Symbius Financial Announces Successful Launch of its ‘PayEarly’ Program with Large Restaurant Group
Symbius’ Innovative Employee Benefit Gives Employees Flexible Access to Earned Wages

SCOTTSDALE, AZ February 18, 2011 – Symbius Financial is the first company to deliver a simple, transparent and low-cost way for employers to manage and greatly reduce financial stress by providing employees with a comprehensive suite of financial wellness solutions.

One of Symbius’ most innovative financial wellness offerings is their PayEarly Program, which Arizona Restaurant Systems launched in early December of 2010 as a company-wide, voluntary employee benefit. The PayEarly Program enables Arizona Restaurant System’s employees to receive a portion of their upcoming paycheck in advance. By providing the employee with a flexible way to gain access to their earned wages, Symbius’ program offers employees a better way to get through a financial emergency.  After two months in operation, the launch has met the expectations of Arizona Restaurant Systems and their employees.

“In these trying economic times, we felt that helping our employees is priority Number One,” said ARS CFO Spencer Manke. “We’ve witnessed Symbius’ program provide great benefit to our employees and our organization.”

With the downturn of the economy, employee stress from financial emergencies is on the rise across the U.S. and Symbius PayEarly Program directly addresses this issue for employers and their employees. Recently, the Society for Human Resource Management reported that, in the previous 12 months, survey respondents had seen:

·         26% increase in employees having their wages garnished by collection agencies

·         39% increase in requests for 401(k) plan loans; and

·         20% increase in requests for pay advances

Symbius’ program is provided at no cost and with no risk to employers and works seamlessly with existing payroll systems and processes utilized by employers, payroll companies and Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs). Symbius financial wellness programs benefit employers by improving employee productivity, reducing health care related costs and displacing the need for employers to feel compelled to grant advances to their own employees. With more than 30% of U.S. employees going through serious financial stress (Personal Finance Employee Education Foundation), today’s employers can now provide employees with a flexible way to access their earned wages.

“In today’s economy, employees are struggling to make ends meet. With 70% of U.S. employees living paycheck-to-paycheck, our PayEarly Program benefits a large number of employees, helping them work through a financial emergency quickly and at a low cost, which enables them to get back to work,” said Duke Fonner, CEO of Symbius Financial.

Designed with an FDIC-governed bank and compliant with Arizona state law, Symbius PayEarly Program advances only a portion of the employee’s upcoming paycheck and leverages proprietary web-based technology (patent-pending) to underwrite and deliver the funds quickly to the employee. For ease of use, the employee makes the request online and they receive the funds electronically to their existing bank account or prepaid debit card within one business day.  

“Through the use of our technology and by offering the program through partnership with employers, we are able to reduce our risk and operate a more efficient model compared to the alternatives - helping us to greatly drive down the fees charged to employees,” said Duke Fonner. “In fact, the fee charged to the employee is lower than common wire transfer fees.”

The Symbius program is low-cost and is always non-predatory to the employee. There are never any late fees, extensions, accruing interest, or rollovers in the Symbius program. In addition, employers can control how often employees can access the program, so employees are protected from over-use.

The Symbius program displaces the need for an employee to utilize 401k loans, predatory payday lenders and high-fee overdraft protection banks to meet their liquidity issue. In addition, employees can often solve a financial emergency with other methods that end up costing the company in time and money. These include: adjustments to their IRS deductions, changes to their employee benefit withholding and 401k withholdings, and dropping of insurance coverage. But with the Symbius PayEarly Program, employees can solve their financial emergency without impacting the employer and without causing harm to their own long-term financial future. The program is especially in demand by ‘unbanked’ and ‘underbanked’ employees; a large and growing segment among the U.S. population.

About Symbius Financial
Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Symbius Financial is the first company to deliver a simple, transparent and low-cost way for employers to manage and reduce financial stress among their employees. With the Symbius’ program, employers can significantly improve employee productivity and reduce their health care costs by improving the financial wellness of their employee base. The Symbius program includes: (1) a robust financial health assessment platform, (2) on-demand financial education with brief, media-rich videos covering more than 50 financial topics, (3) a do-it-yourself online debt payoff tool that empower employees to pay off debt as quickly as possible, (4) a PayEarly Program that advances funds to employees for emergency situations (up to six times per year), (5) identity theft protection and (6) access to optional features such as an ongoing ‘money coach’ program. For the latest facts and trends about the employee financial stress crisis, please visit: www.symbiusfinancial.com/wellness_facts.aspx. For more information about Symbius, please visit www.SymbiusFinancial.com.

Contact:
Duke Fonner duke@symbiusfinancial.com/480-889-8941

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