Institute Leadership and Fellows

David Blanchett

David Blanchett, PhD, CFA, CFP®, is Managing Director and Head of Retirement Research, DC Solutions for PGIM, the global investment management business of Prudential Financial, Inc. In this role he develops research and innovative solutions to help improve retirement outcomes for investors. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Wealth Management at The American College of Financial Services

David has published over 100 papers in a variety of industry and academic journals that have received a variety of awards. In 2021, ThinkAdvisor included him in the IA25 for “pushing the industry forward.” In 2014, InvestmentNews included him in their inaugural 40 under 40 list as a “visionary” for the financial planning industry.

When David isn’t working, he’s probably out for a jog, playing with his four kids, or rooting for the Kentucky Wildcats.

Ankul Daga

Ankul Daga is a senior manager and investment strategist at Vanguard’s Investment Strategy Group. His responsibilities include research on goal-based investment strategies which inform our target data and 529 products and advice solutions, building enterprise research models and meeting clients to provide a Vanguard perspective on long term investment implications. In addition to portfolio construction issues, he covers a broad range of investment topics, including, multi-asset investing, retirement strategies, passive and active investments, and adviser best practices.

He has over 15 years of investment experience across trading, advisory and research functions at some of the eminent financial institutions. He earned a master’s from Warwick Business School and an M.B.A. at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a CFA® Charterholder, Senior Fellow with the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance at Wharton and an active member of industry trade bodies in the U.S. and the U.K.

Colin Devine

Colin Devine provides strategic consulting services to the insurance and investment management sectors. He is also a Board member of Longevity Holdings, a data analytics organization providing mission critical information to help client address opportunities and challenges in the senior markets. In addition, Colin is a Research Fellow for the Alliance for Lifetime Income, a nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization focused on helping educate Americans on the risk of outliving their savings so they can enjoy their retirement.

Previously, Colin was a sell-side equity research and ratings analyst for over fifteen years and was on the Institutional Investor All-America Research Team for 14 straight years including 10 consecutive years where he held the #1/#2 ranking in the Life Insurance Equity Research category. Smart Money Magazine also named him one of the “Last Honest Analysts.”

Colin is a Chartered Financial Analyst, Chartered Professional Accountant and a Certified Financial Planner. He holds an MBA in Finance from the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Guelph.

Jason Fichtner

Jason Fichtner is Chief Economist at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Previously, he was Senior Lecturer of International Economics and Associate Director of the International Economics and Finance (MIEF) program at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His research focuses on Social Security, federal tax policy, federal budget policy, retirement security, and policy proposals to increase saving and investment. Fichtner served in several positions at the Social Security Administration, including Deputy Commissioner of Social Security (acting), Chief Economist, and Associate Commissioner for Retirement Policy. He also served as a Senior Research Fellow with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Senior Economist with the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, Economist with the Internal Revenue Service, and as a Senior Consultant with the Office of Federal Tax Services at Arthur Andersen, LLP. Fichtner earned his BA from the University of Michigan, his MPP from Georgetown University, and his Ph.D. in public administration and policy from Virginia Tech.

Michael Finke

Michael Finke, Ph.D. is a Professor of wealth management and Frank M. Engle Distinguished Chair in Economic Security Research at The American College of Financial Services. He received a doctorate in consumer economics from the Ohio State University in 1998 and in finance from the University of Missouri in 2011. He led the Retirement Planning and Living Consortium at Texas Tech University before moving to the American College, and is a nationally known researcher in the areas of retirement income planning, retirement spending, life satisfaction, and cognitive aging.  He is a frequent speaker at financial planning conferences and was named one of the 25 most influential people in the field of investment advising in 2020 and 2021 by Investment Advisor Magazine.

Chris Heye

Chris Heye, PhD, is the CEO and Founder of Whealthcare Solutions, Inc. and Whealthcare Planning LLC. Dr Heye is a technology entrepreneur, writer, researcher, and speaker in fields residing at the intersection of physical, behavioral, and mental health and financial wellbeing. After confronting dementia in his own family and witnessing elder financial abuse in friends, he decided not enough was being done to protect older adults. He helped to design and manage a clinical study conducted at the Massachusetts General Hospital that investigated the behavioral and cognitive underpinnings of sound financial decision-making. The results of that study serve as the foundation for the first of its kind cloud-based application that enables adults and their families to more effectively identify, manage, and mitigate health and longevity-related financial risks.

Dr Heye is a regular columnist for the Journal of Financial Planning and is a Research Fellow at the Alliance for Lifetime Income. He received his BA from Wesleyan University and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he also completed a post-doctoral program at the MIT Industrial Performance Center.

Wade Pfau

Wade D. Pfau, PhD, CFA, RICP® is the founder of Retirement Researcher, an educational resource for individuals and financial advisors on topics related to retirement income planning. He is a co-founder of the Retirement Income Style Awareness tool and a co-host of the Retire with Style podcast. He also serves as a principal and the director of retirement research for McLean Asset Management. He is a professor of practice at the American College of Financial Services and past director of the Retirement Income Certified Professional® (RICP®) designation program. He holds a doctorate in economics from Princeton University and has published more than sixty peer-reviewed research articles in a wide variety of academic and practitioner journals. He is a contributor to Forbes, Advisor Perspectives, and an Expert Panelist for the Wall Street Journal.  Wade’s newest book is Retirement Planning Guidebook: Navigating the Important Decisions for Retirement Success. He is also the author of three other books in the Retirement Researcher Guide Series. He was a nominee for the InvestmentNews “Power 20” in 2013 and “40 Under 40” in 2014, the Investment Advisor 35 list, the Investment Advisor 25 list for 2014, and Financial Planning Magazine’s Influencer Awards. He is a two-time winner of the Journal of Financial Planning Montgomery-Warschauer Award, a two-time winner of the Academic Thought Leadership Award from the Retirement Income Industry Association, and a best paper award winner in the retirement category from the Academy of Financial Services.

Fred Reish

Fred Reish is a distinguished voice in retirement plan products and plan management, leveraging his expertise to guide clients in fulfilling their fiduciary duty to investors and ensuring compliance with federal law. In his role as Retirement Plan Counsel, Fred offers strategic counsel to plan sponsors, service providers, and registered investment advisers, specializing in fiduciary responsibility, prohibited transactions under federal law, federal audits, and pension plan disputes.

His advisory extends to various financial institutions, including banks, trust companies, insurance companies, and mutual fund management companies. Fred provides insightful consultation on 401(k) recordkeeping services, investment products, and issues related to plan investments and retirement income. He offers guidance to broker-dealers and registered investment advisers on fiduciary status and compliance, prohibited transactions, and internal procedures. Moreover, Fred advises insurance companies and investment managers on the development of new products and services in alignment with fiduciary standards under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), including its prohibited transaction restrictions, retirement income investments, and guarantees.

Fred is a trusted examinations and compliance counsel for private and public sector entities and their plans and fiduciaries. He guides clients through examinations before federal agencies such as the Department of Labor (DOL), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Fred has also served in faculty positions at the University of Southern California’s Masters of Business Tax Program.

Recognized as an authority in the field, Fred is frequently quoted by national media organizations and is a sought-after speaker at industry conferences. He also shares industry knowledge in his regular contributions to FredReish.com, where he blogs on updates and insights within the retirement industry for service providers, plan sponsors, and registered investment advisers.

Branislav Nikolić

Branislav is an established thought leader specializing in annuities and retirement income planning. He joined The Index Standard after a decade at Cannex Financial Exchanges, where as Vice President of Research he was instrumental in extending Cannex’s strong presence in the retirement income space. Branislav holds a Masters degree in probability and financial engineering and a PhD in applied mathematics from York University in Toronto, where he is also a lecturer in finance and mathematics. Branislav holds the designation of Financial Risk Manager (FRM) and is currently serving on the board of National Association for Fixed Annuities (NAFA). He is a prolific author for business and trade publications and a frequent speaker at insurance seminars.

Jean Chatzky

Jean Chatzky is the founder and CEO of HerMoney.com and the coaching program FinanceFixx. She is the host of the podcast HerMoney With Jean Chatzky and the co-host of the national radio show Everyday Wealth. The Financial Ambassador for AARP, she was the Financial Editor for NBC Today for 25 years. Jean is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author, and a fierce advocate for financial literacy.  Her latest book is Women with Money: The Judgment-Free Guide to Creating the Joyful, Less Stressed, Purposeful (and Yes, Rich) Life You Deserve and she’s looking forward to the publication of How To Money, a guidebook for Gen Z women coming out in May of 2022.

Miata Edoga

Miata Edoga is an actor and the CEO and Founder of the financial education
company, Abundance Bound. For over two decades, she has been helping
creatives, independent workers and other non traditional earners establish a
healthier, more compassionate relationship with their money – whether they are
just starting out, or starting over, or starting to wonder how they should handle
their growing wealth.

Miata served as the National Financial Wellness Consultant for The Actors Fund
– a national human services non-profit for everyone in the entertainment industry.
She has also led workshops and seminars on financial empowerment for a wide
range of organizations including: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences, The Television Academy, The Motion Picture & Television Fund, The
Writers Guild of America, The Directors Guild, SAG-AFTRA, The Casting Society
of America, and The Center for Cultural Innovation. The Abundance Bound
curriculum has been licensed by industry-leading organizations and is currently
being taught on both coasts.

Richard Leider

Richard is founder of Inventure – The Purpose Company, where the mission is to help people to “unlock the power of purpose” and answer the question: “Why do you get up in the morning?”

An international bestselling author of eleven books including three best-sellers which have sold over one million copies, his latest book, Who Do You Want to Be When You Grow Old?: The Path of Purposeful Aging is the defining book on purposeful aging. The Power of Purpose and Repacking Your Bags are considered classics in the personal growth field.

Widely viewed as a pioneer of the global purpose movement, his work is regularly featured in many media sources, and his PBS Special – “The Power of Purpose” – was viewed by millions of people.

He has taken his purpose message to all 50 states, Canada, and 4 continents, and he has advised everyone from AARP to the National Football League to the U.S. State Department.

Anne Lester

Anne Lester, former portfolio manager and Head of Retirement Solutions for JPMorgan Asset Management’s Solutions group, retired in 2020. She is on a mission to help Americans, particularly those in their 20s and 30s, understand that it is possible for them to achieve a happy retirement, on their time and target. She continues to be a regular commentator on an array of retirement issues for consumers, industry and public policy through traditional media outlets and social media. She is currently working on a book which will help younger savers understand how to overcome their own behavioral biases and set out on the path to long-term savings success.

While at JPMorgan, she advanced the firm’s market-leading retirement investment product offerings and thought leadership agenda, developing investment products integrating anonymized data and insights from behavioral economics. Under her leadership, JPMorgan partnered with AARP and the Aspen Institute to found the Aspen Leadership Forum on Retirement Savings, bringing together industry, advocacy, academic and government leaders to converge on ideas and innovations that will help build a private savings system in the US that delivers retirement security for all.

Anne, who joined J.P. Morgan in 1992, worked as a fixed income and currency trader and portfolio manager in the Milan office prior to her move to the Solutions group in 2000. She spent over a decade managing Public, Private, and Multi-Employer Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution plan assets before focusing exclusively on Defined Contribution research, product development, and management.

Before beginning her career with J.P. Morgan, Anne spent a year in Tokyo as a Fulbright Scholar working for a member of the Japanese Parliament. Previously, she worked as a staff assistant for the U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, John Glenn, Chairman. Anne earned an MA in international economics and Japan studies from the John’s Hopkins University’s School for Advanced International Studies and received a BA in Politics from Princeton University.

Anne holds three patents for the development of innovative financial services products and analytics. She is a frequent contributor at industry, academic, and public policy conferences in the US and abroad and is a contributor to Bloomberg TV, CNBC, WSJ, NYT and industry publications. She is a Non-Executive Director Smart USA and volunteers on the board of Trenton Music Makers, an El Sistema-inspired after school program in Trenton, NJ.

Suzanne Norman

Suzanne is a certified coach, writer, speaker, financial literacy expert who follows the motto, “Scientia potentia est.” And when you have self-knowledge – who you are and what you want – you are much more likely to get it.

Suzanne serves as an Education Fellow and Director of External Relations for the Retirement Income Institute, is a Senior Education Advisor for the Alliance for Lifetime Income (501c6), and as an Advisor for the Grossman School of Business’ Women in Leadership Program at the University of Vermont.

Suzanne is committed to helping strengthen the financial lives of women. With over three decades in the investment management industry as a consultant and leader at Milliman Financial Risk Management, AllianceBernstein, Merrill Lynch, and Wells Fargo Securities, she harnessed many of her best practices to start her coaching and consulting business in order to help women, and their male allies, attain strong financial skills. Her belief- women are only truly empowered when they have confidence in this aspect of their lives. For this reason, she created her “Whealthy Woman” series to teach these skills.

Suzanne holds a BA in Psychology and is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) and Positive Intelligence Coach®. She also holds a Certificate in Women in Leadership from Cornell and is a Certified Investment Management Analyst® (CIMA®).

To greater serve her community, Suzanne serves on the Boards of Junior Achievement of Greater Boston and The Vincent Memorial Hospital Foundation. She is Co-Chair of CFA Society Boston’s Financial Literacy Initiative, and an active volunteer with Up With Women and the Anaya Tipnis Foundation.

When she’s not helping clients with their mental fitness and financial well-being, she enjoys pursuing her love of travel (closing in on 50 countries!), the outdoors, photography, and her vacation home on Cape Cod.

Jae Oh

Jae Oh is the published author of Maximize Your Medicare (Allworth, 2022), a Certified Financial Planner™, and founder of GH2 Benefits. For a decade, he has been a contributor to the Medicare audience, aimed at both consumer and professional groups, on local and national levels. GH2 Benefits is a comprehensive financial planning firm with clients nationwide. Mr. Oh is a graduate of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), and the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (Booth).

Tamiko Toland

Tamiko Toland is a leading industry expert on annuities. Her thought leadership focuses on simplifying the complex topic of lifetime income, both within the retail and retirement plan markets. She leverages decades of experience for strategic initiatives and businesses through her consulting practice and as founder of the 401(k) Annuity Hub and co-founder of IncomePath.

For more than two decades, Tamiko has tracked trends and key issues on retirement income, addressing all audiences. She has held leadership roles at TIAA, Strategic Insight, and Cannex Financial Exchanges, the annuity data and analytics firm.

Tamiko’s introduction to annuities began as a trade reporter for Annuity Market News. She regularly shares her perspectives for the news media and speaks at industry and client conferences and webinars.