2026 Best Minds Retirement Symposium

Jean Chatzky

Jean Chatzky is the founder and CEO of HerMoney, as well as the coaching programs FinanceFixx and InvestingFixx. She’s the host of the podcast "HerMoney With Jean Chatzky" and appears on the TV show "Opportunity Knocks," which airs on PBS. Jean is a columnist for AARP and an education fellow for LIMRA’s Lifetime Income Initiative. She was also the Financial Editor on NBC's Today Show 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 books include “Money Rules,” “Women with Money,” and “How To Money.” Find her at HerMoney.com or @JeanChatzky everywhere. 

Jason J. Fichtner, Ph.D.

Jason J. Fichtner is Executive Director of the LIMRA Retirement Income Institute. His areas of expertise focus on Social Security, federal tax policy, federal budget policy, retirement security, and policy proposals to increase saving and investment.

He is a Policy Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) at Stanford University, a Senior Policy Fellow at the Center for Social Development (CSD) at the Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, and a Senior Fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI).

Fichtner is on the Board of Directors for the FINRA Investor Education Foundation and a Member of the Puerto Rico Pension Reserve Trust, where he serves on both the Pension Benefits Council and the Pension Reserve Board.

Fichtner has significant government experience, having served in several positions at the Social Security Administration, including as Deputy Commissioner of Social Security (acting), Chief Economist, and Associate Commissioner for Retirement Policy. He also served as a senior economist with the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress and as an economist with the Internal Revenue Service. He has held teaching positions at Johns Hopkins University – School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Georgetown University and Virginia Tech.

He has testified on numerous occasions before the United States Congress and his work has been featured in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Investor’s Business Daily, the Los Angeles Times, the Atlantic, the USA Today, and other major media outlets, as well as on broadcasts by C-SPAN, PBS, NBC, NPR, and SiriusXM.

Fichtner earned his BA from the University of Michigan; his MPP from Georgetown University; and his PhD from Virginia Tech.

Fichtner is the author of “The Hidden Cost of Federal Tax Policy” and the editor of “The Economics of Medicaid.”

Michael Finke, Ph.D.

Michael Finke, Ph.D. is a Professor of wealth management and Frank M. Engle Distinguished Chair in Economic Security at The American College of Financial Services. He leads the O. Alfred Granum Center for Financial Security at the American College, is a Research Fellow at the Retirement Income Institute, and serves as a Trustee on the Pension Reserve Trust of Puerto Rico. He was named one of the 25 most influential people in the field of investment advising in 2020 and 2021 by Investment Advisor Magazine.

David Laibson

David Laibson is the Robert I. Goldman Professor of Economics and a Faculty Dean of Lowell House at Harvard University. Laibson’s research focuses on the topic of behavioral economics, with emphasis on intertemporal choice, self-regulation, behavior change, household finance, public finance, macroeconomics, asset pricing, aging, and biosocial science. Laibson is a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research, where he is a Research Associate in the Aging, Asset Pricing, and Economic Fluctuations Working Groups. Laibson serves on Harvard’s Pension Investment Committee and on the Board of the Russell Sage Foundation, where he chairs the finance committee. Laibson serves on the advisory boards of the Social Science Genetics Association Consortium and the Consumer Finance Institute of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Laibson has served as the Chair of the Department of Economics at Harvard University and as a member of the Academic Research Council of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Laibson is a recipient of a Marshall Scholarship. He is an elected member of the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Social Insurance, and the National Academy of Sciences. He is a two-time recipient of the TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security. Laibson holds degrees from Harvard University (AB Economics, summa cum laude), the London School of Economic (MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD in Economics). He received his PhD in 1994 and has taught at Harvard since then. In recognition of his teaching, he has been awarded Harvard’s ΦΒΚ Prize and a Harvard College Professorship.