Speaker Profiles

Ronald P. Bernardi is the president and chief executive officer of Bernardi Securities Inc. He has more than 30 years experience in the municipal bond industry, ranging from credit research and portfolio management to underwriting and trading.

Mr. Bernardi recently served on Senator Mark Kirk's three-member Sovereign Debt Advisory Board and contributed to the "Report on Illinois Debt". He served as an advisory committee member of the Illinois Capital Development Board, which released a report on Illinois school districts. Mr. Bernardi has published extensively on the municipal bond market, including the white paper "Tax-Exempt Municipal Bonds: The Case for an Efficient, Low‐Cost, Job‐Creating Tax Expenditure" which can be found in the research section at http://www.bernardisecurities.com.

Mr. Bernardi is a graduate of Bucknell University with a bachelor's, cum laude, in economics and holds series 7, 24, 27, 53 and 63 FINRA licenses. He currently serves as a trustee of the Union League Boys & Girls Clubs. He is a former board member and treasurer of the Union League Club of Chicago, and the former chairman of the Lake Forest Illinois High School Foundation.

Dr. Ranjan Bhaduri is Chief Research Officer and the Head of Product Development at AlphaMetrix Alternative Investment Advisors. Dr. Bhaduri has been part of the Executive Committee at AlphaMetrix since joining the firm at the beginning of 2008.

Prior to joining AlphaMetrix, he was a Vice President and on an Investment Committee at Morgan Stanley where he conducted due diligence and helped design customized portfolios of Alternatives. Earlier, he was at a Canadian Fund of Funds, and at a multi-billion dollar capital management firm where he was involved in all aspects of its fund of hedge funds and structured finance business. He has also worked with two major Canadian investment banks in the Financial Strategy Consulting Group and in Global Risk Management & Control, respectively.

Dr. Bhaduri has held advisory roles at the East-West Center, a leading think tank on the Asia-Pacific region, and at ClassMouse, an early stage software company. He has taught finance and mathematics at several universities and lectured on Derivatives for the Montreal Exchange. Dr. Bhaduri has published papers on, and been invited to speak worldwide regarding hedge fund issues, and advanced portfolio and risk management techniques.

Mark Bruno is the director of online content and data at InvestmentNews. He is an award-winning journalist who has served as both a reporter and editor for a number of financial publications over the last decade, including InvestmentNews, Financial Week and Pensions & Investments. Mr. Bruno has been recognized with multiple accolades for his writing and reporting, including the American Business Media's prestigious Jesse H. Neal awards, and has also received awards from The Society of American Business Editors and Writers for his breaking news coverage and analysis of the financial services industry.

Mr. Bruno is the author of Save Now or Die Trying: Achieving Long-Term Wealth In Your 20s and 30s, one of the top-selling retirement planning books of 2007. He also been featured frequently on television and radio as an expert on investing and retirement, and has also been quoted in numerous newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Daily News, The Chicago Tribune and Investors Business Daily.

Natalie Choate is an attorney with the Boston law firm of Nutter, McClennen & Fish. Her practice is limited to estate planning for retirement benefits. Her two books, Life and Death Planning for Retirement Benefits and The QPRT Manual, are leading resources for estate planning professionals.

Ms. Choate is the founder and former chair of the Boston Bar Estate Planning Committee; a former chair of the Boston Bar Employee Benefits Committee; and a member and former officer of the Boston Probate and Estate Planning Forum. She is a fellow and former Regent of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and former chairman of its Employee Benefits Committee. Named "Estate Planner of the Year" by the Boston Estate Planning Council, Ms. Choate is listed in The Best Lawyers in America. The National Association of Estate Planners and Councils has awarded Natalie the "Distinguished Accredited Estate Planner" designation.

Her articles on estate planning topics have been published in ACTEC Notes, Estate Planning, Trusts and Estates, Tax Practitioners Journal and Tax Management. She is a contributing author and co-editor of the book Drafting Wills and Trusts in Massachusetts published by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc., and an editorial advisor for Trusts and Estates magazine. She writes a monthly web column and "podcast" for MorningstarAdvisor.com.

Ms. Choate has taught professional-level courses in estate planning in 45 states, and has spoken at the Heckerling, Notre Dame, Heart of America, New England, Southern California, Mississippi, Tennessee, Washington State and Southern Federal Tax Institutes. Her comments on estate and retirement planning have been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Money, Bloomberg Wealth Manager, Newsweek, Kiplinger's Personal Finance, Forbes, Financial Planning and Financial World.

A Boston native, Ms. Choate is a graduate of Radcliffe College and Harvard Law School.

InvestmentNews Deputy Editor Evan Cooper is an experienced financial editor and writer with extensive knowledge of mutual funds, the retail advisory business, wealth management and personal finance.

In addition to writing his own regular column on InvestmentNews.com — OpINion Online, which won a 2010 "Best in Business" Award for editorial excellence from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers — Evan serves as the lead editorial person responsible for programming the annual InvestmentNews Retirement Income Summit and the InvestmentNews Alternatives Conference.

He has been a guest speaker at meetings of the Investment Company Institute, Financial Planning Association, North American Securities Administrators' Association, College Savings Foundation, Investment Program Association and several broker-dealers and investment management firms.

Earlier in his career he served as Director of Wealth Management News at Thomson Financial, as Assistant Managing Editor of Research at Institutional Investor, where he was responsible for All-America Research Team coverage, and as Editor-in-Chief of On Wall Street and Bank Investment Consultant magazines. He also held senior corporate communications positions at the Securities Industry Association and the New York Stock Exchange.

Robert DeChellis is president of Allianz Life Financial Services, LLC, a division of Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America. He is responsible for sales and distribution of Allianz products, including variable and fixed annuities through broker/dealers and other financial institutions.

Prior to joining Allianz, Mr. DeChellis was executive vice president of Travelers Life & Annuity's Retail Annuities Division. He was responsible for expanding the company's retail annuity distribution network. Mr. DeChellis also was executive vice president and national sales manager for Jackson National Life Distributors, Inc. Before that, he managed sales for a broad range of product lines and distribution channels at Goldman Sachs. He was also a regional manager for Lord Abbett and Co., a pension consultant with Transamerica Pension Plan Services, and an account manager for Aetna Capital Management.

Mr. DeChellis received his undergraduate degree in finance from the University of Colorado.

Jamey Delaplane is a principal with Vanguard Government Relations and leads Vanguard's government affairs office in Washington, D.C. He represents Vanguard shareholders on a broad range of legislative and regulatory issues, from financial services reform to retirement and tax policies.

Before joining Vanguard, Mr. Delaplane was a partner with the law firm of Davis & Harman LLP, where he represented financial institutions, employers, and public policy organizations on employee benefits, tax, and financial services matters before the U.S. Congress and the federal executive branch agencies. Earlier in his career, he served as vice president of retirement policy at the American Benefits Council and as legislative counsel to a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Mr. Delaplane earned an A.B., cum laude, from Harvard University and a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Journal on Legislation. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association.

Charlie Farrell's practice focuses on assisting individuals with the management of their personal wealth. His services include portfolio investment management, retirement income management, wealth transfer and portfolio tax planning. Prior to working as an investment adviser, Mr. Farrell was a tax attorney representing privately held businesses on tax, retirement and estate planning matters.

Mr. Farrell is the author of the book "Your Money Ratios: 8 Simple Tools for Financial Security," published in 2009, and called "one of the best financial books to cross our desks this year" by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ, 12/19/09).

He wrote the weekly Retirement Roadmap column for CBS MoneyWatch.com from 2009 through 2011, and he wrote a monthly retirement column for InvestmentNews for several years.

His research on personal and business finance has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Smart Money, Journal of Financial Planning, Money Magazine, InvestmentNews, American Association of Individual Investors Journal, Consumer Reports Money Advisor, Nightly Business Report, Newsweek, Crain's Cleveland Business, Denver Business Journal, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, and other business and industry journals.

Mr. Farrell has a B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, and received his law degree from The American University Washington College of Law, in Washington, D.C., where he graduated summa cum laude and was an editor of the American University Law Review. He then went on to obtain a masters of law in taxation from the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

Mr. Farrell is on the board of trustees of the Denver Public Library Friends Foundation and serves on the investment committee for the Downtown Denver Partnership. He is also a member of the Colorado Investment Advisory Board.

Michael Finke, Ph.D., CFP® is Ph.D. Coordinator and Associate Professor of Personal Financial Planning at Texas Tech University. He is a 2008 and 2009 recipient of Best Paper Awards from the Academy of Financial Services, and former recipient of the AFCPE Outstanding Journal Article and CFP Board Financial Planning Research Awards. Dr. Finke served as President of the American Council on Consumer Interests, and is the editor of the Journal of Personal Finance. He received a doctorate in consumer economics from the Ohio State University in 1998 and in Finance from the University of Missouri in 2011.

Tracey Flaherty is Senior Vice President, Government Relations with responsibility for tracking legislative and policy issues that affect Natixis Global Asset Management's overall business as well as def ning and coordinating corporate responses i to new legislation. Ms. Flaherty also serves as Senior Vice President of Retirement Strategy for Natixis Global Asset Management where she provides direction for the retirement business and marketing program development.

Prior to joining the company in July 2008, Ms. Flaherty was a marketing executive for the small business and mass affluent segments at Bank of America and served as managing director for consumer products at Fleet Boston Financial. Ms. Flaherty was also with Fidelity Investments for 19 years in several senior roles, including managing Fidelity's 401(k) Rollover and Employee Stock Plan business.

Mary Beth Franklin is a contributing editor at InvestmentNews, writing a column for the print edition and a blog for the website. Relying on more than decade of experience as a senior editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine and editor of the Kiplinger's annual Retirement Planning Guide, Franklin aims to bridge the gap between want consumers want and what financial advisers can provide. An award-winning journalist, Franklin covers retirement planning and distributions, tax planning, Social Security issues and the health-care aspects of retirement planning. She is frequent public speaker, addressing both financial industry and consumer groups, and she has appeared on numerous national and local television and radio programs includingNBC's Today show and Meet the Press, the CBS Early Show, CNN and PBS's Wealthtrack program.

 

Frederick P. Gabriel Jr. is deputy editor at InvestmentNews. He is an award-winning journalist who has served as both a reporter and editor for a number of financial publications over the past two decades, including InvestmentNews, Crain's New York Business, Worth, the New York Law Journal and others. Mr. Gabriel has been recognized with numerous awards for his writing and reporting, including several by The Society of American Business Editors and Writers for his editorials and analyses of the financial services industry. He is also a past recipient of the CIT-Rutgers Business Journalism Award.

Mr. Gabriel is responsible for writing many of the editorials that appear in InvestmentNews and is author of The C-Suite, a popular column that profiles senior-level executives and their approach to leadership and management. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering with a concentration in Business Administration.

Harley Gordon is a founding member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. He has over 25 years experience in helping families deal with the financial consequences of providing long-term care to a family member. His views have been featured in many national publications and media sources including, The Wall Street Journal, The CBS Nightly News, The Dolan's, and the PBS documentary, "Who Pays for Mom and Dad?" He has written for various industry publications including, Senior Market Advisor, Life Insurance Selling and National Underwriter. Mr. Gordon was voted one of the "100 Most Influential People in Long-Term Care" by McKnight's Long-Term Care News and he was recently selected as one of the "10 Most Influential People" in the Long-Term Care industry by Senior Market Advisor. His second book, In Sickness & In Health, is a consumer guide to understanding long-term care and the need for planning.

Mr. Gordon has been a keynote speaker for numerous organizations including MDRT's "Top of the Table," the Financial Planning Association (FPA), the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors NAIFA), and the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU).

Mr. Gordon founded the "Certified in Long-Term Care" (CLTC) designation which has over 17,000 graduates to date. CLTC is recognized as the standard in long-term care education for financial and insurance professionals.

Dan Guilbert is executive vice president, Retirement Division at Symetra Life Insurance Company. He has profit-and-loss responsibility for Symetra's annuity and structured settlement products, including strategy development, product design and innovation, product marketing, market research, sales, distribution, service and operations.

Guilbert joined Symetra in November 2010 from Aviva North America, where he served as chief risk officer. He previously spent 14 years at The Hartford Life Insurance Company in a variety of senior risk management, product development and actuarial roles.

Guilbert earned a bachelor's degree in applied actuarial science from Bryant University. He attained the Fellow of the Society of Actuaries in 2001.

With over 25 years advisory experience, Jonathan Guyton, CFP® is the founder of Cornerstone Wealth Advisors, Inc., a holistic financial planning and comprehensive wealth management firm in Minneapolis serving over 200 families who reside full-time in over 20 states.

Jonathan is an award-winning financial planner and thought leader who speaks throughout the United States in the asset distribution, wealth management and retirement income generation fields. He is Retirement Columnist in the financial planning profession's leading journal and has been featured in numerous interviews with the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, American Association of Individual Investors, Money and Minnesota Public Radio. He has been quoted for multiple articles in USA Today, Forbes, Business Week, Research magazine, Financial Planning, Financial Advisor, Bloomberg's Wealth Manager and Kiplinger's Personal Finance – many of which can be viewed on the Publications page at www.cornerstonewealthadvisors.com.

Robert S. Keebler, CPA, MST, AEP (Distinguished) is a Partner with Keebler & Associates, LLP and is a 2007 recipient of the prestigious Accredited Estate Planners (Distinguished) award from the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils. He has been named by CPA Magazine as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Practitioners in the United States and one of the Top 40 Tax Advisors to Know During a Recession. His practice includes family wealth transfer and preservation planning, charitable giving, retirement distribution planning, and estate administration. Mr. Keebler frequently represents clients before the National Office of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the private letter ruling process and in estate, gift and income tax examinations and appeals, and he has received more than 150 favorable private letter rulings including several key rulings of "first impression". He is the author of over 100 articles and columns and is the editor, author or co-author of many books and treatises on wealth transfer and taxation. Bob is also a contributing author to the American Bar Association's The ABA Practical Guide to Estate Planning.

Mr. Keebler graduated (Cum Laude) from Lakeland College with a degree in Accounting and the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee with a Masters in Taxation. Before practicing in Northeastern Wisconsin, he practiced with Price Waterhouse where he concentrated in taxation.

Darla Mercado is a reporter at InvestmentNews, covering life insurance, annuities and retirement issues. She first joined InvestmentNews as an intern in 2006, becoming a full-time reporter the following year. In 2009, she spoke on a panel of journalists at the Life Insurance Settlements Association's annual conference.

Prior to working at InvestmentNews, Ms. Mercado had interned at FinancialWeek, a paper that focused on the world of corporate finance, and Supermarket News, a trade publication concentrating on the supermarket industry.

In 2005, Ms. Mercado obtained her bachelor's degree in English at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and went on to get her master's degree in journalism at New York University.

Moshe A. Milevsky, Ph.D. is a tenured finance professor at the Schulich School of Business and a member of the graduate faculty in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at York University in Toronto (Canada).

Prof. Milevsky has lectured and given seminars at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, the London School of Economics (UK), University of New South Whales (Australia), ORT University in Montevideo (Uruguay), University of Cyprus, University of Leuven (Belgium), and Goethe University (Germany).

Prof. Milevsky has consulted for global insurance companies, banks, fund companies, state pension plans, government regulators and has served as an expert witness in a number of legal cases. In 2005 he founded a software company called the QWeMA Group, which licenses intellectual property and algorithms used in web-based retirement calculators. A number of Fortune 500 companies are now clients of the QWeMA Group.

Prof. Milevsky has written ten books, over 60 peer-reviewed white papers, and more than 200 popular magazine and newspaper articles on all aspects of personal finance.

He is a 2002 Fellow of the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences. He received two National Magazine (Canada) awards in 2003 for his popular writing and received a Graham and Dodd scroll award from the CFA Institute for a 2006 article in the Financial Analysts Journal. In 2008 he was honored with a lifetime achievement award, by the Retirement Income Industry Association. In 2009 he was selected as an MDRT Main Platform speaker.

His most recent book, The Seven Most Important Equations for Your Retirement and the Stories Behind Them is being published by John Wiley & Sons in the Spring of 2012.

John is an Associate Professor of Personal Financial Planning at Texas Tech University. He teaches in the areas of retirement planning, investment management, and financial planning capstone, among other courses, and his research interest is in the area of retirement planning and income management. John is also a Vice-President and Wealth Manager at Evensky & Katz Wealth Management in Coral Gables, Florida and Lubbock, Texas. He is a Certified Financial PlannerTM practitioner and an Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst.