Investors Concerned About Mutual Funds

Spring Valley, NYBenjamin G. describes himself as a typical man. He has some money invested in IRAs, he has some debt and he has been watching the Lehman Brothers sale with interest. However, Benjamin has money with Neuberger Berman and is concerned about potential mutual fund losses.

"My experience has been pretty good," Benjamin says. "I got started as a child with Neuberger Berman because my grandmother invested in that company. In my early work years, I contributed to an IRA with Neuberger Berman. I maintained an IRA with the company and most of my money has been with them since then. Most of my experience has been positive. I believe they did a split share thing at one point.

"I got concerned with what I read at the LawyersandSettlements website. I am concerned about what could happen. I have money invested with them [Neuberger Berman], more than with any other company and it's been that way my whole life. When the whole thing started, I was concerned about the Lehman bankruptcy but I thought a sale would be a good thing. But what effect will the sale have on the mutual fund share values—that's the only thing that matters to me."

Benjamin says that Neuberger Berman has not initiated any contact regarding the upcoming sale. "They've put stuff up on their website. I've contacted them, but they have not reached out to their investors very much. I think, with IRAs, this is definitely not a time to sell. I think I should ride out this thing, but I want to know if there will be a class action lawsuit."

He also says his investments have already lost some of their value. "The value has gone down a lot. In my Guardian fund, it is down from $16 or $17 a share to around $11 or $12 a share, so it's lost a third of its value. I'm waiting to see if more will be lost or if it will rebound. Almost all my assets are in IRAs. I'm almost 51 years old and I hope not to touch that money until at least the minimum age for normal IRAs.

"I have to say that I'm a typical, high-spending guy who followed the American tradition in recent years and that got me into debt. I'm trying to avoid filing bankruptcy and losing value in my IRA would not help the situation. I'm hopeful under the new president that things will turn around."

Benjamin is not the only investor to wonder what should be done about mutual funds. Others are concerned about whether they should pull their money out of the funds or wait and see what happens. Unfortunately, that means they could run the risk of losing a large portion of their investment.