Shows: Guide

Below, please find links to the episodes of Peter Neuwirth’s podcast and video shows.

RETIREMENT INCOME STRATEGIES Show — The interviews in this series include discussions around the challenges individuals face when planning for retirement, including managing the unique risks associated with the decumulation problem, PeterNeuwirth.tv.

Illustration by Michael Glenwood Gibbs, www.MGlenwood.com

SILVER DIVORCE Show: Learn to simplify a painful process — In this series, we discuss different aspects of the challenges that older couples face when they contemplate divorce, SilverDivorce.tv

Illustration by Michael Glenwood Gibbs, www.MGlenwood.com

MONEY MOUNTAINEERING Show: The Sharing Economy — In this season of the series, you’ll learn to understand financial planning from a local/community perspective. Find the videos at PeterNeuwirth.tv and the podcasts at PeterNeuwirthRadio.com.

Society of Actuaries: Integrating Home Equity and Retirement Savings Through the “Rule of 30”

By Peter Neuwirth, Barry H. Sacks, and Stephen R. Sacks

In a recent SOA White Paper, Wade Pfau, Joe Tomlinson, and Steve Vernon presented a wide-ranging review of the many retirement income generators (RIGs) available to retirees. Included among the RIGs considered were the obvious and most prevalent ones, i.e., defined contribution plans (most commonly the 401(k) account and rollover IRA), and the less obvious (but equally prevalent) one, home equity.Read more

In Defense of Personal Rates of Discount

Essay by Peter Neuwirth, FSA, FCA

Pictured, right, Jeremy Gold, PhD, FSA

As more and more people react to what I’ve written,  it seems that by far the most controversial aspect (particularly among actuaries) of “What’s Your Future Worth?” has been the notion of a “personal rate of discount” and the proposition that each individual (rather than an expert) should decide how the relative value of amounts that will be received in the future versus those that are received (or paid) in the present is determined. The challenges to the concept have been less about whether or not we all have personal rates of discount (research in behavioral economics over the last 30 years on “time preference” has demonstrated this compellingly) but rather whether we should rely on our own internal time preferences to make important life decisions.

The argument goes as follows.Read more

Life Contingencies: An Actuarial Look at COVID-19 Mortality

Essay by Peter Neuwirth FSA, FCA

“The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances, and demonstrations for impressions.” — John Ruskin (motto of the Society of Actuaries)

The Actuarial Perspective

As our economy opens up and the issues around the risk of becoming infected and dying from COVID-19 get more complicated and confusing, it becomes harder and harder for individuals and organizations to make well-informed decisions. I believe, at least with respect to one key aspect of these decisions, the actuarial perspective can be extremely useful. Read more

COVID Mortality and the state of the Life Insurance Business

Essay by Peter Neuwirth, FSA, FCA

Having been around the Insurance Industry for over 40 years, I have learned a few things about the business model that has kept large carriers alive and profitable for decades and sometimes centuries (several of the big ones have been around since the 19th century).

One of the key principles I have seen in operation is that hazards almost never turn out as bad as policyholders fear – except when they turn out much, much worse. As a result, insurance companies are able to charge premiums that will generate a profit but do need to attend to the possibility of a “black swan event” that could be truly catastrophic.Read more

Watch + Listen

MONEY MOUNTAINEERING Show

Season 1: What’s Your Future Worth?

Season 2: The Sharing Economy

SILVER DIVORCE Show: Learn to simply a painful process

 

Using Housing Wealth and Qualified Retirement Benefits to Facilitate Asset Division in ‘Silver Divorce’

SUMMARY OF THE CONTENT OF THE ACTIVITY    

By Barry H. Sacks, Peter Neuwirth, and Mary Jo Lafaye

A Note from the Authors/Presenters: We are happy to welcome you to a two-hour program entitled “Using Housing Wealth to Facilitate Asset Division in ‘Silver Divorce.’” It is approved by the California State Bar as a presentation for two hours of MCLE and by the Certified Financial Planner Association as a Continuing Education class for CFPs and other financial professionals.

The program is divided into five segments:Read more

Life Contingencies: An Actuarial Look at COVID-19 Mortality

Essay by Peter Neuwirth FSA, FCA

“The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances, and demonstrations for impressions.” — John Ruskin, the motto of the Society of Actuaries

The Actuarial Perspective

As our economy opens up and the issues around the risk of becoming infected and dying from COVID-19 get more complicated and confusing, it becomes harder and harder for individuals and organizations to make well-informed decisions. I believe, at least with respect to one key aspect of these decisions, the actuarial perspective can be extremely useful.Read more

Services — more

Silver Divorce: Simplify a Painful Process with Neuwirth Associates Consulting. Our team of experts supports family lawyers, CPAs, and financial advisors in their efforts to help their clients navigate through a Silver Divorce. Our mission is to ease potentially devastating financial consequences and/or extremely long timelines associated with so many divorces that involve older couples. Click here to learn more about our research and experience.

Other Services include:

  • Retirement Income Strategies/Decumulation
  • Life Insurance and Annuity Product Analysis
  • Nonqualified Retirement Plans

Season 2: Episode 4 of Money Mountaineering with Peter Neuwirth features Michael Edesess, author of “The Big Investment Lie,” and “The 3 Simple Rules of Investing”

A Note from Actuary and Author Peter Neuwirth, FSA, FCA, host, “Money Mountaineering: The Sharing Economy” — I invite you to tune in for this week’s episode of my podcast and video show, Money Mountaineering, where for 30 minutes, financial experts help us answer the question: What’s your future worth? In the fall of 2023, we launched Season 2, where we focus on the power of the Sharing Economy.

Meet the month’s guest: Michael Edesess, accomplished mathematician and economist and author of The Big Investment Lie, and The 3 Simple Rules of Investing

Our topic: Understanding CryptoRead more

Watch

This month on Peter Neuwirth’s Retirement Income Strategies show: Tune in for Ep14 as Pete interviews Mendel Melzer, Chief Investment Officer at the national Executive Benefits Consulting firm CapAcuity. Pete is the Florida-based company’s Senior Consulting Actuary.

Watch Pete’s Retirement Income Strategies video series: PeterNeuwirth.tv

Ep6: Silver Divorce — Neuwirth Associates Consulting founder Peter Neuwirth discusses the financial impact of Silver Divorce with analytics expert Jackie Chin

What is the reality of dividing assets in Silver Divorce? Analytics executive and Neuwirth Associates managing partner Jackie Chin has nearly 30 years of diverse financial services experience, including actuarial consulting, predictive modeling, product management. Today she and Pete help us mitigate the financial challenges of Silver Divorce. Listen now and watch the interview on SilverDivorce.tv.

Decumulation and Silver Divorce: “Spike Expense Risk” and 3 other risks

By Peter Neuwirth, FSA, FCA

In 2020, I wrote a series of short essays expanding on each of the 6 principles of Holistic Financial Wellness that I outlined in my book, “Money Mountaineering.” These essays were intended to help readers understand how each principle might operate in practice as well as give me a chance to update what I had written for how the world and my thinking about these principles had changed in the months between the submission of my manuscript to the publisher and the day that the book became available to the general public. Read more

Retirement Income Strategy Challenges – On Quitting Early, the Decumulation Problem and Living to 100

By Peter Neuwirth, FSA, FCA

The game of chess has taught me a lot about how to make decisions. Most of my early lessons were given to me by my father, who was still able to beat me years past the point where I had become a better player. He used to tell me often that “resign is the weakest move.” For chess players, that is undoubtedly good advice, but when facing choices in other areas of our lives, particularly those that relate to money, chess is perhaps not the best model — largely because the position on a chessboard board is visible for all to see and the only unknown to ponder when choosing a plan is what move your opponent will make in response to the one you choose and how the future might unfold as a result.Read more

The Actuarial Approach and Recommended Financial Planning Process for Retirees and Near Retirees: Ken Steiner’s 3 Principles to Accomplish Your Financial Goals

A Note from actuary and author Peter Neuwirth, FSA, FCA: It is a pleasure to feature actuary Ken Steiner in the June episode of Money Mountaineering. As mentioned in our interview, Ken has created a list of 3 principles and a 7-step process to help accomplish financial goals. He calls it the “Annual Actuarial Valuation Approach” and has been kind enough to share those with us in the essay below. Thank you, Ken! We know our audience will benefit from this insight. 

Read more

Founder: Actuary and Author Peter J. Neuwirth, FSA, FCA

Actuary and Author Peter J. Neuwirth, FSA, FCA, specializes in retirement plan issues. He is a 1979 graduate of Harvard College with a BA in Mathematics and Linguistics. After leaving Harvard, he went to work at Connecticut General Life Insurance, now CIGNA. For the next 38 years, he worked continuously as an actuary, holding significant leadership positions at a variety of firms around the country, including most of the major consulting firms (Aon, Hewitt Associates, Watson Wyatt, Towers Perrin and finally Towers Watson).Read more

Co-founder: Barry H. Sacks, PhD, JD

Reverse Mortgage/Retirement Portfolio Longevity Expert Barry Sacks Ph.D. earned his doctorate in semiconductor physics from M.I.T., then taught at U.C. Berkeley. He earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School and is a Certified Specialist in Taxation Law from the California Board of Legal Specialization. After spending 35 years as an ERISA attorney specializing in qualified retirement plans, he uses his breadth of skills to discover a role for a reverse mortgage to help make a retirement portfolio last longer. Barry’s law practice provides special services to tax professionals in “Offers in Compromise” for retirees living on 401(k) accounts or securities portfolios.Read more

Co-founder and CEO: Jackie Chin, MBA

Analytics executive Jackie Chin has nearly 30 years of diverse financial services experience, including actuarial consulting, predictive modeling, product management and analytics.  As an executive at Charles Schwab, she championed and delivered key initiatives to help more clients meet their financial goals.  She also launched a commission-free ETF Platform at Schwab, driving down the cost of ETF investing for all clients.  Jackie graduated from SUNY Potsdam with a BA in Mathematics.  Following graduation, she studied actuarial science and received an MBA from U.C. Berkeley.  Jackie is a National Trustee for the Boys & Girls Club of America.

 

Dr. Tim Genda: Quantitative Analyst

Dr. Tim Genda is an independent quantitative analyst for Neuwirth Associates. He is also a Major in the Air Force Reserves, where he works as a Nuclear Debris Collection & Analysis Evaluator at the Air Force Technical Applications Center, Patrick Space Force Base, Florida.

Maj Genda received his BS in physics from the United States Air Force Academy as a distinguished graduate in 2010, his MS in nuclear engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 2014, and a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2022.Read more

Affiliate Partner: Mary Jo Lafaye

A licensed Home Equity Retirement Specialist with Mutual of Omaha Mortgage, Mary Jo Lafaye is a top-rated specialist. She is focused on educating financial and legal advisors, Realtors, and the retirees they serve, offering monthly in-person educational seminars, webinars, continuing education, and MCLE classes for professionals, as well as informational seminars for homeowners. Mary Jo assists these professionals and their mature clients in creating sustainable *tax-free cash flow for a joyful retirement.Read more

Executive Assistant and Office Administrator: Gabriel Guptill

Gabriel lives in Santa Rosa, CA, and provides an array of administrative and organizational services for Pete and other San Francisco Bay Area business executives. Gabe is a North Bay local with a BA in Political Science from Sonoma State University. He has worked closely with Pete on a wide variety of projects, including his books and the rebuilding of his home on his property. Gabe also serves as Peter Neuwirth’s Executive Assistant and the Office Administrator for Neuwirth Associates Consulting.

About Neuwirth Associates Consulting

Founded by Peter Neuwirth, FSA, FCA, Neuwirth Associates Consulting is dedicated to the proposition that the actuarial perspective is critical for addressing many of the most significant problems that individuals face as they navigate through the current economic environment and grapple with the risks and challenges associated with utilizing their assets to live on for the rest of their lives.

Neuwirth Associates Consulting provides analysis and technical support to CFPs, CPAs, family lawyers, loan officers, investment advisors, and Retirement Plan sponsors in retirement planning, asset division in divorce, and Life Insurance/Annuity product analysis. Our focus is on developing specific strategies and risk mitigation techniques that will enable our clients to solve their client’s problems in a cost- and tax-efficient manner.

“We believe that retirement income planning is an actuarial problem of risk management and Asset/Liability matching, even though many advisors focus on their clients’ assets and investment strategies,” explains Pete. “In complicated divorce situations where one or both spouses are nearing retirement age, the actuarial considerations can become even more acute while very few professionals have the background and expertise to address the complex actuarial and tax issues that arise in such situations.”

Learn more about our Services.

Schedule a free consultation.

Principle #1: Adapting to Change

By Peter Neuwirth, actuary, reverse mortgage expert and author, Money Mountaineering

“Everything changes a little as it should. Good ain’t forever, and bad ain’t for good,” — Roger Miller from “Lou’s got the Flu”

I learned a lot from my mathematician father and as many lectures as he gave me growing up, there was almost always music playing in our house. Roger Miller’s songs formed the soundtrack to many of my childhood Sunday afternoons. I always listened to the words of the songs and from the men and women who sang them I learned even more. As rigid and clear as my father’s views and teachings usually were,  he was always open and curious about the world around us and how it can change – in unpredictable ways that can render one’s normal survival strategies a recipe for suffering.Read more

Principle #2: Debts of Gratitude

By Peter Neuwirth, actuary, reverse mortgage expert and author, Money Mountaineering

This is the second in a series of essays on the 6 Foundational Principles of Holistic Financial Wellness that I describe in my new book “Money Mountaineering.” In this one, I want to talk about “Debt” in a more general sense. As we look at our personal financial balance sheets we have many obligations that might be satisfied by money, but many of those obligations were incurred through the receipt of goods, and services that are often not measurable in dollars and that the terms of repayment are far from clear. How to view these debts and how they affect one’s financial well-being is a very tricky issue and whole books could be written on the subject. Read more

Principle #3: Due Diligence

By Peter Neuwirth, actuary, reverse mortgage expert, and author, Money Mountaineering

In my essay earlier this month about Holistic Financial Wellness Principle #1, I talked about the need to adapt to changes in your own financial or life situation to make sure the financial decisions you make are consistent with who you are and how you are situated in the world around you. In that essay, I talked about how the wildfire that destroyed my home last year changed the way I now look at the decisions I make around money and the things I buy with it.Read more

Principle #4: Fear is the Enemy of Curiosity

By Peter Neuwirth, actuary, reverse mortgage expert, and author, Money Mountaineering

As I started to write about the 4th fundamental principle of Holistic Financial Wellness, I realized that while many of the 6 HFW principles I espouse are more and less applicable in our lives at different times, the need to be able to live comfortably with uncertainty as you make financial decisions that have significant consequences for your future while also entailing painful costs in the present may be, for many, many people, the most important principle of all right now.Read more