Disability Law

NASP 2008 Annual Meeting - 1

By Patrick Hindert

S2KM attended portions of two professional association meetings this week:

• National Structured Settlement Trade Association (NSSTA) in San Francisco; and
• National Association of Settlement Purchasers (NASP) in Las Vegas.

The NASP meeting was attended by 110 attorneys and factoring company executives. In addition to two state judges, the outside speakers included:

• Samuel Crump - Crump, an Arizona state legislator and former legislative counsel for the California state judges, spoke about the importance of NASP involvement in state legislative issues and basic strategies to achieve positive political results.
• Robert Wood - Wood, a leading settlement planning tax attorney and author, summarized the "Top Ten 2008 Tax Developments Affecting Litigation Recoveries"
• Structured Settlement Panel - This author moderated a panel discussion titled "How to Improve and Grow the Structured Settlement Market". Participants included:
  • Jack Meligan, President of Settlement Professionals, Inc.; 
  • Michael Upchurch, President of Delta Settlement Solutions; and
  • Matthew Bracy, General Counsel of Settlement Capital Corporation.

This S2KM blog post highlights the questions addressed by the NASP structured settlement panelists. Subsequent S2KM blog posts will summarize the NASP panel discussion and discuss the NSSTA conference.

"How to Improve and Grow the Structured Settlement Market" - Questions:

• How have your professional careers helped to improve and grow the structured settlement market?
• Who are your clients and what are their attitudes toward: structured settlements? settlement ttransfers?
• What are the primary reasons some plaintiff attorneys and injury victims reject structured settlements?
• What opportunities and strategies exist for the primary market to grow the structured settlement market?
• What primary market strategies and business conduct have hurt the growth of the structured settlement industry?
• How have IRC section 5891 and the state structured settlement protection statutes impacted your business?
• Have these legislative changes been good or bad for the structured settlement industry?
• When you advise plaintiff attorneys and injury victims about structured settlements, what do you tell them about the secondary market?
• Do injury victims or plaintiff attorneys ever contact you post-settlement to discuss settlement transfers? If yes, what are your questions and advice?
• Should the primary structured settlement market be subject to the same legal requirements as the secondary market? Examples: disclosure and judicial approval.
• What impact is the current financial crisis having on the structured market and, more specifically, on your own business?
• What will be the long term impact of the current financial crisis on the structured settlement industry?
• Do you and your clients gain any reassurance from the fact that some NASP members continue to purchase annuities issued by all current NSSTA annuity providers including AIG ?
• Should structured settlement annuity recipients be concerned about the financial viability of structured settlement annuity providers?
• Should any such financial concerns qualify for "best interest" consideration under state structured settlement protection statutes?
• Which business practices of factoring companies are most harmful to the primary structured settlement market?
• Which issues raised by the Fresno County Factoring Cases are most important for the primary and secondary structured settlement markets?
• Does the secondary market help or hurt the growth of structured settlements used to fund settlement trusts including special needs trusts and Medicare set-aside arrangements?
• How can NASP help to improve and grow the structured settlement market?

For prior S2KM blog posts about NASP and NSSTA, see S2KM's Structured Settlement Wiki.

Full post as published by Beyond Structured Settlements on October 25, 2008 (boomark / email).