Litigation

Buffoonery May Result From Salesmen Who Don't Read

By John Darer

The March 2009 NSSTA newsletter, The Structure, featured the President's message with a slap at Halpern Group entitled Halpern's "Superior Results". The slap says that sometimes "truth is stranger than fiction" and goes on to mock the 17% loss that Halpern declared in a press release for 2008 on investments using its patented PRIMS technology.   The slap also features a link to a press release issued by the Halpern Group which, if anyone took the time to read it all, also discusses superior results over longer time periods.

It seems reasonable to be able to pull and critique selectively provided that the information or claim being critiqued stands on its own. But in this case the cited rate of return dealt with a single year and the same press release referred to returns in other years in which there was a surge is a half assed way of doing things. Frankly I am "surprised" that NSSTA would get tripped up on this knowing that its members might actually use the information.

They may not realize it but apparently a number of settlement planners are making buffoons of themselves at mediation and in competiton as a result of an apparent "incomplete read". as the headline suggests the buffoonery simply enriches their competition.

Clearly stable value products have place in recovery management. Yet each case needs to be evaluated independently. Not every plaintiff however, is risk averse. Some may have the appetite to accept a modicum of risk for long term reward. Some of the buffoonery involves those who recommend trust products or vendors that offer an alternative to Halpern. What the settlement planners should be doing, in my opinion is seeing how THOSE products compete. What did THEY do in 2008?  What have they done over a period of time?

Every product and solution has its pluses and minuses and those are what should be highlighted in competition.

Full post as published by Structured Settlements 4Real on April 20, 2009 (boomark / email).