Fight For Your Retirement The Jack Klugman Way

Quincy has taken his detective skills to the real world. Jack Klugman, the actor who portrayed televisions beloved medical examiner claims that something isn’t right with NBC’s (GE) accounting. He has filed suit against the company for a breach of his 1976 contract with NBC that entitles him and his company, Sweater Productions, to 25% of the net profits of his long-running (1976-1983) show, Quincy, M.E.

According to the lawsuit, NBC has provided paperwork documenting that the series lost $66 million through 2006. However, Klugman believes that they are lying and that the show has made money. “I recently heard that they made $250 million, and it’s still on TV in Germany,” said Mr. Klugman, 85. “I don’t want their money. I want my money. I worked my tail off. I got up at four in the morning and stayed at the studio. I did rewrite. I edited.”

To be cut out of money that was the result of hard work and dedication is disheartening and devastating to many people whether it is a couple hundred or millions of dollars in question. For this reason, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) was established in 1974 to establish minimum standards for established pension plans and to protect the individuals in these plans.

On thing that ERISA protects contributors to retirement funds is 401(k) fraud. There are a number of ways that employers can commit fraud but, the Act protects the employees from being permanently hurt by any of them.

Jeffrey Robertson, an attorney with Barran Liebman LLP in Portland, Ore., says there are three main ways that employers commit fraud against contributors to a 401(k) plan. Employers can withdraw the agreed upon dollar amount from an employees paycheck but never invest it into the 401(k) plan or they can illegally borrow money from an employee’s 401(k) plan. Employers can make an agreement with an investment agency to receive a cut for using that bank as part of the 401(k). (Under ERISA, employers are not allowed to make a profit from 401(k) plans). And, employers can knowingly use a poor choice of investment fund for their 401(k) program.