dropped to minus 0.5 percent in 2005, marking the first time since the Great Depression that the national savings rate had fallen below below zero percent.
Financial Work Force Needs More Minorities
This Florida project by CFS argued that the state should be looking into why some communities appeared to have to jump over higher hurdles to get licensed to work in financial professions in the state. Importantly, Florida leaders took steps after the publication of this project to improve the licensing process.
Producer Licensing: The Case for Reform
This groundbreaking piece by CFS argued that consumers, particularly consumers in middle-class and minority communities, pay a high price due to patchwork licensing regulations in states. In the years since it was published, tremendous progress has been made toward uniformity.
Golden Rule Forgotten
This CFS report looked back at the 1980s Golden Rule lawsuit against the state of Illinois and used more recent data to uncover if the situation has changed.