Financial Behaviorist Joins Achaean as Academic Adviser

Benartzi will help Achaean incorporate ideas from behavioral finance into its existing Retirement Outcome software and tools the firm has in development.

Benartzi is co-founder of the Behavioral Finance Forum, a collective of 40 academics and 40 financial institutions around the globe. The organization fosters collaborative research efforts between academics and industry leaders in order to help consumers make better financial decisions. One of his research contributions was the development of Save More Tomorrow (SMarT), a behavioral prescription designed to help employees increase their savings rates gradually over time.

“Achaean is committed to meeting the current unmet need for innovative retirement income solutions in today’s marketplace, and a major way to accomplish that is by collaborating with the best and brightest minds in the academic community,” said Mike Henkel, chief executive of Achaean Solutions. “Professor Benartzi understands the language that resonates best with investors, and will assist us to further that development.”

Benartzi holds a PhD from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, and is a professor and co-chair of the Behavioral Decision-Making Group at UCLA Anderson School of Management.

According to Benartzi, sensible planning and saving for retirement have been behavioral challenges, which Achaean has helped to address by incorporating behavioral solutions into its software and product design. “Planning for the future is collaborative,” he said, “and I’m pleased to work with a firm that embraces this ideal as a true strategic partner to the retirement income industry.”

Achaean develops retirement advice software and designs guaranteed income products that aim to benefit investors, financial advisers and insurance companies.