NSSTA 2005 Regional Meeting

            NSSTA (the National Structured Settlement Trade Association) was the first structured settlement trade association and remains the largest. NSSTA held its 2005 Eastern Regional meeting in Charleston, South Carolina on January 27-28. Approximately 120 of NSSTA’s 600 members attended. The day prior to the NSSTA Regional Meeting, several NSSTA committees met including the Board of Directors, the Legal committee and the Technology committee.

NSSTA’s members include: product providers (primarily annuity issuers), producers (salespersons), purchasers (liability insurers) and associates (attorneys and consultants). NSSTA’s membership does not include any structured settlement factoring companies or structured settlement recipients. Few, if any, plaintiff attorneys, disability attorneys or life care planners are members of NSSTA. Membership costs are posted on NSSTA’s website. NSSTA’s 2005 Annual meeting will take place in Palm Springs, California on April 17-20.

NSSTA meeting speakers are primarily NSSTA members and staff. Their program topics in Charleston included reinsurance products; special needs trusts; tort reform; trusts; non-qualified assignments; taxation of damages; deferred attorneys fees; and disputes among salespersons. Guest speakers included: Patrick Haggerty; Fayrell Furr; and Robert Wood. Haggerty’s opening presentation, a Republican perspective on America, failed to mentioned persons with disabilities or address the important political issues they face today such as tort reform and Medicaid reform. Furr, the incoming President of the Southern Trial Lawyers Association, was pessimistic in assessing tort reform from the plaintiff perspective. Wood, the author of “Taxation of Damage Awards and Settlement Payments”, reported on the recent Supreme Court decisions in the Banks and Banaitis cases 

NSSTA's role in the structured settlement industry focuses on educational programs and lobbying on behalf of its members.  NSSTA also lobbies on behalf of other structured settlements participants including claimants and plaintiff attorneys.   A recent example is NSSTA's successful lobbying to preserve opportunities for plaintiff attorneys to defer their fees. For background information, see Plaintiff Attorney Compensation.  NSSTA also recently helped address and stop false information about the taxation of attorney fees.  Following the Supreme Court decision January 20, 2005 in the Banks and Banaitis cases, the Los Angeles Times incorrectly reported the court’s decision by claiming all money received from lawsuit settlements must now be included as part of the plaintiff's "gross income" and then syndicating the story.  NSSTA quickly secured a retraction.

Although NSSTA has many immediate education priorities, three subjects were notable by their absence from NSSTA’s program agenda: Medicare; compensation disclosure; and factoring.

• Medicare - On October 15, 2004 CMS (the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) issued a policy memorandum defining new rules for structured settlements in workers compensation cases requiring a Medicare set aside arrangement. These rules are strategically and operationally important for the structured settlement industry. The Medicare secondary payer rules are applicable to many categories of non-workers compensation cases. For additional information about Medicare, the Medicare secondary payer rules, Medicare Set-aside arrangements and how they impact structured settlements, see “How Medicare Set-aside Arrangements Impact Structured Settlements”.  An expanded version of this article will appear in Release 37 of “Structured Settlements and Periodic Payment Judgments”.

• Compensation Disclosure - On December 29, 2004, the NAIC (National  Association of Insurance Commissioners) adopted model compensation disclosure rules for insurance producers. This model legislation is strategically and operationally important for the structured settlement industry.  For background information, see the earlier posts under the “Disclosure” category on this weblog.  A new section about structured settlement disclosure including compensation disclosure will appear in Release 37 of "Structured Settlements and Periodic Payment Judgments".

• Factoring - On January 23, 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law the Victims of Terrorism Tax Relief Act of 2001. This law includes important new definitions and rules for structured settlements.  NSSTA and most of its members continue to resist factoring and have failed to incorporate factoring into their product offerings. For additional information, see “How IRC Section 5891 Impacts Structured Settlements”.   More detailed and more current information about structured settlement factoring is available in “Structured  Settlements and Periodic Payment Judgments”.

         From a technology perspective, the structured settlement industry remains primitive.  Many  processes in the tort industry, including structured settlements, continue to be paper-based.  The primary work process tools are analog telephones, faxes and emails.  NSSTA meetings are not organized to accomodate laptop computers.  During the Charleston meetings, many NSSTA attendees expressed interest in online social network technologies including wikis, weblogs and VOIP.  These technologies could help NSSTA to improve communication, learning and collaboration among its members. One technology milestone resulting from the NSSTA meeting was the first draft article about "structured settlement" in Wikipedia.  For additional information, see Structured Settlement and Wikipedia.

For additional information about NSSTA, see the NSSTA website and this report about the NSSTA 2005 Annual Meeting.

For additional information about structured settlements, see New Basics for Structured Settlements, S2KM's website, wikipedia, and "Structured Settlements and Periodic Payment Judgments" as well as other entries on this weblog.