Litigation

The Hartford To Be Sold? Analyst Speculates in Connecticut Newspaper Report

Posted on November 01, 2008
Michael Paisan Managing Director of Stifel Nicholas said "it seems as if The Hartford would be better served to be part of a much larger entity with a stronger capital base." in an article by Dianne Levick which appeared in...

Current and Former Structured Annuity Issuers Listed Among The Street.Com Ratings (Weiss) Strongest Life and Health Insurers in US

Posted on November 01, 2008
The most recent quarterly financial safety ratings from The Street.com Ratings (formerly Weiss Research ratings) include a number of structured settlement annuity issuers:Allstate Life Insurance Company A-American General Life Insurance Company B+John Hancock Life Insurance Company AMassachusetts Mutual Life Insurance...

Hartford Has Worst Quarterly loss in 198 Years...But Don't Panic-CEO

Posted on October 31, 2008
Hartford Financial Services Group took a $2.6B hit in the 3rd quarter which was comprised of $2.2B in capital losses and $932 MM in deferred acquisition costs related to new and renewed policiesToday Hartford released the following statement from Ayer...

Former NSSTA President and SSP Executive Director Bashes AIG... Promotes Factoring

Posted on October 31, 2008
What a sorry figure Patrick Hindert casts on Halloween. In a mistitled post entltled "NSSTA 2008 Fall Meeting-2", a meeting he admitted that he did not attend (save several committee meetings and scarfing down crudites at an opening reception) former...

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Are Structured Settlement Annuities Safe? New York Attorney Says Yes

Posted on October 31, 2008
Mark E. Seitelman a New York, NY based personal injury attorney gives his thoughts on whether insurance annuities are safe for structured settlements in this post dated October 10, 2008.

Bair Says FDIC May Start To Provide Guarantees For Insurance Companies

Posted on October 30, 2008
NO, Not THAT Bair! Sheila C. Bair, the Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, addressing the International Association of Deposit Insurers (IADI) annual meeting in Washington on October 29, 2008, is said to have stated that such guarantees could...

Was Alicamousa's "Meligatawny Soup" Enough to Tame Hyenas of The NASP Zoo

Posted on October 27, 2008
In NASP Annual Meeting- 3, pedantic Patrick Hindert, aping Alicamousa the lion tamer, finally gets to the point. Here are some select observations by NSSTA member Hindert about the responses from the spectacle which included former Society of Settlement Planners...

United States Treasury Bond Trust Structured Settlements

Posted on October 26, 2008
Structured settlements funded with United States Treasury Obligations can provide claimants with a greater degree of security than annuities for those that are most conservative. Is there a greater level of financial security than an issuer than has the financial...

New Deal Inspiration For 21st Century Financial Crisis

Posted on October 26, 2008
With national elections upon us and the recent announcement by the United States Treasury that the Federal deficit as of September 30, 2008 was $455B (the largest in US history) the following timeless words of the Great Depression era seem...

Will Palm Beach County Voters Elect Counsel For "Financial Crack" Dealer?

Posted on October 26, 2008
With less than 10 days to go before the election the question is whether Palm Beach county voting lawyers will vote for incumbent Adam Hasner, a Republican, or Democrat Robert Ostrov, whose Florida job experience has consisted of two legal...

Popular Structured Settlement and Settlement Planning Websites

Posted on October 26, 2008
Three Month Trailing Top 10 Traffic Rank (Alexa Rank as of 10/26/2008) of Structured Settlement and Settlement Planning Industry websites* (+ or- traffic from 09/25/2008 report). Lower number means more traffic. Who Are Ya? Beyond Structured Settlements Blog (Pat Hindert)...

Allstate Life Rated Aa3 Moodys

Posted on October 25, 2008
Moodys Investor Services has rated Allstate Life Insurance Company and Allstate Life Insurance Company of New York Aa3. The rating change does not affect the core auto and home insurance business which remains at Aa2. This one notch downgrade is...

Treasury Expected To Take Stake In Insurance Companies

Posted on October 25, 2008
In a developing story the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports that the United States Treasury Department is contemplating taking equity stakes in insurance companies. The Treasury Department wants insurance companies to participate in its TARP Program, according to WSJ sources...

The NSSTA "Pin Cushion" of Its Own Design

Posted on October 25, 2008
Expect NSSTA member Patrick Hindert to insert pins into his NSSTA voodoo doll any day now. Those of us who witnessed Patrick Hindert at The Grand Hyatt in San Francisco flitting in and out of the NSSTA legal committee or...

Leave it to Forge Consulting to Try and "Inspire Confidence" Using One of History's Greatest Financial Frauds

Posted on October 24, 2008
I'm Bairly surprised that Forge Consulting thinks all is all Schell with the world. These QSF jockey crackerjacks STILL think they're Gunn-er Spooner feed some Sap this bullshit about Executive Life being smooth sailing? Structured Settlement History Not Forge Consulting...

Re-Finance Your Term Insurance!

Posted on October 21, 2008
Good news for families! The insurance Information Institute reports that term insurance rates have dropped 4% a year since 2000 with the trend expected to continue. One reason for the drop: Mandatory switch of mortality tables to the 2001 Commissioners...

ZaftAIG Viking Singer

Posted on October 21, 2008
In an effort to build up interest by agents and brokers in selling its enhanced guaranteed universal life insurance product,ContnueUL Extend, AIG has certainly got our attention. You see AIG/American General has its own version of the well fed singing...

Gossip Queen Sitting Down on Job

Posted on October 19, 2008
Factoring broker Rhonda Bentzen , who once proudly used the screen name "StructureHo", can't even get industry gossip right anymore. While she obsesses over pets, chewing gum, the spelling of the word "senator" and defense of paying kick backs to...

Ashamed Of Your Middle Name? They'll Adopt It Too

Posted on October 19, 2008
Like the friends who shave their heads in a show of empathy to the cancer inflicted who lose their hair (due to the side effects of chemo), a similar phenomenon has sprung up within online social networks by Obama supporters....

Chief Investment Strategist "Invest in Low Cost Guaranteed Annuity"

Posted on October 19, 2008
In Friday's Denver Post online P. Brett Hammond, managing director and chief investment strategist for TIAA-CREF Asset Management tackles the home mortgage meltdown and the effects on the stock markets and other credit markets. In his conclusions he states: "Individuals...

The "Golden Age of Structured Settlements"

Posted on October 19, 2008
Mark Wahlstrom has published a good post entitled "The Golden Age of Structured Settlements" on The Settlement Channel. Mark lays out how an Obama Presidency coupled with the inevitable consequences of recent monetary policy make structured settlements an even more...

IRS Notice 2008-92 Provides Tax Certainty to Variable Annuity Holders During Period of Economic Stabilization

Posted on October 19, 2008
The United States Treasury recently instituted a Temporary Guarantee Program For Money Market Funds to provide cash from the Exchange Stabilization Funds to money markets that are regulated by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). In short, the temporary guarantee program...

Hey Lahde Lahde Lahde

Posted on October 18, 2008
Hedge Fund Manager Andrew Lahde, who quit after making spectacular gains of 870% last year betting on the downside of sub prime wrote this letter to clients now making the rounds in the media. "Today I write not to gloat....

"CASH NOW PUSHER" ATTORNEY Robert Ostrov MUST NOT BE ELECTED TO FLORIDA LEGISLATURE!

Posted on October 17, 2008
Let's hope someone gets the word out to Palm Beach County trial lawyers. While many trial lawyers tend to vote Democrat because of the perception that a vote for Republicans means a vote for tort reform, they need to rethink...

Aviva Structured Settlements Chronology of Company Names

Posted on October 16, 2008
Aviva has made considerable expansion into the United States structured settlement annuity market, initially through acquisition or mergers with CGU (itself a product of the marriage between Commercial Union and General Accident), Bankers Life of New York and AmerUs...

Court "Sniffing"...A Sign of The Times?

Posted on October 16, 2008
The ability to Court sniff for "structured settlement truffles" is not limited to the factoring industry. Apparently the legal community has recently observed an unprecedented number of structured settlement firm representatives loitering at and around Court clerk's offices getting information...

Jessica Johnson's "Ed-Abhorial"

Posted on October 16, 2008
Jessica Johnson is Head of Editorial and PR in London for Data Explorers, a firm that measures and tracks stock borrowing. In an editorial on Seeking Alpha published on September 16, 2008 discussing the Market Capitalization on Loan (a/k/a "short...

Bentzen IRC 5891 "Flub Post" Fastest Rising Post on Speaking of Settlements

Posted on October 15, 2008
Our syndicated story about the IRC 5891 flubs by Rhonda Bentzen of Bentzen Funding Solutions is almost to the top of the most viewed list over at Speaking of Settlements. Incredibly, despite other newsworthy stories, in only two months IRC...

John Hancock Life Standard & Poors Ratings Affirmed at "AAA"

Posted on October 15, 2008
Standard & Poors has affirmed the top "AAA" financial strength ratings and stable outlook of Manulife Financial Corp. and its key operating subsidiaries, including structured settlement annuity issuer, John Hancock Life Insurance Company. The rating affirmation is unchanged after Manulife...

"As The Qualified Settlement Fund Turns"

Posted on October 15, 2008
WHY would a plaintiff lawyer agree to an extra expense inuring to his client's recovery in setting up a single claimant qualified settlement fund for moneys being used for a structured settlement, where there is no restriction on the selection...

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