Elaine Silvestrini

Senior retirement editor Elaine Silvestrini has had an extensive career as a newspaper and online journalist, with several years of experience covering financial and retirement topics ranging from annuities to Social Security. Formerly a Kiplinger associate personal financial editor, she has received recognition for her coverage of annuities and tax fraud, among other subjects. Her newspaper career focused primarily on legal issues at the Tampa Tribune and the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey. Her beats have also included breaking news, municipal government, the military and mental health. She has won several awards, including from the Florida Society of Professional Journalists and Florida Sunshine State Awards in categories including community leadership. Among her recognized work was an examination of a phenomenon known as the annuity puzzle, which describes how people who could benefit from annuities hesitate to buy them. She has also been cited for a series of Tampa Tribune stories about tax refund fraud in Tampa, Florida, in which she uncovered shortcomings in the ability of law enforcement to address rampant theft from taxpayers. This reporting helped lead to a change in Florida identity theft law to make it easier to prosecute criminals. She’s had fellowships at Journalist Law School at Loyola and at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. In more recent years, she's written for several marketing, legal, financial and health websites, including Insurance Journal, Annuity.org,  Drugwatch,com, Health.com and LegalExaminer.com, and the newsletters Auto Insurance Report and Property Insurance Report. In addition, she worked for nearly a year as an assistant criminal defense investigator in the Federal Public Defender Office in Tampa. Originally from New Jersey, she lives in Florida with her husband and cats.