David A. Littell, JD, ChFC^®, CFP^®

Director of the New York Life Center for Retirement Income
Joseph E. Boettner Chair in Research
Professor of Taxation

In this position, he is responsible for course and textbook development for HS 326: Planning for Retirement Needs and HS 352: Financial Decisions for Retirement. He is also responsible for HS 350: Understanding the Older Client, and serves as the coordinator for the CASL^® program. As a professor, his responsibilities include: writing books, study guides, website content, audio and video reviews, exam preparation, teaching course materials to students, and consulting with students in exam preparation.

Professor Littell is the co-creator of the RICP designation and was involved in the creation of its three courses: HS 353: Retirement Income Process, Strategies, and Solutions; HS 354: Sources of Retirement Income; and HS 355: Managing the Retirement Income Plan.

He speaks regularly to financial advisors and benefits professionals on pensions, retirement planning, and working with older clients. Active in the field of adult education, Professor Littell has been an instructor at the Philadelphia Institute, teaching various employee benefit topics and legal research, and has taught courses that are part of the Certified Employee Benefits Specialist program.

Professor Littell has also co-authored several books associated with American College courses: Planning for Retirement Needs, Financial Decision Making at Retirement, and The Practitioner's Guide to Advanced Pension Topics. He has published numerous articles for periodicals such as the Journal of Financial Service Professionals, FOCUS, Compensation and Benefits Management, and Benefits Quarterly. In 1997, Professor Littell won an Article Award from the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards. He also has served on several CFP^® item writing committee groups for the CFP Board of Examiners and has served as champion for both the RICP and the CASL designations, considering curriculum and requirements for both designations.

A native of Chicago, Professor Littell holds a BA degree in psychology from Northwestern University and earned his JD at the Boston University School of Law. Professor Littell, who resides in Ardmore, PA, is also actively involved in the sport of fencing. He was a member of the 1988 U.S. Olympic Fencing Team and was a fencing coach at Haverford College from 1999 to 2006.

Jamie Patrick Hopkins, Esq., J.D., M.B.A.

Assistant Professor of Taxation at The American College
Associate Director of the New York Life Center for Retirement Income

Professor Hopkins assisted in the development and creation of the RICP designation. He also teaches and is involved with HS 326: Planning for Retirement Needs and HS 324: Life Insurance Law. In addition, Jamie, as the Associate Director of the New York Life Center for Retirement Income, researches and writes new material for the Center. He also helps develop free video content for advisors, academics, and consumers on retirement income topics.

Professor Hopkins has also been published in numerous periodicals including Villanova Law Review, Nebraska Law Review, and Hastings Journal of Science and Technology Law, and has authored articles published by the American Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Jamie continues to be an active researcher and writer in his position with the New York Life Center for Retirement Income.

Rebekah Barsch

Vice President of Market Strategy and Training, Northwestern Mutual

Rebekah Barsch currently serves as vice president of market strategy and training. In this role, she is responsible for leading the development of Northwestern Mutual’s strategies for key market segments, including overseeing the launch of the company’s retirement strategy, an enterprise wide planning approach to delivering financial security for clients throughout their retirement years. Her team also leads the integration of planning and product training for Northwestern Mutual’s sales force.

Barsch previously served as director-strategic planning and consulting, vice president-wealth management, vice president-investment products, director of the annuity product line, and as Northwestern Mutual’s relationship manager for the Russell Investment Group.

She joined Northwestern Mutual in 1994 as a specialist in the Communications Department and also ran the Northwestern Mutual Foundation.

Barsch holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Ross Goldstein

Ross Goldstein is a Corporate Vice President in the Investment Group of New York Life Insurance Company where he is responsible for all of the Company’s annuity marketing efforts.

Previously, Ross was the Corporate Vice President of Branding and Advertising in Corporate Communications where he was responsible for brand strategy and advertising creative. Ross joined New York Life in 2000, as part of the Company’s Management Associates program. He holds an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business and a B.S. in Economics from Cornell University.

Ross resides in New York City with his wife Beth.

Paul Horrocks

Vice President in the New York Life Insurance Group

Paul Horrocks is a Vice President in the New York Life Insurance Group where he is responsible for strategic marketing. Prior to that, Paul held strategy roles in retirement income and led the company’s Guaranteed Lifetime Income product unit.

Prior to joining New York Life, Paul was a Vice President at Paytrust, an online bill payment and presentment company. At Paytrust, Paul managed the company’s affiliate and online marketing strategy.

Paul holds an undergraduate degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a MBA from Columbia.

William J. Johnson

Executive Vice President
Investment Product Development and Risk Management
Fidelity Investments Life Insurance Company

Bill Johnson is EVP, Investment Product Development and Risk Management for Fidelity Investments Life Insurance Company (FILI), a division of Fidelity Investments, a leading provider of investment management, retirement planning, portfolio guidance, brokerage, benefits outsourcing and other financial products and services.

Before joining Fidelity in 1992 as an associate actuary, Bill held positions at Sun Life of Canada, New England Mutual Life and National Life of Vermont.

Bill received an undergraduate degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries. He holds NASD series 7 and 24 licenses.

Rob Pettman

Rob Pettman joined LPL Financial in 2005 and is a senior vice president responsible for product management and marketing of alternative investments, UITs, structured products, and annuities. Prior to joining LPL Financial, he was a financial advisor working exclusively with trial lawyers in the areas of settlement planning, trusts, and structured settlements. He has had more than 10 years experience within the financial services industry covering a broad spectrum of products, and has a specialization in annuities. He is also a frequent speaker at industry meetings for organizations such as IRI and LIMRA. Mr. Pettman holds a B.A degree in International Business from Eckerd College.

Wade D. Pfau, PhD, CFA

Professor of Retirement Income

Wade D. Pfau, PhD, CFA, is a Professor of Retirement Income in the new Ph.D. program for Financial and Retirement Planning at The American College in Bryn Mawr, PA. He is a past selectee for the InvestmentNews Power 20 for people expected to shape the financial advisory industry, and is a recipient of Financial Planning magazine’s Influencer Awards. He has also served as a past curriculum director for that organization’s Retirement Management Analyst (RMA) designation program, and he has contributed to the curriculum of The American College’s Retirement Income Certified Professional (RICP) designation. Wade holds a doctorate in economics from Princeton University, and he has published research on retirement planning in a wide variety of academic and practitioner research journals.

R. Morris Sims, MSM, CLU^®, ChFC^®

Vice President and Chief Learning Officer, Agency

After 5 years practicing Chemical Engineering, Morris began his career with New York Life in May of 1984 as an agent in New Orleans, LA. After achieving council level production for two years he was appointed Training Supervisor in Monroe, LA and fell in love with helping people improve their performance.

After Monroe, Morris moved to the Arkansas General Office, then to Dallas as Zone Training Officer, and then to the Home Office where he was initially in charge of Management Training. Since then he has been responsible for many aspects of training over the years. Currently Morris has responsibility for all aspects of agent training, sales systems, Development Managers, Zone Training Officers, and Industry Relations. In 2007 he was named the Chief Learning Officer for the Agency Department.

Morris is a graduate of Auburn University and The American College.

Mark J. Warshawsky

Director of Retirement Research

Mark J. Warshawsky is Director of Retirement Research at Towers Watson, a global human capital consulting firm. He conducts and oversees research on employer-sponsored retirement programs and policies, social security, financial planning and health care financing. He has written numerous articles published in leading peer-reviewed scholarly journals, practitioner publications, conference volumes and working papers, has organized several research conferences, and has testified before Congress on public policies relating to pensions, annuities and other economic issues. He is a co-author of the Fundamentals of Private Pensions, Ninth Edition, 2009, published by Oxford University Press, and of Retirement Income: Risks and Strategies, forthcoming, MIT Press.

A member of the Social Security Advisory Board for a term through 2012, he is also on the Advisory Board of the Pension Research Council of the Wharton School.

From 2004 to 2006, Dr. Warshawsky served as assistant secretary for economic policy at the U.S. Treasury Department. There he played a key role in the development of the Administration’s pension reform proposals, particularly pertaining to the funding of single-employer defined benefit plans, which formed the basis of the Pension Protection Act of 2006. Dr. Warshawsky’s research led directly to the 2001-2 regulatory reform of minimum distribution requirements for qualified retirement plans. He is the inventor of the life care annuity, a product innovation integrating the immediate life annuity and long-term care insurance. For that research, Dr. Warshawsky won a prize from the British Institute of Actuaries in 2001. He has also held senior-level economic research positions at the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. and TIAA-CREF, where he established the Paul A. Samuelson Prize. Dr. Warshawsky received a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and a B.A. with Highest Distinction from Northwestern University.

Walt Woerheide, PhD, CFP^®

VP of Academic Affairs
Dean Frank M. Engle Distinguished Chair in Economic Security Research
Professor of Investments

Before joining the College in 2001, Dr. Woerheide held appointments as a professor of finance at the University of Illinois at Chicago for 10 years, the Univ. of Michigan - Flint for 6 years, and Rochester Institute of Technology for 11 years. He also worked for a year as a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.

Dr. Woerheide has served as President of the Academy of Financial Services, an association of people interested in teaching and research in the area of financial planning, and as President of the Midwest Finance Association. He has been Judge for the Financial Frontiers Awards, a Judge for the Kenneth Black, Jr., Journal Author Award Program given by the Journal of Financial Service Professionals. He also serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Financial Service Professionals and serves on the Editorial Board of the Financial Services Review and Business Quest and the Journal of Financial Planning.

In addition to co-authoring the three most recent editions of The College's Investments textbook, he has also published Introducing Personal Finance with John Wiley & Sons, and The Savings and Loan Industry: Current Problems and Possible Solutions with Quorum Books. Dr. Woerheide has published over 26 articles in various journals including Journal of Financial Service Professionals, Financial Services Review, Financial Counseling and Planning, Journal of Financial Planning, and Journal of Consumer Affairs. He has refereed articles for 16 different journals, served on multiple program committees for professional associations, reviewed numerous textbooks, and serves as an outside referee for promotion and tenure cases.

Dr. Woerheide earned his PhD and MBA degrees from Washington University and has a BA from Brown University.