As the market plunged again Friday, employees at Terremark Worldwide packed into a downtown Miami room to bring up concerns about their 401(k)s.

At the front of the room, Valerie Ortega of John Hancock Financial Services fielded questions from nervous workers who wanted assurance that their entire retirement savings weren't at risk, even as their account values declined.

Robert Delvecchio, 49, entered the room wanting reassurance. ''I never thought I would have to wonder about the institutional integrity of the people running our plan,'' he said. ``What has happened over the last weeks is disconcerting.''

The meeting came just as workers at Terremark, a telecommunications firm, and companies across the country are receiving their quarterly retirement saving account statements, which are likely to detail huge declines in the value of holdings.

Financial planners, benefits directors and plan administrators are being flooded with calls from employees at various life stages as Wall Street's troubles trickled down to workers.

At on-site meetings, Ortega makes it known that John Hancock has strong financial ratings and holds its 401(k) investments in separate accounts that would not be affected if the company became insolvent. Using PowerPoint slides, she also educates worried 401(k) participants by telling them that markets go up and down and they must try to stay diversified and think long term.

AVOIDING PANIC

Ben Stewart, a senior vice president at Terremark, arrived Friday with his newest statement showing that the market turmoil is whittling away his nest egg. Stewart said he wants to avoid panic and left the meeting encouraged to stick to his investing strategy. At 48, he says, ``I have another 20 years of work in me, so I'm just holding steady.''

But that confidence isn't across the board -- and with good reason. Americans' retirement plans have lost as much as $2 trillion in the past 15 months -- about 20 percent of their value, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The upheaval that has engulfed financial firms -- beginning with Lehman Brothers filing bankruptcy and AIG being bailed out by the government -- has sent the stock market plummeting. It also is devastating people's savings, even forcing some to delay retirement.

'My phones are ringing away with people asking, `What should I do?' '' said George Anderton, a partner in Ingham Retirement Group in Miami, which manages retirement plans for other companies. Anderton said he assures them that if they are in the right financial model, took a risk tolerance test and have the correct asset allocation, there is nothing to do right now -- ``unless they can't sleep at night or are about to have a heart attack.''

In the past week, he says, the anxiety level of investors has escalated. ``Many have said they can't take it and have cashed out.''

Since the government announced the $700 billion bailout plan on Sept. 19, the Dow Jones industrial average has nose-dived by 26 percent.

`TRAUMATIZED'

Until they are comforted, investors are likely to be on edge -- much like a soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress, Michal Ann Strahilevitz, a marketing professor at Golden Gate University in San Francisco who studies investor psychology told the Associated Press.

''We've been so traumatized over the past few weeks that every little thing that happens, we overreact,'' she said.

The losses add to an already difficult retirement savings picture for Americans, who are increasingly taking on the job of managing and funding their own corporate retirement savings plans as companies eliminate traditional pensions.

Financial planner Austin Frye of Hollywood is working overtime to encourage clients not to react in a knee-jerk fashion. ``What we are seeing is the joy workers feel when their retirement savings are on the way up is nowhere near the pain they feel on the downside.''

Frye said the decision whether to reallocate now should be guided by how close the individual is to retirement. ``I have to be careful how to advise them because some of them already are not sticking to their plan. If they sell now, they are selling low.''

Yet some younger workers see an upside in the volatile market.

Only 28, Xavier Gonzalez of Terremark had invested his 401(k) contributions in aggressive funds, realizing that higher returns come with higher risk.

''I wasn't really in shock when I saw my statement,'' Gonzalez said. Still, he says, the tax advantages, generous company match, and low stock prices have him thinking about increasing his contribution.

''For me, this is an opportunity. I'm not thinking about retirement for another 20 to 30 years,'' he said.

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