Biography
David Blanchett, PhD, CFA®, CFP®, is the head of retirement research for Prudential Financial, Inc., and a portfolio manager for PGIM. In his role, Blanchett focuses on advancing innovative retirement solutions to help improve outcomes for workers and retirees. His dual responsibilities position him at the intersection of research and implementation, sharing insights and strategies that are helping to shape the future of retirement planning for individuals and institutions. As portfolio manager at PGIM, the global investment management business of Prudential, Blanchett is responsible for the portfolio management and investment strategy of PGIM RetireWell™ solutions, including target date and retirement spending solutions. He is also one of the key architects of the PGIM RetireWell™ advice engine. Previously, Blanchett was head of retirement research at Morningstar Investment Management LLC. He is also an adjunct professor of wealth management at The American College of Financial Services and a research fellow for the Alliance for Lifetime Income. He has also served on the executive committee for the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA) and was a member of the ERISA Advisory Council (2018–2020). Blanchett has published over 100 papers in a variety of academic journals and is often featured across major publications and financial industry media. His research has received awards from the Academy of Financial Services, the Financial Analysts Journal, the Financial Planning Association, the Investments & Wealth Institute (2024), the Journal of Financial Planning and the Retirement Management Journal, among others. Blanchett holds a B.S. in finance and economics from the University of Kentucky, an M.S. in financial services from The American College of Financial Services, an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a Ph.D. in personal financial planning from Texas Tech University.
Timely insights on portfolio risk, inflation hedging, and market cycles—grounded in financial history and written for investment decision-makers.
Don't ignore serial dependencies in your factor portfolio.
Asset classes such as commodities have historically had notable diversification benefits for longer-term investors who are concerned with inflation.
Note to investment advisors: You may be overestimating the risks of equities for conservative investors with longer investment horizons.
Are investment returns random across time as Burton Malkiel suggests in his book, A Random Walk Down Wall Street? There is notable disagreement on this topic. This research finds that practitioners may need to rethink their portfolio optimization routines.
To understand risk for portfolio optimization purposes, we need to consider regret.
Retirement, like life, is fundamentally uncertain. That's why we need to provide clients with more context about what missing their retirement-income goals might look like.
How can we incorporate dynamic spending into retirement income projections?
Spending flexibility must be better incorporated into the tools and outcomes metrics with which financial advisers advise clients.