Shlomo Benartzi

Shlomo Benartzi is one of the foremost behavioral economists in the country, combining the insights of psychology and economics to solve big societal problems, creating digital nudges that leverage technology to achieve massive scale and help millions make better financial decisions. His work has demonstrated the potential for far-reaching improvement. Along with Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago, Professor Benartzi pioneered the Save More Tomorrow™ (SMarT) program, a behavioral prescription designed to nudge employees increase their savings rates gradually over time. In their original research, Thaler and Benartzi found that SMarT increased employee savings rates from 3.5 percent to 13.6 percent. The SMarT program is now offered by more than half of the large retirement plans in the U.S. and a growing number of plans in Australia and the U.K. The program has also been incorporated into the Pension Protection Act of 2006, enabling approximately 25 million Americans boost their retirement savings.

He received a BS from Tel Aviv University and a Ph.D. from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management. Currently Benartzi is a professor emeritus and co-founder of the Behavioral Decision-Making Group at UCLA Anderson School of Management as well as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Wharton Behavior Change for Good Initiative.

To help bridge the gap between academic research and the real world, Benartzi worked with several financial institutions and served on multiple advisory boards and been a senior academic advisor to Acorns, Morningstar, Personal Capital, Voya, and others. He is an advisor to Athena, Wisdom Tree and additional fintech companies as well as the co-founder of PensionPlus, a start-up dedicated to providing a personalized retirement income plan for all Americans.