Laurence Kotlikoff

Laurence Kotlikoff Profile

Named by the Economist as one of the world’s 25 most influential economists, Professor Laurence Kotlikoff has dedicated his life to fixing fiscal woes with smart economic practices and common sense. The respected Boston University professor is an expert on Social Security and generational accounting, the study of how much debt the current generation is heaping onto future ones.

Through his company, Economic Security Planning, Inc, Professor Kotlikoff has designed the nation’s top-ranked personal financial planning software and Social Security lifetime benefit maximization software. Author or coauthor to 19 books and hundreds of journal articles, his 2015 best-seller, Get What’s Yours: The Secrets of Maxing Out Social Security brought so much attention to two lucrative Social Security strategies that Congress pulled together to close the loophole that enabled them, prompting Professor Kotlikoff and his coauthors to release a second edition and even lead a rallying cry that stopped Congress from passing some of the proposed reforms.

Disturbed by the U.S. government’s mounting fiscal debt and the inadequacy of politicians’ plans to manage it, Professor Kotlikoff launched a campaign in May 2016 to take his economic expertise to the White House. He will be a write-in candidate in the November Presidential Election in at least 43 states.

In 1981-82 Professor Kotlikoff was a Senior Economist with the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank, the IMF, and Fortune 500 companies, and has provided expert testimony to numerous congressional committees. In 2015 he was name one of the 50 most influential people in Aging by Next Avenue.

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  • Laurence J. Kotlikoff is Professor of Economics at Boston University, Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow of the Econometric Society, and President of Economic Security Planning, Inc., a company specializing in financial planning software. Professor Kotlikoff received his B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1973 and his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1977.

  From 1977 through 1983 he served on the faculties of economics of the University of California, Los Angeles and Yale University. In 1981-82 Professor Kotlikoff was a Senior Economist with the President′s Council of Economic Advisers. Professor Kotlikoff has served as a consultant to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Harvard Institute for International Development, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Swedish Ministry of Finance, the Norwegian Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Italy, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England, the Government of Russia, the Government of Ukraine, the Government of Bolivia, the Government of Bulgaria, the Treasury of New Zealand, the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Joint Committee on Taxation, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, The American Council of Life Insurance, Merrill Lynch, Fidelity Investments, AT&T, AON Corp., and other major U.S. corporations.

  He has provided expert testimony on numerous occasions to committees of Congress including the Senate Finance Committee, the House Ways and Means Committee, and the Joint Economic Committee. Professor Kotlikoff is author or co-author of13 books and hundreds of professional journal articles. His most recent book, co-authored with Scott Burns, published with Simon & Schuster and is Spend ‘Til the End.

  Professor Kotlikoff publishes extensively in newspapers, and magazines on issues of deficits, generational accounting, the tax structure, social security, Medicare, health reform, pensions, saving, insurance, and personal finance.