Symbius Financial Signs Agreement with Planet Payroll, Inc.

Planet Payroll to Roll-out Symbius’ PayEarly Product, Providing a Critical Benefit to Underbanked Employees and Employees Living ‘Paycheck-to-Paycheck’

SCOTTSDALE, AZ April 18, 2011 – Symbius Financial, the first company to deliver a simple, transparent and low-cost way for employers to manage and greatly improve the financial wellness of their workforce, today announced a deal with Planet Payroll. Based in Phoenix, Planet Payroll currently provides payroll services to more than 600 employer-clients and 60,000 employees across the country. With the Symbius partnership, Planet Payroll will offer Symbius’ programs to its customer base providing a critical benefit to underbanked employees and those employees living ‘paycheck-to-paycheck’. In 2009, Americans spent $45.3 billion in fees to meet their short-term credit needs, mostly to highly predatory payday lenders and overdraft ‘protection’ programs.

One of Symbius’ most innovative financial wellness offerings is their PayEarly product, which is offered at no cost to employers. PayEarly is a value-added payroll feature that enables employees to receive a portion of their upcoming paycheck on-demand and in advance. By providing the employee with a low-cost and flexible way to gain access to their earned wages, Symbius’ program offers employees a better way to get through a financial emergency.  

“As a 20+ year veteran of the payroll industry, I see Symbius’ PayEarly as a true ‘win-win’ for both employers and their employees,” said Steven Barnett, President of Planet Payroll. “We see employers make the mistake of giving their employees advances directly out of their own funds. In doing so, it puts the employer at great risk and it creates an uncomfortable atmosphere in the workplace. In addition, in the last 12 months we’ve seen a large increase in 401k loan requests and hardship withdrawals by employees. Symbius’ PayEarly solves these issues and gives employees a better and low-cost alternative. The response so far from our employer-clients has been tremendous.”

With the downturn of the economy, employee stress from financial emergencies is on the rise across the U.S. and Symbius’ PayEarly 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.

“We are ecstatic about our partnership with a payroll provider as successful as Planet Payroll,” said Randy Humphrey, Chairman of Symbius Financial. “Short-term financial emergencies inflict millions of Americans every year. Without viable options, employees often turn to payday lenders and other high-fee/high-predatory models that only make the problem worse. These problematic solutions create an environment of stress, discouragement and confusion for the employee, often leading them to be less productive at work. Symbius offers a one-of-a-kind business solution with a social mission – provide employees in need a better and safer alternative to help them through their financial emergency.”

Designed with an FDIC-governed bank, Symbius’ PayEarly 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.  With PayEarly, the employee never falls victim to late fees, any additional fees of any kind, extensions, or rollovers.

The Symbius product displaces the need for an employee to utilize 401k loans, predatory payday lenders and high-fee overdraft protection from banks in order to meet their liquidity issue. In addition, employees can often solve a financial emergency with other methods that end up costing the company time and money. These include: adjustments to their IRS deductions, changes to their employee benefit withholdings and 401k withholdings, and dropping 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 that make up 60+ million adults in the U.S (per FDIC).

About Planet Payroll Inc.
Planet Payroll, Inc. was established in 1999 and provides payroll services, labor management systems and benefit administration services to over 600 employers directly and through a national network of ­­­ strategic partners nationally. Strategic partners include some of the nation’s leading accounting firms, employee benefit brokers, financial institutions and human resource outsourcing (HRO) organizations. Planet Payroll, Inc is a member of the American Payroll Association, Independent Payroll Providers Association and The Better Business Bureau. For more information about Planet Payroll, Inc please visit www.PlanetPayroll.com.

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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