Mission-Driven Financial Counseling Empowers Clients to Take Control of Their Money At No Cost

In a Nutshell: The San Antonio Financial Empowerment Center offers counseling services that help consumers manage debt and establish a plan for financial success. The center offers its services for free, allowing clients to put more of their money aside for future expenses. The center’s counselors refer eligible clients to other agencies in San Antonio to improve their quality of life.

Nobody looks forward to catching a cold or the flu. But when you’re a school-age kid, coming down with a mild sickness comes with a silver lining — you get to stay home from school when you’re sick.

Returning to school after missing a day or two was usually a downer as teachers gave you extra assignments to cover topics you’d missed.

But I never had to make up any classwork that revolved around managing personal finances. Why? Because financial education wasn’t taught in schools in those days.

Kids who don’t learn how to manage their finances in school have to rely on parents, friends, the internet, or trial and error to inform their approaches to money management. Fortunately, government agencies have stepped in to help steer Americans toward financial literacy.

The San Antonio Financial Empowerment Center provides free counseling to help people learn how to take control of their finances. We spoke with Richard Keith, Human Services Administrator for the City of San Antonio Department of Human Services, to learn how the San Antonio Financial Empowerment Center positions people for bright financial futures.

Financial Empowerment Centers operate across the U.S. Keith told us New York City housed the first center, and 36 municipally sponsored centers serve people today. San Antonio’s center opened its doors in 2013.

“It’s a very high-quality model that involves professionalizing financial counseling and then offering it for free to residents of that community,” Keith told us.

The San Antonio center serves any resident of Bexar County, which has a population of more than 2 million.  

Center counselors examine a consumer’s credit report with them and help them establish a budget. 

“A lot of people don’t understand what their credit report looks like or how it affects their life, but it affects them very much because it impacts their ability to get a loan,” Keith told us. “And these days, a lot of employers are checking credit reports before they hire someone, so your credit report and any issues with it are going to follow you around. We also help people reduce their overall debt, fix tax issues, and establish a savings plan that prepares them to buy a home.”

A long line of customers wrapped around a sandwich shop I drove by a few months ago. I hadn’t tried the shop’s food before, but I assumed it must be incredible based on the line of people. Later on, I discovered that the store was handing out free sandwiches to the first 100 customers who came through its doors that day.

People love free things, even if the complimentary item is just a sandwich. And if you can access financial education for free, that’s a bargain that’ll pay off down the line.

Keith told us many consumers seek the San Antonio Financial Empowerment Center’s no-cost services, and the center consults with approximately 5,000 San Antonio residents annually. 

“Over the course of the year, we try to do multiple sessions with residents so that we can dig deeper into their issues and have a bigger impact as a result,” Keith told us. “The volume of clients we serve is high, but it’s about quality over quantity.” 

The center receives so many clients via referrals that it doesn’t need to devote significant resources to advertise. Keith told us the center uses the money it saves on marketing to support the costs of operating its programs.

“Somebody will have a good experience working with us that helps them understand their finances better, and then they’ll tell their cousin or sister about us, and that person will come to us for help,” he explained.

Many San Antonio residents speak Spanish. The San Antonio Financial Empowerment Center provides its services in both English and Spanish. Keith told us the center uses translation services to assist clients who speak languages other than English and Spanish.

The center’s financial counselors undergo training and must pass certification exams before meeting with clients. Keith told us one of the most important skills its counselors possess is active listening. Counselors can refer clients to the center’s partners for additional support.

“We help clients address any fraud they may have been a victim of, or, in the case of older adults, elder financial abuse that family members and caretakers may set in motion,” Keith told us. “We do those kinds of things in a client’s first session with us and lay out a tentative plan for them to follow. But we might go into other areas if a person’s situation requires it because different people require different plans.”

The pandemic upended the way people around the world live their lives. Many people lost their jobs due to businesses closing or reducing their hours of operation. Keith told us the San Antonio Financial Empowerment Center worked with many new clients who were struggling to plan their next steps during the height of the pandemic.

The center’s model is flexible to provide actionable advice to people of all education levels and socioeconomic backgrounds. 

“We really believe in the model we follow to help our clients because a lot of care went into building this national network that we’re a part of to make it consistent ,” Keith told us. “You can walk into any center in any of the 36 cities we’re in and get a similar level of quality and preparation on the part of the financial counselors. People know that the counseling they get from us is in their best interests because there are no fees for the services we provide.”

Budgeting can help people monitor their spending habits and save for a rainy day. The San Antonio Financial Empowerment Center’s counselors use plain language to help those new to budgeting understand its usefulness. 

You may think that wealthy individuals are expert budgeters who only maintain their financial success through rigorous financial planning, but that’s not always the case. Keith told us low-income clients can get into financial trouble when they don’t follow a budget, but many low-income individuals who engage with the center are skilled at budgeting.

“When you have a little more money to spare, then you might loosen up on your budgeting a little bit,” Keith told us. “And the more money you get, the more you might get to a point where you’re not following a budget at all because you don’t feel you need to. That’s been an interesting and humbling part of doing this work.”

San Antonio Financial Empowerment Center services go a long way toward helping clients flourish financially. But its partner agencies can also improve a client’s quality of life.

Keith told us counselors notify clients of other resources they can access. Clients with young children may be eligible for subsidized day care and Head Start services. 

The center is associated with senior centers that allow older clients of all income levels to receive a free or subsidized meal every day. The senior centers also offer opportunities for older adults to meet and socialize with other seniors in San Antonio.

“These are just some of the examples of the kinds of services that people might not be thinking about when they come to us,” Keith told us. “People are busy taking care of their families, which means they can sometimes be working two or even three jobs. Scanning the community for resources that would help them takes a certain amount of energy and time that they don’t have, so we try to share those resources with them.”

Businesses that help people manage their debt may charge for the services they provide. But consumers who are struggling to pay down their debt may end up in a worse financial situation if they can’t pay a debt management company’s fees. Keith told us the center discourages clients from engaging with companies that charge fees for financial advice.

The San Antonio Financial Empowerment Center informs clients of financial institutions such as credit unions that provide free check-cashing services. A credit union’s lending products may provide more benefits than those offered by payday and title lenders.

“Part of meeting people where they are in this work is recognizing and respecting the financial life they have,” Keith told us. “We try to point people in the direction of services that allow them to keep their money safe without worrying about fees.”