Anybody familair with the "Zahoric Bill"

[Guest sschullo]

Realizing this is a stretch to ask, but I have one source who talked about this legislation that he claimed led to the "gross indemnity" requirement in hold harmless agreements between k12 SD and 403b vendors, particulary in California, Texas and I believe Ohio.

Thanks in advance,

Steve

[Ron Snyder]

Maybe asking a financial planner who does 403(b) plans will help.

How about:

Zahorik Financial & Ins Services Inc

418 N Fair Oaks Avenue # 101

Pasadena, CA 91103-3660

Phone: (626) 792-0835

http://www.Zahorik.com

[Guest sschullo]

Maybe asking a financial planner who does 403(b) plans will help.

How about:

Zahorik Financial & Ins Services Inc

418 N Fair Oaks Avenue # 101

Pasadena, CA 91103-3660

Phone: (626) 792-0835

http://www.Zahorik.com

Thanks, I have already talked to the president. He varified what I had already known, but there is more to the story. The law library in Sacramento helped located the amendment that was added to the 770.3 insurance code.

According to another source, a retired financial professional who worked down the hall from Zahorik at the time, told me this. The founder of Zahorik, who is gone now, was so angry that he came up with the idea of "gross indemnity" and said that all of the insurance companies will be liable for both school district mistakes and their own. The overly restrictive hold harmless agreements in 403b plans were born and began offering them to SDs in which they gladly accepted. At the same time, ERISA was passed in '74 which allowed custodial accounts with mutual fund companies. Mutual fund companies could not compete because it costed too much and was too risky to sign the hold harmless agreement. It worked brillantly until about 1998 when it began to break down, at least publically. Kathy Kristof published an article in the LA Times featuring a teacher for LAUSD who simply wanted Vanguard to be his 403b choice but he couldn't because for over 30 years nobody ever questioned this policy or the over restrictiveness of the hold harmless agreement. Since 1998, there have been other articles but districts and unions remain unchanged and Vanguard is still not available in LAUSD 403b. But things are slowly improving because of the 457b plans and the arrival of the one vendor TPA with open architure plan with mutual fund options that include Vanguard and Fidelity. We can kiss those expensive TSA/403b plans goodbye forever.

Steve