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Collateral Damage: Why Plan Participants Are Being Harmed by the DOL’s Existing Regulations Regarding IRA Rollovers

In the summer of 1999, I left my position as in-house counsel for an insurance company and returned to the private practice of law. As a result, I rolled the funds held in my 401k plan into an IRA. I was a complete novice when it came to investing at the time but had recently heard a commentator on NPR claim the rise of the Internet represented a paradigm shift in the global economy. Based upon this information, I moved half of my retirement funds into a “New Economy Fund” and the other half into a “ContraFund.” When the dot.com bubble burst a year later, I realized I could have fared just as well if I had flushed half of my money down the toilet and stuck the other half under my mattress.