NSSTA 2008 Winter Regional Meeting

The National Structured Settlement Trade Association (NSSTA) hosted its 2008 Winter Regional Meeting January 16-18 at the Barton Creek Resort in the Texas hill country west of Austin. Approximately 150 persons attended.

NSSTA's educational program and featured speakers highlighted some of the strategic changes impacting the structured settlement industry as well as the challenges facing NSSTA as a trade association.

Prominent NSSTA themes in Austin:

• Trial Attorneys - Historically defense-oriented, NSSTA now features prominent plaintiff attorneys at every meeting. "King of Torts" Joe Jamail was the keynote speaker in Austin. Jay Harvey, immediate past President of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association (TTLA), also spoke in Austin.
• Disabled Persons and Associations - NSSTA's new structured settlement marketing brochure features Megan O'Neil, a structured settlement recipient who works with the World Institute on Disability (WID). O'Neil was a featured speaker at NSSTA's 2007 Annual Meeting. NSSTA will be a primary sponsor of the American Association of Persons with Disabilities (AAPD) Gala Dinner March 5, 2008 in Washington, D.C. Andrew Imparato, AAPD's President, was a featured speaker at the  NSSTA 2007 Fall Regional Meeting. Imparato and AAPD promote and aspire to "empower" disabled persons which include structured settlement recipients.
• Government Benefits - NSSTA recently formed a government benefits committee which is currently co-chaired by Doug Brand and John McCulloch. In Austin, special needs attorney Pi-Yi Mayo spoke about special needs trusts and the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 while special needs attorneys Robert Sagrillo and Robert Lewis participated on a panel that addressed the Medicare secondary payer rule and the Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007.
• Legal Documentation - Mike Miller and Toni Warbington repeated a presentation they made at NSSTA's 2007 Fall Meeting about the legal and practical issues associated with structured settlement legal documentation. Their presentation emphasized some of the potential legal exposures as well as recent case law.
• Legislative and Regulatory Developments - Eric Vaughn, NSSTA's lobbyist, summarized current Federal legislative developments and outlined NSSTA's political strategy including regulatory priorities and potential alliances with other trade associations. Craig Ulman, NSSTA Legal Counsel, provided a status report on Executive Life of New York.
• Marketing - NSSTA member Mark Wahlstrom, owner and host of The Settlement Channel, introduced a new email-based marketing strategy (titled "An Army of One") developed by NSSTA's Marketing Committee. As a reminder of why annuities are financially secure, Wayne Mehlman of the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) spoke about the solvency requirements and regulatory oversight of the Life Insurance Industry.
• Professionalism - Several NSSTA presentations addressed issues related to this topic. Lynn Courier provided an update on the Broker Relationship Initiative. Bo Short spoke about leadership. NSSTA members Mike Kelly, Teri Triplett and Will Shapiro discussed their personal strategies for maintaining and advancing their professionalism.

NSSTA's Challenges

• Leadership - With few exceptions, NSSTA's leadership currently consists of white males age 50 and over whose professional careers have been restricted to life insurance, casualty claims and traditional structured settlements. Where is the next generation of structured settlement leaders? Why aren't these future leaders attending and speaking at NSSTA meetings? What new skill sets, knowledge, experience and ideas will this new generation of leaders bring to the structured settlement industry? How will the current generation of structured settlement leaders capture and transfer their collective knowledge? How relevant and valuable is traditional structured settlement knowledge in a transitioning market with new laws and business models?
• All Things to All People - In Austin, NSSTA proposed to "represent all viewpoints and interests on all Federal and state legislative and regulatory issues" related to structured settlements. Is that possible - or even desirable? Can NSSTA successfully reconcile the competing interests of companies like AIG and associations like AAPD, WID, NAELA, AAJ, SSP, and their members, clients and constituents, on issues like single claimant 468B? Can NSSTA reconcile a "claim management" (defense controlled) structured settlement model with a "settlement planning" (plaintiff controlled) structured settlement model?
• Secondary Markets - How long, how effectively and how beneficially can NSSTA and its current leadership ignore (from an educational and professional responsibility perspective) the development of the secondary life and annuity markets? What impact will NSSTA's current strategy have upon the long-term growth of the primary structured settlement market? Have the factoring companies really stolen the "structured settlement" brand - or, alternatively, have NSSTA and its members abandoned and ignored their customers? Why not openly discuss settlement transfers at NSSTA meetings? Why not define what constitutes "best professional practices" and re-learn how to sell structured settlements in the new legal and business environment?
• Government Benefits - Both the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 and the Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007 are likely to have a significant impact on the future of structured settlements. Can NSSTA successfully lobby to preserve and expand the use of structured settlements to fund special needs trusts and Medicare set-aside arrangements? Which traditional structured settlement annuity features will survive? What new knowledge, skill sets, services, resources and business models are necessary for current structured settlement participants to survive and remain successful?  Is NSSTA being truthful and/or credible when they tell Congress "structured settlements enable injured victims to live ...free of reliance on government assistance"?
  
• Unauthorized Practice of Law - The traditional claim management structured settlement model encourages (and in some cases requires) intermediaries to engage in the unauthorized practice of law - specifically, the "drafting of legal documents by non-lawyers". Structured settlement legal issues, including the drafting of legal documents, become even more complex in the settlement planning model which must regularly consider issues related to Medicare, Medicaid, special needs trusts, Medicare set-aside arrangements and the secondary life and annuity markets. The most recent NSSTA Regional Meeting presentations of "All Things Considered" have addressed structured settlement legal documentation.  These educational programs represent an important and valuable start in understanding what constitutes the authorized and unauthorized practice of structured settlement law. Hopefully, NSSTA and NSSTA's Legal Committee will continue this education.
• Internet Business Transition - Can NSSTA and its members successfully transition their business to the Internet? Does NSSTA have a strategy to accomplish this objective?  How can NSSTA use web 2.0 technologies and tools to improve its education and business processes?  Does Smith Bucklin, NSSTA's new association management company, possess the necessary skill sets and experience to help NSSTA and its members with this transition?  What is the next step?

Congratulations to NSSTA, especially President Henry Strong and Educational Committee Chairman William Tocchi, for a valuable 2008 Fall Regional Meeting.  The NSSTA 2008 Annual Meeting will take place April 16-19 in La Jolla, California.

For additional S2KM blog posts about NSSTA, see NSSTA 2007 Fall Regional Meeting and incorporated links.