Is this your 401k plan, or is this just plain INSANE!

Pinkerton will switch the plan administrators for its employees 401k plan. At the same time, the mutual funds will also be changed. This implies the stocks must be cashed out of one fund and the money transferred to the new funds for eventual reinvestment.

This will be done [attempted?] OVER the y2k transition.

No mention of y2k in the announcement.

No I am not making this up, my comments in brackets.

EXCERPTS:

Nov 3 1999 Dear Pinkerton 401k Plan Participant:

This letter is to notify you of important changes in your Pinkerton 401(k) plan. The biggest change is that we will be working with a new vendor. The current vendors, Buck Consultants and Dreyfus Retirement Services, have not been able to maintain competetive services, costs or systems. [Blah blah blah...]

...The change in vendor involves several step. The steps are set out in the following timeline:

Late Nov. Early Dec. John Hancock will mail description of services to your home.

Dec. 3 1999: Last day to request loans and in-service or hardship withdrawals from Buck

Dec 17 1999, 5pm PST: Cut-off for account transactions through Buck and start of conversion.

January 2 2000 (approximately) [THIS IS CRAZY!] Account balances transmitted from Buck to John Hancock.

Mid to late January 2000 [Maybe never] Completion of conversion and reconciliation period- full access to account information.

...Fund Mapping: Your investments in various Dreyfus funds will automatically reinvested in similar John Hancock funds. This process is called fund mapping...[Blah blah blah...]

...Thank you for being an active participant in the Pinkerton 401(k) Plan.

[we're borrowing your money for at least a month to provide "liquidity" to OUR bottom line?!]

END EXCERPT.

-- Mr Hunchback (quasimodo@bellwtoer.com), November 05, 1999

Answers

Look on the bright side. Maybe the market will be lower when you reinvest!

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), November 05, 1999.

I suspect that your last [comment] nailed it. Sound's like the bigwigs want to have your cash under their mattresses when Jan 1 rolls around.

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), November 05, 1999.

Have already had the aggravation of this problem. Brunswick Corp switched 401'K plan adminstrators in the past 4 months -- taking themselves completely out of the activities of the plan. Have tried to get the 401'K money rolled over to IRA since 9-13-99 and have been totally unsuccessful -- phone calls made every 2 weeks to no avail. Think we might well all kiss the 401'K monies good-bye. Bank is now being a go-between, will see how far they get -- can't get forms to withdraw, let alone disbursement check.

-- claurann (claurann@aol.com), November 05, 1999.

I think it sounds like a good strategy. I personally wouldn't want to have my money *anywhere* in the system during the rollover, but I think this would benefit the participants in the plan mentioned above for the following reasons:

-They are freezing account transactions on Dec. 17 - mid Jan. If there were a foul up during the CDC, a customer's December 1999 account statement would hold up better as proof of their balance since they would have been prevented from making any transactions between one statement date and the next.

-I'm not exactly sure what "fund mapping" is, but it sounds to me like they inventory all of the securities in the portfolio, firms where they are held, etc. Again, if there were problems during rollover, the company would have something to prove their position, for the same reasons just mentioned above.

-I don't think making a huge transfer to another firm right after the rollover is the greatest idea, but maybe this is a case of the company "changing vendors" because of what their own research had uncovered. Maybe the new fund they are using has done a better job doing their own Y2K planning.

-Finally, if they are going to make the transfer, it makes sense to wait until after the rollover (although I think they should wait a little longer to make it). If the system is screwed up, then they won't be able to make anyway. That's sort of my philosophy. If the banks are telling the truth and everything is fixed, then I will have no problem re-depositing my money next year (if I feel like it)!

-- Clyde (clydeblalock@hotmail.com), November 06, 1999.

Possibly, they have chosen the mid-December date as the last time you can move funds to avoid a flight to quality in the waning days of 1999. (Last week I moved all my accounts over. Just takes a phone call to move them and another one to move them back. If you are still able to, that is.)

-- Pete (pberry1_98@yahoo.com), November 06, 1999.