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To: RealMuLan who wrote (81014)	7/4/2008 2:10:04 AM
From: John Carragher	Respond to of 116555

i believe two of us took charge of our 401 and lump sum vs pension upon retirement. everyone else ended up with a national firm that proposed great returns, the guy was loved, and he held their hand. He gave you what you wanted.. aggressive , or conservative. However, the protection they expected from him never came about , they lost like everyone else when the market was crashing as he told them to hold. he put them into funds with loads so they had lost more right out the gate. i remember going to one "free lecture" upon retirement and signed up for free consultation. I was curious what they would present to me for a general approach to retirement income. the company was a sub of aig, sun america. bottom line they wanted to put me into their fee loaded mutual funds. I figured i would lose 8% of my total savings in the blink of an eye. They had nice pie charts (free at most web sites) etc showing me the growth curves(straight line calculations), i would experience over the years based on growth less withdrawals. it was a very pretty presentation, very formal, nice office, got a cup of coffee and danish. After i told them i was not interested at this time one guy got upset. As i was walking out he told me i didn't have enough money to live off in retirement. I was 51 at the time and already one month into retirement. I laughed , if i do not have enough now i surely would have had less if i gave you 8% off the top , now wouldn't I? Our biggest problem is not training people how to handle a large amount of money upon retirement. Corporations would not touch giving any advice for fear of law suits. Around the mid nineties they started to hire outside firms to give lectures on finances, and some consulting work. some firms only open the door to these firms to come in to present financial pitch and the employee was on his/her own. Some companies would pay for a few consultations but they were still at arms length. A much larger horror story are the employees who take lump sum payment vs pension and the family see the money and convince their parents to buy summer homes, take expensive vacations, buy new cars , gift away some of the money upon retirement. then these retirees find themselves almost broke in a few years. Again it comes down to the average person getting their hands on large sums of money and lack of knowledge on how to handle the money. They end up getting invitations to "free dinners" to educate them on retirement security. I must get invitations to these dinners four or five times a month. No idea of the qualifications ofr the people or reputation of the companies who put these seminars on. Perhaps this is the next financial scandal after they clean up mortgage companies. ps the cfa who got upset as i left lived a few miles from me in an average middle class development. He certainly wasn't making a large salary and could have been depending on the commission to make ends meet that month.