The mission of the Wealth Solutions Accelerator is to provide millions of underrepresented New England residents with accessible and effective strategies to build and retain wealth.

Value proposition

To rapidly scale selected solutions and build a replicable process for scaling solutions in other geographies or in response to other challenges. The Accelerator will move solutions through chokepoints in the innovation curve by taking on risks and brokering partnerships to build the infrastructure and long-term momentum needed to fully implement solutions at scale. This will be achieved by the following activities along the innovation curve.

• Research and development
• Pilot and test
• Systematic adoption
• Scale

Principles

The Accelerator will use the following criteria to identify and select solutions

• Impact –The extent of wealth generated or preserved by the solution, measured at the household level
• Scale – Number of households that can generate or preserve wealth via the solutions
• Feasibility – The likelihood that the solution can reach impact and scale, gauged by consumer, partner and funder interest
• Fit – Suitability in keeping with the expertise, mission, and mandate of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
• Potential to be transformative – Potential of the solution to create new systems or pathways for wealth building

The Challenge

The accelerator will seek to overcome four root cause barriers that hinder solutions to scale within the current ecosystem.

• Limited proofs of concept to demonstrate both the potential for impact and the feasibility for sustainable delivery
• Lack of coordination between funders, service providers, community, and government limit feasibility
• Risk-averse funding that hesitates to take "big bets" in non-traditional wealth building strategies
• Impatient strategies, that are oriented to 3-5 year project outcomes while policy change and impact take 10+ years to come to fruition

The Opportunity

The Accelerator will overcome root cause challenges, by focusing on four primary activities.

• Listen, research & evaluate: Identify high-potential pilots from across the country, engage critical stakeholders early to assess feasibility
• Broker partnerships: Convene critical stakeholders early and often to build effective delivery strategies and infrastructure
• Aggregate funding: Work with funders to galvanize funding that is oriented toward "fail fast" mindset
• Build momentum: Develop early proof points, and engage the policy and market environment iteratively to create the conditions for adoption