Dr. Priya Patel

Priya Patel thinks in decades. Her career began in actuarial science — the discipline of quantifying long-term financial risk — and that perspective has never left her. When she looks at a retirement question, she does not see a present-day decision. She sees a 30 or 40-year projection that branches into scenarios depending on market returns, longevity, health costs, and inflation.

Her research has focused on what she calls the 'decumulation problem': not how to build wealth, but how to draw it down in retirement without running out. Her work on sequence-of-returns risk, dynamic spending strategies, and Social Security optimization is widely cited in retirement planning practice.

At Boston College, she directs the Center for Retirement Research and teaches courses on retirement income planning that have influenced how financial advisors across the country approach late-career and early-retirement clients. She is a firm believer that retirement planning is one of the most impactful things a person can do for themselves — and one of the most frequently left too late.