About

In addition to founding The Center for Retirement Security, Bob Carlson is the editor of the monthly newsletter Retirement Watch, the monthly video series Retirement Watch Spotlight, and the weekly free e-letter Retirement Watch Weekly. In these, he provides independent, objective research covering all the financial issues of retirement and retirement planning.

Bob Carlson has served on the Board of Trustees of the Fairfax County Employees’ Retirement System since 1992 and been chairman since 1995. The system has more than $4 billion in assets. Mr. Carlson was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Virginia Retirement System, which oversaw $42 billion in assets, from 2001-2005. He was appointed to the Virginia Retirement System Deferred Compensation Plans Advisory Committee in 2011.

His latest book is the revised edition of The New Rules of Retirement (Wiley, 2016; first edition 2004). He also co-authored Personal Finance after 50 for Dummies (with Eric Tyson; Wiley, 2015) and wrote Invest Like a Fox… Not Like a Hedgehog (Wiley, 2007).

He has written numerous other books and reports, including The New Rules of Estate Planning, Securing Your Lifetime Stream of Income, Tax Wise Money Strategies, Retirement Tax Guide, How to Slash Your Mutual Fund Taxes, Bob Carlson’s Estate Planning Files, and 199 Loopholes That Survived Tax Reform.

He also has been interviewed by or quoted in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Reader’s Digest, Barron’s, AARP Bulletin, Money, Worth, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, the Washington Post, and many others. He has appeared on national television and on a number of radio programs. He is past editor of Tax Wise Money.

Mr. Carlson also was a Commissioner on the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority. Carlson is an attorney and passed the CPA Exam. He received his J.D. and an M.S. (Accounting) from the University of Virginia and received his B.S. (Financial Management) from Clemson University. He also is an instrument rated private pilot. He is listed in many editions of Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World.