Disability Law

S2P2J Release 47

By Patrick Hindert

Release 47 of "Structured Settlements and Periodic Payment Judgments" (S2P2J), co-authored by Daniel Hindert, Joseph Dehner and Patrick Hindert, and published by Incisive Media, features extended discussions about structured settlement public policy and structured settlement business models, standards and practices.

Public policy issues addressed in Release 47:

• Does structured settlement public policy support:
  • Single claimant IRC section 468B qualified settlement funds?
  • Court-approved structured settlement factoring transactions pursuant to IRC 5891 and state structured settlement protection statutes?
• Do personal injury victims have a greater propensity to dissipate their financial resources than non-personal injury victims?
• Should the existence of the secondary market disqualify annuities as a funding option for special needs trusts?
• Does the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 apply to structured settlement annuities?
• Why should structured settlement annuities cost less than lump sum alternatives to fund Medicare set-aside arrangements (MSAs)?

Business standards and practice issues addressed in Release 47:

• Traditional structured settlement business models;
• Spencer v. Hartford class action lawsuit;
• Fresno County factoring cases;
• The J.G. Wentworth bankruptcy;
• New "best interest" test in California's revised protection statute;
• SSP's Standards of Professional Conduct.

S2P2J Release 47 also tightens S2P2J's existing analysis (Chapter 15) about the interaction of structured settlement annuities with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and updates industry developments generally.

S2P2J Release 48 will analyze how health care reform impacts structured settlements and also will feature a new chapter about IRC section 468B qualified settlement funds.

For prior S2KM analysis of related issues see S2KM's:

• structured settlement wiki; and
• structured settlement public policy wiki;
• web 2.0 for lawyers wiki;
• as well as prior S2KM blog posts.

Full post as published by Beyond Structured Settlements on March 26, 2010 (boomark / email).