Month: October 2026

Retirement Income, Inflation, and Auto-Callable ETFs with Matt Kaufman (Ep. 106)

Retirement Income, Inflation, and Auto-Callable ETFs with Matt Kaufman (Ep. 106)

Retirement income can become harder to manage when inflation, longer lifespans, taxes, and market swings all compete for the same dollars. How can investors think carefully about income without losing sight of risk?

In this episode, Robert Curtiss welcomes back Matt Kaufman, Head of ETFs at Calamos Investments, to explore what investors should understand about using auto-callable ETFs and options-based strategies for retirement income, including the potential income, trade-offs, and risks. Matt explains the LIV framework of longevity, inflation, and volatility risk, along with the role of tax efficiency in retirement planning. They also cover how non-listed options can bring institutional-style strategies into ETFs, the risks investors need to understand, and how higher interest rates can affect income-focused approaches.

Matt discusses:

  • How auto-callable ETFs are designed to turn equity market exposure into a monthly income stream
  • The LIV framework for thinking about longevity, inflation, and volatility risks throughout retirement planning
  • How non-listed options can support more stable income features than standard listed options may provide
  • Why tax treatment can influence how investors evaluate income strategies held in their taxable accounts
  • How higher interest rates can affect options income, principal-protected strategies, CDs, and savings
  • And more!

Resources:

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About Our Guest:

Matt Kaufman serves as SVP, Head of ETFs at Calamos Investments, where he leads the firm’s ETF business.

Matt joined Calamos Investments in 2023 as an accomplished financial services executive with more than 20 years of experience serving the asset management and insurance industries across North America, Europe, and Asia. Matt has designed, led, and helped build hundreds of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), unit investment trusts (UITs), indexes, variable insurance trust funds, registered index-linked annuities, fixed annuities, and closed-end funds. He is also a sought-after source by leading financial publications and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events.

Prior to Calamos, Matt spent more than a decade at Milliman, Inc., where he served as President of the firm’s broker/dealer (Milliman Investment Management Services LLC) and as a principal of the firm’s $170b RIA (Milliman Financial Risk Management LLC). Matt also draws from his prior experience at PowerShares ETFs, where he helped the firm grow during the formative years of the ETF ecosystem.

Matt earned a B.A. in Public Administration and Economics from Cedarville University and maintains Certified ETF Advisor (CETF®) and Professional Certified Marketer® designations through The ETF Institute and American Marketing Association, respectively. He also holds FINRA Series 7, 63, and 24 and CFTC Series 3 licenses.