Q.When I hear of the collapse of LTV or Enron or other big companies (maybe even K-Mart) I worry that the money in my 401K is at risk. What if something happens to the company that I am retiring from? What would you suggest to minimize my potential losses in such a worst case scenario?

A. In the Enron case, some employees lost everything in their 401.k plan because they chose to invest their contributions as well as the employers matching contribution entirely into Enron stock.

The shares they purchased were restricted as to resale and employees were or should have been aware of this status at the time the investment was made.

Since matching contributions are typically invested into company stock, little can be done by the employee to protect this portion of the plan if the company stock plummets.

However, your contributions can be invested in a managed mutual fund selected from a list provided by the plan.

Ultimately it is the employee who controls the risk/reward of their retirement plan. Sadly for some Enron employees, greed got the best of them.