“Steve Vernon, F.S.A., is president of Rest-of-Life Communications, where he delivers retirement presentations, webinars, and retirement education campaigns to help older workers as they transition into retirement. He served as a consultant to the Stanford Center on Longevity from 2013 to 2022, where he conducted and directed research on retirement income, retirement planning and decision-making, and behavioral economics.

In his prior career, for more than 35 years he helped large employers design and manage their retirement programs. He retired in 2006 as Vice President and Consulting Actuary with the human resources consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide, after 25 years of service. He also consulted to Mercer from 2010 to 2012.”

Steve produces unbiased, trusted information and strategies to help working people prepare for their retirement years.  His latest works are:

  • Don’t Go Broke in Retirement: A Simple Plan to Build Lifetime Retirement Income (2020). This short book focuses exclusively on the critical task of generating risk-protected retirement income from Social Security, IRAs, and 401(k) accounts.
  • Retirement Game-Changers: Strategies for a Healthy, Financially Secure, and Fulfilling Long Life (2018), which focuses on the critical decisions that older worker face as they transition into retirement, including finances, health, and lifestyle.
  • Money for Life: Turn Your IRA and 401(k) Into a Lifetime Retirement Paycheck (2012), which focuses on one of the most important retirement planning challenges facing boomers today.
  • A short book titled Recession-Proof Your Retirement Years: Simple Retirement Planning Strategies That Work Through Thick or Thin (2009-2014). This provides simple, “connect-the-dots” strategies for planning for your retirement years.
  • A DVD/workbook package titled The Quest: For Long Life, Health and Prosperity (2008).  It features interviews with 12 experts in the fields of life planning, health and finance, and interviews with 13 people from all walks in life who are living examples of the advice from the experts.

He currently writes a regular column on retirement strategies for Forbes.com.

He has published three books with John Wiley & Sons, titled:

  • Live Long & Prosper! Invest in Your Happiness, Health and Wealth for Retirement and Beyond (2005)
  • Don’t Work Forever! Simple Steps Baby Boomers Must Take To Ever Retire (1995)
  • Employee Benefits: Valuation, Analysis and Strategies (1993)

Steve is one of the most sought-after retirement experts in the country.  He is quoted frequently in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, New York TimesLos Angeles Times, USAToday, BusinessWeek, Fortune MagazineKiplinger’s, and Money Magazine.

He is an experienced speaker, having delivered over 300 presentations, keynote addresses and workshops on his books Don’t Go Broke in Retirement, Retirement Game-Changers, Money for Life, Recession-Proof Your Retirement Years, Don’t Work Forever! and Live Long & Prosper! and his DVD The Quest.  He has addressed audiences ranging from professional conferences, employee groups, union organizations, executive retreats, and lunch/dinner clubs. Audience sizes have ranged from 20 to over 1,000.

Steve has completed the Conscious Aging facilitator training sponsored by the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS).

His clients at Rest-of-Life Communications have included AARP, Aerospace Corporation, Cadence Design Systems, Chicago Transit Authority, Esterline Corporation, the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension Plan, Merrill Lynch, Portland General Electric, Puget Sound Energy, Sempra Energy, Synopsys, USC and Weyerhaeuser.

‘For this next phase of my life, I want to use my skills and life experience to help people with important life planning – to help them live long and prosper!’

Steve graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of California, Irvine with a double major in Mathematics and Social Science, and he is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Steve lives in Oxnard, California with his wife Melinda, and they have six grown children in their extended family.  Steve enjoys hiking, skiing and water sports, is engaged with the human potential movement, and holds a third-degree black belt in aikido.

Steve Vernon author