Mar 19th, 2008
Bear Stearns Employees 401ks Bear bad news - Dont make the same mistake
Bear Stearns employees 401k’s were literally loaded with Bear Stearns stock apparently. Here is one blurb about it from Report on Business:
Hot on their heels will likely come lawsuits on behalf of Bear Stearns’ employees. What makes this case interesting is the unusually high level of stock ownership by staff, who hold more than a third of the company’s shares, said Ross Intelisano, a partner at Rich & Intelisano LLP, which specializes in securities litigation.
“We’ve been getting a lot of calls,” said Mr. Intelisano, whose firm has represented employees in other cases against Bear Stearns. “The question would be whether or not Bear, as the administrator of the 401(k) plan, breached its fiduciary duties to the employees.”
A 401(k) in the United States is an employer-sponsored, defined-contribution retirement plan, and many Bear Stearns employees have company stock in their plans.
After doing a little more digging it seems that the major default investment for Bear Stearn’s employees 401k’s was Bear Stearns stock itself. Does that scare anyone else a little bit? Honestly, is this Deja Vu? Enron anyone?
As of right now 14,000+ Bear Stearns employees not only are out of a job, but have worthless 401ks as well… Lets just lay it out there: your livelihood is already tied to your employer, do not tie your retirement funds to it as well, at least, not in great quantity.
Always diversify my friends, ALWAYS.
- 3 Comments
- Retirement
I work with a law firm that is investigating Bear Stearns, and whether the company protected employees’ interests during the recent stock collapse. Many Bear Stearns employees saw their retirement accounts decimated by recent events, and some are questioning whether Bear Stearns acted appropriately.
Specifically the firm is looking into whether Bear Stearns lived up to its fiduciary duty to employees who held Bear Stearns stock as part of the company’s pension plan.
If you are a Bear Stearns employee and are concerned that the company’s actions hurt you or your pension plan, you may want to contact Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro (www.hbsslaw.com/bsc or info@hbsslaw.com) to learn more about the investigation or call the firm at 206-623-7292.
Wish we had heard this before Ornery invested all his 401K in WorldCom stock… We ARE wiser now.
And, now that I am home from all my travels, (sadly your contest is over) I have cut up all but one of our credit cards. They are in tiny pieces in a clear plastic envelope hanging on my bulletin board above my desk. I also closed out all the accounts except for the one Ornery needs for traveling on business. We are working on our debt snowball, and are very excited about getting free from debt!
TM
thanks for the post. i hope to listen some more.
Best regards from Sebbi