Financial Gerontologist To Visit WKU Next Week

March 21, 2007

Bowling Green, Ky. - Dr. Neal E. Cutler, a financial gerontologist, is the 2007 Boyd-Lubker Visiting Scholar at Western Kentucky University.

Dr. Cutler, associate director of the UNCG Gerontology Program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, will visit WKU on March 28-30. His lecture, “The Boomers at Middle Age: Managing the Costs of the 21st Century Wealth Span,” will begin at 7 p.m. March 29 at Van Meter Auditorium. Admission is free.

During his visit, Dr. Cutler will meet with administrators, faculty, students and others to discuss retirement and lifestyle issues and their respective financial issues.

“Dr. Cutler is at the forefront of helping communities, scholars and businesses think through innovative ways to embrace the opportunities of an aging population,” said Dr. Dana Burr Bradley, director of WKU’s Center for Gerontology and Clifford Todd Distinguished Professor of Gerontology. “He brings to our campus both fresh theoretical perspectives and engaging practical applications that are sure to provoke discussions across the WKU community.”
Dr. Cutler’s current teaching and research interests focus on the connections among aging, business and financial services in the context of generational change and family dynamics.

Dr. Cutler, who joined UNCG in 2006, previously held the Boettner/Gregg Chair in Financial Gerontology at Widener University in Chester, Pa., where he was professor in the School of Business Administration and professor in the School of Human Service Professions.

From 1973 to 1989 he held a joint appointment as professor of Political Science and professor of Gerontology at the University of Southern California, and was associate director of the USC Andrus Gerontology Center’s Institute for Advanced Study in Gerontology and Geriatrics.

Dr. Cutler also is vice president and dean of educational programs of the American Institute of Financial Gerontology (AIFG), a professional educational partnership with the American Society on Aging and UNCG. AIFG provides specialized gerontological training to qualified financial services professionals through a certification program leading to the Registered Financial Gerontologist (RFG) designation.

Dr. Cutler was named a Fellow of the TIAA-CREF Institute in 2007 and was elected a Fellow of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) in 2003. In 2006 he received the Gloria Cavanaugh Award for Excellence in Education and Training in Aging from the American Society on Aging. In 2005 he was appointed as Coordinator of the Aging and Business Education Initiative of the AARP Office of Academic Affairs.

Dr. Cutler is a Fellow of both the Gerontological Society of America and the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). He earned his doctorate in political science from Northwestern University.

He has authored four books: “Advising Mature Clients: The New Science of Wealth Span Planning”; “American Perceptions of Aging in the 21st Century”; “Can You Afford to Retire?”; and “Aging, Money, and Life Satisfaction: Aspects of Financial Gerontology.” He was co-editor of Silver Industries, the Winter 2004/05 issue of Generations, and senior consulting editor to the Encyclopedia of Financial Gerontology.

Dr. Cutler is an associate editor of the “Journal of Financial Service Professionals” and since 1990 has written the journal’s column titled “Financial Gerontology.” He is a member of the Editorial Board of the “American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias,” and was founding editor of the “Financial Gerontology Review.” He is co-chair of the AGHE Task Force on Business and Aging, and an adviser to the EBRI’s annual Health Confidence Survey.
His more than 200 publications have appeared in such journals as Public Opinion Quarterly, Journal of Gerontology, American Political Science Review, Archives of Internal Medicine, Journal of Financial Service Professionals, Generations, Journal of Behavioral Economics, and The Gerontologist. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, CBS News, NPR’s “All Things Considered” and other media.

Dr. Cutler was the keynote speaker at the 2004 Annual Meeting of British Society of Gerontology in London. He won Senior Fulbright Fellowships to Helsinki University (1972) and to Glasgow University (1988). In 1979-81, on leave from USC, he was a Professional Staff Member of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging.
               
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For information, contact Michael May at (270) 745-6891 or Dana Burr Bradley at (270) 745-2356.