Maryland Financial Education Summit

The Financial Education Summit is a free half-day event for all financial educators, researchers, and community leaders that offer financial education in Maryland to come together to navigate up-to-date research, practices, and insights in the financial education field. While Maryland is one of the richest states in the nation, practitioners in the field understand that the importance of equitable and accessible financial education is more important than ever. With changes every year in policy and tools, it can be hard to catch up with everything so that’s why you need to attend this event. Speakers include NEFE discussing their Personal Finance Ecosystem, the Aspen Institute on Earned Wage Access Products, and the University of Minnesota on Culturally Responsive Financial Education.

While we have other components to the Summit these are the 3 workshops that are included in the CEU request: NEFE–An Introduction to the Personal Finance Ecosystem

The Personal Finance Ecosystem is a conceptual framework developed by the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) to help people make sense of the many factors that influence financial well-being. In this workshop, you’ll get a tour of both the individual and systemic factors that come together to influence individual financial wellness and explore how this research-informed framework can help contextualize financial education within the broader financial well-being landscape.

You’ll expand your ability to communicate about the complex, nuanced world of personal finance and see how the work you do shapes well-being. You’ll also learn about resources available to you to use the Personal Finance Ecosystem in your work, whether that’s in the classroom or among other stakeholders. The Center for Responsible Lending: A Loan Shark in Your Pocket: The Perils of Earned Wage Advance
Online lenders offering earned wage and cash advances primarily through cell phone apps have proliferated in the past decade, with companies claiming that existing credit laws do not apply to their products. Learn from Whitney Barkley, Deputy Director of State Policy, with the Center For Responsible Lending how these products harm the financial health of individuals and what is being done to protect consumers. Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities–Best Practices for Culturally Responsive Financial Education This session will explore the cultural foundations that shape how communities of color think about and manage money, highlighting why financial education must go beyond a one-size-fits-all approach. We’ll examine research on cultural values that influence financial decision-making and discuss best practices for integrating these insights into financial education strategies. Attendees will walk away with tangible, research-backed approaches for delivering financial education that resonates, empowers, and drives meaningful financial change across diverse communities.