About MoneyLion

Some people think of MoneyLion as a neobank. Others think of it as a fintech marketplace. Still others think of it as a media source and community forum offering content on a variety of financial topics. The truth is, MoneyLion is all of these things—and more.

Unlike other finance platforms that users might log in to once or twice a month to check their balance, MoneyLion is ingrained in users’ daily lives. 

From consumer-facing services like mobile banking to B2B tech tools for financial service companies, MoneyLion provides everything users need to make the best possible financial decisions and reach their personal and professional goals.

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The problem: Finding new ways to engage and activate users

MoneyLion’s team closely tracks a range of different performance indicators. They don’t just look at metrics like total users and customer acquisition costs. They want to know about daily active usage, how many products and services users are adopting, and how many users return regularly to consume content, interact with others, and explore new financial tools.

In other words, MoneyLion wants to ensure users are actively engaged. They’re out to create a finance super-app—a central hub where users can consolidate, manage, and learn more about their financial lives on a day-to-day basis. 

For us, it was a no brainer to offer tax filing. We’re at the point where our customers understand that it’s beneficial for them to consolidate their financial life. And the more we can understand about their financial situation, the more we can help them. - Cynthia Kleinbaum Milner, CMO of MoneyLion

The problem was, MoneyLion didn’t want to build complex tax infrastructures and compliance programs in-house, and they have high standards when it comes to third-party partners. Only Column Tax fit the bill.

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The fix: Going big with embedded tax filing

MoneyLion always A/B tests new products and services before fully rolling them out. Accordingly, they ran a year-long pilot offering Column Tax’s embedded tax-filing solution to a subset of RoarMoney account holders to assess its value. 

They not only found Column Tax to be an intuitive plug-and-play tax tool, it also increased ARPU, amplified purchase volumes, and expanded the use of services like debit cards. The next year, MoneyLion offered Column Tax services to users across the board. The result was a win-win: Users gained a way to pre-fill tax forms and file returns with just a few clicks, while MoneyLion gained a new way to learn about users’ financial needs and direct them to relevant products and services.

Column Tax has especially helped MoneyLion drive user engagement—even among users whose primary accounts are at other institutions. Receiving a tax refund in their MoneyLion account has incentivized them to leverage additional MoneyLion benefits, spend on more MoneyLion products, and even switch their direct deposits to a MoneyLion account.

Users are so satisfied filing their taxes within MoneyLion that they’ve created a sort of flywheel on the app’s live Discover feed. Now, other users learn in real-time comments how easy automated, embedded tax preparation can be—and many are migrating from platforms like TurboTax to take advantage of Column Tax’s seamless user experience.

When it comes to customer acquisition, we’re a well-oiled machine—but we can always use help with retention. Embedding tax filing services through Column Tax has proven to be an excellent way of driving engagement and making MoneyLion the top-of-wallet relationship. – Cynthia Kleinbaum Milner, CMO of MoneyLion

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The outcome

• Proven ROI: After launching Column Tax’s embedded tax-filing solution, MoneyLion saw a marked increase in ARPU, purchase volumes, and daily active usage for key services.
• Increased user engagement: With Column Tax, MoneyLion users can file taxes without ever leaving the app—and, since they receive their refunds in their MoneyLion account, they’re more likely to use it toward other MoneyLion products and services.
• Positive feedback loop: MoneyLion users are so happy with Column Tax’s seamless tax filing that they’ve become its biggest advocates, posting about their positive experiences on MoneyLion’s live Discover feed.

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