Persons of Interest

摘要

The 40th anniversary of Institutional Investor provides an opportune time to look at how the world of finance got where it is today and where it is going. But while others may be considering the seemingly almost infinite ways to trade in bonds, equities, currencies, derivatives and so on, I want to look at personal finance. My focus is on the decisions made by ordinary individuals of average net worth concerning their financial lives: saving, investing and buying life insurance before retirement, then spending, investing and buying annuities after retirement. Here is my thesis reduced to a few words: The past was mostly about return. The present is mostly about risk and return. And the future will increasingly be about personal utility.