When employee benefits providers focus their marketing attention on the future, it usually means concentrating on the Millennial generation-a swelling population with its own unique perspective on financial matters. MassMutual Financial Group has extended its reach to an even younger audience-middle schoolers, a population that is roughly a decade away from making its own employee benefits decisions.

MassMutual isn't pushing its regular product line to these young people. It is teaching them something about the financial future that lies ahead for them, and what they can do to make it better.

But how do you get the attention of a 12- or 13-year-old to pay attention to adults about anything, let alone his or her financial future? MassMutual does it by first putting 1,500 to 3,000 of these young people into a gym, where they are entertained by representatives from NBA teams, dunk displays, cheerleaders, dance teams and mascots.

If you've ever been with a large crowd of middle schoolers in any setting, you can imagine the noise. But after the emcee succeeds in quieting the masses, what then? For MassMutual, these gatherings-which it has held for the last two years at NBA arenas in five cities-are the annual kick-off event for its FutureSmart Challenge program. The objective is to help these young people carefully consider their future educational and financial choices.

The rousing kick-off event is followed up with a FutureSmart Challenge curriculum in middle school classrooms coordinated through local Junior Achievement representatives. In two years, the program has reached 20,000 middle schoolers. MassMutual has committed $2 million to FutureSmart Challenge.

At the pep rally-like gatherings the emcee, and spokesperson for the program, is Hill Harper, an award-winning actor and New York Times best-selling author. Harper is a firm believer in the transformative power of education. He's a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Brown and has JD and Master of Public Administration degrees from Harvard.

Harper talks to the kids about what it costs to survive, live and thrive. He explains the impact of education and career on income. He shows how what you spend your money on matters, highlighting the difference between "wants" and "needs." And he discusses the importance of saving and the power of compound interest.

"These aren't the flashiest topics out there for middle school kids," admits Nick Fyntrilakis, vice president of community responsibility for MassMutual. "What makes them buy into the message is that Harper connects with the students on a very direct level and is able to energize and excite them."

The message is designed to be interactive, Fyntrilakis explains. "Harper asks the students to produce a financial blueprint for their lives, and then tweet those blueprints back to him to look over and discuss. We have a lot of anecdotal evidence that it's working.
"We've received comments from students saying things like, 'I've finally sat down and thought about my future and put together a blueprint.' Then they share the blueprint with us to demonstrate that they've actually done this work. We've had other students tweet that a friend of theirs had wanted to quit school. But after hearing the presentation the friend decided not to do that.

"We stress throughout the program that 'the more you learn, the more you earn,'" says Fyntrilakis. "By creating financial awareness in this young age group, we're preparing them to make important decisions in high school about the education goals they wish to pursue-such as college, vocational training or certifications. They'll be making course choices as early as 8th or 9th grade that will affect these goals."

Adults have a lot to learn too
Although middle schoolers are a nontraditional audience for MassMutual to reach out to, the idea behind the FutureSmart Challenge-prodding individuals to invest in their own financial future-looks a lot like what's going on in the general employee benefits market. Benefits companies are asking buyers to take greater responsibility for their financial and physical health.

Rising medical costs have pushed plan participants toward voluntary products. Wellness programs enable them to invest in their health as partners in what they pay for medical coverage. And 401(k) retirement plans leave most contribution and investment decisions in the hands of participants.

Like middle school kids who are just starting to think about managing their financial future, today's benefit plan participants can easily be overwhelmed by all the choices they face. Like middle schoolers, they need education-on the voluntary products at their disposal, on health incentives offered through wellness programs and on retirement plan choices.

Plan sponsors are providing more help through various types of plan communications and beefed-up retirement advice. Some financial wellness programs offer financial counseling on issues other than retirement.

MassMutual believes it is important for middle schoolers to take their own financial future seriously. The company points out that too many young adults have failed to grasp this message, citing figures from the National Foundation for Credit Counseling indicating that only 59% of adults ages 18-21 are paying their bills on time.

About two years ago, MassMutual commissioned a survey of American family financial decision makers who had children under age 18. Forbes Consulting Group conducted the State of the American Family study, utilizing 1,337 online interviews, with most of the participating families earning more than $75,000 per household.

"Among those surveyed," says Fyntrilakis, "we found both a lack of financial preparedness and a real interest in providing financial education to their children because they wished they had had more financial information themselves when they were growing up."

When MassMutual makes its FutureSmart Challenge presentations to middle schoolers, it also distributes information about a free life insurance program for the students to take to parents. Under the program, called LifeBridgeSM the company provides free 10-year term life policies up to $50,000 to parents of dependent children under age 18. Parents must be healthy and employed full-time or part-time with total family income between $10,000 and $40,000. Policy benefits are paid out for educational expenses of dependent children.

As of the end of 2014, MassMutual had issued 13,400 policies through LifeBridge, with $670 million in coverage. Its goal is to reach $1 billion in coverage.

By the time today's middle schoolers reach the full-time employment market, the employee benefits landscape probably will have undergone some significant changes. Technological advances and product demands shaped by the Gen X and Gen Y generations will take care of that.
One constant over the next decade, though, might well be a continual tailoring of benefit choices to the needs of individual plan sponsors and individual plan participants. The need to self-educate on financial issues should continue to grow.

Middle school seems like a good place to start.