Litigation

Non Stick Surface May Be Great For Cooking But Not For Structured Settlement Websites

Posted on April 07, 2010
Remember that old adage that it costs more to attract a new customer than to retain an old one? Well the same holds true for website visitors. A sticky site is a place people will visit again. By creating an...

Attention Factoring Companies and Brokers Please Respond

Posted on April 06, 2010
Now that the cat is out of the bag about the reasons for structured settlement servicing, 4structures.com, LLC is compiling a list of structured servicing companies and their telephone numbers so that annuitants can have their questions answered. This author...

Mass Mutual Fitch Ratings Action

Posted on April 06, 2010
Fitch Ratings service has assigned an AA+ (Very Strong) financial strength rating to Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company from AAA (Exceptionally Strong) in its most recent review. MassMutual formerly issued structured settlement annuities. "MassMutual" is still one of the highest...

NSSTA Makes Positive Move in Naming Eric Vaughn Executive Director

Posted on April 06, 2010
The National Structured Settlements Trade Association announced today the appointment of Eric Vaughn as its new Executive Director effective July 1, 2010. Vaughn, a principal in Washington DC based Book Hill Partners, has been NSSTA's chief lobbyist for the past...

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Amy Butte: 'The Road From Ruin': Sex Or Money? Which Is Harder To Talk About?

Posted on April 05, 2010
To kick off Financial Literacy Month on Structured Settlements 4Real let's give a nod to my old friend Amy Butte, who published an interesting article with the above title in the Huffington Post last month. Pondering the questions "Sex or...

Florida Insurance Advertising Compliance Issue For Settlement Industry

Posted on April 05, 2010
The Florida Department of Financial Services states in its April 2010 newsletter "we continue to see a pattern of noncompliance" in insurance advertising. The state regulatory agency has created a resource to assist agents and brokers to keep their insurance...

Obamacare Means Tax on Annuity Payouts for Some

Posted on April 04, 2010
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a/k/a "Obamacare") which was signed into law on March 23, 2010 will slap a 3.8% tax on payouts from annuities that high-income earners purchase outside of their workplace. High income earners are defined...

Structured Settlement Factoring Illiteracy and Lance Winslow

Posted on April 02, 2010
It's financial literacy month and time to bring back an old pantomime villain. Car wash guy, erstwhile wannabe structured settlement expert and confessed key word manipulator Lance Winslow IV has resurfaced after 4 years with an article on structured settlement...

Huh? It Looks Like Zed's NOT Dead!

Posted on April 01, 2010
Flashback to 1994 Now it looks like Zed's NOT Dead! It appears that he's buying structured settlements from this Mt. Holyoke, MA purveyor of Budweiser. Good for Zed! Former tenant of Summit's Chris Seeley, Northeast Settlement Funding's "business address" shows...

Hartford Repays TARP Money

Posted on April 01, 2010
Top of the morning to you Liam E. McGee, the Chairman, President and CEO of Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. which announced March 31, 2010 that it has REPAID its US government bailout of $3.4 billion it took in June...

Leading Structured Settlement Websites (By Traffic) April 2010

Posted on April 01, 2010
Which legitimate structured settlement industry websites are getting the most traffic? Three Month Trailing Top 10 Global Traffic Rank (Alexa Rank as of 04/01/2010) of Structured Settlement and Settlement Planning Industry websites* (+ or- traffic from 03/06/2010 report)...

Annuitant "Forum Shopping" For Independent Professional Advice Part 2

Posted on March 31, 2010
From an anonymous source in response to yesterday's post:: "John, The truth to this matter was that the annuitant had a list of questions for the attorney to answer. The attorney didn't answer any questions asked by the annuitant and...

Annuitants "Forum Shopping" For Independent Financial Advice in Structured Settlement Cash Outs?

Posted on March 30, 2010
A California attorney who dispenses independent financial advice to annuitants considering selling structured settlement payments to raise cash called me today. Apparently an annuitant didn't like the fact that his "independent financial advice" was not to sell ("was a bad...

Structured Settlement and Factoring Advertising

Posted on March 30, 2010
J.G. Wentworth's own statistics suggest that less than 5% of structured settlements have been factored yet some attorneys shun structured settlements because of their fear that their clients will factor their settlements. Is this fear rational or irrational? This post...

Structured Settlement Servicing By Factoring Companies Redux

Posted on March 29, 2010
Settlement Capital's Matt Bracy aired the the 2nd in a two part series "The Problem With Factoring" on the Legal Broadcast Network (LBN) and does an excellent job addressing the subject of servicing of structured settlement payments by factoring companies...

"Rate Rape" Time to Fight Back!

Posted on March 29, 2010
In today's issue of Morning Call Riley Yates underscores the perils of any structured settlement annuitant doing business with Peachtree Settlement Funding. In a piece entitled "Need Cash Quickly? You'll Settle For Less" several stories are presented which show annuitants...

"It Doesn't Matter The Loss We Had To Take" Cash Now Victim

Posted on March 29, 2010
The following comment now appears in the Morning Call article I critiqued in the previous post: "Well unless you are in a situation where you have four children and the mom only working becasue (sic) Dad cannot - from two...

Proper English Usage for Structured Settlement Brokers and Settlement Planners

Posted on March 27, 2010
Paul Brian's "Common Errors in English Usage: 2d- William James Co." has been decscribed as "the most cheerfully useful book since the Kama Sutra" by Scott Simon of NPR Radio. I'm not sure I'd go THAT far, but with financial...

Rhonda Bentzen in "Cash-Now" Compensation "Frying Pan"

Posted on March 26, 2010
John Darer sent the email below to factoring broker and Society of Settlement Planners membership chairperson Rhonda Bentzen today as part of the unending effort to seek the truth about compensation of settlement professionals on structured settlement factoring referrals...

POSTCARDS from Insurance Company Solicit Cash Now

Posted on March 25, 2010
It is well known that Symetra solicits its own annuitants to sell their structured settlement payment rights through its Clearscape Funding Corporation subsidiary. This author has now learned that Symetra is now notifying annuitants by postcard. This author learned this...

Tulsa Settlement Planner Promotes Financial Illiteracy by Doing Nothing

Posted on March 24, 2010
I've said time and time sgain that here is no excuse for the inability of any settlement professional to articulate the BASICS. So Robert Risk and Structured Settlement Services are the target of this blast, AGAIN. How badly does Risk...

"Expert" Promotes Wrong Structured Settlement Definition for 6 years!

Posted on March 18, 2010
Despite a lack of observable success, "wiki man" Patrick Hindert has been tirelessly trying to bring the knowledge management story to several overlapping industries in our space, most recently the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA). As critical of...

Standard & Poors Affirms Hartford Life ratings

Posted on March 18, 2010
Annuitants with Hartford Life structured settlements will be interested in Standard & Poors rating action on Hartford Financial Services Group and its subsidiaries, which includes former structured annuity issuer, Hartford Life Insurance Company S&P credit analyst Shellie Stoddard is quoted...

Rated Ages and Structured Annuities - Part 2 Video Podcast

Posted on March 18, 2010
In second part of a two part series which explores rated ages and the challenges of impaired risk underwriting for structured settlement annuities John Darer's special guests include Rosemary Brindamour, Chief Medical underwriter for John Hancock Life Insurance Company (U...

National Republican Senatorial Committee's "Stop Obama "Survery"

Posted on March 17, 2010
A bit off topic, but today I and one has to presume hundreds of thousands of other Americans received a bar coded envelope from the National Republican Senatorial Committee entitled "Stop Obama Survery", emblazoned with the stamp "official document". Download...

The Protypical "Financial Crack" Dealer?

Posted on March 17, 2010
Some gangsta lookin' hip hop dude with the stereotypical profile photo in the side ways baseball cap and a Phillies jacket approached an industry colleague on Facebook March 11, 2010 stating he "provide a lump sum of cash for structured...

Single Premium Life Insurance Right For Settlement Planning?

Posted on March 16, 2010
John Darer continues his video series on the use of life insurance in the settlement planning process. In this podcast John opines on whether Single Premium Life insurance is appropriate as settlement planning vehicle and discusses some of the alternatives

THEY Hate Working At JG Wentworth..."Employees" Vent on Website

Posted on March 16, 2010
The nation's largest and most obnoxious "cash now pusher" has become the target for criticism on JobVent.com, a public Internet forum that allows employees at various companies to post anonymous comments about their employers. One J.G. Wentworth "employee" states October...

Common Questions and Misconceptions About Structured Settlements Addressed

Posted on March 15, 2010
Structured settlement expert and Registered Settlement Planner John Darer addresses common questions and misconceptions about structured settlements in this video interview by LBN's Scott Drake. Among the issues addressed: Low interest rates Can I do better in the stock market?"...

The ESS-ence of "Attention to Detail"

Posted on March 15, 2010
Some say that New York water is the secret to making the best bagels in the world. I submit to you that those that drink it make for some structured settlement consultants with alarming "attention to detail" A few short...

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