While many structured settlement professionals were gathering last week at the NSSTA 2006 Annual Meeting in Puerto Rico, the Settlement Channel was broadcasting a four-part series about settlement transfers (aka factoring) featuring Matt Bracy, General Counsel of Settlement Capital. The audio interviews, conducted by Mark Wahlstrom, provide a valuable educational resource about one of the most important and controversial topics in the structured settlement industry. The topics addressed include:
- History of settlement transfers
- Settlement transfer legislation
- Role of structured settlement producers – including duties; compensation; and ethics;
- Settlement transfer process – including underwriting; pricing; disclosure; and notice;
- Role of the judge as settlement transfer “gatekeeper”.
Educational Resources - For structured settlement and settlement planning professionals seeking information about settlement transfers, here are some additional recommended resources:
- John Darer’s weblog – a forceful and prolific critic of factoring companies and their business practices, John’s weblog posts regularly excoriate settlement transfers and underscore the emotional intensity of the debate.
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ABA Article – Co-authored by Daniel Hindert and Craig Ulman, the 2005 ABA article titled “Tranfers of Structure Settlement Payments: What Judges Should Know About Structured Settlement Protection Acts” is the definitive analysis for judges as well as for professionals who want to understand the role of judges in settlement transfers.
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Adam Scales' Article – An Assistant Professor of Law at Washington & Lee University, Scales’ 2002 law review article titled “Against Settlement Factoring? The Market in Tort Claims has Arrived” challenges fundamental structured settlement assumptions and details the new economic life cycle of personal injury claims. Scales was a featured speaker at SSP’s 2006 Annual Meeting.
- “Structured Settlements and Periodic Payment Judgments” – Originally published in 1986, this hardcopy textbook is co-authored by Daniel Hindert, Joseph Dehner and Patrick Hindert. Release 39 features a new chapter titled “Transfers of Structured Settlement Payment Rights” and includes a glossary of statutory settlement transfer definitions.
- “Beyond Structured Settlements” – S2KM's weblog includes the
following additional posts about settlement transfers:
- Introduction to Structured Settlement Transfers;
- Self-funded Settlement Transfers - Questions producers should be asking annuity providers;
- Release 39 of “Structured Settlements and Periodic Payment Judgments”
- NSSTA - Unfortunately, NSSTA has provided almost no educational information about settlement transfers for its members. One result of NSSTA’s 2006 Annual Meeting was enactment of three Bylaw amendments the intent of which appears to establish a NSSTA loyalty test to prevent NSSTA members from participating in factoring “…directly or through any related party…”.
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