CT HB05315

Establishes a nonlapsing Financial Wellness Trust Fund effective July 1, 2023, held by the State Treasurer to receive gifts, bequests, endowments, grants, and contributions from public and private sources to promote financial education of Connecticut residents.

Creates a Financial Wellness Trust Fund Advisory Committee composed of the State Treasurer, Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, banking committee cochairpersons and ranking members, and two additional members representing financial institutions or with financial wellness expertise appointed by the State Treasurer by August 1, 2023.

Authorizes the State Treasurer to establish a Center for Financial Wellness within the Treasurer's office to improve financial wellness by increasing financial literacy rates and eliminating economic disparities in wealth and wages.

Empowers the center to recommend financial literacy policies, assess effectiveness of state programs in addressing race and gender-based economic inequities, convene stakeholders, support financial education programs including college savings accounts, and maintain a financial literacy information website.

The State Treasurer may appoint center personnel including an executive director, with compensation paid from the Financial Wellness Trust Fund and exempt from standard state compensation rules; all provisions effective January 1, 2023.