On Friday, November 3, 2023, faculty, data scientists, post-docs, research associates, students, and industry partners gathered for the Financial Wellness Lab Research Summit. In an outstanding showcase of knowledge, the first half of the day consisted of presentations by PhD, MSc, and undergraduate students.
Sanghyun Jung was the first on the agenda with his presentation, titled "Finding Paths to Financial Wellness: Comparing Investment Decisions through Time for Self-Directed and Advised Investors."
Agassi Iu then guided the attendees through his presentation on glide paths. Leah Kitching presented the results from her research on "Life Expectancy Shown through Life Tables."
Two new members of the expanding Lab's team were next, with Raushan Zhumanova presenting on "Optimal Retirement Savings over the Life Cycle: Deterministic vs. Stochatic," and Yuxue Zhang presenting "Some Insurance Considerations in Financial Planning under CRRA Utility."
In the afternoon, we had the pleasure of hearing from our guest speaker, Marianne Nguyen from Sun Life, a valued industry partner of the Lab. Ms. Nguyen's talk focused on decumulation and Sun Life's strategies to guide their members through their financial journey.
Research Associates Jaime Brenes Reyes and Nicole Carleton took us to the humanities and social sciences aspects of research on financial wellness. Jaime spoke about the historical and philosophical roots of financial wellness, and Nicole presented "From the Literature: Income and Workplace Wellness Programming."
Our two data scientists, Alireza Fazeli and Leon Feng, guided the audience through fresh and evolving research on financial wellness and geographical locations using databases from our industry partner Environics Analytics.
Both Ali's and Leon's talks mesmerized the audience by posing fresh research which leads the Lab towards new avenues to explore about financial wellness.
In the words of Ms. Maureen Young, Coast Capital's VP Social Purpose: "I was impressed with everyone’s presentations and fascinated by the research findings. I especially loved the respectful dialogue amongst the group as you collectively strive to derive critical insights to guide all of us who are in industry to make a measurable difference in driving improved financial health."
We extend our thanks to all the presenters and our industry partners for joining us during our Research Summit!
(And many thanks to Yifan Li for providing the pictures!)