Keogh

The Columbia-based developer, Ryland Homes, is suing several of its insurance carriers for failing to pay for the replacement of defective plywood in thousands of Ryland-built homes.Ryland expects to spend at least $13 million to correct damage in town house roofs built with fire retardant-treated plywood, according to the lawsuit, filed Aug. 16 in Howard County Circuit Court.Ryland's insurance carriers, which supplied the company with general liability insurance, have refused to cover the roof repair costs,according to the suit.

Joseph Swinney Knapp III, an attorney who worked in real estate law, died Tuesday of cancer at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Timonium resident was 77. Born in Baltimore, he attended the Cathedral School, then located in downtown Baltimore, and was a 1946 Loyola High School graduate. He earned a bachelor's degree from Loyola College and then served in the Navy. He was a 1954 graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law. He then joined the Maryland Title Guarantee Co., where his father had been an attorney.

James B. Griffin,92, a professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Michigan, died Friday at his home in Bethesda of heart failure. He was an internationally recognized expert on the prehistoric Native American cultures of the Mississippi Valley and the eastern United States. He retired in 1975. In 1984, he left Michigan and became a regents fellow at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History until he retired again in 1990.Thomas Boylston Adams,86, a writer, historian, businessman and direct descendant of two U.S. presidents, died Wednesday in Lincoln, Mass.

Q: One of your past columns stated that a penalty for early withdrawal on a certificate of deposit is tax-deductible as a capital loss. Does this also apply to annuities? My wife cashed in a tax-deferred annuity of $2,315.70 early and was charged a 10 percent penalty. Is this tax-deductible?A: That depends on whether it was an early redemption fee charged by the insurance company or an Internal Revenue Service penalty for withdrawal prior to age 59 1/2 . IRS penalties are never deductible.

Margaret Ann Piel, a retired high school history teacher, died of breast cancer Sunday at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Catonsville resident was 75. Born Margaret Ann Spicer in Baltimore and raised near Edmondson Village, she was a 1949 graduate of Mount de Sales Academy, where she was valedictorian. She earned a bachelor's degree in history at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. Mrs. Piel began her teaching career at St. Benedict's parochial school in Southwest Baltimore and then taught history and social studies at Seton Keogh High School, where she retired in 1989.

Do you need money to buy a house, furniture or a major appliance? Some senators say you should be allowed to tap your tax-deferred retirement plans to pay for such purchases.A bill to that effect was proposed Tuesday by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Sen. Pete V. Domenici, R-N.M. If approved, taxpayers would be permitted to withdraw up to $10,000 from their Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), 401(k) plans and Keogh plans as long as the money was used for one of the designated purposes.

DID YOU REALIZE that many people recently became discouraged with dividends because they slipped below 3 percent in 1992 and remained low ever since? Especially in this bull market, you often hear, "Dividends don't matter."But don't count them out. Over 70 years, dividends accounted for 43 percent of the total return on the Standard & Poor's 500 index stocks, which compounded at 10.7 percent a year. But because of stocks' meteoric rise recently, dividends slipped to 17 percent of the S&P stocks' total return.

Exactly how much insurance does the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. now provide on bank deposits? I have a checking account, two CDs, all in my name. Am I insured only once, or are all three accounts insured for $100,000 individually? M. W., Warrenville, S.C. Only once. Here's why: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) provides up to $100,000 in insurance coverage per depositor, per account category, per institution. Coverage doesn't apply to each account.

WOULD you like more income without sacrificing safety? "The best deals for risk-averse investors are in high-quality corporate bonds," says Kevin Grant, manager, Fidelity Balanced Funds. "They pay about one percentage point more than Treasuries of similar maturity, and there's little chance that quality bond issuers will falter during a recession." AFTER SEPT. 11: "In mid-October, 81 percent of investors polled said they still planned to invest as they did before the terrorist attacks.

HERE ARE some last-minute things to do before the year ends:Offset gains with losses. Calculate the net of the year's gains and losses, then use the losses over gains to offset up to $3,000 of ordinary income. But don't let taxes dictate your investment judgment.Although you have until April 15 to finance a Keogh (self-employed) retirement plan, you must open the 1996 plan by Dec. 31. Earnings grow tax-deferred, which is a huge plus.Pay your Jan. 15, 1997, Maryland tax installment this year and get a 1996 deduction.