Products February 16, 2006

AIG SunAmerica Introduces Small Business Retirement Plan Offering

February 16, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com)—Today, AIG SunAmerica Retirement Markets, Inc. introduced a new 401(k) program tailored to the retirement plan needs of small and medium size companies, the Polaris401(k).
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Polaris401(k) will be available to plan sponsors through financial advisors and the company is offering both a comprehensive fully-bundled version or a flexible Third Party Administrator (TPA) version, AIG SunAmerica Retirement Markets, Inc., a subsidiary of AIG Retirement Services, Inc. said.

The plan administrative services for the Polaris401(k) will be handled by ADP  Retirement  Services.

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The product offering will have no proprietary fund requirement and will include investment options from 14 money mangers including American Funds, MFS, Van Kampen, Lord Abbett, and Davis, a press release said. The plan will also offer asset allocation models and to help in the ongoing evaluation of the plan, the Polaris401(k) includes investment policy statement support for the plan sponsor or plan committee.

Participant services in the new product offering include an interactive Web site, a voice-response system in both English and Spanish and automatic account rebalancing.

Additionally, Polaris401(k) offers a one-year fixed account investment option with no market value adjustment and a death benefit equal to the amount invested less withdrawals and fees or current market value, whichever is higher

To learn more about Polaris401(k), call the Polaris401(k) Help Desk at 877-814-401(k) or e-mail polaris401k@sunamerica.com .

Benefits February 15, 2006

NY Police Agency Locked in Racial Turmoil

February 15, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Five white sheriff's deputies claim that charges from their black colleagues that the five are members of a racist skinhead group actually created a hostile work environment for the white employees.
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The white deputies, who work in the transport division of the Onondaga County (New York) jail, had shaved their heads in a move they made to show their solidarity with a colleague with cancer, according to an Associated Press report.

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The white employees complained to their department bosses and to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), but the EEOC said their complaints were unfounded, based on the results of a sheriff’s office investigation.

However, according to the news report, the sheriff’s internal affairs division later took a second look at the original investigation by the police agency and found that the initial probe was incomplete because the deputies’ supervisor never interviewed any of the white deputies, according to the president of the union representing jail deputies.

That supervisor, Captain John Woloszyn, who is white, was suspended without pay last week for 30 days for “failing to uphold his official responsibilities,” sheriff’s office spokesman John D’Eredita told The Post-Standard of Syracuse. Internal investigators discovered Woloszyn had never interviewed the deputies, even though he told the county law department that he had, according to the news report.

The EEOC said last week it was looking into the sheriff’s office for investigating the white deputies over their complaint to the federal agency.

According to the report, the dispute arises as an eight-year-old federal lawsuit appears ready to be settled or go to trial by this summer. Ten black deputies sued Onondaga County in 1998 for $2.3 million, claiming jail administrators did not address racism at the jail.

In 2001, the EEOC determined that the sheriff’s office had violated the black deputies’ civil rights at the jail for years.

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