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Shlomo Benartzi
Professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management
Professional Background
Shlomo Benartzi is a renowned behavioral economist who skillfully merges the insights of psychology and economics to tackle some of society's most pressing challenges. His profound understanding of behavioral finance has positioned him as a thought leader in creating digital nudges that empower millions to make informed and beneficial financial decisions. Benartzi's journey as an educator and researcher has taken him to the prestigious UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he serves as a professor and co-founder of the Behavioral Decision-Making Group, fostering innovative research that bridges behavioral science and practical application.
In addition to his role at UCLA, Benartzi is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Wharton School's Behavior Change for Good Initiative. Here, he collaborates with experts in applied behavioral economics, further enriching the field of financial decision-making. Benartzi's impressive career is marked by his commitment to enhancing financial well-being and his role in shaping policies that encourage healthier saving behaviors among individuals and employees.
Education and Achievements
Shlomo Benartzi's academic journey began with a Bachelor’s Degree from Tel Aviv University, which laid the foundation for his future studies in behavioral economics. He pursued his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) at the esteemed Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, where he deepened his understanding of the complex interplay between decision-making and economic behavior. His doctoral research has significantly influenced his approach to behavioral economics and has propelled him into a prominent academic career.
One of Benartzi's most notable achievements is the co-development of the groundbreaking Save More Tomorrow™ (SMarT) program in collaboration with Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler from the University of Chicago. The innovative program employs a behavioral approach to encourage employees to increase their savings rates gradually over time. This concept has seen remarkable success in practice, with findings from their research revealing that SMarT can raise employee savings rates from a mere 3.5 percent to an impressive 13.6 percent. As a result, SMarT is now implemented in over half of the large retirement plans across the United States and is making significant strides in Australia and the U.K. Notably, the SMarT program has been integrated into the Pension Protection Act of 2006, directly influencing the retirement savings of approximately 15 million Americans.
Contributions and Collaborations
In his pursuit to bridge the gap between academic insights and real-world applications, Shlomo Benartzi has collaborated with numerous financial institutions and served on various advisory boards. His role as a senior academic advisor for leading organizations such as VOYA Behavioral Finance Institute for Innovation, Acorns, Blast, Lili, Personal Capital, and Wisdom Tree highlights his ability to translate research findings into effective financial products and services. Benartzi's initiatives not only aim to enhance the financial decision-making of individuals but also strive to create healthier economic environments for larger populations.
Benartzi has also previously held esteemed positions at renowned institutions such as the University of Southern California, where his experience as a professor further solidified his expertise in behavioral economics. His contributions to the field extend to scholarly work, policy advocacy, and transformative financial strategies designed to empower both individuals and institutions.
Through his extensive research and teaching, Shlomo Benartzi continues to inspire a new generation of economists and financial professionals to explore the profound effects of behavioral insights on economic outcomes. His commitment to improving financial literacy and promoting better saving habits aligns with his vision of fostering financial security for all individuals and families.
Achievements
Shlomo Benartzi has made remarkable strides in the field of behavioral economics, with his work earning recognition and acclaim throughout the academic community. Some of the notable highlights of his career include:
- Co-developing the Save More Tomorrow™ (SMarT) program, which demonstrated significant enhancements in employee savings rates through behavioral nudges.
- Being a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Wharton Behavior Change for Good Initiative, contributing to effective behavioral strategies for financial decision-making.
- Collaborating with various prestigious organizations and institutions, elevating the practical application of behavioral finance within the financial services sector.
- Serving on advisory boards for innovative financial firms such as VOYA, Acorns, and Personal Capital, where he helps shape products that promote healthier financial behaviors.
- Contributing to public policy through hi
Highlights
I posted Part 1 of our 401k Geeks dinner on May 23rd. The focus of the dinner was closing longstanding societal gaps in retirement outcomes. We had so many ideas that we needed two posts. Here’s the second post:
Expand access : One huge blind spot in the American retirement system is that it doesn’t include workers in the gig economy, as they don’t have access to employer savings plans. To help them, we should build easy savings vehicles, such as encouraging Uber drivers to save $1 per ride or delivery. But there are also hidden gaps in access. My friend PETROS KOUMANTAROS, for instance, has told me that it’s incredibly difficult to get access to retirement plans if you work in the cannabis industry. Is it fair that a janitor or security guard working in a pot shop can’t save for retirement? The general point is that there are many groups that are underserved. We should try to serve them all.
Democratize holistic advice: For many Americans, the value-add of financial advice has little to do with their investment portfolio. Rather, they would benefit the most from getting help navigating choices involving debt and insurance. Research shows that the typical American can save thousands of dollars by doing things like refinancing debt, paying off credit cards in the right order, and choosing more cost-effective health insurance plans. These savings can then be used to save more for retirement. While holistic advice has typically failed for reasons involving scale—it’s not feasible for human advisors—AI can help democratize this valuable guidance. Saurabh Bhargava Brian C. Adam Dolan Athena Advisory Inc
Measuring success: It’s not clear how we should measure the success of our interventions. Is it in terms of quantifiable financial outcomes, such as less debt and higher savings rates? Or should we focus on qualitative ratings, such as peace of mind or reduced financial stress? Or maybe we need to include both hard and soft measures to fully understand if we’re making progress. See related research by John Lynch Richard Netemeyer
Once again, a huge thank you to all of our esteemed guests. Jessica Austin Amber Brestowski Ralph Haberli James Liberi Randy Long Sandy McCarthy David Musto Charlie Nelson
Key PensionPlus Update: we have partnered with IRALogix to offer our personalized retirement income planning through IRAs. While PensionPlus is already offered by 50 employers, we realize that retirement income planning must also be included in IRA accounts, as there are many situations where retirement income is better managed in an IRA. A few common examples are:
- The recordkeeper not being capable of handling automatic inflation adjustments to income
- The plan sponsor being uncomfortable overseeing the decumulation phase of retirement
- The plan advisor wanting to offer more personalized income planning features, such as spending more at the earlier years of retirement with a “spending gliding path”
- The plan participant has half dozen 401k accounts accumulated over her working career and preferring the more holistic approach of consolidating accounts and getting one large monthly check
Our partnership with IRALogix will allow us us to offer personalized income planning in IRA accounts. Even more importantly, with IRA Logix retirement income planning will be offered within institutionally priced IRA accounts, making it affordable to all Americans.
https://lnkd.in/gzsg6iuC
Larry Fink Anne Ackerley Eric Goldstein Geddes Golay, CFA Ralph Haberli Sandy McCarthy Aimee DeCamillo Laura Foster Stephen Rubino Peter Littlejohn James Liberi Charlie Nelson Mitchell Haber
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
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