Faith Meets Finances: Renowned Boston University Professors Host Financial Literacy and Retirement Planning Seminar for Clergy

Professors Zvi Bodie and Laurence Kotlikoff to deliver day of education and actionable steps to help ministers, rabbis, cantors, priests, imams and their spouses take control of their retirement

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- In recognition of a growing retirement security crisis among members of the clergy, distinguished Boston University professors, Zvi Bodie and Laurence Kotlikoff, are teaming up to provide a full day financial literacy and retirement planning seminar. The event, titled Clergy Financial Literacy and Retirement Planning: Trustworthy Finance for the Faithful, is open to ministers, rabbis, cantors, priests, imams and their spouses, and will be held at Boston University School of Management on Wednesday, June 23, 2010.

“There has never been a more critical time for members of the clergy to improve their financial literacy, take control of their personal finances and build towards a more secure retirement,” said Reverend Dr. Bert White, Lecturer, Boston University and the seminar’s coordinator. “What’s more, this is an issue that impacts communities across the nation. The clergy plays an important and trusted role in the lives of parishioners; their level of financial literacy can directly impact their congregations by finding its way into sermons and guidance on a day-to-day basis.”

The seminar will run from 8:45am to 3:45pm and will include a presentation by Professor Bodie (“Theory of Investing”) and a presentation by Professor Kotlikoff (“Theory of Savings”). Attendees will then participate in an interactive, peer group discussion over lunch that will focus on how to put theory into practice (“Investments: Translating Theory to Practice”). After lunch, a panel discussion will be moderated by Paul Solman, business and economics correspondent, PBS NewsHour, and will include Professors Bodie and Kotlikoff as well as Rick Miller, founder of Sensible Financial Planning and Management. The day will close with Reverend Dr. White recapping the event, including outlining a range of tools and resources that have been developed to assist clergy members take the next steps toward financial literacy and personal financial security.

Commenting on the upcoming event, Professor Bodie said, “The clergy, like physicians and other professionals, face significant gaps in financial literacy which, combined with the challenging investment environment, stress on and mismanagement of their institutional pension plans, and the unique financial implications of a religious career, renders them in a tenuous place with respect to their financial security. We are hoping this event will provide agood foundation from which they can take charge and put themselves on a path to better meet their financial needs in retirement.”

Registrations for the event are being accepted online at http://smg.bu.edu/Clergy/Signup.aspx. For more information about the event, including registration and agenda, please visit the website at http://smg.bu.edu/exec/elc/ClergyFinancialLiteracy/index.shtml.

For media inquiries related to the event, please contact Kerstin Österberg at T: 718.875.2121 / [email protected]

About the Executive Leadership Center at Boston University School of Management

The Executive Education programs leverage the School's world-recognized strengths in cross-functional learning, information systems and leadership to create the ideal training for aspiring professionals. Programs draw on the knowledge of Boston University School of Management's expertise in developing and delivering programs for the global markets. The faculty and staff work with corporate leaders to craft a unique program that suits each client's needs. The School encourages team-based learning that provides the tools to build synergies across intergenerational and experienced teams.

The upcoming seminar – Clergy Financial Literacy – is first of a series of efforts by the School of Management to highlight the challenges faced by individuals when it comes to trustworthy and scientific life-cycle financial planning from higher education through to retirement.

About the Presenters

Zvi Bodie is the Norman and Adele Barron Professor of Management at Boston University. He holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has served on the finance faculty at the Harvard Business School and MIT's Sloan School of Management.

Professor Bodie has published widely on pension finance and investment strategy in leading professional journals. His books include The Future of Life Cycle Saving and Investing and Foundations of Pension Finance. His textbook, Investments, co-authored by Alex Kane and Alan Marcus is the market leader and is used in the certification programs of the CFA Institute and the Society of Actuaries. His textbook Financial Economics is co-authored by Nobel Prize winning economist, Robert C. Merton. His latest book is Worry Free Investing: A Safe Approach to Achieving Your Lifetime Financial Goals. In 2007 the Retirement Income Industry Association gave him their Lifetime Achievement in Applied Retirement Research Award.

Laurence J. Kotlikoff is a William Fairfield Warren Professor at Boston University, a Professor of Economics at Boston University, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Econometric Society, a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and President of Economic Security Planning, Inc., a company specializing in financial planning software. Professor Kotlikoff received his B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1973 and his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1977.

From 1977 through 1983 he served on the faculties of economics of the University of California, Los Angeles and Yale University. In 1981-82 Professor Kotlikoff was a Senior Economist with the President's Council of Economic Advisers.

Professor Kotlikoff is author or co-author of 14 books and hundreds of professional journal articles. His most recent books are Jimmy Stewart Is Dead (John Wiley and Sons), Spend ‘Til the End, co-authored with Scott Burns, Simon & Schuster, The Healthcare Fix (MIT Press), and The Coming Generational Storm (co-authored with Scott Burns, MIT Press).

Rick Miller is the founder of Sensible Financial Planning and Management, a leading financial planning and portfolio management firm in Waltham, Massachusetts.

A CFP® practitioner, Rick is a member of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA), where he serves as the program director for the Massachusetts Study Group and is on the faculty of NAPFA University, and the Financial Planning Association. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Chicago.

In 2009, Rick served on the Trends in Financial Planning and Job Analysis task forces of The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards. He is a strong advocate for the Life Cycle Planning and Investing approaches within the profession, and frequently conducts professional seminars on those subjects. In addition, he has been called upon for expert commentary in a number of media outlets across the country, including the Boston Globe, BusinessWeek.com and NPR’s Nightly Business Report.

Paul Solman is a business and economics correspondent for PBS television, regularly appearing on The NewsHour, one of America’s most trusted television news programs, since 1985.

Paul began his career in business journalism as a Nieman Fellow, studying at the Harvard Business School in 1976. He has been the business reporter at WGBH Boston since 1977, and was recently named a member of TV Guide's "Dream Team" of television reporters. His work has won numerous awards, including Emmys in the '70s, '80s, '90s, and '00s and two Peabodys, the most recent in 2004 for his reporting on the undercounting of unemployment.

A contributor to numerous media publications, including Forbes and Mother Jones magazines, Paul has his own section of the PBS website called ‘Making Sen$e With Paul Solman,’ a collection of articles, blog entries and videos analyzing the latest finance economic news. In 1983 he co-authored “Life and Death on the Corporate Battlefield” (1983), and together with sociologist Morrie Schwartz, helped create the book "Morrie: In His Own Words" (1999).

In addition to his media commitments, Paul is also an avid educator, having served on the Harvard Business School faculty teaching media, finance and business history. He is the presenter for and author of "Discovering Economics with Paul Solman," a series of videos distributed by McGraw-Hill to accompany the company's introductory economics textbooks, and continues to lecture on college campuses today.

Reverend Dr. Bert White is Lecturer and an ordained United Methodist minister whose current professional research, program and writing interests include healthcare and financial literacy/planning.

Following retirement from parish ministry, Rev. Dr. White has worked extensively with healthcare providers, including independent physician leaders, nurses, and hospital executives, to orient, motivate, measure, and report results for optimum managed healthcare outcomes. As a professional manager and researcher, Dr. White has served successful nonprofit, quality-and-cost focused, managed care insurance companies, physicians, hospitals, and healthcare teams, including the Veteran Administration.

More recently, Dr. White has expanded his focus to include financial literacy and its role in successful planning for educational costs, managing longevity risk in retirement, and estate planning issues. Early in Dr. White’s ministry, he founded and led the Christian Asset Management (CAM) Committee, which provided prudent social responsibility consulting for trustee managed, church-owned consolidated investment funds. Currently Dr. White relies on his recent studies in advance topics in investments and his MBA at Boston University to coordinate and lead events that promote trustworthy, scientific financial planning.

Dr. White holds a B.A. in Economics from Randolph-Macon College, Th.M. (cum laude), D.Min, and MBA from Boston University.

Neibart Group
Kerstin Österberg, 718-875-2121
[email protected]

Source: Executive Leadership Center at Boston University School of Management