“I need a hero. I’m holding out for a hero

One of the great moments of my life was sitting next to legendary Louisville attorney Frank Haddad at a luncheon when he found that he had received the first Peter Perlman Outstanding Trial Lawyer award from the Kentucky Academy of Trial Lawyers.

As they started his bio, the surprised Frank started crying like a baby. A sudden heart attack took him less than a year later. Winning the Perlman award was the crowning achievement of his career.

It may seem ironic that the award was named for another living, and practicing, trial attorney, but everyone understood why.

Richard Hay of Somerset, who has received the Perlman award, said starting with law school where Perlman was one of his instructors, “Pete has always been the attorney that all Kentucky trial lawyers look up to.”

Perlman is an influential, national figure in the universe of trial attorneys. He is a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, which means he is considered one of the top 100 trial lawyers in the United States.

He is the only Kentuckian to ever be president of the American Trial Lawyers Association and has been president of the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice and the Civil Justice Foundation. His website notes that, “In nearly 50 years of practicing law, Perlman has won more than 50 multimillion verdicts and settlements. It also notes that “he is recognized worldwide as a specialist in product liability and crash-worthiness litigation.”

I personally know the power of Perlman. Thirty years ago, he was the first major attorney to refer a structured settlement client to me. (Frank Haddad was the second.) From California to Washington D.C. and every stop in between, big time trial attorneys would tell me, “if you are good enough for Peter Perlman, you are good enough for me.”

They understood that Pete demands a level of excellence from everyone around him. The same pursuit of perfection that he demands in himself.

When you look at the list of cherished professions, trial lawyers are far down the list. Nurses and firefighters hit the top and trial lawyers check in somewhere around lobbyists and used car salespeople.

It’s easy to see why trial lawyers can be unpopular. Like journalists, the nature of their business is to champion a cause. If you are on the other side of that cause, it’s easy to demonize the attorney fighting against you.

I’ve sued and been sued. It’s not fun on either end.

Without trial lawyers, average Americans would not have an advocate when a drunk driver rams into their car or someone sells a product that kills or maims people.

Perlman is a champion for the underdog. Every aspect of his being is devoted to bringing honor to the legal profession that he loves.

There are several life lessons to be learned from watching Peter Perlman.

Pete is not a headline grabber.

He gets most of his clients as referrals from other attorneys or through his reputation. He does not advertise. Several Perlman award winners, like Bill Garmer, Sam Davies and Richard Hay, operate in the same fashion.

Perlman befriends his clients and stays in touch, years after cases are resolved.

Perlman told me in a recent interview that one of the most important aspects of how he chooses a case is whether he truly likes the clients and his co-counsel.

Pete communicates at a level that juries and average people understand.

Perlman is the author of the book, Opening Statement and is a master at using humor, music lyrics and stories to connect with a jury. I once heard him describe pain by asking how much they would accept to have a rock in their shoe all day long. It’s a description that everyone understood and could relate to.

Pete is well-conditioned and an impeccable dresser, but manages to connect to who he is talking to at their level. A lesson anyone who communicates should understand.

Perlman gives back to his community. Perlman has endowed scholarships, served as president of the Lexington Jaycees, given countless hours and dollars to charities and political candidates and been a force in his hometown for his entire adult life. He is the kind of civic leader that all cities want, but few actually have.

Perlman gives back to his profession.

Last year, Perlman received the Leonard M. Ring Champion of Justice award. One of the highest honors in the legal profession, it is “given to a person whose life and career epitomizes a true champion of justice.”

When trial lawyers are looking for a hero, it’s easy to see why Peter Perlman is the one they pick.

Don McNay is a settlement planning consultant based in Richmond Kentucky and New Orleans. He has written four best selling books, including “Life Lessons from the Lottery.” 

The “strategic coach” for entrepreneurs Dan Sullivan uses the expressions “past-based self” and “future-based self.”

A past-based self person is like the characters in the Bruce Springsteen song “Glory Days.” They keep talking about the old times instead of today.

Sullivan wants people to focus on the “future-based self” and where they are going to be three or five years from now.

The best way to focus on the “future-based self” is to do those things that improve on the skills and capabilities you have.

That can be hard when you are at the bottom. It can be harder when you are at the top.

I racked up a ton of advanced education degrees and professional designations at a young age. It took me to the top of my profession.

Then I stopped. I was still successful, but something kept bothering me and bothering me. Finally, a friend pointed it out.

I wasn’t as confident as I used to be. I’ve never lacked for self-appreciation of my intellectual abilities, but suddenly that edge was gone.

Then another friend pointed it out. Like Rocky in the Rocky III movie, I had lost the “eye of the tiger.”

I wasn’t operating at that absolute cutting edge. I was doing well, but not driven to stay on that edge.

I finally realized that the quest for continuous self-improvement and staying on the cutting edge was the fuel for my confidence.

As long as I am focused intensely on my craft, I am going to have the confidence that comes from being well-prepared. That means hitting the books and racking up some more advanced education.

Continuing to educate is a simple lesson, but one that is easy to forget.

If you study the history of any successful person, you are going to see a point where they get to the top of the mountain and decide to go in a different direction. Does anyone remember when Michael Jordan quit playing basketball at the height of his incredible career and tried to make it as a minor league baseball player?

You see businesses do it all the time. Things like “the new Coke” or the “improvements” to Netflix. Someone gets to the top of the mountain and decides to go in a different direction.

If you’ve been successful, it’s easy to want to keep doing the things that work for you.

They have a saying for that in rock ‘n’ roll music: an oldies act.

I once read a quote by Steve Jobs that Bob Dylan was a hero of his. In the early part of his career, Dylan was focused on challenging conventional wisdom. He threw away his folk guitar, went electric and was booed off the stage at the Newport Folk Festival.

However, the move to rock ‘n’ roll added decades to his career. Dylan was not afraid to keep improving and going into new directions.

He was also not afraid to fail.

Jobs was the same way. He is a remarkable story of someone who was thrown out of the company he founded and came back to make an incredible impact on how we communicate and think. Apple is now one of the most successful companies in the world and trying to keep away of the learning curve.

It’s more than not being afraid. It’s the confidence to follow your gut instincts and vision, no matter what is the prevailing or conventional wisdom.

That wisdom comes from an absolute dedication to studying your craft.

The kind that I am going to be doing today, tomorrow and from now on.

Kentucky resident Don McNay is the author of five bestselling books, including “Life Lessons From The Lottery.”

“Son, I’ve made a life out of readin’ people’s faces, knowin’ what the cards were by the way they held their eyes.”

Gambling takes a front burner in my life during Kentucky Derby week. On top of the normal home state hoopla, I am also speaking to the Society of Settlement Professionals in Las Vegas and an Italian film crew is flying in from Rome to interview me for a documentary about lottery winners.

I don’t speak a word of Italian, but I am always up for an unusual experience.

My father was a professional gambler and I went the other way. I encourage people to save, not gamble, but occasionally my father’s world meets mine.

I am a mediation and settlement consultant.

I attend mediations and settlement conferences with injured people (or with insurance carriers who want to settle an injury claim) and develop financial strategies to make their life better.

As I note in numerous books and articles, people who get big money from a lottery often wind up worse off than when they started. The same can happen to injured people.

Things happen in mediations and settlements that give off clues as to how likely they are to blow their money.

Poker players frequently give off signals that tip off the kind of cards they have.

It is the same thing in these conferences. I would actually pay the attorneys and clients to bring me to mediations as I can spot problems and make corrections before they get money in their hands.

In that pressure-filled environment, I can quickly spot “tells” as to how financially sophisticated a person is.

There are some tells that are obvious. For example, it’s dangerous in any large money situation when people have a large entourage. Entertainers like Michael Jackson attracted a large “posse” wanting part of their money. The same thing happens to injured people.

The larger the entourage, the more likely that one of them has their own agenda for the money. Often, I throw the “posse” out of the room so that the victim can make a decision with the advice of attorneys and trained professionals.

Another “tell” is when people have money spent before the case is even settled. I’ve seen people borrow money, sometimes at high interest rates, and order expensive items before the case is settled. It’s important to be a calming influence to keep them from jumping at a settlement that is not fair value.

The other situation can occur too. It’s not unusual for these people to have unrealistic expectations as to what they will receive.

If someone does not handle money well before a settlement, it is going to get worse when they have more money, more decisions and more people wanting part of what they have.

I go through an informal “check list” of where a person is financially. Do they have a lot of credit card debt or seem to always “run behind?” If so, what can we do to prevent that from happening?

There are a number of financial mechanisms to control money at the time of settlement.

I also want to make sure that people are aware of government benefits and programs and what it takes to keep them.

There are a number of programs designed to help injured people and many new ones when Obamacare kicks in full gear.

Finally, my biggest tell is my “lottery question.” I ask people what they would do if they won the lottery.

Those who have a well thought out vision, such as educating their children, buying property or giving back to society, will probably do well.

Not having a vision for their money is a major league “tell.”

As the song says, “you’ve got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away and know when to run.”

Looking for “tells” is a good way to find out which of those strategies works best.

Don McNay is a mediation and settlement consultant based in Richmond Kentucky and New Orleans. He is the author of five bestselling books, including “Life Lessons From The Lottery.”

After lottery winner Jack Whittaker of Hurricane, W. Va., went through a litany of problems, including the drug overdose death of his granddaughter, his wife (now his ex-wife) wished he had torn up his record-breaking Powerball ticket.

Seems like a lot of lottery winners want to tear up the ticket.

Some don’t verbalize the thought. They just run through the money as fast as they can.

Having unlimited wealth is a dream for many people, many who consciously or subconsciously hate the idea of being rich.

What is going on?

A lot of misery comes from not having financial systems in place. The winners weren’t ready for their 15 minutes of fame and the hangers-on who would want a piece of them.

People don’t really know what to do with wealth. Some dream of showing off or sticking it to people they don’t like. While “take this job and shove it” probably feels good for a day, revenge won’t keep you happy over the long run.

Money equals security for most people. Or at least it should. One of the primary reasons that people become entrepreneurs is to keep big corporations from running their lives. They want to be responsible for their own
financial destiny.

Since money is the ultimate security blanket, it seems senseless that people fritter it away. Yet, it has been said that 90 percent of people who get a lump sum do exactly that.

Some people get tired of pursuing money for money’s sake. I’ve long been fascinated by the story of Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity. Fuller was a millionaire at a very young age. His primary focus was getting rich. His wife was at the point of leaving him. He stepped back and took a look at himself and didn’t like what he saw. He and his wife sold everything and moved to a commune-like farm. From there, he redirected his passion and business skills and built an organization that made a profound and lasting impact on society.

I’ve studied “big money” for all of my adult life, and most of the problems come down to a few areas.

First is a person, like Abraham Shakespeare, who just couldn’t say no. He was the perfect mark for every con artist with a story.

Usually the person with a story isn’t a stranger. It’s family, longtime friends and newfound “romantic interests.” A lot of emotions get brought into play.

And money seems to flow out the door.

The second is having too much money all at once. Most of the lotto winners who get in trouble are the people who took all the cash up front. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t let lottery winners take a “cash option.” If they took the annual payments, they would learn from the mistakes with their first installment or two, and would still have 18 or 19 more chances to get it right.

Most lottery winners eventually figure things out, once the money is gone. Or when they are at the point where they wish they had “torn up the ticket.”

The government figured it out a long time ago. We don’t give people a lump sum social security check at retirement. We don’t want them to run out of the money. The same used to hold true with pension plans. People received an annuity that lasted the rest of their lives.

Today, most pensions are 401(k) plans. Just like the lotto winners, people are running out of retirement money while they are still alive.

When you think about it, almost all of us have our own “lotto moment.” We make decisions about money that will either give us long-term security and happiness or bring on pain and regret.

Handling a lump sum wisely can be a “ticket to paradise.” Or, like Abraham Shakespeare and Powerball Jack, it can be a ticket to misery that they wish they would have torn up.

Kentucky resident Don McNay is the author of the bestselling book, “Life Lessons from The Lottery.” 

“Smokin’ in the boys’ room

For nearly 20 years, our leaders decided traditional economic rules didn’t apply. It got us into a financial crisis.

Washington and Wall Street rewarded bad behavior instead of giving incentives for doing things right.

I had two relatives who were chain smokers, and I offered them an incentive to quit. I agreed to give them $1,000 if they could quit for a year. If they started smoking any time during that year, they had to give me $50.

It worked. Both quit. It has been 20 years, and neither took it back up.

It was a great exercise in psychology. I don’t think the $1,000 jackpot by itself would have worked. The reward was too far out in the future. The $50 penalty by itself would not have given enough incentive.

It took an unusual combination to make it happen.

Chris Anderson has written two influential books, “The Long Tail” and “Free.” Both are on how technology and the future meet. One of the most fascinating points he covers is a topic called, “Reversible Business Models.” He credits the term to Derek Sivers, the founder of CD Baby.

The idea is to reverse a traditional business model, such as a bar hiring a band to play for its customers.

Anderson talked about bars in Los Angeles who make bands pay a fee to play for its customers. It works. The band gets exposure, the patrons get entertained and the bar makes a profit on an item that used to be a cost.

Anderson hit on a topic that has plagued professionals and service providers: how to charge for their time and effort.

Pricing for professional services isn’t easy. You can charge too little, charge too much or charge for the wrong thing. I’ve done all three.

People often don’t value services that they don’t pay for. No matter how valuable the service really is.

Over 20 years ago, I owned part of a firm that did political polling. We were ahead of the technological curve and very accurate. We had a number of paying clients, but had several friends running for office who couldn’t afford us. Often in doing research, we would find something that could help our friends.

The friends often ignored us while people actually paying for surveys never did.

We noticed that one of my friends had a problem in a geographic area. We told him, but his paid campaign manager had “a gut feeling” we were wrong. My gut feeling was that the campaign manager was an idiot, but the friend was paying him and not paying me. The advice was ignored; our buddy lost that area by a wide margin and the election by a tiny one.

Anderson hits on why some free products are embraced and others are not.

Two of the best ideas are wellness related. Anderson talked about doctors in China who are paid monthly when you are healthy. If you are sick, you don’t pay. It is the doctor’s job to keep you well.

A similar idea is a gym in Denmark that allows you to attend for free if you show up once a week. If you miss a week, you pay for the entire month. It reminds me of the anti-smoking plan. A combination of penalty and incentive.

The doctors in China and the gym in Denmark are plans to promote physical wellness, but they are also promoting economic wellness. They are developing models that other entrepreneurs will copy.

I’ve written five best-selling books on topics as diverse as lottery winners, Kentucky’s governor, Wall Street and golf. The only common thread is that overwhelming legions of fellow authors hate my marketing strategies.

Most have never written a best-selling book but are great followers of conventional wisdom. They sit around waiting to be “discovered” by a big-time agent and mail out tons of query letters.

I don’t have an agent, never sent a query letter, own my own publishing company, spend almost nothing on marketing and my books hit the top of the charts. Like Steve Jobs at Apple, I never do market research. My job is to give people a vision of where they want to be, not find out where they are now.

In business and politics, too many people are worried about what is popular as opposed to what will make things better.

Maybe we should start handing them copies of Chris Anderson’s books.

Kentucky resident Don McNay, www.donmcnay.com. is the author of the bestselling book, “Life Lessons From the Lottery,” and a regular contributor to the Huffington Post.

I wonder how many will be left five years from now?

Many are being eliminated by their own companies in favor of the Internet and nonstop television advertising. Some companies, like GEICO, have never had them. Other insurance companies are driving off their sales force by reducing compensation, not training new agents and reducing resources.

I can’t imagine how auto insurance agents compete with the onslaught of advertising. The future is not good for people who sell health insurance. If you take time to read the 2,700 pages of the Affordable Coverage Act (better known as Obamacare), it is obvious that they plan to make health insurance affordable by eliminating the health insurance agent and getting people to buy over the Internet.

Those in the insurance business have the same dilemma that real estate agents, car salespeople and anyone else who lives on commissions have: Do we have what it takes to compete against the Internet?

My response has always been to corner the market on expertise. On the areas of the financial and structured settlement business that I work in, I know my craft as well as anyone in the world. So do the people who work for me. People don’t call because they want to have a beer with me. They call to get advice based on research and experience.

A CNBC interview from a couple of years ago with Warren Buffet hit me hard. He attributed gains at GEICO to the 2008 economic crisis. He said that before the economic crisis, people would buy insurance from a neighbor or a golf partner or someone with whom they go to church. Buffet said that people are now scraping for every bargain and not as interesting in keeping their friends happy.

In other words, knowing your rate book became more important than knowing your prayer book or hanging out on the social committee.

Agents are fighting another evolution. People are less inclined to have sit-down meetings.

Videoconferencing has become a bigger part of how I communicate. There are many aspects of my life where I have wonderful relationships but communicate via technology for its convenience.

A banker told me several years ago that an overwhelming number of his clients prefer to use an ATM machine over dealing with a teller. I realized he was talking about me.

My business interacts with banks on a daily basis, but I rarely walk in a bank lobby. I do most of my banking online. I have wonderful relationships with my bank officers but rarely visit them in person.

I see pressure on every type of commission sales person to survive. The New York Times has written several articles on how they don’t think that real estate agents will be able to maintain the six-percent commission that they are currently getting.

I’ve never purchased real estate or sold real estate without an agent. I’ve always found them valuable. I can see how competitive pressures will eventually cause commissions to decrease, just like in other sectors of the financial services business.

I entered the financial services business in 1982. At that time, my broker dealer received an eight-percent commission on any mutual fund trades.

That seems absolutely ludicrous now, but at the time, gathering information was expensive. I spent very large sums of money obtaining information about stocks and mutual funds that you can now get for free over the Internet. My long-distance telephone bill was over $3,000 a month. Now it is less than $200.

The free flow of information has made it more difficult for commissioned salespeople to make enough profit to stay in business.

The question is not whether or not commissions will decrease. They will. The question is whether segments of an industry will go away. I watched the evolution in the insurance business as the number of insurance agents decreased year after year.

I wonder if I did not have such a great relationship with my existing insurance agents if I would just go online. Everything else about my financial services history would indicate that I would.

My annuity business used to do a lot of “order taking” sales, where people would know what they wanted and just call us to buy it. No more. Now, all clients want knowledge and expertise.

Staying cutting edge on knowledge is more work, but there is some security in it. True wisdom cannot be replaced by a machine.

If agents focus on mastering their craft, providing excellent service and understanding their customers, they never have to worry about the Gecko eating their lunch.

Kentucky resident Don McNay, www.donmcnay.com. is the author of the bestselling book, “Life Lessons From the Lottery,” and a regular contributor to the Huffington Post. 

Scott Solkoff. Courtesy Photo.

“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”
– Harry Truman

“Talk to God and listen to his casual reply”

December 2011 caused me to face my two biggest fears: surgery and prostate surgery in particular.

My father died a painful death from prostate cancer at age 59. My worst fear was the blockage that landed me in the emergency room that year. The doctors drained 17 pounds of fluid from my bladder. I was lucky to be alive. Then, I had to face my next biggest fear: surgery.

I help people who receive large sums of money and I’m an expert in structured settlements. Although I’m known for lottery winners, the vast majority of my clients are injury victims and many big cases come from medical malpractice.

I’ve seen people go in for routine surgery and die. I’ve seen others come out in wheelchairs. Although statistically, the overwhelming majority of people who have surgery come out fine, I’ve spent 30 years with the ones who don’t.

I made it from age 5 to age 52 without being in a hospital. Suddenly I did not have a choice.

Then, I did something I had not done in a long time. I prayed. And got an army of people, mostly from my Facebook page, to pray along with me.

Prayer gave me the peace and the courage to face the surgery.

Which did not go well.

Although I have 12 years of Catholic education and once served as president of my church council, I had fallen away from organized religion years ago. Being in a potential life or death situation changed that tune immediately.

On the day of my surgery, my fiancée took me to see a priest to hear my confession and give me last rites in case something went wrong.

Something did go wrong. Because of a scheduling screw-up, I was prepped for surgery and waited for eight hours, only to be told to come back two days later.

On the second try, I was the first person taken to surgery. I had a very rough night, which included a bad experience with an unpleasant and inexperienced nurse.

Getting into it with the nurse was a traumatic experience.

I love nurses. My late mother was an operating room nurse for 27 years, and my family and friends endowed the Ollie McNay nursing scholarship at Eastern Kentucky University after her death.

It’s impossible for me to not see my mother in every nurse I encounter. I treat them with the respect that mom deserved and didn’t always get.

After that horrible night, I tried to call family and friends to get me out of the place. It was very early in the morning, and I couldn’t find anyone.

Then, the shift changed and my guardian angel arrived.

In the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Bailey had a guardian angel who was an older, prissy man named Clarence.

My guardian angel was a mid-20s nurse assistant from Nicholasville, Ky., named Crystal Hamblin.

Once Crystal and the registered nurse she worked with, Sydney Napier Thigpen, came on the scene, life got better.

Crystal and I immediately became (and remain) friends, and she walked me through some deep breathing exercises. She changed my gown and made me feel human again.

I realized that little things are what life is all about.

Sydney and I hit it off right away, too. Syd has the work ethic and concern for her patients that reminded me of my mom. Because of a blood clot and other issues, it looked like I may have to be operated on again, but Crystal and Sydney were my angels. They found a resident and a bunch of other nurses, and with several intense efforts, they broke the blood clot. A few days later, the urologist told me I did not have cancer. I was in horrible pain and missed out on Christmas and New Year’s, but I had plenty of reasons to celebrate.

Having so many people praying reminded me that prayer is a universal language. Prayer had been missing from my life for years, and I was reminded of why it is a tenet of every faith in the world.

The Christmas season gave me time to deeply reflect.

I wanted to play golf again. I had stopped about a decade earlier as I decided I was too fat to play. I was not in the physical condition to play nine holes.

Surgery made me determined to take better care of myself. And to find a golf instructor.

I feel like God’s hand led me to Clay Hamrick.

Clay and I are different ages, with different body sizes and distinctly different political views. However, we immediately became close friends.

Clay is well-educated and extremely well-read. Like myself, he is an intense competitor and has an incredible work ethic.

He is one of the best golf teachers I have ever encountered, especially with young children. Unlike most instructors, he is not just a student of the game, but a student of life.

Golf is not about striking a ball with a club. It is about all those things in our psychological makeup that allow us to play the game.

Clay understands this. It did not surprise me when he said he had been working on a book and gave me a manuscript.

I was stunned at what he had written. I started reading it in the parking lot of his golf course and could not put it down. I told him that his book was not about golf, it was about psychology and spirituality. Golf was just the mechanism to advance his theories and thoughts.

I asked to be his co-author and help him organize the book into 10 chapters, like the Ten Commandments, and coach him in his writing the way that he has coached me in golf.

He agreed.

I’ve taken 80 golf lessons with Clay, and thanks to his instruction and coaching, at age 54 I play the best golf of my life. Being on the course brings me a sense of inner peace, fun and accomplishment that I have never felt in a sports environment before.

When you read “Life Lessons from the Golf Course,” which is released on April 9, you will be touched by Clay’s tremendous insights and passion, but you will see how the skills he is teaching translate to every aspect of life.

This book is a chance to learn about golf, but also learn about being in touch with yourself and with a higher power.

The power of prayer got me to Clay Hamrick. This book will be the answer to many people’s prayers. It will make them better golfers, but also better people.

I’m proud to be part of making that happen.

“Life Lessons from the Golf Course” is currently available on Amazon and will be in bookstores everywhere starting on April 9. 

“Running on Empty.

Internal Revenue Code section 401(k) is the only section of the U.S. tax code that the average people can cite. They know it has something, and often everything, to do with whether or not they can retire with dignity.

The adoption of section 401(k) in 1982 turned out to be one of those big moments that changed everything.

401(k) plan investments are a primary driver of the investment markets. It is the employee retirement benefit that most companies offer.

These plan investments are also the reason that many people are pacing the floors at night, watching their retirement get delayed or destroyed.

Until 401(k) came along, pension plans were usually defined benefit plans.

A defined benefit pension is one that gives you a set number of dollars for a set period of time. It usually pays out over the course of your lifetime after retirement.

With a defined benefit plan, the employer takes responsibility for making sure pension money is safe and properly invested.

With the advent of the 401(k), employees with little or no investment experience were required to pick among investment options offered by an employer.

Employees were put in the position to fail. Many have.

It is up to the employer to pick what investment company handles the employee’s money. If the employer picks a dog, with few options, the employee is out of luck.

Even worse, many companies push their employees to use 401(k) money to buy stock in the company they work for. If the company goes broke, people lose their jobs and their retirement savings, too.

There are a lot of people hurting. It is sad to watch retired people, or people close to retirement, lose 40 or 50 percent of their 401(k) plan’s asset value in one year. They will never be able to make that back up.

There is a second major problem – Not putting enough money in the 401(k) to begin with.

401(k) plans give people too much freedom.

I’ve always encouraged people to put the maximum amount into a 401(k) plan. Few do. Many put in little or nothing at all.

Now they are looking at a bleak retirement.

Defined benefit plans encouraged people to stay at the same company. 401(k) plans do not.

I’ve watched tons of people change jobs and then blow the 401(k) money before they started their new job.

Ninety percent of people with a lump sum of money will run through it in five years or less. The same statistic holds true for 401(k) rollovers as it does for lottery winners.

I am appalled that both presidential candidates had proposals that will make it easier for people to blow their 401(k) money.

There are a variety of ideas the presidential candidates completely ignored.

One would be to make it easy, and cost efficient, for employers to go to defined benefit plan and guaranteed income plans. That would make sure that our retirees have money for the rest of their lives.

Second would be to change the way 401(k) plans are administered. Take them out of the employer’s hands and let employees invest in whatever, and with whomever, they like. Just like they do with their IRA accounts.

When historians study the cause of the economic meltdown, they will see that the change from defined benefit plans to 401(k) plans in 1982 was a factor. It was one of many shifts where dramatic changes were made in people’s lives and liberties. People didn’t realize just how dramatic until years later.

If we are going to keep from running behind, 401(k) is one of those things that we need to fix.

Don McNay is the Chairman of the Board for McNay Settlement Group in Richmond  Kentucky and author of the book,  “Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You Win The Lottery.”  You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com or read other pieces he has written at www.donmcnay.com.