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Matt Fellowes
Our Future Path to Prosperity
Every American wants to get ahead, but few do and even fewer know how to do it effectively. According to new research I produced while I was at the Brookings Institution, U.S. consumers are now unnecessarily losing hundreds of billions of dollars in avoidable banking fees, inflated interest rates, and missed opportunities because of their difficulty using the financial services designed to promote economic mobility. That will all change in the future. New public and private intermediaries in the market are transforming financial services from a self-service market into one that looks much like the health services market, where doctors help patients make decisions about medicines and procedures. Over 80 percent of the U.S. public no longer trusts banks, most people carry too much debt, few save adequately for their goals, and, most importantly, there is a growing recognition among consumers that financial services are now too complicated and dangerous to manage on their own. Together with new technical innovations, these market dynamics are transforming the way that we think about and use our money to get ahead.
About Matt Fellowes:
Matt Fellowes is a consumer finance expert and the founder and CEO of HelloWallet. HelloWallet is a continuation of Matt’s commitment to improve the consumer financial services market through game-changing, strategic innovations that build wealth for everyone.
Prior to HelloWallet, Matt was a Fellow at the Brookings Institution. His consumer finance work has been published in academic journals and covered in top media around the world, including feature stories in BusinessWeek, USA Today, the New York Times, NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News, and ABC World News, among others. Matt has testified in front of the U.S. Congress and state houses across the country and advised dozens of elected officials, businesses, and banking regulatory agencies on consumer finance issues.
Matt has also served as a professor of public policy at Georgetown University and George Washington University, as a project director at the Pew Charitable Trusts, and on academic editorial boards. A native of Chicago, he holds a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MPP from Georgetown University, and a BA from St. Lawrence University. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife and two daughters.
