Introduction
“The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.” This Socratic principle underscores a distinction between the Society of Settlement Planners (SSP) and other associations – such as the National Structured Settlement Trade Association (NSSTA) and the American Association of Settlement Consultants (AASC) – whose members describe themselves as “settlement planners.”
Both NSSTA and AASC feature “settlement planning” on their websites. Neither organization, however, has formally defined “settlement planning” or differentiated it from structured settlement consulting.
SSP, by contrast, incorporates a definition of settlement planning into its Mission Statement, describing settlement planning as:
“Advising legal professionals and their clients in the negotiation, design, and funding of legal settlements, addressing the diverse needs of injury victims and their families while maintaining available public and private assistance programs and promoting the proper application of, and safeguards for, the tax and financial remedies afforded recipients of tort recoveries.”
SSP further expands on key elements of this definition through its Settlement Planning Practice Standards – discussed below.
What is Settlement Planning?
The term “settlement planning” can have multiple applications. From its founding 25 years ago through its 2025 Annual Conference (held February 26-28 in San Antonio), SSP continues to offer unique educational programming for current and aspiring settlement planners through four distinct lenses:
1. Business Model
When SSP was founded in 2000, its members envisioned settlement planning primarily as an alternative business model that challenged the claim management and annuity-exclusive framework promoted by defendants, liability insurers, and their structured settlement consultants. Unlike this traditional model, SSP settlement planners represent plaintiffs and their attorneys. While they may offer structured settlement annuities, SSP settlement planners strive to remain “product neutral.”
2. Profession
NSSTA and SSP each offer certification programs purporting to convey professional stature upon their graduates. NSSTA’s Certified Structured Settlement Consultant (CSSC) program acknowledges settlement planning as a recent industry development. SSP’s Registered Settlement Planner (RSP) designation, on the other hand, recognizes individuals who have demonstrated a comprehensive mastery of settlement planning principles.
The CSSC and RSP program topics have increasingly overlapped. However, the topics are presented from distinct perspectives consistent with each organization’s mission and the stakeholder-aligned viewpoints of their respective members.
3. Process
The settlement planning process presents different challenges for plaintiff-side and defendant-side consultants, as they serve different clients with distinct duties. SSP expands and codifies key aspects of its settlement planning definition through its Settlement Planning Practice Standards. The 2017 Practice Standards are not perfect, particularly Practice Standard 9, which defines as “appropriate” the standard for recommending products and services. Until an alternative guide emerges, however, SSP’s Practice Standards will continue to represent the defining “best practice” reference guide for settlement planning.
4. Market
From a settlement planning market perspective, structured settlements represent the “Old World,” where the Mediterranean was once considered the center of civilization, despite being just a fraction of a vast and largely unexplored planet. In 2024, the structured settlement industry achieved a record $9.5 billion in annuity sales, with projections of up to $20 billion annually by 2030.
In contrast, the larger and more complex settlement planning market (the “New World”) remains in its early stages of exploration. One thing is clear: there is a lot more room for expansion. For example, during an SSP panel discussion in San Antonio, a national settlement trust representative noted that his company competes with 17 other settlement trust providers, estimating that newly-generated, managed settlement planning assets exceeded $50 billion in 2024.
SSP 2025 Conference Highlights
SSP’s 2025 Annual Conference presentations featured an array of settlement planning topics:
· A Call to Political Action: AASC PAC and Legislative Update
· Settlement Tax Planning Amidst Chaos and Impending Legislation
· Fee Deferral Back in the IRS Spotlight?
· Confidential QSFs: The Great New Tool Nobody is Talking About
· Professional, Holistic, and Fiduciary Settlement Planning
· Legal Settlement Planning Topics (SNTs, Dual Eligibility, etc.)
· College Planning and Financial Aid Issues in Settlement Planning
· Financial Transitions Tailored to Settlement Planning
· Expanding Product Options to Improve Our Profession
· Settlement Planning Trade Secrets and Implementation Strategies
· Building and Managing a Team of Rockstar Virtual Assistants
· Settlement Planning Case Study
Consistent with past SSP conferences, the 2025 event was efficiently organized and managed. Every presentation included a handout easily accessible online during the SSP event. Special recognition for these organizational achievements is due to Daniel Maxwell and Rhonda Bentzen.
Joseph Tombs also deserves recognition for serving as both a multi-term SSP President, including 2024-2025, and a pioneering thought leader in defining settlement planning as a profession. Tombs presided over the San Antonio conference before passing the role off to new SSP President to Chris Bua. Tombs’ two-part presentation provided a real-world perspective on professional settlement planning plus an engaging, soap-opera-style case study titled Settlement Planner: On the Edge. His presentation highlighted critical industry challenges in transitioning from structured settlements to holistic settlement planning and offered key lessons on overcoming those challenges.
Key Takeaways:
· In settlement planning, sellers of managed assets often have advantages over structured settlements.
· Structured settlements are typically marketed indirectly to plaintiffs through defendants and plaintiff attorneys.
· Managed assets, however, can be marketed directly to plaintiffs via television, the internet, or personal connections with securities-licensed individuals.
· Structured settlements provide income tax-free and fixed, determinable future payments.
· Managed assets rely on investment projections, which are always presented as positive.
· Structured settlement professionals must address liens and post-settlement government benefit eligibility prior to settlement.
· Managed assets can be funded after a cash settlement once other issues are resolved.
· Certain traditional structured settlement assumptions may not effectively translate to settlement planning.
· The presence of multiple structured settlement agents (plaintiff and defendant) with different agendas does not necessarily enhance structured settlement opportunities. Often, they create barriers.
· In a settlement planning context, Qualified Settlement Funds (QSFs) facilitate, rather than harm, the potential use of structured settlements.
Conclusion
The question “What business are we in?” is famously associated with Theodore Levitt, a Harvard Business School professor who, in his seminal 1960 Harvard Business Review article, Marketing Myopia, challenged companies to redefine their industries by prioritizing customer needs over product offerings.
Twenty-five years ago, SSP members redefined our industry by shifting the focus from structured settlement annuities to plaintiff-centered settlement planning. Since then, SSP remains the leading provider of settlement planning education.
For structured settlement professionals aspiring to evolve into settlement planners, the words of Charles Darwin offer guidance:
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
