Among his many memorable quotes, Winston Churchill is credited with being the first to say “never let a good crisis go to waste.” Judging solely by reported structured settlement premium production, most structured settlement professionals and companies appear to have ignored Mr. Churchill’s advice for the second consecutive year. As the COVID pandemic continues to...
Do you have questions about how reinsurance works in general, or specifically the reinsurance agreement between Hannover Re US and Independent Life? You have come to the right place! Settlement Nation co-hosts, Chris Bua and Courtney Barber interview Independent Life’s CEO Jimmy Atkins, where Jimmy dives into all of this and more. Check out the entire interview or skip to a...
When the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published the most recent Version 3.3 of its Workers Compensation Medicare Set-Aside Arrangement (WCMSA) Reference Guide on April 19, 2021, no one within the structured settlement or settlement planning marketplaces appears to have noticed a development that could impact structured settlements annuities. Enacted in 1980, the Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP)...
“We can’t become what we need to by remaining what we are.” – Oprah Winfrey In her new book titled “Investing is Your Superpower,” written primarily for the types of female professionals who have organized the National Structured Settlement Trade Association’s Women’s Caucus and the American Association of Settlement Consultants’ Alliance for Women, Shinobu Hindert prefaces her concluding chapter...
In this episode of Settlement Nation I chat with James DeSimone, the founder of V. James DeSimone Law. James is one of the most highly regarded employment lawyers and civil rights advocates in Los Angeles, successfully achieving multi-million dollar settlements and verdicts on behalf of his clients. James was voted California Civil Rights Lawyer of the Year 2014,...
In this episode of Settlement Nation we chat with Aimee Wagstaff, the founding partner of Andrus Wagstaff. Aimee has dedicated her professional life fighting against pharmaceutical and medical device companies. The vast majority of her litigation is done through national mass tort consolidations and she has been appointed by federal and state court Judges across the country to...
In this episode of Settlement Nation we sit down with Olivier Taillieu, a partner of The Dominguez Firm and a distinguished and respected trial attorney. He has tried and won multiple jury trials in his outstanding career, and has recovered tens of millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements for his clients, including a $29,000,000 verdict in a...
The number of exonerations for wrongfully incarcerated individuals has increased for the third year in a row, according to The National Registry of Exonerations, with an average of over three exonerations per week across the United States. Experts attribute this leap to a growing trend of accountability in prosecutorial offices around the country. How might this influx...
Misconceptions Attorneys Have About Structured Settlements Thank you for your interest in our e-book. Our goal is to help dispel any misconceptions attorneys may have about structured settlements, their benefits to plaintiffs, and their long-term value to attorneys themselves. Attorneys may think of structured settlements as an outdated or unfamiliar settlement technique and most plaintiffs’...
3 Tips for Preparing a Mediation involving Structured Settlements From a structured settlement perspective, whenever a plaintiff attorney is preparing for a mediation involving various tort and non-tort case, the attorney should address the following questions: Have I advised my client about structured settlements and provided my client with adequate resources to allow my client to express an informed...
What Do Smart Phones Have in Common with Structured Settlements? If a future business historian were to make an analogy between the personal injury settlement planning market in 2030 and the smart phone market in 2020, which product will structured settlement annuities resemble more – the BlackBerry or the iPhone? When Chinese electronics company TCL Communication announced this week that...
Structured Settlements and Periodic Payment Judgement Book Release 66 Since it was first published in 1986, “Structured Settlements and Periodic Payment Judgments” (S2P2J), has provided structured settlement stakeholders with an authoritative reference guide, consisting of 16 chapters with extensive footnotes and Appendix documents, to help them understand issues and fashion settlements and judgments utilizing periodic...
Why the Market Needed a New Non-Qualified Structured Settlement Plan Structured settlements are typically associated with physical injury, sickness, wrongful death or workers’ compensation claims. In these cases, the tax code allows the claimant to receive income tax free compensation for their injuries, spread over time, from a trusted life insurance company via a §130(c) qualified assignment but...
ABLE accounts, similar to special needs trusts and pooled trusts, allow qualifying persons with disabilities, including personal injury victims, to save money without jeopardizing their eligibility for means-tested public benefits. Means-tested public benefit programs generally impose income and resource limitations. For example, to qualify and remain eligible for Social Security Income (SSI) and Medicaid,...
CMS WCMSA Reference Guide Version 2-9 Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-Aside Arrangements (WCMSAs) have become an important submarket for structured settlement annuities. Arguably, the primary reason has been a significant cost advantage CMS has provided for structured settlement annuities (perhaps unintentionally) compared with lump sums. The basis for the cost advantage CMS has provided to structured settlement annuities results from the...
P.O. Box 679053
Dallas, Texas 75267-9053
Any discussion of taxes herein is for general informational purposes only and does not purport to be complete or cover every situation. Independent Life, its affiliates, its distributors, and its and their respective representatives do not provide tax, accounting, or legal advice. You should confer with your qualified legal, tax and accounting advisors based on your particular circumstances. All guarantees are obligations of Independent Life Insurance Company.