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AdvertisingSass names Dawson, Smith senior account executivesSass & Associates appointed Jennifer Dawson and Jeff Smith as senior account executives.Dawson, formerly of Eisner & Associates, is a Towson University graduate and lives in Annapolis. Smith, an Easton resident, was head of sales for Oxford Yacht Agency before joining the Annapolis advertising and marketing agency.Delgado, Cabrera join Campbell GroupThe Campbell Group, the Baltimore marketing communications firm, added Patricia Delgado and Miguel Cabrera to its account services staff to assist with its increase in Latin American clientele.

I soon will receive a lump-sum inheritance. After paying off the mortgage, I will have approximately $100,000 to invest. I would like to park that money safely for up to three months, by which time I hope to find an investment counselor. Should I choose a CD or a money-market account or something else?Either a CD or money-market bank account -- fully covered by federal deposit insurance -- will do for a short period of time.Such accounts currently are paying interest of about 5 percent annually, which translates to $1,250 on a $100,000 deposit if you maintain your account for three months.

The Leffler Agency Inc., a Baltimore advertising and public relations-marketing company, has landed a $3.5 million advertising account with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, the agency's first major league baseball win.The firm's client roster already includes four NFL teams: the Baltimore Ravens, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cincinnati Bengals and Denver Broncos."

In November 1996, the partners at MGH Advertising Inc. faced a tough business decision.The fledgling advertising agency, incorporated just months earlier, was offered a new account worth $3 million in annual billings -- what would be its largest client. But the deal came with a price.MGH would have to resign from an account that had been with it since the beginning if the agency wanted to take on new business representing Subway in Maryland. Its existing account, with Heavenly Ham, brought in significantly less in billings -- $100,000.

LAS VEGAS -- Trying to understand what makes Mike Tyson tick can be a ride on a runaway carousel.The former heavyweight champion inspires awe, shock, fear and loathing. As boxing's albatross, he is treated like a freak-show exhibit, with his mounting problems only adding to the public's fascination.Tyson's bizarre ear-chomping affair with Evander Holyfield in fall 1997 prompted the Hollywood Wax Museum in Los Angeles to move his likeness from the Sports Hall of Fame wing to the House of Horrors, alongside the cannibal Hannibal Lechter from "Silence of the Lambs."

Shauna London doesn't own a computer or pay for an Internet connection. Yet the 22-year-old nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital manages to keep up a lively e-mail correspondence with dozens of friends and relatives. Her secret: a free e-mail account with Yahoo!Since it was introduced in 1996, "freemail" has become one of the hottest draws on the World Wide Web, giving anyone with access to a browser -- at work, at school, in a library or a friend's home -- the means to send and receive electronic messages.

Ask your friends and co-workers if they know anyone who banks online, and the response you get may well be a blank stare. But maybe not for long.Consumers have been slow to click on to cyberbanking, yet the Internet may still live up to its promise as the new growth frontier for banks.Today, 3.3 million computer-savvy households do their banking through the Internet, paying bills and transferring money between accounts -- up from 2.5 million in 1998, according to a report issued in June by Forrester Research.

I need to know exactly what happens when you have a 401(k) loan. How is this supposed to be repaid, and how are we supposed to be told what is happening with our 401(k)?-- M. F., Cranston, R.I.A 401(k) plan is a retirement savings plan offered through your employer. In general, there's no immediate income tax on the money you contribute or on the money your account earns. The only time it's taxed is when you withdraw it.Because these plans are set up as long-term savings plans, you typically don't have easy access to the money in your account.

"Seasons of Her Life: A Biography of Madeleine Korbel Albright," by Ann Blackman. Scribner. 398 pages. $27. Madeleine Albright gazes from the cover of Ann Blackman's biography with a Mona Lisa-like grin of delight and triumph. At 61, after a childhood torn from her native Czechoslovakia, a mid-life marriage breakup and years of scraping against the American foreign policy establishment's "glass ceiling," she is now the first woman secretary of state and finds it all "a big kick," her deputy Strobe Talbott tells the author.

IN HIS State of the Union address, President Clinton said he'd use any budget surplus first to save the Social Security system.But women, in particular, need to take a hard look at any "reforms" Congress proposes.The average woman gains relatively more than men from Social Security today. That's because it favors dependents and lower earners, most of whom are female or children. Some of the reforms would take away this advantage.Workers like to calculate how much more their money might earn if invested in stocks rather than paid in Social Security taxes.

Many banks automatically cover your debit or ATM card transactions when you don't have enough money in your account, even if you never asked them to do it. It comes at a price, of course. Banks might charge $35 for each overdraft, no matter how small your transgression. Suddenly, a $3 blueberry muffin costs $38. But the days of enrolling you in an expensive overdraft protection program without your say-so may be numbered. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd says he is drafting legislation that would require banks to get your permission before enrolling you in the service.

To the chagrin of many readers, I defended the Maryland Transportation Authority's decision this year to impose a $1.50-a-month fee on E-ZPass accounts. It was a sound business move because it pushed some subscribers to drop inactive accounts that were costing the state money. But in doing so, the authority assumed the responsibility of making timely refunds of the money it held on behalf of those subscribers. And from what I'm hearing from readers such as John B. Ramsey of New Carrollton, the authority has bungled the job of giving back people's money.

When something is free for a long time, there's a tendency to expect that it will remain free forever. So it is with Maryland's E-ZPass program, which as of July will carry a $1.50-a-month fee to maintain an account. Toll-payers from around the state have reacted with fury to the Maryland Transportation Authority's decision to impose the fee to help make up a $60 million revenue shortfall. Many readers were indignant at the suggestion here that the decision was a reasonable move to end a subsidy.

Breaking up is hard to do, but it's even harder if your ex is using a cell phone paid for by you. Chantel of Baltimore discovered that nettlesome fact recently when she and her boyfriend split, ending a 10-year relationship. Figuring the end of relations should also mean the end of calls on her dime, the 29-year-old project manager contacted customer service at Sprint Nextel Corp. to suspend service on the extra phone line she gave to her quondam beau. "I had a family-share plan that gave me 550 anytime minutes, call waiting and three-way calls for $59.99 a month," she said.

Advertising Weber Shandwick announced the appointments of Natalie Sobolewski to account supervisor, Kaitlin Garvey as an account executive and Melanie Mattheu as a media buyer/assistant planner for the Baltimore office of the international advertising, market research and communications company. Acuity Mobile Inc. appointed Eric Ashman as vice president of engineering for the Greenbelt-based provider of mobile marketing solutions. He formerly was with Proteus Inc. Merkle announced that Rich Fleck joined the Lanham-based database-marketing firm as vice president, strategic services for its interactive services division.

Advertising MGH announced that Kent Doyle, an account supervisor, Meghan Norville, a public relations account manager, and Lindsay Wowk, an account coordinator, have joined the staff of the Owings Mills-based marketing communications agency. Education The Maryland Institute College of Art appointed Mikhael Mei Williams as director of media relations for the visual arts school. She will assist in forming and implementing strategies to increase national awareness of the school. Hospitality and tourism The Doubletree Inn at the Colonnade named Amy O'Connell director of sales for the Baltimore hotel.

LOS ANGELES -- I've never set foot in a PetSmart and haven't owned a critter since my family's beloved boxer, Archie, slobbered off this mortal coil sometime during the Nixon years. So that $38.28 payment to the pet store jumped off the screen as I did my online banking a few Saturdays ago. There, on the signature line of Check No. 3512's electronic image, was a big, flowery, cursive rendition of "Kim Christensen." My name, but not my signature. Not only had my mark been forged, but judging from its feminine flourish, it was by someone who assumed, like untold others before, that Kim must be a girl.

First of two parts What if you knew you were about to get mugged and called the law, only to be told that you had to let the bad guy finish the job? That's pretty much what Denise Stanco, a 54-year-old information technology specialist, experienced recently when a credit-monitoring service called last month to ask her about some unusual charges on her Visa debit card. When she called Securityplus Federal Credit Union to tell them she did not buy the $1,204 Gulf Air tickets, the $872 Birkenstock shoes, or the $2,500 Asian Air tickets that were charged to her account, Securityplus told her that the charges had not been deducted from her checking account yet. Oh, happy day!

It used to be that financial services firms focused most of their attention on people who had already accumulated wealth. Now, though, much younger age groups are being embraced, even lauded. Consider this statement from one brokerage: "Gen X-ers ... have actually done a better job of planning for a financially secure retirement than their elders, the boomers." There are a few reasons for the sudden courtship. One reason is that financial advisers say that today's twenty- to fortysomethings face a far more complex financial landscape than their parents did. With pensions dwindling as a standard benefit, for example, workers are left on their own to save and invest for retirement.

Record stock market highs have enticed many everyday investors to do some trading. But those who have been out of the game for a while may encounter a new brokerage landscape. It no longer simply involves finding the lowest-priced trades, even among online brokerage firms. The selection process now has more to do with the features and tools that you require to invest efficiently. "The dynamic of the online brokerage business is that fees are basically heading toward zero," said Robert Ellis, senior analyst with the securities and investments group of Celent LLC in New York.