Adobe Multigen Cs6 Core
Roseanne Devon
Initially Zeta offered two apps for couples, one that acted as a digital joint account and another that helped with budgeting. Now there is one Zeta app that is a blend of both. It is broadening its reach to families of all stripes. That will include parents who want to hand off some financial responsibility to their children or their children's caregivers, or unconventional relationship structures between two or more adults who intertwine their finances, such as Shekar with her mom and brother.
Zeta's evolution illustrates one best practice of shared finance: that even if the app or tool sets out to serve one audience, it should be flexible enough to accommodate those with adjacent needs who fall just outside of the target.
Research shows a third of younger consumers are ready to switch banks in the next year. Here are some of the features traditional institutions could offer to keep them in the fold or bring them on board.
The consulting firm Forrester defines shared finance as any situation in which a person acts as an observer of, partner in, or proxy for another person's finances. Beyond traditional joint bank accounts, experimentation in new products and services lies almost squarely with fintechs rather than traditional financial institutions. The concept has become even more relevant during the pandemic, as multigenerational households coalesced, or as personal financial struggles or increases in living costs drove people to depend on others financially. Lately, it's been taking on new forms, from divorced parents to business collaborators who want to finesse the degree of access that other parties get.
The family category is crowded, with neobanks such as Copper, Goalsetter, GoHenry, Greenlight and Step enhancing their features to go beyond allowances, chore lists and basic banking to investing and gamified financial education. The apps tend to follow the same formula: a customizable debit card, a savings account where other relatives can chip in, and parental oversight. Apple Card also has a family component. JPMorgan Chase's First Banking is the rare example of a traditional financial institution entering this space.
The couples fintech space has shifted a bit. Honeyfi no longer exists. Zeta is evolving. But Qapital's Dream Team joint finance feature officially launched out of beta in November. It lets couples change what is visible and what is private to their partner, and leave comments directly in the app. Hitched, a digital standalone banking app and sub-brand of Iroquois Federal Savings and Loan in Watseka, Illinois, offers checking and savings accounts, but customers may also apply for credit and lending products through Iroquois.
There are a few fintechs for people helping their elderly relatives manage their finances safely, including True Link Financial and EverSafe. One company, Carefull, piloted its software with The Cooperative Bank in Roslindale, Massachusetts, in November 2021. Carefull uses machine learning to monitor accounts for signs of fraud, abuse and dementia. It lets account holders dictate which pieces of information are revealed to which "trusted contact," from high-level account balances to a list of recurring bills to alerts for unusual behavior. Carefull is available for free to TCB customers, and is also subsidized by other banks.
Wannemacher believes that any company engaging in shared finance should be expansive about their definitions, and willing to try something that falls in between or outside of the four categories. His 2021 shared finance report found that most of the fintechs he interviewed reported that adoption of or demand for their products extended beyond their core audience.
Shekar says that Zeta is zooming in on families rather than couples "because they are an interesting, complicated, messy unit of finance that has all kinds of custom needs," she said. Moreover, "we've had instances where roommates want to open an account, or divorced couples."
Although the family challenger bank space is crowded, "We are focused on becoming the primary household account," said Shekar. "We are not trying to be a side account for you to manage an allowance for your child."
Onward is a startup for divorced or separated parents to co-manage their children's expenses. Parents can add expenses, suggest a split, upload a receipt and either settle it immediately or propose a different split. SupportPay, which helps co-parents manage alimony, child support payments, and expenses, has a similar mission.
Linda Hamilton, executive vice president at Hitched, says its goal is to help people stay together and grow with them, but "There's always a funny person who suggests Iroquois should also launch 'UnHitched,' " she said.
Nerve's next step is to partner with community banks to serve microbusinesses that are not necessarily creator-specific, such as house-cleaning services. Nerve is in discussions with banks about the possibility, and may white-label its app or let institutions refer their customers to Nerve. But either way, the community bank would hold the deposits and potentially deepen the relationship.
Wannemacher says he is aware of two of the four major banks in the U.S. that are considering or starting to develop minimum viable products for shared finance initiatives. He has also seen large and midsize banks experiment with the concept, but most of it is surface level.
"There is value in packaging things in a way that is more valuable to families, or divorced parents, or elderly parents and their adult children," said Wannemacher. "But there has been a lot more slapping a coat of marketing on it, rather than there has been real, from-scratch product innovation and design."
In this week's banking news roundup: NCUA grants Tribe Federal Credit Union a provisional charter; ICBA Payments names Jacob Eisen its new president and CEO; Mission Fed Credit Union announces new role for longtime leader Steve Hasbrooke; and more.
The bank backed off its ban on lending to companies that make assault-style guns used for non-military purposes. Instead, the firm will now make such decisions on a case-by-case basis with senior risk officers.
Atlanta Postal Credit Union's bid to acquire Affinity Bank marked the 11th deal overall this year involving a credit union buying a bank, matching the total for all of 2023. Separately, members voted against the merger of two credit unions in Indiana.
Retailers like Walmart, Target and Dollar General are changing the ways they collect payments in person. This, in turn, could influence payment habits, but it is unlikely to slow the overall momentum of digital transactions.
A California woman spent more than a decade obtaining reparations for Nazi plundering of her family's belongings. The money disappeared when identity thieves targeted her, highlighting shortcomings in bank-fraud protections.
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