Dive Brief:

• Bank of America said more than 5 million customers have used its Life Plan feature, the personalized digital data and customer response tool it launched a year ago.
• The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said the feature is now its most rapidly adopted digital feature.
• The bank plans to further integrate Life Plan with Erica, its virtual artificial intelligence-driven financial assistant, in early 2022, it said Tuesday.

Dive Insight:

Since launching nationally last year, account balances among Life Plan users have increased by $34 billion, the bank said. 

"Life Plan’s ability to help clients set and pursue their unique financial goals shows how personalized planning and timely, relevant insights can drive engagement and positively influence the way people manage their financial lives," David Tyrie, Bank of America's chief digital officer and head of global marketing, said in a statement. 

Life Plan allows users to set and track near- and long-term goals based on their life priorities. The bank said the tool’s top five goals set by users are: budgeting and saving (35%), improving credit (27%), saving for a large purchase (22%), buying a home (21%) and saving for retirement (18%).

The feature is most popular with the millennial and Gen Z demographic, which account for 62% of the Life Plans created, according to the bank. Gen X and Baby Boomers make up 35%, and students make up 20% of all Life Plan accounts. 

Twenty-three percent of the bank's digitally active Spanish clients have engaged with Life Plan, it said. 

The digital feature is also leading to more interaction with bank staff. 

Life Plan helped drive more than 1 million follow-up appointments with Bank of America financial professionals — both in-person and virtually, the company said.

Once integrated with Erica, the virtual assistant will provide clients who use Life Plan with proactive insights and steps they can take to help them make progress toward goals, Bank of America said. 

Additional enhancements will offer integrated tools to help Life Plan users understand how their financial activities can align with their priorities, such as supporting a small business and community engagement, the bank said.