Top 20 questions to include in a financial wellbeing RFP

The 20 questions below are the ones that separate a strong financial wellbeing program from one that looks good on paper. They cover six areas: program scope, 1:1 guidance from Certified Financial Planner® professionals, fiduciary standards, global workforce coverage, engagement and outcomes, and implementation and pricing. HR, benefits, and consultant teams can drop them directly into an RFP template.

What questions should you ask about program scope?

Program scope determines how much of an employee's financial life the program actually covers. The strongest programs are not just crisis tools. They build financial resilience before problems happen, so employees are prepared when they do.

1. What financial topics does your program cover end-to-end?

Strong programs cover benefits education, income and budgeting, financial goal setting, debt management, emergency savings, credit, home ownership, equity compensation, investment management, tax planning, Medicare and Social Security, estate planning, and survivor support. Anything narrower is a point solution. According to the 2026 LearnLux Workplace Financial Wellbeing Report, 88% of employees report some degree of financial stress and 76% carry high-interest debt, so a retirement-only program leaves most of the workforce uncovered.

2. Which life events does the program support, and how does an employee get help when one happens?

Ask vendors to describe how the program handles getting married, having a child, buying a home, divorce, job loss, caregiving, a death in the family, an inheritance, and retirement. The right answer is a combination of guided digital content plus 1:1 guidance from a Certified Financial Planner® professional, available the same week the event happens, not a generic article library.

3. How does the program integrate with our existing benefits and HRIS?

Vendors should be able to integrate with your benefits administration platform, retirement record-keeper, equity platform, and HRIS to surface personalized guidance and report on combined utilization. Ask what the integration looks like, what data is shared, and how it shows up for employees. Integrations that connect a CFP® professional conversation back to a specific 401(k) plan election or HSA decision are what move outcomes. A program that improves benefits understanding directly increases utilization of what the employer has already built and paid for.

4. Can your program sit alongside our retirement education vendor?

Most holistic financial wellbeing programs complement a record-keeper education layer because they cover retirement as one topic among many and add 1:1 guidance from CFP® professionals on pre-tax versus Roth, contribution strategy, employer match, and rollovers. Ask the vendor to describe how they sit alongside your existing offerings, so the RFP team can decide what makes sense for your workforce.

What questions should you ask about 1:1 guidance and CFP® expertise?

1:1 guidance is the difference between content that gets read and outcomes that get measured. These four questions get to whether the program actually delivers expert support at scale.

5. Who delivers your 1:1 guidance, and what credentials do they hold?

Look for programs with Certified Financial Planner® professionals who are in-house employees, not contractors. The CFP® credential signals fiduciary standards, comprehensive training across the planning curriculum, and ongoing continuing education. Programs without CFP® designation often cannot deliver guidance on complex topics like equity compensation, executive comp, tax planning, or estate planning.

6. How do employees access a CFP® professional, and through which channels?

Strong vendors offer chat, email, phone, and video, with the ability for an employee to book a 1:1 session in a few clicks from inside the app. Ask whether employees can start in chat and escalate to video, and whether the same CFP® professional can pick up the conversation across channels.

7. What is your typical response time, and what hours do you cover across time zones?

Ask for average response times for chat and email, average time to schedule a 1:1 session, and the hours your planners cover, including evenings and weekends. For multinational workforces, ask how coverage works across time zones globally, not just US business hours.

8. Can an employee work with the same CFP® professional over time?

Continuity of care matters because financial guidance compounds over time. An employee planning their first home purchase this year may come back next year for family planning and the year after for equity compensation. Ask whether your employees can re-engage the same planner who already knows their situation, or whether they start over each time.

What questions should you ask about fiduciary standards and compensation?

This is where vendors most often differ and where buyers most often skip the diligence. These three questions surface the difference between guidance and a sales conversation in disguise. The standard to hold vendors to is simple: salaried, in-house CFP® professionals and locally credentialed financial professionals with no products to sell, no commissions, and no assets to manage.

9. Do your financial professionals act as fiduciaries at all times with our employees?

Fiduciary status means the planner is legally required to act in the employee's best interest. Ask whether that applies at all times, in all interactions, or only on certain topics. Vendors who hedge here are signaling that some interactions are sales conversations rather than guidance.

10. How are your financial professionals compensated?

The strongest answer is salaried in-house employees, with no commissions, no asset-based fees, and no product sales. Commission-based or asset-gathering models change what an employee hears in a 1:1 session, even when the planner has the right credentials. Ask the vendor to put their compensation model in writing.

11. Do your financial professionals or your company have any financial interest in pushing specific products, asset gathering, or additional services?

Ask whether the vendor sells investment products, manages assets, refers employees to affiliated services, or earns referral fees from third parties. The strongest answer is no across the board. This question often surfaces business model conflicts that a sales pitch glosses over.

What questions should you ask about global workforce coverage?

If you employ workers outside the US, these three questions decide whether the program can actually serve them.

12. Which countries does your program support today, and which are on your roadmap?

Ask for a current country list and a roadmap with dates to understand how the program will support your multinational workforce in all of the countries where they live and work. The Financial Wellbeing for the Global Workforce guide details what comprehensive global coverage looks like.

13. Are your financial professionals credentialed in each country where they support employees?

Local credentialing matters because tax systems, retirement vehicles, and benefits structures vary by country. Ask whether the vendor uses in-country equivalents of the CFP® credential, how they staff coverage by region, and how they handle employees who relocate or have recently relocated.

14. What languages and currencies does the program support, and is content localized or translated?

Localization covers cultural and financial nuances; translation alone misses them. Ask for the full list of supported languages, the list of supported currencies, and examples of country-specific content (such as supplemental pensions, statutory savings vehicles, or local tax planning) that go beyond translated US material.

What questions should you ask about accessibility, engagement, and outcomes?

These four questions cover whether the program serves every employee and whether the vendor can prove impact.

15. How does your program serve employees across income, asset levels, and abilities?

Benefits equity means every employee can get value, not just executives or high earners. Ask about availability across income and asset levels, language support, accessibility for employees with disabilities, and diversity of the planning team. 47% of LearnLux participants earn less than $99,000 and 53% earn more, which reflects that financial complexity exists at every income level. LearnLux member stories show how participants across roles, life stages, and regions use the program.

16. What engagement and outcomes metrics can you report on, and at what frequency?

Ask for sample reports covering in-app engagement, planner interactions, webinar attendance, financial stress and confidence trends, utilization by location and salary band, and integrated insights from your 401(k) and benefits data. For global employers, ask for reporting that breaks engagement and outcomes out by country and region.

17. What ROI have your clients seen, and what metrics do you measure?

Strong vendors can point to financial stress reduction, retirement plan participation, reduced 401(k) loans and hardship withdrawals, productivity, and retention. According to the 2026 LearnLux Workplace Financial Wellbeing Report, 79% of employees say they are more likely to stay with their current employer because they offer LearnLux, and 91% say they can focus more at work when they are not stressed about their finances.

18. How does your client success team support launch, ongoing engagement, and renewal?

Ask who is on the client success team, how often they meet with HR and benefits leaders, and what they bring to quarterly business reviews. The strongest vendors run multilingual engagement campaigns, open enrollment activation, and reporting that lands on a benefits leader's calendar without extra lift. This is the difference between a program that drives ongoing utilization and one where engagement stalls. Ask specifically how the program reduces the volume of financial and benefits questions that currently land with HR, Total Rewards, Payroll, Equity, or Mobility teams.

What questions should you ask about implementation and pricing?

These two questions close out the RFP and tee up contract negotiations.

19. How long does implementation take, and what launch windows do you support?

Programs can launch any time of year. Ask for typical timelines from contract signing to employee launch, whether the vendor supports phased global rollouts, and which seasonal moments they typically build campaigns around (Financial Literacy Month, Tax Day, open enrollment, UK tax year end). Launching when employees are already thinking about money drives stronger engagement out of the gate.

20. What is your pricing model, and what is included versus sold separately?

Most enterprise programs price per employee per month (PEPM), with rates that vary by company size, scope, and global coverage. Ask for transparent pricing with no hidden fees, what is included in the base price (1:1 CFP® professional access, content, integrations, reporting, client success), and what costs extra. Confirm how pricing changes when global headcount is added, and ask whether Wellness Dollars or other benefits budget vehicles can offset costs.

Frequently asked questions about financial wellbeing RFP questions

When is the best time to run a financial wellbeing RFP?

Any time of year. Financial wellbeing programs are one of the few benefits that do not have to align to a January 1 plan year, which gives HR, benefits, and consultant teams more flexibility than they have with health or retirement vendors. That said, most teams time the RFP so the program launches ahead of a moment when employees are already thinking about money: Financial Literacy Month in April, tax season, open enrollment in the fall, year-end bonus and equity vesting windows, or country-specific moments like UK tax year-end. The Workplace Financial Wellbeing Calendar maps the engagement themes month by month so the RFP team can work backward from the launch window.

How long does a financial wellbeing RFP typically take from start to finish?

Most enterprise teams run the full process in 8 to 14 weeks: 2 to 3 weeks of internal scoping and workforce survey work, 3 to 4 weeks for vendor responses, 2 to 3 weeks for scoring and finalist demos, and 2 to 4 weeks for legal and contracting. Implementation then runs another 4 to 8 weeks before employees can launch, with phased rollouts often used for global populations.

Who should be on the financial wellbeing RFP evaluation team?

Include HR leadership, benefits, total rewards, equity compensation, payroll, mobility (for multinational employers), wellbeing, and DEI or ERG leadership. Many benefits teams add a finance partner to validate ROI assumptions and a benefits consultant to advise on vendor positioning and market insights. Keeping the core scoring team to five or six people moves faster; broader input can come in during the demo round.

How many vendors should you invite to bid on your financial wellbeing RFP?

Three to five is typical. Fewer than three makes it hard to compare answers; more than five slows the process and burdens internal scorers. A good shortlist usually includes one holistic vendor, one point solution the team is curious about, and one incumbent or legacy option if there is one. Consultants often pre-screen a longer list down to this range.

Do you need a benefits consultant to run a financial wellbeing RFP?

Not required, but consultants add value in three ways: maintaining a current view of the vendor landscape, running the scoring process neutrally, and pressure-testing pricing against market norms. Mid-market and enterprise teams often work with their existing benefits broker or a specialized wellbeing consultant. Smaller teams can run the RFP in-house using the Workplace Financial Wellbeing Buyer's Guide as the scoring framework.

What is the difference between an RFP, an RFI, and an RFQ for financial wellbeing?

An RFI (Request for Information) is a broad scan of the vendor landscape, used to learn what is out there before narrowing the field. An RFP (Request for Proposal) is the formal evaluation, with detailed questions on scope, guidance model, fiduciary standards, global coverage, outcomes, and pricing. An RFQ (Request for Quote) is pricing-focused and assumes the team already knows what they want. Most financial wellbeing selections go straight to an RFP because the category varies so much across vendors.

Should the RFP cover global workforces from day one, or can you phase in country coverage later?

Cover global from day one if you employ workers outside the US, even if launch will be phased. Vendors who can deliver in-country credentialed 1:1 guidance from Certified Financial Planner® professional equivalents look very different from vendors who add a translated content layer and call it global. The Financial Wellbeing for the Global Workforce guide explains why this gap is widening as more employers go remote-first and expand internationally. Phasing the launch is fine; phasing the evaluation often locks the team into a vendor that cannot scale.

What deliverables should the RFP require from each vendor?

Ask each vendor to submit written responses to the 20 questions above, a sample employee experience walkthrough, sample reporting (including global breakouts if relevant), a list of comparable client references, pricing in writing, and proposed implementation timeline. For finalists, add a live demo that includes a sample 1:1 session with a Certified Financial Planner® professional, ideally for a scenario relevant to your workforce. LearnLux member stories and the LearnLux program overview give a useful reference point for what good looks like.

Bringing it together

A strong financial wellbeing RFP gets to the truth on six things: scope, 1:1 guidance, fiduciary standards, global coverage, outcomes, and economics. The 20 questions above are how HR, benefits, and consultant teams pressure-test each one. The vendor that answers them clearly, in writing, with proof points and references is the one most likely to deliver a program your employees actually use.

Request a demo of LearnLux to see how a holistic program built on 1:1 guidance from Certified Financial Planner® professionals paired with best-in-class money management tools answers each of these 20 questions for US and global teams.

Methodology and sources

Question categories, scoring guidance, and vendor evaluation criteria draw from the Ultimate Guide to Evaluating Financial Wellbeing Solutions and the Workplace Financial Wellbeing Buyer's Guide. Workforce statistics on financial stress, debt, retention, and focus are drawn from the 2026 LearnLux Workplace Financial Wellbeing Report. Global workforce guidance draws from Financial Wellbeing for the Global Workforce.