Beyond Structured Settlements

NASP 2007 Annual Meeting - 1

The National Association of Settlement Purchasers (NASP) hosted its 2007 Annual Meeting October 18-19 at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C.   This author was privileged to participate. 

S2KM's reporting about NASP's 2007 Annual Meeting begins with this blog post and this wiki which summarizes NASP's 2007 Educational Program -  a learning conversation about "The Structured Settlement Market". 

For prior S2KM commentary about NASP, see this S2KM blog post.

S2KM Podcast Review - 1

This blog post highlights and summarizes S2KM's first six audio podcasts which can be subscribed to and are accessible from the upper left corner of S2KM's blog: "Beyond Structured Settlements". Future S2KM reviews will also highlight podcasts from other structured settlement podcast sites including Ringler Radio, The Settlement Channel and The Factoring Channel.

Truffle Media Networks - S2KM initiated its own podcast channel (S2KM Podcast Channel) June 10, 2007 in collaboration with Truffle Media Networks.  Ned Arthur of Truffle Media hosts S2KM's podcasts. During the past six weeks, S2KM and Truffle Media have begun to develop a collaborative public podcast library.  We intend to continue this collaboration throughout 2007.

Preliminary S2KM podcasts focus on these topics and people:

Participant introductions

• Ned Arthur - S2KM Podcast Tape 1 introduces S2KM Podcast host Ned Arthur and Ned's company, Truffle Media Networks. In Tape 1, Ned and Patrick Hindert, S2KM's Managing Director and blog editor, discuss Ned's background and provide an overview of Truffle Media Networks. They also discuss the application of podcasting to the following industries:
  • Structured settlements - including the primary and secondary United States markets
  • Personal injury settlement planning
  • Special needs planning
  • Secondary insurance markets for annuities and life insurance
• Barbara Bowen - S2KM Podcast Tape 4 introduces Dr. Barbara Bowen, Managing Director of Sound Knowledge Strategies. Barbara is a knowledge management (KM) expert who specializes in eliciting and visually representing tacit knowledge to achieve shared mental models. In Tape 4, Ned and Barbara discuss Barbara's educational and professional background and introduce concept maps. In subsequent S2KM podcasts, Barbara and Ned will discuss specific S2KM concept maps including "How does Web 2.0 Impact Lawyers".
• Joseph Dehner - S2KM Tape 5 introduces Joseph Dehner, a partner in the law firm Frost Brown Todd and co-author of "Structured Settlements and Periodic Payment Judgments". Ned and Joe discuss Joe's historical study of, and role within, the structured settlement industry beginning in 1977. Ned also elicits Joe's preliminary S2KM podcast analysis of structured settlement public policy. Joe will be providing additional podcast commentary about structured settlement public policy for S2KM during the next couple of weeks.

Supplemental S2KM reporting - The following S2KM podcasts supplement prior S2KM blog reporting:

• Special Needs Attorneys - In S2KM Podcast Tape 2, Ned and Patrick discuss the relationship between structured settlements and special needs attorneys. Related S2KM commentary and analysis includes:
  • Structured Settlement Law - a public wiki S2KM developed for a June 12, 2007 presentation to the Academy of Special Needs Planners.
  • Academy of Special Needs Planners - an S2KM blog post reviewing the Academy's March 2007 Annual Conference.
  • Inconvenient Questions - S2KM's three-part series about the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 and its potential impact on structured settlements.
• Structured Settlement Mid-2007 Report - In S2KM Podcast Tape 3, Ned and Patrick identify and review important mid-2007 structured settlement industry developments as highlighted in a prior S2KM blog post. They also review June 2007 structured settlement newsletters from the law firms Drinker Biddle and Pullman & Comley.
• AAJ 2007 Annual Conference - In S2KM Podcast Tape 6, Ned and Patrick review the American Association for Justice (AAJ) 2007 Annual Meeting which occurred in July 2007. S2KM's blog coverage of the AAJ meeting included three posts. S2KM and Truffle Media will be publishing additional AAJ Conference podcast reviews in August featuring other structured settlement stakeholder attendees.

For additional information about podcasting, see S2KM's prior blog post "Introduction to Podcasting" which features an embedded concept map developed by Barbara Bowen.

Release 40 - Chapter 1

Structured Settlement Transaction Diagram,
originally uploaded by Patrick Hindert.

This S2KM blog post highlights important revisions to Chapter 1 ("Introduction and History") contained in Release 40 of "Structured Settlements and Periodic Payment Judgments" (S2P2J) co-authored by Daniel W. Hindert, Joseph J. Dehner and Patrick J. Hindert (author of S2KM's blog) and published by Law Journal Press. For additional S2KM blog posts about S2P2J Release 40, see: Release 40-Introduction.

As demonstrated by the embedded diagram (click to enlarge), a structured settlement can be a complex legal and financial transaction. This complexity results from many applicable statutory and regulatory rules enacted by states and the federal government during the past 30 years. Some of these newer rules (for examples: IRC 5891(c) and many of the 46 state structured settlement protection statutes) include statutory definitions. For attorneys and consultants who work with structured settlements, understanding the sources, significance and restrictions of these definitions represents a professional requirement and challenge.

While referencing statutory definitions, S2P2J Release 40 revisits and revises the book's definition for structured settlement. As used in S2P2J, "structured settlement" describes "the resolution of tort cases that are settled by a claimant's accepting payments over time rather than a single sum". Compare this definition with the definition for periodic payment which S2P2J defines as "a commitment to make future payments to a claimant according to agreed schedule on specific terms." These two definitions highlight the focus and scope of S2P2J which include the resolution "of injury claims that involve non-taxable recoveries arising from tort cases where physical personal injury or physical sickness has occurred or where a workers' compensation system provides funds to injured workers." They also point out the need for standard definitions for structured settlements, settlement transfers and settlement planning - for example: the need for consistency among definitions which already appear, or can be expected, in different statutes impacting structured settlements such as the Internal Revenue Code, Medicare and Medicaid, plus any related state legislation.  For additional information about standards, see the article "How Standards Impact Structured Settlements" on S2KM's website.

In summarizing the history of structured settlement in the United States, Release 40 incorporates two diagrams (Structured Settlement History and Stage 3 Transition) which originally appeared in an S2KM blog post titled: "The Future of Structured Settlements". The history diagram organizes the changing characteristics and key influences defining structured settlements by category within a time line. The historical dates (1982 and 2001) highlighted by this time line represent strategic industry transitions which are supported by the historical growth and acceleration of structured settlement annuity premium. The Stage 3 transition matrix provides an overview of the changes resulting in industry business practices as a result. 

To fully understand the changes re-shaping the structured settlement industry, it is also necessary to study the impact of the Internet and, more specifically, Web 2.0.  For an introduction to Web 2.0 for Attorneys, see S2KM's earlier blog post titled "CBA Presentation" as well as the article "Knowledge Management and Structured Settlements" featured on S2KM's website.