Litigation

IRC 5891 Is a "Settlement Planning Section" of the Internal Revenue Code-Patrick HIndert

By John Darer

In addition to making a veiled slam of the American Association of Persons With Disabilities (AAPD), Patrick Hindert continues his "credo pedo" rhetoric with Structured Settlement Credo- 5 referring to two Internal Revenue Code sections as settlement planning sections.

Dealing with IRC 5891...

IRC 5891 is a section of the Internal Revenue Code whose sole purpose is to impose an excise tax on the "factoring discount", IF certain conditions are not met when structured settlement payment rights are sold to factoring companies (some of whom by virtue of fraudulent advertising are a/k/a financial crack dealers and cash now pushers).

Patrick Hindert has historically made a meal of this code section by-

(1) by shoveling the theory to the Society of Settlement Planners in 2002 that IRC 5891 gives plaintiffs rights to receive a structured settlement that they did not have prior to its introduction. As noble as the idea seemed at the time, it is patently untrue.
(2) by misinforming anyone that will listen that IRC 5891 made factoring legal. The legality of factoring is not disputed, the assertion that IRC 5891 made it legal (as the pedant Hindert and the bellicose kickback paying factoring broker to the structured settlement stars, Rhonda Bentzen have asserted) is; and now...
(3)by making the preposterous implication that Washington had "settlement planning" mind in enacting the legislation creating IRC 5891.

Hindert's continued attack on Richard Halpern is easily dispatched. Halpern's experience with "squandering injury victims" extends over his career experience in what I understand to be over 25,000 cases. Hindert puts the sauerkraut on J.G Wentworth's survey of a non statistical sample of 116 sellers of structured settlement payments! Given the type of products that Halpern offers he is the ideal position to be able to witness spendthrift proclivities and to discern between "legitimate expenses" and potentially "squandered resources". What mainstream plaintiff lawyers has Hindert bounced his ideas off?

This author is a Registered Settlement Planner.

Full post as published by Structured Settlements 4Real on January 22, 2009 (boomark / email).