BURLINGTON, VT - Public policymakers, educators, business people and legislators will gather at Champlain College on Thursday, June 16 to discuss the state of personal finance education in Vermont and beyond. The daylong event is hosted by Champlain College's Center for Financial Literacy with sponsorship by TD Bank and National Life Group.

John Pelletier, Director the Center for Financial Literacy and a former chief operating officer and chief legal officer at some of the largest asset management firms in the U. S., says a lack of knowledge about credit, investing and financial planning is really at the heart of the recent economic downturn.

The 2011 Vermont Financial Literacy Summit is designed to raise the awareness of and the public policy choices related to personal finance education in Vermont. Participants will be asked to:

• Add their voice to the national, state and local conversation about the need for more financial literacy education.
• Learn what is needed to bring vital education about credit, financial planning, investment and savings into the classroom at all levels of education.
• Be part of planning the next steps to develop and prioritize a multi-pronged approach to improve the financial health of our state and nation.

The event is by invitation only and runs from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Champlain College IDX Student Life Center in Burlington.

"Together we hope to tap into the collective wisdom of the attendees to gather ideas on how to best bring personal finance education into our schools, colleges and workplaces in effective and efficient ways that will directly benefit Vermont's economic vitality. By doing so, we'll create a model that can be shared with other states and communities across the nation," Pelletier explained.

Among the speakers at the event:

• Vt. Gov. Peter Shumlin
• A video message from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
• Ted Beck, President of the National Endowment for Financial Education and a member of President Obama's Advisory Council on Financial Capability.
• John Gannon, Senior Vice President, Investor Education, FINRA and President of the FINRA Investor Education Foundation.

"The Great Recession demonstrated that our citizens struggle when making complex financial decisions that are critical to their well being. Some of our economic problems were created by bad actors, focused on personal gain, but so many others were created by good people making poorly informed personal financial decisions," Pelletier noted.

The Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College will tackle those issues using a multi-pronged educational approach, backed with strong financial support from many of Vermont's major financial industry institutions. "We want to develop and prioritize ideas to improve financial literacy education of the entire Vermont population: K-12 students, college students and adults," he said.

The Center for Financial Literacy will also present the results of "Financial Literacy Education in Vermont High Schools: A Snapshot," a statewide survey of schools and how they currently teach financial literacy. Students from the Champlain College Emergent Media Center will also demonstrate a prototype e-game being developed to help teach financial literacy.

"The teaching of personal finance is often an afterthought in schools because it is not a subject tested under the No Child Left Behind law. However, according to Jump$tart USA - a Washington D.C.-based coalition of organizations interested in advancing financial literacy among students in pre-kindergarten through college - high school seniors, on average, answered only 48 percent of personal finance questions correctly. We hope the work of the Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College and the knowledge we gather at this Summit will ultimately result in a roadmap and a strategic plan that will help materially improve Vermont's financial literacy," Pelletier explained.

Both TD Bank and National Life Group and their charitable foundations donated $10,000 each to fund the $20,000 costs associated with holding the Summit.

"Financial education is important to TD Bank because we believe in empowering everyone with the knowledge to live a financially healthy lifestyle, that's why it is an honor to be part of this Summit. We hope to help elevate the public policy discussion further, and share our best practices with Vermont educators," said Philip R. Daniels, TD Bank Market President, Vermont.

The recent financial crisis and lingering recession have exposed behaviors that reveal the low levels of financial literacy across the nation. Mortgage defaults, foreclosure rates, personal credit defaults and bankruptcy rates are at all time highs according to economic experts. "Fifty one percent of adults don't have a rainy day fund; a third of them have not saved anything for retirement; a third have no savings to speak of; and more than a quarter of American adults don't pay their bills on time. These behaviors suggest there is a lot of room for improvement and the place to start is by educating people in personal finance," Pelletier said.

For National Life Group's Christian Thwaites, President and Chief Executive Officer, Sentinel Investment Companies, supporting the 2011 Vermont Financial Literacy Summit directly addresses the state's need to move financial education to the forefront of discussions by business people, lawmakers and educators. "One of the goals of the Summit will be to explore what financial education resources are currently available in our schools, identify solutions and stakeholders and set priorities for moving ahead."

For more information about the Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College and the Vermont Summit for Financial Literacy, visit www.champlain.edu/cfl.html