cross postie from fundalarm by 3 point shooter

Howdy all,

I've taken the liberty of cross posting this message 3ptr posted to
fundalarm. It's very comforting to know that you CAN FIGHT CITY HALL
and win, as he took on his school admin about the sleeze tactics they
were adopting with their 403's. Yes, Viginia, you CAN win.

rono

Posted by 3 Point Shooter on January 13, 2006 at 09:00:52:

Haven't posted here since before Christmas, but I did all the things I
said I would at that time: 1) continued moving out of small caps and
putting more $ into things like: a) American Funds Euro-Pacific (I'm
not paying those nasty 5.75% fees you know who charges though, in order
to be in this fund; this fund is actually in a health-care account I
have, a VEBA, 501-C), b) Fidelity Overseas c) American Century
International Stock Fund d) ProFunds Japan as well as ProFunds Asia 30
e) William Blair International Stock Fund. Also, I havenot cut back my
holdings in several Emerging Growth Funds: a) American Century Emerging
Growth and b) Gartmore Developing Markets. On a rollover I'm doing, I'm
putting some $ to work in Mathews Pacific Tiger.

2) I also continue in my dometic funds to use mid and large cap growth
as well as some growth/income funds. Would any of you folks think I'm
nuts for keeping some $ in the ProFunds Biotech Fund??? I have a little
there and it seemed to do fine in 2005.

Now I want to tell you folks something (and I know Rono would be proud
of this 'ol Hoosier for doing this). I am doing an IRA Rollover and
getting my 403B $ that has 12-B1 Fees with it moved over to a "Rollover
IRA" with Fidelity. I hate those nasty 12-B1 fees for insurance. Our
school did offer American Century as well, which offers a 403B-7 (none
of those silly insurance charges!) and so I'm keeping that one!

I have a sizeable 403B with another company (with 12B-1 fees!) and that
same company oversaw one of these nasty "buyouts" of severance benefits
that we have going on here in Indiana is so many school corporations.
We had ours in my last year of teaching (2003-2004). When I speak of
severance benefits, I am speaking of: payment for accumulated sick days
(I had way over 200 PAST sick days accumulated) and payment for FUTURE
health insurance.

OUR BUYOUT GOT NASTY! The insurance company (I may name it at a later
time!) overseeing these buyouts, got up on our stage at our school and
told our teachers the terms of the contract just several days before
the teachers voted "yes" on the contract. Then the superintendent, who
videoed the entire presentation, AFTER THE TEACHERS VOTED AND THE
CONTRACT WAS SETTLED, started "playing" with the terms of the contract.
Long story short: Our teachers were clueless as to what he was doing
and even when I told them about it, they tried to do: NOTHING. I had to
get another teacher to help me and EVENTUALLY, we got a grievance filed
and were FINALLY able to hold all parties responsible. The insurance
company, who was on our stage, totally backed out of the situation even
though they have a relationship with the state teacher's union. THIS
WAS NASTY! We had stuff going on like: a) the superintendent trying to
"discount" my PAST sick days, although that's not what was promised (on
video tape!) at all. b) the superintendent trying to "freeze" sick days
on a different day than what was both in the contract and on the video
tape! Had I not "blown the whistle", he would have got away with it
all. Anyway, after 4 sessions of a grievance procedure, the teachers
won hundreds of thousands of dollars (my portion was over $10,000 of
that, but less than $15,000!...I had the most to lose). Isn't that who
we try to screw? ....the most dedicated teachers who NEVER miss school,
teach their butts off, and work hard everyday. No older teacher in
Indiana got their PAST sick days "discounted"...but I almost did! The
school board was informed of all this stuff and did: nothing.

I'll not say more, but you folks get the idea! Anyway, I'm working to
get my $ away from the company who oversaw this whole mess, both
because of the 12B-1 fees as well as trust issues.

Rono, congrats on that grandson!

Sincerely,
3 Point Shooter

P.S. I thought teachers were smart because they all have college
degrees! Boy, I learned my lesson the hard way....they were "clueless"
and also, did not care, even with hundreds of thousands of dollars at
stake! The teacher that helped me finally get the darned girevance
filedd was VERY hard to teach....it took months to make him ounderstand
all the tricks our administration was trying to pull AFTER a contract
was settled.