Litigation

Spencer v Hartford, a class action lawsuit about the former structured settlement business practices of Hartford Financial Services Group, has settled for amount that is 10% of what the "clairvoyant" alarmist  Patrick Hindert of S2KM and The Settlement Services Group pegged it to be on April 7, 2009.

"Potential Damages

• The civil component of the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) allows for the recovery of damages in triple the amount of actual compensatory damages.
• Plaintiffs contend their two RICO subclasses ("cost" and "value") exceed 9000 persons and their damages total at least 15% of Hartford's applicable structured settlement premium from 1997 to the present.
• Using an assumed industry per case average structured settlement premium of $176,000, plaintiffs' potential RICO damages against Hartford in the Spencer class action case can be estimated as follows: $176,000 x 15% x 9000 cases x 3 = $712,800,000.
• The District Court's Class Certification Order also includes state-law fraud claims". 

Anyone care to hire Patrick HIndert as their economist?

We can all breathe a sigh of relief that the "one or none" structured annuity issuer days of yore are likely gone thanks to the legal efforts of those involved this law suit.  Simply offering plaintiffs a single structured settlement option that was not always competitive only served to fuel plaintiff attorney skepticism and make EVERYONE's job more difficult than it needed to be and to what end?

The structured settlement watchdog would like to point out that while plaintiff lawyers reading of the Spencer v Hartford settlement should be enthused about the result, they should also be wary of settlement planners who go over the top in using it in their marketing efforts. Those plaintiff attorneys should consider the following:

The standard general agency contract which Hartford required its general agents to sign explicitly provided for a  lower commission to be paid where a case emanated from the Hartford PC cases. A number of "plaintiff exclusive" consultants were general agents of or affiliated with general agencies that signed such an agreement.