Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Thursday, January 17, 2002 9:37 PM offsets To the Office of Management Programs: As a basis for my comments: I did not personally know any the victims or decedants in the 9-11 disaster (or have any as clients). I was for 15 years a third generation banker to individuals and small business's. Have a BS in economics and an MBA in finance (University of Chicago) I was a corporate CFO responsible for starting or revamping two company 401-k programs and educating employees to the need to save for their future. I am now a financial advisor in the NYC area selling financial planning, insurance, 401-k plans, insurance, retirement products at a major NYC (suburban) investment house. I donated a fair amount of money to the 9-11 disaster in the days immediately following the attack and I hope it is used wisely. With that as a background, my thoughts are as follows: I am basically comfortable with the concept of allocating money from your fund based on age and family life cycle. The problem I have is concerns the "offsets" of sound financial planning to reduce the settlements being offered. As a secondary issue, although I agree with the family life cycle you have chosen (age, income, children, etc), getting a settlement of over $4 million is far too much. All my life, I have had an exceptional exposure to people and how they manage thier money, from the youngest of days. Today, I make my living selling those services in the most competitive world in and around NYC. The people in and around NYC, at all income levels, are probably more exposed to the financial bombardment of advertising, cold calling, exposure to investment products than anywhere else in the US. From the diversity of my background, I have more exposrue than most to the difference in investment attitudes at all levels of income and backfround. I have clients who earn less than $50k annually be very concerned about putting money aside for thier future and accumulate over $1 million while having met others (especially in my lender/banking background) earning 5 times as much have to borrow money to meet monthly living expenses. The program as currently laid out rewards those who bought Mercedes and BMW's rather than the Ford Escort. It rewards those who bought expensive houses, and it rewards those who, because of all these payments, couldn't "afford" yet to save money in their 401-k or buy insurance. It penalizes those who did without, to have a house that was paid for, have money in their 401-k or thought it a good idea to purchase additional life insurance coverage in case they were run over by a bus. Even around NYC, an untaxed $2million settlement (max) can go a long way. It can buy (or payoff) a half million dollar mortgage. It can purchase a $1million worth of 7% Freddie Mac bonds that will throw off $70k of income. And it can purchase $500k of reasonably blue chip equities that can generate another $10k of income that could grow each year. If any individual needed more than $2 million to support their lifestyle, then they should have met with someone like myself to purchase insurance, start saving in an IRA or 401-k, bought the Ford Escort or Chevy instead of the Porsche or Mercedes or BMW. Basically, I sincerely think you should consider lowering the cap on what you pay as a settlement but not adjust it lower for other forms of offset that prudent savers got because they were wise and reward those who got themselves so much in hock that they need the $4 million. I am not trying to understate the value of ones life. There is no easy way to put a value on it. The concept of helping those in need is nobel, and---with incomes below $50-75k---- go for it. But to accept that one person earning $175,000 should get $4,451,060 if s/he had no collateral offsets because s/he was not prudent in buying some life insurance or saving money, while his/her compatriot in the next cubicle earning the same amount and in the same situation, deserves less because they bought a cheaper house, cheaper car and bought insurance "just in case" is just plain wrong. I would prefer that you not use my name if you publish my comments, but I would be happy to discuss with anyone some of the ideas I have here, should anyone actually read this memo and think my comments worthwhile. Sincerely Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-17 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojN001959.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-01-17