How effective are financial seminars?

26 Nov

When we ask New Zealand employers what they're doing for financial wellbeing, the answer is often: "We run a couple of lunch-and-learns each year."

And don't get us wrong, we think that a good seminar is valuable. People show up, nod along, and maybe even feel motivated.

But this newfound knowledge can disappear quickly. More to the point, it often doesn't shift what people do with their money.

The problem isn't that financial education "doesn't work." It's that one-off seminars alone aren't enough to change behaviour.

What the research shows

In 2014, a paper published in Management Science analysed nearly 170 papers that together covered more than 200 studies on financial literacy. Their conclusion was stark: financial education interventions accounted for only about 0.1% of the variance in the financial behaviours studied.

A more recent 2022 meta-analysis in the Journal of Financial Economics looked at 76 randomised trials across 33 countries. The finding: education has a large effect on financial knowledge but only a medium effect on actual behaviours such as budgeting, saving, and managing credit.

A New Zealand Retirement Commission review came to a similar conclusion after examining evaluations across five countries: despite investment and optimism, there's no clear evidence that financial education alone reliably improves financial outcomes.

The forgetting curve is real

Have you ever tried picking up a new language? Perhaps you got a learning streak going, but then life got in the way. Pretty soon, the only thing you can remember is how to order a meal (which, to be fair, is still useful!).

This is a very human phenomenon. Almost 150 years ago, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus showed that we forget information frighteningly fast. His research, replicated many times since, showed that without reinforcement, people forget about 50% of new information within an hour, 75% within a day, and up to 90% within a week.

Which means even a brilliant seminar with an engaging speaker and relevant content will be mostly forgotten by your team within seven days.

We struggle to bridge the "intention–action gap"

Ask someone after a financial seminar what they plan to do, and you'll hear ambitious goals: "I'm going to save more," "I'll review my KiwiSaver," "I'll tackle that credit card." But follow-up studies show actual behaviour change is much smaller than those intentions suggest. We get busy, and before we know it, another year has passed, and nothing has changed.

The best way to retain new knowledge is to use it

Apply it to your own situation. Make a decision based on it. Build a new habit.

But seminars don't give people time to do that. The definition of a seminar is that someone is talking at them, which is exactly what the forgetting curve predicts will fade fastest. There's no space to work through their own numbers, test concepts, or make real decisions.

On top of that, the information tends to resonate most with employees who are already financially comfortable. But people who are genuinely struggling often leave with good intentions but no clear path forward for their specific situation.

What works better than seminars alone

The evidence does not argue against financial education. It argues for designing it in ways that make the application easier, more timely and more personalised. Promising features include:

Just-in-time and event-based support: Linking education to key decisions (onboarding, KiwiSaver or pension choices, pay rises, life events) makes it more likely that information is used immediately instead of filed away for later.
Personalisation: Programs that add one-to-one support tend to show stronger impacts on saving, debt reduction and plan participation than seminars alone, especially for more financially constrained employees.
Repetition and reinforcement: Researchers recommend programs include follow-up checkpoints, refreshers and nudges, rather than assuming a single exposure will stick.

In practice, that might mean pairing a KiwiSaver session with time for employees to actually log in and adjust their contributions, or offering 1-on-1 follow-ups for employees who want help applying concepts to their specific situation.

Rethinking your approach

For employers, the takeaway is not to scrap seminars, but to stop treating them as the whole strategy. Seminars are a starting point for raising awareness. But real change happens when that awareness connects to action, tools, and ongoing support.

Now for the important legal part: The information we provide is general and not regulated financial advice for the purposes of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013. Please seek independent legal, financial, tax or other advice in considering whether the content in this article is appropriate for your goals, situation or needs. The information in this article is current as at 23 November 2025.