Disability Law

NAELA's Special Needs Summit - 2

By Patrick Hindert

This S2KM blog post strategically analyzes the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) 2010 Special Needs Summit from a structured settlement perspective. A prior S2KM post summarized the NAELA Special Needs Summit. A subsequent S2KM post will strategically analyze the NAELA Special Needs Summit from the perspective of Internet-based knowledge management.

For related S2KM learning resources, see S2KM's public read-only wikis:

• Structured settlement
• Structured settlement public policy
• Web 2.0 for lawyers

From a structured settlement perspective, the strategic business overlap with special needs attorneys encompasses disabled personal injury victims, their families and trial attorneys. Various knowledge leaders, knowledge networks and communities of practice within this strategic business and public domain utilize alternative terminology to describe their businesses without comparative analysis of the terminology itself. Here are some recommended resources to help special needs attorneys understand this growing legal market segment:

• Settlement law - hardcopy textbooks:
  • Robert W. Wood
    • "Taxation of Damage Awards and Settlement Payments"
    • "Qualified Settlement Funds and 468B"
  • Matt Garretson: "Negotiating and Settling Tort Cases"
  • Stuart Zimring, Rebecca Morgan and Bradley Frigon: "Fundamentals of Special Needs Trusts"
• Structured settlement law - Daniel Hindert, Joseph Dehner and Patrick Hindert: "Structured Settlements and Periodic Payment Judgments"
• Settlement consulting - see S2KM's report and analysis of Joseph DiGangi's presentation at the 2009 NSSTA winter meeting.
• Settlement planning - see S2KM's report about the SSP 2009 conference.
• Special needs settlement planning - see S2KM's report about the ASNP 2009 conference and Tim Nay interview.

S2KM regularly attends and publishes reports summarizing and analyzing national educational conferences sponsored by selected professional associations and universities whose speakers and attendees participate within the strategic business overlap of structured settlements and special needs law:

• National Structured Settlement Trade Association (NSSTA)
• Society of Settlement Planners (SSP)
• National Association of Settlement Purchasers (NASP)
• American Association for Justice (AAJ)
• National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA)
• Academy of Special Needs Planners (ASNP)
• National Alliance of Medicare Set-Aside Professionals (NAMSAP)
• Stetson Law School - Special Needs Trust conference

Strategic question: from a structured settlement perspective, what was most important about NAELA's first-ever Special Needs Summit? 

Strategic answer: None of the NAELA speakers or unprograms:

• Attempted to define "special needs law" or any of its ancillary legal and business domains.
• Addressed any of the following structured settlement legal priorities and developments - all of which are strategically important for special needs attorneys:
  • IRC sections 104(a), 130, 468B or 5891;
  • Treasury Hearings for IRC 104(a)(2) regulations
  • Treasury 2009-10 Priority Guidance Plan - dropping single claimant 468B.
  • Spencer v. Hartford class action lawsuit - alleging civil RICO violations.
  • Unauthorized practice of law
  • Dissipation studies
  • Single claimant 468B funds
  • Executive Life of New York
  • Secondary structured settlement annuity market:
    • State structured settlement protection statutes.
    • J.G. Wentworth bankruptcy
    • Fresno County factoring cases
    • Rapid Settlements arbitration model
    • California protection statute amendments - including "best interest" definition

Why should special needs attorneys be interested in structured settlement law? This S2KM structured settlement diagram summarizes a complex legal and financial transaction that requires special needs legal knowledge, documentation and representation and also presents business and career opportunities for special needs attorneys:

• IRC 468B qualified settlement funds
• IRC 130 qualified and non-qualified assignments
• Special needs trusts
• Medicare set-aside arrangements
• Structured settlement transfers

Additional S2KM structured settlement resources for special needs attorneys interested in learning more about structured settlement law:

• Market surveys
• Growing the market
• Structured settlements in 2009
• structured settlement wiki
• structured settlement public policy wiki.

S2KM's next blog post will analyze NAELA's Special Needs Summit from an Internet-based knowledge management perspective.

Full post as published by Beyond Structured Settlements on March 03, 2010 (boomark / email).