Disability Law

Growing the Structured Settlement Market - 2

By Patrick Hindert

A prior S2KM blog post introduced the subject of "Growing the Structured Settlement Market". This post continues the discussion and highlights some of the important issues related to structured settlement market growth.

• Transition, Change and Growth - Joseph Ricci, NSSTA's new Executive Director, has characterized structured settlements as a "transitional industry". If structured settlements is a transitional industry, what are the most important changes? Do these changes represent risks or opportunities for growing the structured settlement market?
• Structured Settlement Advocacy - Joseph Jamail, "The King of Torts", has proclaimed that "advocacy should be part of the practice and training of structured settlement professionals". What, and on whose behalf, should structured settlement professionals be advocating?
• Claim Management vs. Settlement Planning - What are the differences, if any, between these two structured settlement applications? What do the differences mean for the growth of structured settlements and the future of structured settlement professionals?
• Plaintiff Attorneys - What professional competencies do plaintiff attorneys need to properly advise their clients about structured settlements? How do plaintiff attorneys protect their clients and simultaneously limit their own exposure for professional malpractice?
• The Settlement Planning Team - What professional competencies and funding products does personal injury settlement planning require? Who are the appropriate professionals and product providers? What are their roles and responsibilities generally and for structured settlements specifically?
• Single Claimant 468B - Does existing tax law already authorize single claimant 468B Funds? Do 468B Funds help or hurt the growth of structured settlements?
• Medicare and Medicaid - What Medicare and Medicaid legislation and regulations currently exist for structured settlements? What legislation and regulations are needed to integrate structured settlements with Medicare and Medicaid in order to grow the structured settlement market?
• Related Products and Markets - In addition to structured settlement annuities, settlement funding options for personal injury claimants include settlement trusts, pre-settlement funding and structured settlement transfers. Multiple bills currently before Congress propose tax-free disability savings accounts. How do these related settlement funding options impact the growth of structured settlements?
• Internet Technologies - When and how will the structured settlement industry transition its education, marketing and work processes to the Internet? How will that transition impact the growth of the structured settlement market and the business practices of structured settlement professionals?
• Market Research - NSSTA and AIG have sponsored recent structured settlement marketing surveys. What additional market research is needed to identify and analyze opportunities for growing the structured settlement market?

Quotes about Change and Growth

• "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change". Charles Darwin
• "If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong". Charles Kettering
• "In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists". Eric Hoffer
• "If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less". General Eric Shinseki
• "The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next". Helen Keller
• "If you want to make enemies, try to change something". Woodrow Wilson
• "That which does not kill us makes us stronger". Friedrich Nietzsche
• "Change is inevitable. Direction is Choice". Randy Snow

Full post as published by Beyond Structured Settlements on July 24, 2008 (boomark / email).