Beyond Structured Settlements

Secondary Life and Annuity Markets - 1

Recent developments related to the secondary life insurance and annuity markets should encourage several professional associations to learn more about these markets - and to provide improved education in 2008 for their members about these markets.

Responsible professional associations include:

• The National Structured Settlement Trade Association (NSSTA)
• The Society of Settlement Planners (SSP)
• The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA)
• The American Association for Justice (AAJ)
• The Academy of Special Needs Planners (ASNP)
• The Special Needs Alliance (SNA)

Recent secondary market developments include:

• Mealey's Conference: "Life Insurance in the Secondary Market" - Mealey's in-person conference, developed in collaboration with Drinker Biddle, is occuring December 11-12, 2007 at the Harvard Club of New York City.
• Deal Flow Media (DFM) - DFM, a publisher and educator focusing on specialty financial markets including life settlements, has announced it will enter the structured settlement market in 2008.
• A.M. Best - A.M. Best recently introduced "Best's Structured Finance Center", a web portal for the insurance-linked securities market.
• NCOIL - The National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) adopted a Model Life Settlements Act at its most recent meeting.
  

For additional information about life settlements, see:

• Wikipedia's "life settlement" entry
  
• New York Insurance Department's "Life Settlements: Top Ten Questions".
• Deal Flow Media's "The Life Settlements Report"

For additional and related S2KM commentary, see:

• Structured Settlement Secondary Market
  • Structured Settlement Transfers
  • Settlement Transfer Update
  • Settlement Transfers - Release 39
  • How the Primary Market Views Factoring
  • NSSTA Bylaw Amendments
  • J.G. Wentworth v. Peachtree Settlement Funding
  • Settlement Transfers: Wentworth and Symetra
  • Rapid v. Symetra
  • Review of Robert Wood's article: "Structured Settlements: Factor vs.Commute".
  • See also: Chapter 16 in hardcopy "Structured Settlements and Periodic Payment Judgments" written by Daniel Hindert, Joseph Dehner and Patrick Hindert.
• National Association of Settlement Purchasers (NASP)
  
  • 2007 Annual Meeting
  • 2006 Annual Meeting
  • NASP Wiki
• Deal Flow Media
  • Deal Flow Media structured settlement webinar
• Drinker Biddle
  • Drinker Biddle's "Structured Settlement Update"

New Insurance Investigation

The ABA Journal eReport has posted a December 17, 2004 story announcing a new insurance investigation by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.  According to the article, Spitzer has already subpoenaed at least six insurers to determine whether they are violating antitrust laws for collectively “refusing to provide malpractice coverage for class-action litigators because their lawsuits are forcing insurers and their clients to pay big awards and settlements.”  The named insurers include: CNA Financial Corp., General Electric Co.’s Employers Reinsurance Corp., The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., American Financial Group Inc., Arch Capital Group Ltd., and St. Paul Travelers Companies Inc.

In response, the article reports Robert Hartwig, chief economist for the Insurance Information Institute in New York, as saying the decision by some insurers to drop class-action attorneys is "simply a business decision" because the cost of professional liability insurance has risen dramatically in the past five years. According to Hartwig, Doctors, accountants, board directors and even attorneys are increasingly subject to malpractice lawsuits.

This investigation of the insurance industry follows an earlier ongoing investigation by Attorney General Spitzer into the business practices of insurance brokers one result of which has been the drafting of proposed new disclosure rules by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).  For additional information about the NAIC proposed Model Disclosure legislation, see: NAIC Disclosure Requirements and NAIC Disclosure Requirements – Update 1.