Carefull, the first digital platform built to protect the daily finances of older adults, today announced a pilot program with Nationwide and their Innovation team, leveraging access to Carefull’s safe money monitoring technology.
In using its technology to support the 45 million U.S. adults who coordinate and protect daily finances for an older parent, Carefull will join Nationwide’s broader effort to offer on-demand solutions for the "uncharted territory" often navigated by its members who are actively caring for an aging loved one.
"The Nationwide team knows that supporting caregivers and older adults in this environment means more than educational pamphlets; it means offering customers industry-leading monitoring, family communication and identity protection technology," said Todd Rovak, a Carefull co-founder. "We now know that financial caregiving is as much as a 20-year need, so it’s fantastic to see Nationwide offer the latest technologies and step up with a system that empowers both older adults and those who support them."
Carefull’s artificial intelligence platform will help participating Nationwide caregivers by analyzing checking, savings and credit card accounts for more than 30 issues that can affect finances of older adults, such as late or missed payments, behavior change and mistakes, unusual banking activity, cash transfers and charitable contributions that unknowingly recur. Users of the technology—including seniors, select family members and caregivers who support them—can receive notifications if any fraud or issues are detected.
Nationwide hopes to support and augment the efforts of financial caregivers while enabling their aging family members to better maintain daily financial independence. Going beyond typical monitoring, the Carefull service will also enable robust communication among family members who are involved in the financial safeguarding process.
"We are always looking for ways to provide extraordinary care to our members and we think teaming up with Carefull is a great way to help us deliver on our Nationwide promise. Being able to do more for our members during their caregiving journey is what we are most excited to lean into and improve," said Bobbi Jo Allan, vice president of digital product management & innovation at Nationwide.
Participating Nationwide customers can use the Carefull service for financial accounts and credit and identity monitoring, and also gain access to Carefull's financial independence tools, advice and content on the Take Care blog, Financial Independence Guide, and Financial Caregiving Roadmap.