Writing publicly about conferences you have not personally attended can be dangerous and unprofessional. So also is quoting, and/or misquoting, portions of copyrighted presentations out of context - especially when you rely on unnamed sources for your material.
Professional protocols, however, have not prevented John Darer (in this blog post) from mischaracterizing my presentation at the QSF Symposium sponsored by Evolve Bank and Trust on September 27-28, 2012.
In his blog post, Darer falsely accuses me of highlighting the following "points" related to "[p]romises to pay periodic payments acquired in the secondary market":
- "No tax authority
- "No regulatory oversight
- "No credit/performance enhancements
- "No state ‘guarantee fund’ protection
- "No liquidity
- "Many risks associated with enforcing and monitoring receivables acquired through structured settlement payment rights ‘transfers’
- "An unrated (‘naked’) promise by delegee/obligor (i.e. ‘general unsecured creditor’)
- "Non-transferable"
I did no such thing.
The "points" John attributes to me did appear in the larger context of two copyrighted slides I presented and discussed at the QSF Symposium. They did not, however, apply to "promises to pay periodic payments acquired in the structured settlement market" - whatever that means. Nor did they apply generally to "structured settlement payment rights" purchased in the secondary market.
Instead, the "points" John has lifted (out of context and without proper attribution or permission) from two copyrighted slides refer to one specific type of transaction that might indirectly utilize structured settlement payment rights. And the purpose of the discussion, as I stated during my presentation, was to highlight issues that need to be addressed before this specific type of transaction will satisfy marketplace due diligence.
Of course, John actually would have had to attend the QSF Symposium - and to have heard my presentation - to understand these nuances.
Concerning this same presentation John did not actually attend, he also writes: "This represents one of the few occasions in over 8 years that Hindert has highlighted anything substantially negative associated with structured settlement transfers or investing in structured settlement payment rights."
Having previously addressed this canard about S2KM's biased reporting, I refer readers, including John, to this blog post for S2KM's response.
For additional S2KM reporting about the QSF Symposium, see the structured settlement wiki.
Patrick Hindert, Author
"Beyond Structured Settlements"
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