Session: Advancing Financial Capability Theory and Framework (Society for Social Work and Research 31st Annual Conference)

Financial capability and asset building (FCAB) is an established framework for advancing financial wellbeing and reducing wealth inequality. Since Sherraden's foundational work on asset-based policy and M. S. Sherraden’s foundational work on financial capability theory, the field has generated substantial evidence on how structural access and individual agency interact to shape financial wellbeing. Yet as policy landscapes evolve and new challenges and opportunities emerge, theory must evolve as well. This symposium brings together four papers that collectively advance financial capability theory by examining policy design, elaborating the conceptual framework, addressing technological disruption, and introducing new explanatory mechanisms for behavioral variation.

The papers in this symposium share a common orientation: each engages the FCAB framework as a living body of scholarship requiring continued elaboration, application, and refinement. Together, they address questions at multiple levels of analysis, and demonstrate the versatility and continued relevance of FCAB approaches.

The first paper, by Roll, Huang, Sherraden, Johnson, and Despard, systematically applies established evidence-based design principles to assess the growing landscape of early wealth-building policies, including Child Development Accounts (CDAs), baby bonds, and federal initiatives. Using a rigorous assessment rubric with independent reviewers, this study evaluates where current policies meet best-practice standards and where design modifications could enhance equity and effectiveness.

The second paper, by Birkenmaier, Kim, Nam, and Cosey, elaborates the financial capability model by theoretically specifying collective financial structures, such as credit unions and rotating savings and credit associations, as a distinct category of financial opportunity. Drawing on collective capability theory and financial interdependence theory, this conceptual analysis articulates mechanisms through which group-based arrangements contribute to capability development, addressing a gap in scholarship that has predominantly emphasized individual-focused approaches.

The third paper, by Huang, Sherraden, and Zhang, reframes artificial intelligence as a societal restructuring force demanding institutional innovation in welfare policy. The authors argue that AI-era social policy requires two complementary pillars: universal income support for consumption needs and Universal Basic Assets for inclusive capital ownership. Using CDA evidence, the paper demonstrates that universal asset-building platforms are institutionally feasible and produce compounding developmental benefits, positioning social work to lead in designing post-industrial welfare architecture.

The fourth paper, by Richards, introduces Financial Identity Lag as a new theoretical construct explaining why individuals may not immediately leverage improved financial conditions. Defined as the persistence of a scarcity-calibrated economic self-concept after objective circumstances improve, this framework integrates behavioral economics and identity-based motivation to explain variation in workforce participation and reentry outcomes not fully captured by structural factors alone.

Collectively, these papers demonstrate that FCAB scholarship continues to generate insights essential for policy and practice, and advances both theoretical understanding and practical application. This symposium affirms that FCAB approaches remain central to social work's mission of promoting economic justice and human development in changing policy and practice contexts.