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About the Author
Dr
Lester Wills
Dr Lester Wills' thesis was in the area of personal financial preparation for retirement and has presented material from his research at international conferences. He has also submitted papers for publication in a number of leading international journals and has had papers published by the Pensions Institute in London. Dr Wills has experience in a number of fields, having started his professional life as a science teacher, a career that provided invaluable experience in effectively communicating with an audience. He then completed a degree in psychology and went on to do an MBA, majoring in economics and marketing. He spent a number of years working on dealing desks as an investment manager in Europe and Australia, managing equity and fixed interest portfolios and a range of derivatives. He then worked as a general marketer, gaining experience in marketing and product development in both wholesale and retail environments.
Articles Published
Showing results 1 to 4 of 4
Are Australians Preparing for their Retirement?
Intuitively the answer to this question would appear to be yes as unlike many other countries around the world, Australia operates a mandatory retirement savings scheme called the Superannuation Guarantee ... Read moreIntuitively the answer to this question would appear to be yes as unlike many other countries around the world, Australia operates a mandatory retirement savings scheme called the Superannuation Guarantee (SG). As a result, Australia is in a better position than many. However, does the SG give rise to false confidence?
Motivating Retirement Planning
For many Australians, retirement planning is a distant thought. According to Dr Lester Wills, many studies have already shown that a majority of us are not planning for retirement properly. In his paper ... Read moreFor many Australians, retirement planning is a distant thought. According to Dr Lester Wills, many studies have already shown that a majority of us are not planning for retirement properly. In his paper, he outlines the attitude most people have about saving for their retirement. He also lists a number of behavioural and psychological reasons why people are resistant to saving now for a comfortable future, something financial planners would be useful to take into consideration when motivating their clients to save for their retirement.
An introduction to behavioural finance
Lester Wills discusses research originally written by James Montier. Montier has
developed a list of 10 perilous errors people make when investing. Wills says that when
you consider Montier's list, they ... Read moreLester Wills discusses research originally written by James Montier. Montier has
developed a list of 10 perilous errors people make when investing. Wills says that when
you consider Montier's list, they seem pretty obvious. "Too many things that are
obvious are overlooked simply because people just don't think about them. Things can
all too easily be 'obvious' in hindsight," said Lester. Behavioural finance can make you
realise that market efficiency is in reality nothing of the sort.
Looking at retirement from a different perspective
In this article Dr Lester Wills reviews work by two US-based academics, Robert Arnott and Anne Casscells. Lester considers the Arnott and Cassells' proposition that a stable dependency ratio rather than ... Read moreIn this article Dr Lester Wills reviews work by two US-based academics, Robert Arnott and Anne Casscells. Lester considers the Arnott and Cassells' proposition that a stable dependency ratio rather than a stable retirement age is the only way a society can cope with ageing when we will have more retirees than workers. Wills concludes that increasing the minimum retirement age is probably inevitable. Such an outcome would have a very big impact on many wealth accumulators' strategies who are probably planning to retire in their early 60s and then living until their mid to late 80s.
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