Pursued by a bear
Partners must take extreme care when deferring pension benefits to ensure that a restrictive contract is not entered into without prior knowledge. Ken Stewart looks at the alternatives for lawyers looking to step down from partnership
March 10, 2004 at 07:03 PM
7 minute read
It is true to say that in recent times pensions have not been the most popular topic of conversation at dinner parties. In fact, many individuals have chosen to turn their backs on the traditional method of saving for retirement, preferring instead to rely on the value of their property or even purchasing a second property on a buy-to-let basis – a strategy that has been extremely successful over the past two to three years.
It is not surprising that the pensions industry has suffered such scorn, with a seemingly never-ending list of scandals reported in the financial and mainstream press. The industry seems to have been on a voyage of self-destruction suffering problems such as the infamous Maxwell saga, mis-selling in the 1980s and 1990s and the Equitable Life debacle to name but a few. In more recent times, the closure of defined benefit (or final salary) pension schemes continues to undermine the security once felt by many employees who are now facing the prospect of a bleak retirement. The Government has not helped matters. Changes in the treatment of tax on dividends in 1997 amounted to a multi-billion pound tax raid on pension funds. Stakeholder pensions seem to be failing spectacularly in encouraging lower paid workers to provide for their own retirement, thereby easing pressure on the state system.
These factors, combined with three years of falling stockmarkets, plunging fund values and annuity rates, have resulted in a widespread condemnation of pensions and a huge loss of confidence in the industry. This feeling is compounded even more by the realisation for many pension investors that the relative investment safety offered by a traditional insurance company with profit investment is actually underpinned by heavy investment in equity markets and has, therefore, inevitably diminished to a certain extent.
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Burr & Forman partner Garry K. Grooms has entered an appearance for 4M Acquisitions and Wallace D. Tweden in a pending environmental lawsuit. The action, filed July 22 in Tennessee Middle District Court by the McKellar Law Group and Mark E. Martin LLC on behalf of Tennessee Riverkeeper, contends that the defendant's violated the Clean Water Act and Tennessee Water Quality Control Act by allowing for the discharge of pollutants into waters of the U.S. without obtaining a National Pollutant Discharge permit. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Aleta A. Trauger, is 3:24-cv-00886, Tennessee Riverkeeper, Inc. v. Tweden et al.
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