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While She Fiddles With "Her Obsession" Her Competitors Can't Believe Their Luck

By John Darer

The astounding thing about the Rhonda Bentzen meltdown is that since December 1, 2007 she has written a total of 16 blog posts and 13 of them, or 81.25% are directly about me, or have something to do with me. On the other hand I have written 134 or so posts during that time and only 9 or so, 6.7% have any connection to Bentzen or her rantings.

The operative question is "Why is Bentzen so obsessed with writing about me while ignoring the opportunity to educate the public on what it is that she does for a living?" While Bentzen fiddles, her competitors can't believe their luck.

Is she now condemning me for attacking factoring company business practices? She says "the factoring industry is the one WE all love to hate". Excuse me readers, but isn't Ms. Bentzen IN the factoring industry? Does Bentzen hate herself?

She has cited a list of people that have featured in stories on this blog, yet given the opportunity did not state anything contemporaneous to the posting date of the stories, or otherwise, to prove the stories were incorrect or inaccurate (along with evidence to support statements or basis from which opinions were derived). My posts speak for themselves.

Ms. Bentzen now makes the dubious claim that unlike this author she has "the balls" to stand up for what she believes to be right regardless of the consequences. Setting aside that biological impossibility, the evidence shows otherwise. Bentzen has done little to clean up her industry as a factoring broker. On the other hand it was Bentzen that revealed to the world that 90% of her clients were "on the structured settlement factoring vig take".

In terms of cleaning up the structured settlement industry, directly or indirectly as a result of my efforts and 6,500-7,000 page view a month readership and their distributees:

1. Forge Consulting no longer uses the "plantiff" brochure
2. Forge Consulting no longer uses former Presidential candidate and Senator John Edward's name, in a manner to induce others to do business with it, which suggests Edwards actually did structured settlement business with them to resolve a personal injury claim while he was practicing law.
3. Forge Consulting no longer advertises that depending on the time of deferral, the sole benefit of structuring attorney fees results in an "equivocated guaranteed rate of approximately 15%".
4. We learned that the cost free qualified settlement funds that Forge Consulting once advertised are not in line with the rules in New York State Insurance law.
5. We learned that insurance agents cannot advertise the amount of money they give to trial lawyer associations in promotional materials , in New York
6. Forge Consulting no longer advertises that is "the only plaintiff exclusive company in the country".
7. Forge Consulting no longer advertises it is a "structured annuity buyer"
8. Brokers, that advertise that they are "plaintiff only" or "plaintiff exclusive no longer embarrass our industry by signing declarations under penalty of perjury to the United States Department of Justice that they have substantial experience providing structured settlement services for defendants "in each of the last 3 years"
9. The SSP, for whom the past several years Bentzen has served as membership chairperson, no longer has factoring companies as members or patrons
10. Delta Group, previously revealed to this author by Bentzen to be one of her clients, no longer displays a professional designation that does not exist. The page however, as of last Friday, still exists on its server, has not been deleted or edited and is accessible through public means.
11. The practice of structured settlement factoring vig has been brought from the tall grass out into the open.
12. 25 professionals have signed the Business Practices Declaration Concerning Structured Settlement Factoring Compensation. One broker, who has not yet signed, was inspired to speak to a New York Judge who incorporated strong language into his required Structured Settlement Brokers Affidavit which essentially precludes structured settlement brokers from profiteering on both sides of a structured settlement.
13. More and more factoring companies are getting the message about the consequences of their advertising and some have made favorable changes to their Internet based promotional materials.
14. More and more attorneys have shared my posts among themselves and with judges.
15. Upchurch Financial now hopefully knows the difference between 468(b) and 468B, as it should have before it published its web site. As of 152pm today this has not been corrected.
16. We learned that Pressman Settlements Corporation is soliciting business in Florida with a Florida office yet, according to a search at www.sunbiz.org the entity is still not registered with the Florida Secretary of State or licensed as an insurance agency with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.
17. Fewer people are running around falsely claiming that every defendant or insurance company is taking kickbacks and/or every broker is paying kickbacks.

What is there left to debate with Bentzen? She's already admitted that she offers and pays the structured settlement factoring vig. Her ludicrous statement that the vig helps the tort victim get more cash now money has already been disproven by 3 independent sources in her industry during the "factoring smackdown". The fact that she's a gossip need not be debated as it is common knowledge in the industry.

This author chooses not to do business with Rhonda Bentzen and Bentzen Funding Solutions because:

(1) and most importantly, better deals for profoundly injured people can easily be had elsewhere;

(2) Bentzen's continuous and potentially harmful gossip about the sexual escapades of a particular broker with other married individuals in our industry;

(3) The frequency and manner in which Bentzen freely obtained and disseminated information about other participants in our industry to this author finally reached a point where it became obvious to this author that she was not someone to be trusted;

(4) Bentzen made a specific threat to this author that she intended to disclose personal information about this author in a public forum that was in and of itself inappropriate and irrelevant to the debate about structured settlement factoring vig. As if that wasn't inappropriate enough she didn't have her facts straight.

Finally, this author DOES NOT consider Rhonda Bentzen a friend, good or otherwise.

Full post as published by Structured Settlements 4Real on February 18, 2008 (boomark / email).