The failure of the Freedman’s Savings Bank (FSB), an institution specifically targeting the recently emancipated, was many Black Americans first experience of banking. The banks failure, caused by fraud and mismanagement, cost its depositors substantial portions of their savings. Can events like these permanently alter financial behavior not just among those who suffered losses, but also among others in their community? How large could the impact be? How long could it last? To answer these questions, we examine the impact of FSB collapse on the closest competing savings product over the late 19th and early 20th centuries: insurance-savings contracts issued by life insurance companies. Using a differences-in-differences approach, we document a large, sharp, and persistent increase in insurance-savings activity in affected counties following the shock, driven disproportionately by Black customers. We also use FSB migrant flows to disentangle place-based and cohort-based effects, thus identifying community transmission of savings strategies as a distinct mechanism underlying the shift infinancial behavior induced by the banks collapse. This horizontal and intergenerational transmission help explain the shocks persistent and widespread effects on financial behavior.