Retirement Plan

Frank P. Bramble, chairman of Allfirst Financial Inc., which lost $691.2 million in a currency trading scandal, will receive a lump-sum payment of $2.9 million in connection with his retirement, according to a document filed with a federal regulatory agency. Bramble, 53, will step down as Allfirst's chairman after its annual meeting April 30. He will also retire from the company June 1, four months after the bank revealed huge trading losses that rocked the Baltimore-based institution and its Irish parent, Allied Irish Banks PLC. An Allfirst spokesman said the payment is a restructuring of Bramble's pension.

Howard County Councilman Charles C. Feaga predicted yesterday that less than 30 of 197 targeted county government workers will take an early retirement offer -- a total that will not give the county the savings in salaries and benefits it seeks."

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.

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.

Officials propose 25-cent increase in 911 service fee Carroll County's Office of Public Safety is seeking a 25-cent increase in the fee that telephone customers pay for 911 service, a change that would bring the charge to 75 cents per month. Under a proposal to be presented to the county commissioners next month, the increase would help pay for rising costs associated with operating the county's 911 center, including upgrading and maintaining the system, said Howard "Buddy" Redman, administrator of the county's public safety office.

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.

I recently started my first real job after college. I'm participating in my company's 401(k) retirement plan but am concerned about locking up funds because I have little in savings. If an emergency comes up, how hard is it to access 401(k) money? - D.B., via the Internet You relinquish an important investment opportunity when you take out a loan on your retirement plan. About 80 percent of company 401(k) plans offer loans and 25 percent of eligible employees take them. Some firms permit loans only to pay for a family's education expenses, to prevent eviction from a home, to pay medical expenses or to buy a first-time residence.

I am a 32-year-old attorney with a wife, two children and my own law firm. I am in the process of setting up some form of employer-funded retirement plan, and my insurance agent (and family friend) is telling me I should buy variable life insurance. While I have pretty much convinced myself that variable life insurance is not for me, my wife, who trusts the agent, thinks I don't understand the product and says our friend would not steer us in the wrong direction. What do you think? I think even the best-intentioned insurance agents can get excited about a product and not realize that it isn't the best fit. Variable life insurance - a life insurance policy that combines a death benefit with an account that can be invested in stocks, bonds and cash - can be a reasonable, if relatively expensive, option for high-income people who need life insurance and who have exhausted other tax-deferred ways of saving for retirement.

The prospects of allowing Howard County police officers and firefighters to retire after 20 years on the job grew even more remote last night, but a legal battle is growing more likely.The County Council's Republican majority -- long skeptical of the 20-year retirement that the county negotiated with county police and firefighters -- spoke not a word at a council work session on the issue last night."Some things are not worth saying," Councilman Darrel E. Drown, an Ellicott City Republican, said after the meeting.

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.