Regulation - An Important Aspect of Advocacy for Financial Wellness
Many of us think of financial education as a way to enable people to make informed choices and change their behavior. The topics that tend to come to mind include things like budgeting, credit, debt management, savings, risk management, and wealth building.
However, it's important to acknowledge that not everything consumers experience are within their control, be they college students or other adults. And, even for those that have made mistakes in the past, you have rights as consumers. Scams, fraud, and systemic barriers can all impede a person's ability to learn about and practice financial well-being, regardless of where you are in life.
Regulating Authorities
There are many government entities in the United States responsible for regulating financial industries and supporting consumers.
At the Federal level, a few of these entities include the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
- The FTC focuses on protecting consumers by "preventing anticompetitive, deceptive, and unfair business practices through law enforcement, advocacy, and education".
- The CFPB is a newer agency that "implements and enforces Federal consumer financial law and ensures that markets for consumer financial products are fair, transparent, and competitive".
- The SEC enforces laws related to investing and securities, including cryptocurrencies. The SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy also does outreach and education on investment topics, like through Investor.gov.
The FTC and SEC tends to approach consumer issues at a macro level while the CFPB approaches consumer issues more at an individual level. Both the FTC and CFPB take and process complaints from individual consumers.
In Illinois
In Illinois, we have other state-level agencies that help protect consumers in a wide variety of ways.
Unbiased Financial Education
We have partnered with indviduals representing many of these government entities on unbiased financial education outreach. We even co-host a podcast, Making Cents of Money, with IDFPR! Check out a few of the financial education resources we've partnered on with regulatory agencies at the federal and state level:
- Making Cents of Money is a podcast co-hosted by IDFPR and University of Illinois System's Student Money Management Center. It's designed to make financial topics easier to understand. Subscribe on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts , Google Play, or Spotify.
- Get Savvy - Grow Your Green Stuff is a webinar series coordinated annually with collaborators that include representatives from the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission and IDFPR among many others that touches on a wide variety of topics. New topics are added every year and prior webinar recordings are available on YouTube.
We also share a lot of resources from the CFPB as they have focused a lot on empowering consumers with unbiased education. There is value in being selective when choosing where to learn about money. Government entities can be a great source for free, unbiased financial education.
