The Retirement Handbook: How to Maximize Your Assets and Protect Your Quality of Life » (REVISED)

Carl W. Battle is the senior director of patents for Schering-Plough, a large pharmaceutical company. He began his legal career in Akron, Ohio as a corporate attorney for B.F. Goodrich Company and an adjunct professor at the University of Akron School of Law. He has also served as a corporate patent counsel for Rohm and Haas Company in Philadelphia and for Warner-Lambert Company in Morris Plains, New Jersey.

Although Carl Battle enjoys the blend of technology, business, and law he gets from his corporate career, he has diverse interests in the areas of publishing, real estate, consumer protection, entrepreneurship, and community affairs. His writings and self-help publishing activities are part of an overall goal to be creative with law and teach everyone about their basic legal rights. He serves as business manager for National Legal Information Services, a community-oriented legal services firm in Philadelphia that he founded with two law school classmates in 1983. The firm provides a variety of self-help legal information, seminars, and educational law games to teach law to the general public and to children. He is also a cofounder and vice president-general counsel of Fleshtones Products Company, a Black-owned health products company in Hackensack, New Jersey which sells MATCH-PATCH adhesive bandages in five different skin tones for Blacks, Hispanics, and other people of color.

Despite a busy professional schedule Carl is involved in a number of community actaivities, including serving as a "Big Brother" and working with the United Negro College Fund and the National Urban League Black Executive Exchange Program. He serves as vice president of the New Jersey Intellectual Property Law Association and is a member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association. He enjoys writing, teaching, arts and crafts, and outdoor activities.

Carl spent his childhood in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He attended Dartmouth College and graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemistry/economics in 1976. He received a Juris Doctorate degree (with honors) in 1982 from the Delaware Law School of Widener University in Wilmington, Delaware. He currently lives in Maplewood, New Jersey. He attributes his success to ambition, working hard, good values, and being a participant.

Readers can save thousands of dollars in legal fees and unnecessary expenses by consulting this excellent, comprehensive resource. This authoritative guide provides the survival skills crucial to building a happy, healthful, and fulfilling retirement, including: effective financial and estate planning, handling real estate, managing credit, maintaining good life insurance, providing for health care, planning for disability, preparing a will, creating a living trust, understanding pension and social security benefits, and protecting against crime and fraud. Lifestyle issues such as staying independent and enjoying vacations are also discussed.

The appendix contains extensive lists of helpful federal and state agencies, organizations, and other valuable information sources. Comprehensive and completely up-to-date, The Retirement Handbook covers the full spectrum of concerns for anyone living in or planning for a secure and rewarding retirement.