Litigation

The Allstate Structured Settlement Program has gone retro, apparently for strategic business reasons.

Until today tort victims who faced a defendant or respondent that was an Allstate insured, who wanted a structured settlement could essentially have the structure placed with any annuity issuer rated A+ (Superior), or better, by AM Best & Company.  Prior to the guidelines in place until today the Allstate Structured Settlement Program was fairly restrictive. The change to the immediately prior guidelines was generally received favorably by the entire settlement community.

Tort victim attorneys should note that the new more restrictive guidelines apply to ANY claims involving Allstate Property Casualty, Encompass, Deerbrook and Allstate Commercial insureds. According to the news release "any case that settles from today forward should be placed with Allstate Life Insurance Company  (AM Best A+XV), AIG/American General Life Insurance Company (AM Best A++XV) , John Hancock Life Insurance Company (AM Best A++XV) or Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (AM Best A+XV). The release goes on to state that "all non-qualified cases must utilize Allstate International Assignments, Ltd." Exceptions require corporate approval. It was unclear from the release whether the New York subsidiaries of Allstate Life Insurance Company or AIG would be permissible under the new Allstate Structured Settlement Program. For example to read the release literally, the only two companies on the list that are New York licensed and approved are MetLife and John Hancock. Allstate should issue a clarification on the New York issue as soon as possible to avoid unnecessary confusion.

What this all means is that tort victim attorneys and their advisers must be prepared in advance. Involve your settlement planner or structured settlement broker early on in the process. I'M NOT KIDDING! The above four companies are all fine life insurance companies but the structured settlement planner or structured settlmeent broker must shop the entire marketplace to assure your client is getting the best deal. If that deal can be had by doing the considerable required leg work and then getting one of the 4 companies to match, the tort victim should then be OK with respect to pricing. It will generally be a less costly route than going the qualified settlement fund strategy for cases under $1 million.