Retirement Plan

Each morning, Monday through Friday, I'll hook you up with reading material to skim through as you slug down coffee and slack off at the start of your workday -- that way I'll have an excuse to do the same at the start of mine.   Running it back: Ray Lewis may retire if the Ravens win a Super Bowl this season . ... Joe Flacco is scheduled to play the first quarter of the Ravens' preseason opener at the Eagles on Thursday night, and rookie Tyrod Taylor will get most of the playing time after that . ... Domonique Foxworth, who is trying to make a comeback from a torn ACL, could miss the preseason opener . ... Cal Ripken Jr. acknowledged again Tuesday that he has an " itch to come back to the big league scene . " ... Buck Showalter got ejected in the Orioles' 4-3 loss to the White Sox on Tuesday.

As a financial services representative and small business owner, I see firsthand the challenges many Hispanic Americans in our community face in accessing affordable ways to get retirement savings help. More than 60 percent of Hispanic workers don't have access to an employee-sponsored retirement plan, which is why opening an Individual Retirement Account is important. The Hispanic American communities that we live and work in have an urgent need for retirement saving advice and products.

Robert Larkin's association with Oak Crest retirement community in Parkville began long before he and his wife purchased a condo there in 2001. The 86-year-old retired Baltimore City police major had contacts with Oak Crest before it even opened its doors. "I used to walk over here from Perry Hall during construction," Larkin said. "I'd wear my hard hat, [and] I got to know all the workers. That was in 1994. " There was never any doubt that the he and his wife, Gloria, would move into Oak Crest when they felt the time was right.

At an age when many workers are thinking about winding down their careers, Victoria Baldassano of Silver Spring says she can't afford to give retirement a thought. The part-time English professor at Montgomery College said her income has been too low for too long to save for retirement, and she's carrying about $40,000 in credit card debt racked up to pay living expenses. "It's an awkward situation to be in at 61," said Baldassano, who said she thinks more about day-to-day bills than retirement.

The U.S. Department of Labor has opened an inquiry into the employee retirement plan of a taxpayer-funded mental health clinic in Baltimore after former workers said money deducted from their paychecks as far back as 2009 never reached their retirement plan accounts. The government has instructed Baltimore Behavioral Health Inc. to provide an array of documentation related to its retirement plan, according to two certified letters obtained by The Baltimore Sun. The federal inquiry began around two weeks after The Sun reported Dec. 10 that two former employees at the nonprofit clinic had discovered unexplained shortfalls in their retirement accounts.

The ball is about to drop on 2008. Is your retirement plan where it should be? Whether you're 20 and starting to save or already managing a sizable nest egg, next year could be an important one for your long-term money. There'll be an election of a new president, who could try to change taxes or Social Security policy. Blink, and you might find your employer shuffling you into a new savings plan. Retirement experts offered some advice for navigating the coming year: Get going. You have until April 15 to make your 2007 individual retirement account contribution (up to $4,000, or $5,000 if you're 50 and up)

IF YOU'VE held several jobs during your working life, and they all provided a retirement plan, I hate to think about your paperwork. All the plans are probably trailing you, like a comet's tail.Reader Suzanne O'Keefe of Brooklyn, N.Y., writes that she has two 403(b) plans, from when she taught at graduate school; a third 403(b) from her current employer; a self-directed pension from her current employer, which lets her pick the mutual funds; a 457 plan from the City of New York; and an individual retirement account.

The Board of Public Works postponed its scheduled vote yesterday on a contract to administer the supplemental retirement plan for state workers.Comptroller Louis L. Goldstein and Treasurer Richard N. Dixon asked that the vote be postponed so that a clause could be added to the contract requiring that annual reports be provided to the board.The contract is expected to be awarded to PEBSCO, which has managed the private retirement savings accounts of state workers for more than two decades.

Baltimore County school employees will be able to choose from among five retirement plan provider options, after an 8-0 school board vote last night. The five recommended vendors for 403(b) retirement plans are: AIG Retirement, ING Life Insurance & Annuity Co., Lincoln Financial Group, MetLife Resources and Security Financial Resources & Security Distributors Inc. It is expected that one will be selected as a third-party administrator, school officials said. Board member Valerie A. Roddy recused herself, citing a potential conflict of interest: Her husband's law firm represents one of the bidders.

Ideas on where to put -- or not put -- your money, some from offbeat publications you won't find on newsstands."MAX OUT": "Maximize contributions to your company's retirement plan, such as 401(k). We hope you realize that Social Security won't meet all of your retirement needs. The tax-free investment growth and savings discipline inside your retirement plan are hard to beat. Also, consider the new Roth IRAs available next year." (Income Digest)CAVEAT EMPTOR: "There is a 'string' to most investment propositions.

The economy is improving and so is employment, but workers' optimism about a comfortable retirement has fallen to a new low, according to the annual Retirement Confidence Survey released Tuesday. Just over half of workers say they are either very confident about their retirement prospects or somewhat so. But 28 percent - a record high - have no confidence while an additional 21 percent express pessimism about their retirement future. The survey by the Employment Benefit Research Institute gauged the outlook on retirement among 1,254 U.S. workers and retirees interviewed in January.

Towson Rehabilitation Center LLC, a Towson physical, occupational and speech therapy provider, must restore more than $29,000 in interest to the company's 401(k) retirement plan, according to a consent judgment obtained in federal court by the U.S. Labor Department. In a lawsuit filed last January, the labor department alleged that since January 2006, Towson Rehabilitation and CEO Howard Neels failed to pay employee contributions to the plan, paid some employee contributions late without interest and failed to segregate the plan's assets from the company's assets.

Your recent editorial concerning public employee pensions and the transition to defined contribution plans ignores some significant principles ("Prudence and public pensions," July 20). Your opinion described "risk" as a "financial albatross. " Yet nowhere in the editorial was "trust" mentioned. As retired public school educators representing other retired Maryland educators, we find this to be a serious oversight. A defined benefit retirement plan, when well designed, managed and administered, strives to lower the "risk" by smoothing out the financial markets' gyrations over an extended period of time.

It's been a worry for many years: What happens when older federal workers retire and take decades of institutional knowledge with them? "The last thing any manager or any organization or company wants is for folks that are ready to retire to just walk out the door," said Kenneth J. Zawodny Jr., associate director of retirement services at the federal Office of Personnel Management. With the aging of the workforce, the challenge has grown urgent. More than 40 percent of federal employees in 2010 were 50 or older.

Robert Larkin's association with Oak Crest retirement community in Parkville began long before he and his wife purchased a condo there in 2001. The 86-year-old retired Baltimore City police major had contacts with Oak Crest before it even opened its doors. "I used to walk over here from Perry Hall during construction," Larkin said. "I'd wear my hard hat, [and] I got to know all the workers. That was in 1994. " There was never any doubt that the he and his wife, Gloria, would move into Oak Crest when they felt the time was right.

More than a year after questions arose publicly about the state of Baltimore Behavioral Health Inc.'s retirement plan, the financial company that oversaw the plan has gone on record as saying that the West Pratt Street mental health clinic all but stopped making contributions after Sept. 2009. An official with the Lincoln National Life Insurance Co. made the statement in an affidavit late last month. It was filed in federal court by the attorney for employees who allege in a lawsuit that BBH executives “diverted and stole” money intended for their retirement plans.

Employers now have more reasons to feel comfortable about ditching their traditional pension plans for so-called cash balance plans. For years, there have been questions about whether switching to a cash balance plan discriminated against older workers, because conversions often have reduced the projected benefits for those workers. But the new federal pension bill signed into law this month essentially says newly created cash balance plans won't be age discriminatory if they meet certain criteria.

A GOOD chunk of the new tax law aims to boost retirement savings among individuals, but there's something for small businesses, too. The law, signed last month by President Bush, relaxes rules and offers tax perks to encourage small businesses to establish a retirement plan. Increasing the number of plans among small businesses is a government goal, retirement experts said. According to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 46 percent of full-time employees at small companies are covered by a workplace retirement plan, compared with 79 percent of those at larger businesses.

Maryland native Dawn Lindsay, who has been serving as president of Glendale Community College outside Los Angeles since 2009, said she would have gladly remained at the school until she heard that the presidency at Anne Arundel Community College, a position she referred to as "her dream job," became available. AACC has named Lindsay as its new president, allowing the McDaniel College graduate with extensive experience at local institutions the chance to return to the area after being away for 18 years.