Symbius Financial Inks Deal with 5^th Largest
Payroll Provider in Phoenix

Pay-Tech to Market Symbius’ Financial Wellness Programs to its Employer-Clients

SCOTTSDALE, AZ May 3, 2010 – 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 Pay-Tech the fifth largest payroll company in Arizona. Pay-Tech has agreed to rollout Symbius employee benefit programs to its large roster of employer-clients. Symbius provides a comprehensive suite of employee benefit programs that improve the financial well-being of employees. The company’s solutions help employers: (1) improve the productivity of their employees and (2) greatly reduce the healthcare-related costs from employee financial stress.

“By offering a financial wellness program to our clients, we’re able to help employers reduce their expenses from financially-stressed employees,” said Rene Broft, President of Pay-Tech. “With the downturn in the economy, employees are having a hard time managing their money and meeting their monthly obligations and we are seeing these issues effect their performance in the workplace.”

The partnership comes on the heels of an investment of Symbius received last month from a large Fortune 1000 funding partner. 

“Our financial programs have been well received by employers and our partners. Employee financial stress is on the rise and can be a real disrupter in the work place,” said Duke Fonner, CEO of Symbius Financial. “Our programs help employers reduce financial stress among their employees, which greatly reduces the employer’s health-care costs and drives up employee productivity.”

One of Symbius’ most innovative financial wellness offerings is their PayEarly Program (patent-pending). The PayEarly Program enables employees to take a draw 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 by providing them with liquidity.  

Employee financial stress is a growing problem for employers and their employees.

·         30% of U.S. employees are seriously financially distressed. On average, up to 80% of financially distressed employees spend time at work dealing with their personal financial issues, wasting anywhere from 12-20 work hours per month (Dr. E. Thomas Garman, President, Personal Finance Employee Education Foundation)

·         Recent studies estimate that an employer's incremental health care cost of a financially distressed employee is $300 per year (MetLife, Study of Employee Benefits Trends, 1/2009)

·         Employees regard financial stress as their primary concern, five times greater than personal health (National Institute of Personal Finance)

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.

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 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.