Our guest on the podcast today is Dr. Jeffrey Brown, the Josef and Margot Lakonishok Professor and the Dean of the University of Illinois Gies College of Business. A key focus of Dean Brown's research is how to create sustainable retirement income, including the role of annuities, Social Security, 401(k)s, pensions and long-term care planning. He's a research affiliate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a faculty affiliate of the Institute on Government and Policy Affairs, and a fellow at the TIAA Institute. He also serves as a trustee for TIAA. In addition, he served on the Social Security Advisory Board under President George W. Bush and was also a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. He has published extensively on the topic of retirement security and public and private insurance markets, and he has received numerous awards for his research as well. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from MIT, and a master's in public policy from Harvard.BackgroundJeffrey Brown bioJeffrey Brown C.V. Jeffrey Brown publications and working papers  Defined Contribution (DC) PlansDefined contribution plan definition Defined benefit plan definition “A Brief History of the 401(k), Which Changed How Americans Retire,” by Kathleen Elkins, CNBC.com, Jan. 4, 2017.“The Disappearing Defined Benefit Pension and Its Potential Impact on the Retirement Incomes of Baby Boomers,” by Barbara A. Butrica, Howard M. Iams, Karen E. Smith, and Eric J. Toder, Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 69, No. 3, 2009.“What Killed Pensions,” by Mary Beth Franklin, Kiplinger, Oct. 6, 2011.“Public Pensions Are Still Marching to Their Death,” by Jeffrey Dorfman, Forbes.com, Sept. 11, 2014.“House Passes SECURE Act to Ease 401(k) Compliance, Promote Savings,” by Stephen Miller, SHRM.org, May 23, 2019.“How the SECURE Act Would Impact Your 401(k),” by Simon Moore, Forbes.com, June 25, 2019.“Annuities in 401(k)s Won’t Solve the Retirement Crisis. Here’s Why,” by Mary Romano, Barron’s, June 28, 2019.“What Does It Mean to Annuitize?” by Justin Pritchard, Thebalance.com, Jan. 21, 2019.“Crash Course Needed: Four Out of Five Americans Fail When Quizzed on How to Make Their Nest Eggs Last,” by The American College for Financial Planning, Dec. 3, 2014.“401(k) Nudges and Course Corrections,” by Kimberly Blanton, Squared Away blog, Oct. 24, 2017.“Thank Richard Thaler for Your Retirement Savings,” by Ben Steverman, Bloomberg, Oct. 10, 2017.“Plan Quality Varies Significantly by Industry,” by John Manganaro, PlanAdviser, March 20, 2017.“Corporate Profits and 401(k) Plan Performance Go Hand in Hand: T. Rowe Price,” by Michael S. Fischer, ThinkAdvisor, Sept. 17, 2018.“The Conundrum of State-Run Retirement Plans,” by Terry Dunne, InvestmentNews, May 8, 2017.“Reasons to Be Wary of State-Run Retirement Plans,” by Jeffrey Brown, Forbes.com, Feb. 10, 2014.Multiple Employer Plan (MEP) definition“How Hard Should We Push the Poor to Save for Retirement?” by Andrew G. Biggs, The Journal of Retirement, Spring 2019.Thrift Savings Plan  Annuities“Use Annuities to Protect Yourself from Yourself,” by Jeffrey Brown, Forbes.com, May 22, 2014.“Income Annuities Provide Retirees Longevity Protection,” by Wade Pfau, Investment News, Sept. 28, 2019.“Why Don’t People Insure Late-Life Consumption? A Framing Explanation of the Under-Annuitization Puzzle,” by Jeffrey R. Brown, Jeffrey R. Kling, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Marian V. Wrobel, National Bureau of Economic Research, January 2008.Variable annuity definitionEquity-indexed annuity definitionDeferred payment annuity definition“The Main Types of Annuities Made Easy,” by Clair Boyte-White, Investopedia, July 27, 2019.“Annuities and Inflation Risk,” by Robert Bloink and William H. Byrnes, ThinkAdvisor, Sept. 3, 2011.“Lifetime Income for Women: A Financial Economist’s Perspective,” by David F. Babbel, Wharton Financial Institutions Center Policy Brief, Aug. 12, 2008.“Jeff Brown Tackles Tough Annuity Questions,” by Michael Finke, ThinkAdvis