Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) appears to be ramping-up its retirement income efforts.

Advisor One reported on the recent DFA-sponsored retirement planning conference in Chicago.

DFA's retirement income efforts appear to be largely focused on the defined contribution or 401k market.  DFA's retirement income offering is named "Managed DC."  The product appears to be offered exclusively in the retirement plan market.

DFA has a huge presence in the asset accumulation space with $232 billion in assets under management.

Simple, web-based portfolio management tools have been proliferating over the past couple of years.

As reported recently by Bloomberg, companies such as Folio Investing, MarketRiders and Flat Fee Portfolios are providing subscription-based wealth management solutions that are largely automated and relatively inexpensive.

There is a strong case to be made for health care as the linchpin of retirement planning.  Virtually every major aspect of the retirement planning process is somehow correlated to or contingent on health status.  For example, health status has an impact on each of the following retirement planning components:

Tim Harrington is the Chairman and CEO of start-up eRollover.

Tim is a seasoned technology and consumer marketing entrepreneur.  Among Tim’s accomplishments is the ecommerce company Fogdog Sports--a venture he led from inception through successful IPO and post-IPO merger.

We had the opportunity to speak with Tim before his presentation at the Finovate conference in San Francisco.

Jerry Golden--often referred to as the father of variable life insurance and variable annuities--has had a distinguished career as an innovator and entrepreneur in both the insurance and personal retirement businesses.

Jerry most recently spent four years as president of the Income Management Strategies Division at MassMutual after selling his business to the company in June, 2005.

Since leaving MassMutual in May, 2009, Jerry has been actively developing a new venture which will deliver yet another set of innovations to the personal retirement marketplace.

Francois Gadenne is the Chairman and Executive Director of the Retirement Income Industry Association (RIIA).

Formed in 2006, RIIA is bringing together the leading minds and resources in the relatively young retirement income industry.  RIIA members include leading academics, banks, insurers, fund companies, financial advisors, brokerage houses, researchers, technology companies, marketing firms, consulting firms and media.