Is there a sense of “swimming upstream” when trying to propagate goal-based investing--as described in your new book Risk Less and Prosper--among existing financial advisors? Conventional practices and economic incentives are so heavily skewed towards modern portfolio theory and growing assets under management. 

Anyone thinking about retirement income should pick-up a copy of Retirement Portfolios by Michael Zwecher.  This recommendation applies to both financial services professionals and consumers who are approaching or at retirement. 

Zwecher’s book is the definitive guide to constructing and maintaining portfolios that generate sustainable retirement income.  

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.

The majority of Americans are keenly interested in retirement income, but they are unable to make the connection between how their retirement savings translates to income.  

What options are available to a soon-to-be retired household that is financially constrained?  What levers can be pulled if desired retirement spending is not realistic in light of retirement savings?

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:

The fear index seems to be signaling that all is well.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange volatility index (“VIX”) represents the short-term (30 days) implied volatility of a S&P 500 option.  The VIX—also known as the fear index—has returned to pre-financial crisis levels.

The last time the VIX was at this level was last April—right before the index surged as a result of the flash crash and sovereign debt rumblings.  Before that, comparably low levels date back to pre-financial crisis 2007.

Meir Statman is the Glenn Klimek Professor of Finance at the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University, and Visiting Professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands.

His research on behavioral finance has been supported by the National Science Foundation, CFA Institute, and Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA) and has been published in the Journal of Finance, Financial Analysts Journal, Journal of Portfolio Management, and many other publications.

Finovate is a popular conference series featuring young technology companies that are focused on financial services.

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.