Clients

As finances unravel and the pressure builds, it's easy to feel you're the only one going through a crisis, or that there's no way out. The reality is just the opposite. If you're having money troubles, you're far from alone. Plus, there are plenty of programs - many of them free - to work out most financial problems. And if that doesn't give you some encouragement, remember this: If you suffer a setback now, it's only money. You can rebound. We're a nation that believes in second, third and more chances.

T. Rowe Price Group Inc. reported yesterday that its second-quarter profit rose 20 percent as the Baltimore mutual fund company continued to attract investment dollars from clients. The company had net income of $162 million, or 58 cents a share, up from $136 million, or 49 cents a share, a year earlier and matching the consensus estimate from Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Financial. It also notched a new record in assets under management, which rose 8.5 percent during the quarter to $380 billion, the result of a surging stock market and clients adding $8 billion.

A new report by advocates for welfare recipients says city social workers have fallen down on the job of helping many of their clients get ready for the work force -- at a time when state officials are considering reducing the number of Baltimore caseworkers nearly 25 percent.The report, by the Family Investment Program Legal Clinic, which provides free legal help to thousands of welfare recipients, urges legislators to lift the limit of five years' cash assistance for welfare clients who might not have gotten the help they need in Baltimore since welfare reform began four years ago.The report says some Baltimore workers, who handle an average 175 files each at any one time, don't know how to help recipients with criminal records get charges expunged so they'll be more employable.

Leading legislators say the recent disclosure of lobbying efforts by one of the governor's closest friends shows the need to review and perhaps toughen Maryland laws governing lobbyists.Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said he was dismayed to learn from a news report that Lance W. Billingsley, a lawyer who chairs the University of Maryland board of regents, has been paid by clients to get the governor's ear and help them in disputes with state agencies.In one case, Billingsley arranged for members of an Indian tribe to meet with Glendening so they could plead their case for state recognition.

Even before the 1999 General Assembly begins Wednesday, Bruce C. Bereano can claim victory in one of the toughest lobbying cases of his colorful career: persuading 30 or so clients to stick with him while he serves a 10-month court sentence for mail fraud.The first Maryland lobbyist to earn more than $1 million in a legislative session, Bereano will apparently become the first in Maryland to represent major corporate clients while in a work-release program for convicted criminals."Several of them said they want me or nobody," Bereano said.

The Community Law Center likes its clients so much that it invited them all to a Client Celebration at the Baltimore Urban League building and gave a good number of them awards.The center, a private organization of five staff lawyers and about 40 volunteer lawyers, provides free legal representation to Baltimore City community associations. Its executive director is Anne Blumenberg.Clients such as the Harlem Park Revitalization Corp., the Franklin Square Community Association, the Druid Heights Community Development Corp.

Statistics from a Baltimore nonprofit aid agency suggest the number of homeless people sleeping on city streets increased sharply last year.Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) reports that 925 clients slept on sidewalks, in vacant buildings, under bridges or in the woods at least several times last year, compared with 673 in 1997, an increase of 37 percent."This is very troubling," says Jeff Singer, president and chief executive officer. There was also other bad news, such as increases in uninsured clients and clients diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus.

As a lobbying team, they are a perfect fit, their skills and personalities meshing in ways sublimely suited to working the will of corporate clients.Gerard E. Evans, 43, portly and droll, fills the corridors of Annapolis with laughter and stories that compete for the attention of harried legislators. A former Democratic Party official in Prince George's County, Evans has a wealth of State House contacts.His partner, John R. Stierhoff, 44, intense and solicitous, brings legislative skills honed over a decade as chief legislative aide to the president of the state Senate, Thomas V. Mike Miller.

Lobbyist Bruce C. Bereano ended his five-month stint in a federal halfway house in East Baltimore yesterday, upbeat about his personal growth during confinement and looking forward to a full return from his legal purgatory.Standing in the parking lot of the Volunteers of America halfway house -- a former low-rate motel on East Monument Street -- Bereano waved goodbye to a half-dozen detainees who were watching him load his champagne-colored Mercedes-Benz with clothes, lamps and a television.

An administrator for a Catholic Charities program that assists senior citizens in managing their affairs, including their finances, has resigned after an internal investigation showed funds missing from clients' accounts.Officials from Catholic Charities, the social welfare arm of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, said they became aware on June 10 of irregularities in the Social Security accounts of several clients.The accounts were managed by Wanda Wilson, a program administrator for Catholic Charities' Congregate Housing Services, which provides meals, homemaker services, personal care and case management to eligible elderly residents of five senior citizen residences run by Catholic Charities and three privately owned complexes.

A court-appointed receiver is trying to get back the $11 million paid to two veteran financial advisers when they opened a Baltimore affiliate of Stanford Financial Group, saying the money rightfully belongs to clients the government alleges were defrauded in an extensive Ponzi scheme. Ralph S. Janvey, the receiver overseeing the Stanford businesses, is suing Christopher C. Aitken and Stephen L. Thacker in federal court in Dallas for payments the suit says "constitute fraudulent transfers."

No audit needed I'm writing in response to the recent articles concerning the Howard Soil Conservation District and the audit to be conducted by Howard County. The Howard Soil Conservation District has been funding two positions to conduct sediment and erosion control plan reviews since July 1, when the positions ceased to be funded by the county. The district funds had been accumulated over 40 years of tree sales, fish sales, rain barrel sales; basically a penny here and a nickel there.

Salary: $50,000 Age: 57 Years on the job: 1 How she got started: : Patricia Hull began as a housing counselor more than 20 years ago while working as a real estate agent. She found herself helping primarily low- and middle-income clients find homes. This included researching programs that helped qualify them for mortgage loans, which piqued her interest in housing counseling. In 1987 she decided to take a job with a nonprofit agency that offered housing assistance to low-income buyers.

As finances unravel and the pressure builds, it's easy to feel you're the only one going through a crisis, or that there's no way out. The reality is just the opposite. If you're having money troubles, you're far from alone. Plus, there are plenty of programs - many of them free - to work out most financial problems. And if that doesn't give you some encouragement, remember this: If you suffer a setback now, it's only money. You can rebound. We're a nation that believes in second, third and more chances.

About 220 Little Leagues and other sports organizations in the United States face losses after an online payment company stopped handing over dues and other funds that it was collecting. The missing payments, which Washington state-based Count Me In Corp. acknowledged Tuesday total $5 million, have left many of the organizations wondering how they will make up the difference. "I've lost sleep over this," said Jeff Bacon, treasurer of the Encino Little League in Los Angeles, which is owed $100,000 in membership fees.

DOROTHY SARNOFF, 94 Self-help pioneer Sweaty palms, nervous laughter, a Brooklyn accent, panic-induced silences. These were just a few of the image blemishes addressed by Dorothy Sarnoff, an opera singer and Broadway star who had a much bigger second career as one of the first, and most influential, image consultants, coaxing stage-worthy performances from business executives preparing a big speech, ambassadors on their way to foreign assignments and...

If your mailbox is filling up faster than usual, thank your financial planner. Ever since the failure of Lehman Brothers Holdings in September that set off a panic, planners have been sending three to five times the usual number of newsletters and e-mail blasts to clients. "We have been sending out a lot of articles trying to reassure people that they need to hang in there as long as they can," says Annette Simon, a Bethesda financial planner. "The instinct for a lot of people ... was to get out and maybe stop contributing to their 401(k)

Salary: $65,000 Age: 50 Years on the job: 16 How she got started: Evans began her career working as a legal secretary at Mercantile Bank and Trust. She decided to attend the College of Notre Dame of Maryland part time, earning a bachelor's degree in corporate finance. She later quit her job to attend law school at the University of Baltimore full time. Evans' first job as an attorney was with Venable, Baetjer & Howard. She started her own law firm in 2001. Typical day: Evans runs a broad-based civil practice, so she takes on many types of cases, including personal injury, general litigation, corporate work, estates and trusts, landlord-tenant issues and employment matters.

A 25-year-old nonprofit AIDS organization in Baltimore that once garnered international acclaim for its innovative packaging of services closed its walk-in center yesterday. Health Education Resource Organization, better known as HERO, is closing because of a lack of money. Private donations dried up in recent years, and early this month, city health officials announced that they were rerouting HERO's federal grants - and its clients - to more stable organizations. HERO and health officials will work through early next month to move clients to new organizations, said Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, city health commissioner.

After 25 years, a Baltimore organization that once attracted international acclaim for its efforts to help people with AIDS is set to close its doors for good. Even now, as the Health Education Resource Organization prepares to shut down Wednesday, people from all across Baltimore keep making their way to the group's Maryland Avenue building to find assistance, and some local leaders are begging the city to do more to save its oldest and largest HIV and AIDS service provider. In a city with the nation's second highest rate of HIV, more than 16,000 known cases, this organization is where the most vulnerable part of that population finds solace.