Credentials

Steve Vernon, F.S.A., is President of Rest-of-Life Communications, and a member of the Executive Faculty and Research Fellow with the California Institute for Finance at California Lutheran University, where he conducts research on behavioral finance.  He recently retired as Vice President and Consulting Actuary with the human resources consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide.   For over 30 years, he helped large employers design and manage their retirement programs.

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

• A short book titled Recession-Proof Your Retirement Years: Simple Retirement Planning Strategies That Work Through Thick or Thin.  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.  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 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
• 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 Times, Los Angeles Times, USAToday, BusinessWeek, Fortune Magazine, Kiplinger’s, and Money Magazine.  He also writes occasional columns for Retirement Weekly. He is an experienced speaker, with over 300 presentations, keynote addresses and workshops on his books Don’t Work Forever! and Live Long & Prosper! and his DVD The Quest.  He has addressed audiences ranging from professional conferences, lunch/dinner clubs, women’s executive organizations, employee groups, union organizations, and executive retreats.  Audience sizes have ranged from 20 to over 1,000. 

Steve currently serves on relevant committees for the Society of Actuaries:

• Committee for Post-Retirement Needs and Risks
• Task force for Individual Post-Retirement Financial Strategies
• Task force for Segmenting the Middle Market: Retirement Risks and Solutions

His clients at Rest-of-Life Communications have included AARP, Merrill Lynch, the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, Weyerhaeuser, the Royal Bank of Canada, Sempra Energy, USC and Esterline Corporation.  While at Watson Wyatt, his clients included Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Chevron, Unocal, Teledyne Technologies, Times Mirror, City of Los Angeles, H.F. Ahmanson & Company (Home Savings), Nordstrom and RAND Corporation.

‘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 is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Steve lives in Oxnard, California with his wife Melinda, and they have five 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.