Symbius Financial Inks Partnership with National PEO
National PEO to Offer Symbius’ PayEarly Program to its Employer-Clients

SCOTTSDALE, AZ March 28, 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 National PEO. Based in Scottsdale, National PEO is the largest PEO (Professional Employer Organization) based in Arizona as it directly serves more than 20,000 employees across its nationwide employer-client base. With the Symbius partnership, National PEO will offer Symbius’ programs to its customer base.

One of Symbius’ most innovative financial wellness offerings is their PayEarly Program, which is offered at no cost to employers. The PayEarly Program 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 flexible way to gain access to their earned wages, Symbius’ program offers employees a better way to get through a financial emergency.  

“At National PEO, we are constantly on the lookout for innovative ways to serve our clients better and add substantial value to our market-leading payroll and benefits services,” said National PEO General Manager Kevin Steele. “By offering Symbius’s PayEarly Program, we think it can be a great opportunity for our employers and their employees – especially in this economic climate.”

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.

“Our partnership with a PEO as large and well-known as National PEO provides an excellent opportunity for Symbius to further build on our recent success,” said Duke Fonner, CEO of Symbius Financial. “With 70% of U.S. employees living paycheck-to-paycheck, this partnership validates that there is a real need for our PayEarly program among employers and their employees.”

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 Shane Edrington, President of Symbius. “For employers, our technology means that they do not need to tie-up any of their HR resources to offer the program successfully.”

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 National PEO
Founded in 1999, National PEO has risen to become a leading provider of PEO services to hundreds of companies in Arizona and the rest of the United States. With roots deeply embedded in the PEO industry, National PEO has consistently led the curve in innovation, leadership and setting the trend for PEO “Best Practices”. For more information, visit: www.nationalpeo.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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