The former CEO of Leading Technology Services Corp. (LTS) was
sentenced to prison and ordered to provide $57k in restitution to the company’s
401(k) plan participants.
The U. S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security
Administration (EBSA) announced that Kim Ghi Martin was sentenced to
three months in prison followed by three years of supervised release and
was ordered to pay $56,957.18 in restitution.Martin was sentenced after pleading guilty to a one-count
criminal information charging her with theft of employee benefit assets
from the 401(k) plan.
Under the sentence, Martin is subject to forfeiture of
assets and must pay monthly restitution to her victims beginning 60 days
after release from prison, according to the announcement.
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Majority Plans to Work Longer Instead of Saving More
To mitigate retirement savings losses from the economic downturn, more workers would rather work for a few extra years rather than trying to live on a tighter budget.
Forty percent of individuals state that they intend to work
longer, either alone (32%) or in combination with saving more (8%).
Only 10% of survey respondents indicated they would only save more in
response to the downturn.
The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found
financial factors dominate the decision to work longer. Respondents who
expect more than one-quarter of their retirement income to come from
retirement assets have 23 percentage points higher probability of
working longer than those who expect retirement assets to fund less than
15% of their retirement income. Respondents who have less than adequate
retirement assets before the downturn have 31 percentage points higher
probability of working longer than those who have more than adequate
pre-downturn assets.
Households who experienced very little or no financial
loss have, respectively, 14 and 19 percentage points lower probability
of working longer than households who lost more than one-quarter of
their retirement assets.
The CRR research found only one employment factor is
significant in the decision to work longer – reason for choice of
original retirement age. Respondents who chose their expected retirement
age based on when they thought they would have enough money to retire
have 18 percentage points higher probability of working longer than
those who chose their age because it is a “standard retirement age.” In
addition, workers who are further away from retirement – and, thus, have
more time to respond – are less likely to plan on working longer.
The CRR Issue Brief also said higher distress is
associated with a greater likelihood of working longer, and those who
thought “quite a bit” about how the downturn has affected their
long-term financial goals have about 19 percentage points higher
probability of working longer than respondents who had thought about it
less.
The research found influential factors for saving more are
different from those affecting the decision to work longer.
Respondents who have higher household incomes are more likely to save
more; households making between $50,000 and $75,000 per year have about
15 percentage points higher probability of saving more than those in
households who have incomes below $50,000. In addition, those who expect
higher than average stock market returns from now until retirement have
about 7 percentage points higher probability of saving more than those
expecting average returns.