Bailouts don’t help banks’ surprising profits

I worked for Western Electric/AT&T  from 1974-1981 and need information on how to acquire monies put into retirement. What or who do I contact to find this information?
— Sandra M., Miami, Fla.

This particular portion of your nest egg is going to be pretty tough to unscramble.

Western Electric used to be the manufacturing division of AT&T, back in the days when “Ma Bell” was one gigantic telecommunications monopoly. When the government split it up in 1982, Western Electric was lumped together with Bell Laboratories in new division called AT&T Technologies. (The rest of the company was spun off into seven regional operating companies that have since merged back into two companies.)

In 1995, AT&T Technologies became Lucent Technologies, which AT&T then spun off as a separate company the following year. Lucent then spun off pieces of itself that became new companies, including Avaya and Agere Systems. In 2006, what was left of Lucent merged with Alcatel, a French telecom company.

So one place to start would be to contact Alcatel-Lucent and find out if they have a record of your pension contributions and if you’re eligible for benefits. But it may take a little digging. In a briefing with Wall Street analysts last June, the company said it maintains over 70 different pension plans, some of which date back 100 years.

You could also try to contact the a group called the Lucent Retirees Organization, which was set up in 2003 to represent the interests of 127,000 workers covered by pension plans for Lucent and the companies it acquired along the way. The group says it has over 11,000 members and is open to current retirees or anyone vested for a Lucent pension.

According to the Web site, you can contact the Lucent Benefits Center at 888-232-4111 or write to the LRO at benefits@lucentretirees com.

Your recent article about Geithner's interview littered with typos. I think this kind of presentation is unexceptable. Please have your staff improve their proof reading.
— Vex, Address withheld.

You’re right. Typos have no place in a well-written column. So we’ve fired the entire Answer Desk proofreading staff.

We hope you’ll except our apologies.

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