Achaean Financial and Shlomo Benartzi Announce Academic Partnership
Leading Authority on Behavioral Finance Joins Achaean as Academic Advisor
CHICAGO, July 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Achaean Financial ("Achaean"), a firm specializing in the development of retirement advice software and the design of innovative guaranteed income products that benefit investors, financial advisors and insurance companies, today announced that Professor Shlomo Benartzi, a leading authority on behavioral finance, has agreed to serve as the firm's first academic advisor. In this role, Professor Benartzi will help Achaean better incorporate ideas from behavioral finance into its existing Retirement Outcome software and into the innovative new tools currently in development by the firm.
Professor Benartzi is co-founder of the Behavioral Finance Forum, a collective of 40 prominent academics and 40 major financial institutions from around the globe. The Forum helps consumers make better financial decisions by fostering collaborative research efforts between academics and industry leaders. One of his most significant research contributions is 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, CEO of Achaean Solutions. "Professor Benartzi understands the language that resonates best with investors, and will assist us to further that development."
Professor Benartzi received his Ph.D. from Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management, and is currently a Professor and co-chair of the Behavioral Decision-Making Group at UCLA Anderson School of Management.
"Sensible planning and saving for retirement has been essentially a behavioral challenge, which Achaean is helping to address by incorporating behavioral solutions into its software and product design," said Professor Benartzi. "Planning for the future is a collaborative approach, and I'm extremely pleased to work with a firm that embraces this ideal as a true strategic partner to the retirement income industry."
Achaean's Retirement Outcome, has been cited by the Investment Management Institute as one of the top three models for providing retirement guidance, and is the only open-architecture retirement modeling platform available in the current marketplace. While product-set agnostic, Retirement Outcome is complemented by Achaean's patent-pending and cost-effective immediate variable annuity product design, Income Plus+. Income Plus+ will be offered to new retirees seeking secure income, and also be offered as a means to transform, or "remediate" the liabilities associated with in-force variable annuities, unlocking excess reserves and risk-based capital from insurance company balance sheets.
For more information about Achaean Financial, please contact Rachael Fisher-Layne of JCPR at (973) 850-7318 or [email protected].
About Achaean Financial
Based in Chicago, Achaean Financial is a financial services firm committed to providing innovative ideas and tools for creating secure retirement solutions that benefit insurance companies, financial advisors and investors. The company is uniquely positioned to capitalize on a supply-demand dislocation in the retirement income market by leveraging its retirement advice software platform, Retirement Outcome and its innovative income guarantee product, Income Plus+. These two products can be used independently but together provide a holistic solution for the largest opportunity in the financial services space: providing for retirement income peace of mind. For more information, visit www.achaeanfinancial.com.
SOURCE Achaean Financial
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