The Society of Settlement Planners (SSP) hosted its fourth Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.from March 8-10, 2006. The meeting featured open discussion and diverse perspectives from leading experts who addressed priority issues applicable to the structured settlement and settlement planning industries.
For an additional report featuring an audio podcast interview, see SSP 2006 Annual Meeting - Take 2.
Organizational developments – SSP announced two organizational developments. SSP’s Board of Directors elected Charles Derenne as SSP President for 2006. Derenne succeeds past SSP Presidents Paul Lesti, Michele Whitmore and Jack Meligan. SSP also introduced The Center for Association Resources as SSP’s new Executive Director.
SSP Educational Program – During the past two years, SSP’s annual meeting has provided the best legal education programs in the structured settlement industry. SSP has featured industry and government experts with diverse perspectives addressing some of the industry’s most challenging and strategic issues – especially legal issues. The audience has been equally diverse including representatives from annuity providers, factoring companies, trust companies, structured settlement producers, settlement planners, financial planners, plaintiff attorneys, disability attorneys, and attorneys representing annuity providers and liability insurers.
Compensation disclosure – One of the hottest topics within the structured settlement industry today is compensation disclosure.
Beginning with the 2006 Winter meeting of ATLA, the debate over structured settlement compensation disclosure has broadened to include plaintiff attorneys and plaintiff structured settlement consultants. At the ATLA Winter meeting, two prominent plaintiff experts (Rich Halpern and Paul Lesti) debated the relative merits of managed funds vs. structured settlement annuities for personal injury claimants. As part of that debate, Halpern distributed two legal opinion letters addressed to the Academy of Catastrophic Injury Attorneys, an ATLA affiliate. The opinion letters, written by Stephen A. Saltzburg (a law professor at George Washington University) and Erwin Chemerinsky (a law professor at Duke) have been widely circulated and discussed. The letters reach three similar conclusions:
- Experts, including structured settlement experts, have a fiduciary duty to their clients.
- Plaintiff experts have a conflict of interest if they are paid by someone other than the plaintiff without disclosure to and consent by the plaintiff.
- Plaintiff attorneys have a duty to disclose this conflict of interest by structured settlement experts to their clients.
SSP’s educational program confronted the issues raised in these legal opinion letters head-on featuring two prominent experts: Jack Meligan and Frank Johns. Meligan analyzed the opinion letters from the perspective of a settlement planner. He highlighted the need and opportunity for full compensation disclosure by all settlement planners and structured settlement annuity salespersons. Johns analyzed the opinion letters from an ethical context based primarily upon the ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Johns did not disagree with the conclusions expressed in the opinion letters. However, he emphasized the significance of the specific question addressed as well as the complexity of ethical issues generally in structured settlements and settlement planning.
Single claimant 468B funds – The SSP Annual meeting featured multiple speakers addressing 468B fund issues. The issues include whether single claimant 468B funds qualify for structured settlements. The speakers included: attorneys Dick Risk and Jody Brewster, Jeffrey Mitchell of the IRS and Russell Sullivan, the Democratic Staff Director of the United States Senate Finance Committee. Sullivan, who is an assistant to Senator Max Baucus of Montana, specifically addressed the delay by the Treasury Department in responding to a 2003 request for guidance by SSP through SSP legal counsel. Sullivan reported that Senator Baucus’ staff had spoken with Treasury about the need for guidance and stated “…this is an issue that must be addressed.” For additional information about single claimant 468B funds, see this S2KM weblog post.
Legal challenges to business practices – Several outstanding speakers addressed legal challenges to traditional structured settlement business practices from multiple client perspectives. These speakers included Thomas Ciarlone, plaintiff counsel in Macomber v. Travelers; Stephen Harris, who represents annuity providers and liability insurers; Anthony Alfieri, an attorney and settlement planner; Dan Cohen, ATLA’s Director of External Affairs; and Rick Bishop, who provided an update on California Senate Bill 410.
Social security and structured settlements – Jay Sangerman, a Medicare and Medicaid expert, summarized developments impacting structured settlements including special needs trusts and medicare set-aside arrangements. Responding to a request from Sangerman, the Social Security Administration recently issued a letter confirming annuities as funding alternatives for special needs trusts provided the annuity payments are paid to the trust on an irrevocable basis. Based upon personal communications with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Sangerman also predicted that CMS will begin applying the Secondary Payer Rule to liability cases in addition to workers compensation cases. This development would substantially impact current settlement planning by requiring Medicare set aside arrangement in many liability cases.
Structured settlement transfers - Structured settlement transfers(aka factoring) remain one of the most controversial issues in structured settlements and settlement planning. SSP’s program featured Professor Adam Scales, the author of a provocative 2002 Wisconsin Law Review article title: “Against Settlement Factoring? The Market in Tort Claims has Arrived”, and Patrick Hindert, co-author (with Daniel Hindert and Joseph Dehner) of “Structured Settlements and Periodic Payment Judgments.” Ward Zimmerman moderated. The presentation highlighted public policy arguments for and against settlement transfers and included additional advice for settlement planners.
Settlement trusts – Chuck Derenne moderated a presentation about settlement trusts that featured Ben Malsch of First Capital Surety and Deborah Austin of PNC Bank. Both speakers confirmed their companies provide “referral fees” to attorneys and settlement planners if related trust documents so provide without requiring any specific licensing.
Structured settlement sales training – As part of SSP’s peer to peer training, the program included a panel discussion addressing structured settlement “myths and issues”. Panel participants included: Jack Meligan, Dick Risk, Paul Lesti, Charles Bradford and Jesse Spodick.
Congratulations to SSP for an excellent 2006 Annual Program.
For additional information about SSP, see SSP 2005 Annual Meeting.
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