Jack VanDerhei is the Center’s Director for Retirement Studies. Dr. VanDerhei has more than 200 publications devoted to employee benefits and insurance, but his major areas of research focus on the financial aspects of private defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans. From 1996 until 2022, Dr. VanDerhei was the research director at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, co-authoring updates of the 401(k) universe for account balances, asset allocation and loan activity, among other work.

He received his BBA and MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Spencer Look is an associate director for The Morningstar Center for Retirement & Policy Studies. He conducts research across many topics, but primarily focuses on annuity and life insurance products and lifetime income solutions. Before joining Morningstar in 2022, Spencer held roles as a life actuarial manager and a life-cycle advice senior analyst, specializing in goals-based financial planning, lifetime asset allocation, and retirement income.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in actuarial science and finance from Drake University in Des Moines. Spencer is also a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries.

Aron Szapiro is head of government affairs for Morningstar Inc. Szapiro is responsible for developing research reports on policy matters, coordinating official responses to regulatory proposals, and providing investor-focused comments on policy issues to clients and the press. He also chairs Morningstar’s Public Policy Council. His research has been covered in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Journal of Retirement, and on National Public Radio. Follow Aron on Twitter: @AronSzapiro

Before assuming his current role in January 2023, he served as Morningstar’s head of policy research and as policy and finance expert at HelloWallet, a former subsidiary of Morningstar. Previously, he was a senior analyst at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), specializing in retirement security issues and pension plan policy. He also worked at the New Jersey General Assembly Majority Office.

Szapiro holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Grinnell College and a master’s in public policy from Johns Hopkins University.