Structured Settlements 4Real™ Blog: Structured Settlements | Settlement Planning News and Commentary

The Blair Switch Project?

The annual regulatory filings for Buffalo, New York based Forge Consulting, LLC with the Secretary of the Commonwealth in Massachusetts show a John T. Blair as Authorized Signatory since 2009. Prior to that time John T. Bair was listed as Manager.

This could provides some clues as to why "Captain" John T. Bair was "said" to be crooning this Grand Funk Railroad classic in the shower this morning.

Why Is NYSTLA Dissing Partners for Justice? Have NYSTLA Members Considered the Potential Damage to The Partners Program?

Many members of the New York State Trial Lawyer Association Partnership For Justice are abuzz over a letter sent last week to NYSTLA members by outgoing NYSTLA President, Buffalo attorney Richard S. Binko, all but using his position as President to endorse Forge Consulting at the expense of other NYSTLA "Partners". 

Given the opportunity to promote the Partnership for Justice Program, Binko blew it in the opinion of this author.

Forge Consulting has done a masterful job of coming to the obvious conclusion that trial lawyer associations need money and routinely donates large sums of money to state trial lawyer associations such a NYSTLA as a marketing strategy. The company proudly speaks of its donations on its website and has historically done so in marketing materials disseminated to trial lawyers. 

Jar Jar "Binks' " letter follows on the heels of this story which we  published on September 25, 2009 an excerpt of which follows:

"This email  (Download NYSTLA List Serve-Forge) entitled "[Plaintiffs only ]structuring attorney fees" was circulated on September 25, 2009 using a NYSTLA forum/ list serve (copied via a dedicated email address at the New York State Trial Lawyers Association  "NYSTLA") to many others:

Attorney Robert J. Greenstein of Greenstein & Milbauer, LLP states:

"Below is a link to a very informative article written by tax attorney, Robert Wood, regarding structuring attorney fees.  If you’re interested in fee deferral, please contact (name of settlement firm) they are a partner...and we should support them – they contribute 60K+/yr to NYSTLA"  

Can one help but wondering how often an email tying the size of a insurance agency's financial contribution to the solicitation of insurance on behalf of a licensed agent or licensed agency with NYSTLA occurs? Bear in mind that both the consumers in the structured attorney fee insurance sale AND the beneficiaries of the insurance agency's financial contribution are the association's members".

Points for consideration

A. Following is an excerpt of a published opinion of  the Office of General Counsel New York State Insurance Department dated September 24, 2007:

"Turning to the question about advertising donations to certain not-for-profit organizations like association of trial lawyers, note as an initial matter that in Opinion of General Counsel No. 07-03-07 (March 12, 2007), the Department stated that “nothing precludes the agent or broker from making charitable contributions so long as the advertising of a charitable contribution as an incentive for new insurance business does not constitute an improper inducement in violation of Insurance Law § 2324.” This statement applies with equal force to life, accident and health insurance policies for which such an inducement would be a violation of Insurance Law § 4224.

The inquiry references an “affinity program” of an association representing trial lawyers. To participate in the program, a business must sign an agreement that provides for certain advertising-related services by the not-for-profit in exchange for a contribution from the participating business. The member businesses are responsible for providing all advertising content. The association urges its members to make purchases from any business that has joined the affinity program.

If this form of arrangement were strictly an exchange of compensation by an agent or broker for advertising services, the Department would regard the contributions as fees paid for permissible advertising, and not donations to a not-for-profit. In that circumstance, the contributions would not constitute an inducement in violation of Insurance Law § 4224.

However, where, as here, an agent or broker advertises that the agent or broker makes contributions to a not-for-profit organization of concern and interest to potential purchasers of insurance or annuities, such conduct constitutes an illegal inducement to purchase insurance that runs afoul of Insurance Law § 4224. Nor may an agent or broker evade the prohibition set forth in the Insurance Law by enlisting the aid of the not-for-profit organization to do what the agent or broker cannot do lawfully".

B. Richard S. Binko's letter is incredibly shortsighted, in the opinion of this author. The encapsulation of his "love affair "with Forge would have been far more "romantic" had it been penned on his own law firm's letterhead with a dab of their favorite cologne behind the "dog ear".

C. NYSTLA and any other trial lawyers association for that matter should assess how it dispenses written praise under the moniker of the association, or whether it  is even advisable,. NYSTLA should be more sensitive to others who support their mission, those from who they (or their members) solicit donations, participation in political fundraisers,  advertising,  sponsorships, auction prizes and other financial consideration to support NYSTLA and its causes.

D  Consider the embarrassment that a number of partners in the settlement section are lawyer members of NYSTLA. They received the Forge endorsement letter directly from Binko. Ooopss!

E. If NYSTLA has a prohibition on using its home domain list serves for solicitation of business then by all means enforce it. Otherwise eventually someone who someone was trying to hide it from is going to find out about it

F. If NYSTLA members think this is matter of sour grapes, think again. Whatever good Forge Consulting does, and they do some good things, this author reminds NYSTLA that in 2005 and 2006 Forge Consulting solicited NYSTLA members on the basis that it was plaintiff exclusive while at the same time its President and CEO and two other principals attested under penalty of perjury about their SUBSTANTIAL defense work in the preceding 3 years so that those individuals could get on the list of brokers who meet the qualifications to do work for the United States Department of Justice. The Forge President ALSO stated that he was plaintiff exclusive to the MATA President on the Legal Talk Network only 3 months after signing one of his two attestations!

Download 2005 Bair DOJ 50.24 Declaration

Download 2006 Bair DOJ 50.24 Declaration

Download Charlie Schell DOJ Declaration 3-1-2005

Download Spooner Phillips DOJ Declaration 3-3-2005

You legal scholars can argue over a beer or glass of wine, whether the mutually exclusive statements made by Forge Consulting and /or its principals constituted false advertising or perjury, and/or which is the most desirable trait in a business partner. Written on behalf of NYSTLA, doesn't Binko's letter simply communicate to other members of the  NYSTLA Partnership for Justice that your transgressions can be papered over by a series of $60,000 contributions?  

Structured Settlement Industry Urban Legends-1

This is the first part in an ongoing series about the Urban Legends of Structured Settlement primary and secondary markets.

CLAIM: "My credentials...

• Certified Structured Settlement Consultant (CSSC) specializing in designing safe and secure investment vehicles for injury victims who win multi-million dollar settlements. (one of less than 100 people in the world who have qualified for and earned this designation)"--Jack Meligan, SPI as one of the reasons why you should trust him  (Structured Sale website as of 2/22/2010 450 PM EST)
  

FACT: The NSSTA website states that "nearly 550 structured settlement consultants" have qualified and earned the CSSC professional designation. Time to update the website. You're not so unique any more are ya laddie?

B. CLAIM:  " The first major new firm in the structured settlement industry in more than a decade"- Forge Consulting, LLC, on its website and in various paid advertisements with state trial lawyer associations (as of 2/22/2010  455PM EST)

FACT: This Forge Consulting falsehood assigns a high value to this lie which has been perpetuated for years. It has been blogged numerous times that Atlas Settlements Group was founded AFTER Forge Consulting, LLC. Moreover, IFS Corp's founding post dates Forge Consulting, LLC by a mile. It's amazing that a company which uses the Celtic symbol of justice and strength in its logo allows it to be weakened by its perpetuating an easily provable falsehood on such a wide scale.

C. CLAIM: "IRC 5891 made factoring Legal" Rhonda Bentzen, Bentzen Funding Solutions and various structured settlement brokers and settlement planners

FACT: IRC 5891 simply deals with the imposition on the purchaser of structured settlement payment rights, of an excise tax on the "factoring discount" that applies to the sale by annuitants of the rights. IRC 5891 also sets forth exceptions to the tax.

D. CLAIM: "FAST CASH NOW", "CASH NOW" for your structured settlements-made by many cash now pushers

FACT: The court approval process requirement in most state structured settlement protection acts assures that one will not receive the full value of the transaction today, or even tomorrow. Some companies offer a modest bonus or gift to help tide you over and others advance a modest amount. Don't be fooled.

E. CLAIM: (Name) earned their Certified Structured Settlement Consultant (CSSC) from University of Notre Dame

FACT: The professional certification is actually conferred by the National Structured Settlement Trade Association. A portion of the education program and the final exam is hosted at the University of Notre Dame.  The specifics of the CSSC program are discussed on the NSSTA website. See John Darer's video on Credential Puffery in the Structured Settlement Industry

The structured settlement watchdog adopts the motto of the mother of the Verizon saleman in the Optimum TV advertisement ("If It's Not Optimum It's Not Right),  THE TRUTH IS IMPORTANT!

Riding "Bairback" Side Saddle on the Wrong Horse

"Some of the most devastating reporting in the book is about the six-foot trail of oozing amoebic dysentery formerly known as Sen. John Edwards" -Kyle Smith  New York Post commenting on "Game Change" a gotta read political book about the 2008 political campaigns.

48% of respondents to a Daily News Poll published January 22, 2010 said John Edwards stands "on the lowest rung of the social ladder", when compared to Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer, "tap stancing" former Idaho Sen.Larry Craig and former NJ governor Jim McGreevey.

My first encounter with John Edwards was a snowy night in February 2003 at the home of two Buffalo attorneys and former clients of mine. One of the two attorneys apparently had their head turned by the full court money press of John Bair and Forge Consulting and decided to use this as leverage to encourage me to contribute money to someone who I never knew existed until shortly before that evening. "The next President of the United States" was the rallying cry. In hindsight it boiled down to $2,000 for a crudite and a diet coke for a guy who turned out to be a total "crud". Of course one gets the obligatory "photo op", which I now use as a mop.

Industry colleagues and "good judges of character " Forge Consulting apparently saw more in John Edwards than I did and posted an alleged "testimonial" from him on the Forge Consulting website. In addition, Forge CEO John Bair followed up a mutually exclusive advertising stunt by using this alleged testimonial in written solicitations to members of the New York State Trial Lawyer Association in 2007. He even became one of Edward's bundlers, getting other suckers to buy into this huckster.

I questioned John Edwards about the Forge Connection in March 2007 and later to senior members of his campaign. John Edwards alleged testimonial about Forge Consulting's professional performance was mathematically impossible given that he stopped practicing law in 1999 and 4 years had passed by the time Forge Consulting was founded. This author and others teamed up to put pressure on Edwards to answer this question. He never did, but during the AAJ meeting in Chicago in July 2007, the Forge Consulting testimonial page which included many other lawyers miraculously disappeared, never to return.

Given that John Edwards is a proven liar, what should we believe about the alleged testimonial that Forge used in an attempt to gain competitive advantage over its competitors?

I later uncovered misleading information in the time line of John Bair's LinkedIIn profilewhich suggested that he was with Forge Consulting from 1999 to present, as opposed to 2003-present.This author believes the possibility that it was a cover up for Edwards. The point has never been refuted by John Bair to this author publicly or privately, although he subsequently changed his LinkedIn profile

An industry colleague was at a fund raiser in New York in the August 2008, around the time the Rielle Hunter scandal broke and overheard Bair kvelling to those who would listen about how proud he was to have Edwards in his camp.

I waxed lyrical at the time. Back "by popular demand",   "The Bundler"!

To the tune of "The Gambler"

On a warm summer's evenin at a fund raiser in New York City
I met up with the bundler; the slippery little sneak
So we both took turns a starin at the National Enquirer
Til boredom overtook us, and he began to speak.

He said son I've made a life, out of "buying people's business"
And isn't my check in the mail, the sight they want to see?
So if you don't mind my sayin, it's what they call fund raising
Go on and write a check big boy, it will set you free

So when we read about old Johnny, that's Johnny Lyin' Edwards
Said how's "his vouch" workin for you, now his cheatins come to light?
And the night got deathly quiet, and his face lost all expression
Said, if you're gonna play the game boy, y'all know that's just life

To which I sang:

You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold them
Know when to walk away, know when to run.
You never bundle money for a cheating politician
There'll be plenty o' time to buy influence before your career is done.

He said how could it go so wrong? I said "Call Spooner" NOT"Have a Nooner!"
We've bundled so much dough for him, I really can't keep count
He really thought that Johnny would be Attorney General
Now he's looking for another on whom to flaunt an amount.

You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold them
Know when to walk away, know when to run.

(repeat to fade)

Forge Consulting Advertising Issue

The New Year wouldn't be the same without giving my "friends" at Forge Consulting a little toot.

Forge was commended by us in September for being the only settlement firm oiher than this author's to state the full legal name of the insurance company and the city and state of its home office on its website in compliance with § 2122(b) of the New York insurance law. Well that is until a peek at the Forge Consulting website today appeared to support that such praise be shortlived.

Here's  a slice of what appeared on Forge website at the time of this posting:

"FORGE Consulting is proud to be directly appointed with the following life insurance companies, which are described as Structured Settlement Provider Company members by the NSSTA (http://www.nssta.com/Resource.phx/public/member-links.htx).

FORGE Consulting provides access to these highly rated life insurance companies. These valuable relationships are an integral part of our ability to provide the best possible settlement in the industry...

American General Life Insurance Company - Houston, TX
American International Life Assurance Company of New York - New York, NY

American General Annuity Service Corporation

American Home Assurance Company ...

Hartford Life Insurance Company - Hartford, CT

Hartford Comprehensive Employee Benefit Service Company (CEBSCO)

...

John Hancock Life Insurance Company - Bostom, MA

John Hancock Assignment Company"

AND "...full-market access ensures that our clients receive the best possible settlement",

Comments

This author understands that Forge Consulting (and several others) no longer writes new structured settlement annuity business directly with ANY of the companies listed above. Here's what we know:

1. Hartford Life Insurance Company is no longer "described as a Provider member of NSSTA" and hasn't been writing structured settlements for over two months.
2. At year end John Hancock Life Insurance Company was merged in to John Hancock Life Insurance Company (USA) and John Hancock Life Insurance Company of New York was made the New York unerwiting company. Directly appointed brokers were notified of the merger in September and reminded of it later in the Fall. But I guess that's not enough for some! Furthermore, when it comes to the former home office of John Hancock's former structured settlement underwriting company one wonders were the Forge "fly boys" thinking "Bosom" or "Boston"? 
3. It is industry knowledge that American General Life Insurance Company and American International Life Assurance Company of New York pulled the appointments of several agencies, including Forge  in December. While technically the agencies were notified in writing that the appointments end in February, I confirmed today that neither Forge, nor the others, can place further structured settlement business with the two companies directly. Any new business would need to be pipelined through another broker. From a privacy standpoint medical records would not be able to be submitted without having to first be routed through the pipeline broker.
4. For some reason the Forge Consulting still emphasizes the easily disproven lie that it is "the first major new firm in the structured settlement industry in more than a decade" on its website and in other advertising with trial law associations all over its footprint. 

When will Forge Consulting make the necessary changes to its website to comply with New York insurance law as it applies to advertising by agents and brokers?

Stories Impacting the Structured Settlements Industry in 2009

The Doom and Gloom concerning structured settlement annuity issuers of late 2008 has abated somewhat. At this time last year our industry was in the throes of significant uncertainty created by the government bailout of AIG. the sudden withdrawal of Aviva from the structured settlement market and the media reports creating jitters about The Hartford and others and which weighed heavily on our minds.Other stories (not necessarily in chronological order)

1. From what we've been hearing, 2009 saw a number of industry producers taking meaningful hits to their production, particular in the early part of the year.Others saw flat to slight increases in production. Perhaps my experience is an anomaly, but I've noticed a meaningful increase in activity since July 2009.
2. Following the Madoff fraud exposed in late 2008 which had nothing to do with structured settlements, 2009 brought us $16.5B in fresh exposed frauds including two purportedly about structured settlements that weren't. Media characterization of Scott Rothstein as a "mini Madoff" added to the stigma.  The cherubic Rothstein didn't even come close. Credit to Mark Wahlstrom, Jan Schlictmann, Roger Bernstein, Peter Arnold. Bruce DeBacher, Matt Bracy and this author John Darer for their considerable collective efforts to diffuse and undo any damage done when former Elian Gonzalez'  and U.S. attorney Kendall Coffey mislabeled structured settlements in a complaint against Rothstein which sparked a media mislabeling frenzy.
3. The Connecticut Woman factoring saga gave us a live case which underscored (1) the need for structured settlement consultants, settlement planners and plaintiff lawyers to ask more questions about, and do a better job of addressing plaintiffs' immediate liquidity needs; (2) the fact that fast cash now (for structured settlements) is a load if B.S.; (3) the need for regulation of the advertising practices of factoring companies; (4) the potential exposure to the settlement consultant and attorney for failing to address the aforementioned need that resulted in a loss of principal in line with stock market losses, from a safe investment. To remind everyone the woman took an estimated 30% hit to principal to sell the payment rights and had to wait 6 months to get the money to address her immediate cash needs.
4. The issue of Structured Settlement Servicing was brought to the forefront. Allegations that certain structured settlement annuity issuers were not slicing or dicing structured settlement payments to multiple payees when an annuitant only wanted to sell part of their structured settlements to meet emergency liquidity needs. The result is a structured settlement servicing agreement in which all of the payments, not just the sold payments, are paid to the servicing company (the factoring company, Structured Asset Funding in the CT Woman case), which then takes its cut and passes the balance of the payment to the annuitant. This raised the issue of what happens to the annuitant's payments in the event of Chapter 7 bankruptcy of the servicing factoring company? In a series of pod casts John Darer addressed the structured settlement servicing issue together with guest, Houston attorney Bruce Akerly.
5. The issue of credential puffery in the structured settlement industry was brought to the forefront and substantially improved. Through the considerable public efforts of this author NSSTA has now published guidelines on promoting the Certified Structured Settlement Consultant certification. It's only too bad it took so long and required extreme peer pressure to get it right.
6. Prudential's decision to withdraw from the non qualified structured settlement market was a biggy. The market has not quite filled the void.  As other industry commentators have noted, there are considerable opportunities in this area for insurers and settlement professionals.
7. JG Wentworth Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.  Call it shadenfreude, but I consider this one of the best things to happen for the industry in 2009. (1) These guys really needed some humility; (2) The bankruptcy disclosure made by JG Wentworth coughed up some useful information supplying proof that the size of factored structured settlements does not match up against the perception by plaintiff attorneys created by the advertising noise;  (3)The continuous bombardment of false advertising "cash now" that $40 million will buy you was tempered dramatically.
8. The withdrawal of Hartford from the structured settlement market place was not unexpected. The parent company suffered jitters for almost 12 month before the life company withdrawal,  due to fears over its exposure to credit default swaps and variable annuity guarantees. During those months the companies structured annuity rates were rarely competitive. Hartford Financial services Group, Inc. stock has rebounded from its 52 week lows of 3.33 over 7 fold.  It was sad to see some long time industry colleagues lose their jobs but many of them have landed on their feet. Industry veteran Mal Deener has landed at Symetra and John Meaney is trying his hand at settlement planning with Delta.
9. In a number of published legal decisions, the United States continued to render useless, the attempts to factor annuities placed as part of Federal Tort Claims Act settlements. 
10. One can observe that more settlement firms are making an Investment in websites and other web 2.0 technology. This blog has highlighted the information on static content websites are boring, neither attract or retain traffic and sometimes embarrassing when failure to update outdated information comes to light. Industry members caught in the headlights have simply had to put up with the minor annoyance of peer pressure for the greater good.
11. The nation's first Registered Settlement Planners (RSP) rolled off the assembly line. This author was among the first in the United States to earn the designation. Kudos to the leadership of the Society of Settlement Planners for laying the foundation, and to Joe Tombs and his crew at Texas Tech for the delivery. The RSP designation has a lot of promise, yet it faces significant challenges to become a force which will be covered in a separate post. 
12. Priority guidance for single claimant qualified settlement funds has been removed from the 2009-2010 United States Treasury Priority guidance list
13. Jeremy Babener, a 3rd year law student at NYU challenged a statistic that alleged basis of the structured settlement tax subsidy in a white paper. Babener was "pimped" all over by Patrick Hindert as if he was the "Elvis Presley of structured settlements".  The "Dissipation Myth Bab-oon" road show hit a new low at the annual meeting of the National Association of Settlement Purchasers in November.
14. While Hindert, in his annual summary, places the take over of The Settlement Services Group by Forge as a seminal event, we simply see it as a way for Forge to justify having defense brokers in an organization that markets itself as plaintiff exclusive. The timing of the announcement suspiciously followed our September post about an anonymous plaintiff exclusive organization that had defense brokers.
15. In 2009 the industry lost some good people due to cancer, Mary Lynn Izzo and Richard G. Halpern. Most people loved Mary Lynn. While the brilliant and innovative Richard Halpern was not universally loved by the industry, he was an important force in the history of the structured settlement industry,  who challenged the status quo and succeeded (by a wide margin). I was sad to lose both of these friends this year. 
16. After extended period of reductions, the 10 year bond is again approaching 4% and the 30 year bond approaching 5% as I type. It is my prediction and others that by end of 2010 we may see 10 year bonds in the 5.5% range with a meaningful increase in the long bond. 
17. As an aside and some industry news just "sliding in the door" at year's end, the popular Jeanne Ragusa, formerly at Aviva, has joined John Hancock as Internal Sale Manager.

Concluding with a light hearted summary of the events of 2009, courtesy of JIb Jab...

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Forge Consulting "Financial Literacy Lesson" on Negotiating Structured Settlement Payments

Today's lesson is courtesy of our "friends" at Forge Consulting to whom we sing...

"Reading Writing and Arithmetic Are The Branches of The Learning Tree

T-T-Teacher's gonna show you how to get an A" ***

The Forge Consulting Website said in May 2007 and still says in November 2009, in relation to how structured settlement payments are negotiated:

"When a case involves personal injury, the amount of money necessary to cover the victim's medical care and living costs is negotiated between the plaintiff and defendant. To ensure that plaintiffs receive the best settlement possible, it is essential to involve a structured settlement expert, who will work in the client's best interests and find a plan that works for them.

Once this agreement is made, the defendant funds a stream of payments to the plaintiff, according to specific needs. In most cases, the defendant then transfers the responsibility to a "qualified assignment," which funds the damage payments with an annuity".

Forge Consulting financial literacy lesson:

• The Defendant does not fund a stream of payments and then transfer the responsibility to a "qualified assignment".
• A "qualified assignment" is a process defined under Section 130(c) of the United States Internal Revenue Code. It is not a legal entity. However an assignment company is!
• The structured settlement process is more accurately described in the following flow chart and here

Section One-thirt-ee

One-Thir-tee, it's easy

It's Easy As 1-2-3

Simple as Do-Re-Mi...  (you get the point!)

***From Jackson 5 ABC Frederick Perren, Deke Richards, Berry Gordy, Jr. (The Corporation), Alphonso Mizell. MJ Rest in Peace.

"Structured Settlement Bankruptcies" Hindert's Bumbling Misinformation on Par With Rothstein Press

Bumbling Patrick Hindert apparently needs better reading glasses and/or a hearing aid. The Executive Director of Forge Consulting subsidiary, The Settlement Services Group inexplicably refers to the potential bankruptcies of annuity service companies as "structured settlement bankruptcies" in a summary of attorney Bruce Akerly's presentation at the National Association of Settlement Purchasers (NASP) about annuity servicer bankruptcies.

A structured annuity servicer, typically a factoring company comes into play when an annuitant wishes to sell some, but not all, of their structured settlement payment rights. Because certain life insurance companies allegedly refuse to dice or split payments the entire payment goes to the servicing company which does the "slicing an dicing", takes its cut and pays the annuitant the difference.

 
The co-author of the alleged "seminal text" on structured settlements states:

"Structured Settlement Bankruptcies - Bruce Akerly summarized his recent paper titled "The Impact of an Annuity Servicer's Bankruptcy  on the Annuitant and Structured Settlement Purchaser". Akerly's conclusions:

• "The annuity payments received by a structured settlement servicing company, as well as the servicing agreement itself, become property of the bankrupt estate"; and
• "It may be possible to draft provisions in the servicing agreement to anticipate some of the consequences of the servicing company entering bankruptcy and perhaps lessen the impact on all parties."

As the industry has already seen with the Scott Rothstein saga, mislabeling has a potentially deleterious effect on public perception of structured settlements given that the misinformation will be indexed on the Internet for some time to come.

Note: Underline added by this author for emphasis

Watch John Darer's  3 part video podcast on Structured Settlement Servicing, which includes an interview with Bruce Akerly.

Settlement Company's "Virtually Unmatched Financial Resources" With PAYDEX Score of 8!

"With virtually unmatched financial and legal resources..."  Forge Consulting, LLC website

" PAYDEX Score 8" Dun & Bradstreet  October 20, 2009

According to Dun & Bradstreet's glossary "the PAYDEX Score is D&B's unique dollar-weighted numerical indicator of how a firm paid its bills over a 24-month period, based on trade experiences reported to D&B by various vendors. The D&B PAYDEX Score ranges from 1 to 100, with higher scores indicating better payment performance. According to D&B a PAYDEX score of 20 and under means payments OVER 120 Days beyond terms and a High Medium to Higher Risk of Late Payment.

Risk of Late Payment is an element in the Credit eValuator Plus which predicts the risk that a company will pay on time versus the risk of other companies in the same industry. The risk dial () shows the potential risk of late or delinquent payment. The dial - from lower risk to higher risk - shows the risk that a company will pay in a severely delinquent manner (90+ days past terms) relative to other businesses in the D&B database. Higher risk (red) indicates that a company is more likely to pay severely beyond terms, and lower risk (green) indicates that a company has a low likelihood of paying in a severely delinquent manner. The rating is based on a number of credit factors determined by D&B's sophisticated analytical.

Comments

Should we congratulate Forge Consulting for its ability to get lenders to overlook its weak PAYDEX score?

Is the Forge Consulting advertising of "unmatched financial resources" simply a specious claim?

S2KM's Patrick Hindert "Bags The Elephant"

  The industry can breathe a sigh of relief now that Patrick Hindert FINALLY blew the lid off the industry's poorly guarded secret; that Matt Garretson sold his structured settlement operations (TSSG) to Forge Consulting, LLC.

What may now be a revelation however, is that it appears with Hindert being named Executive Director by Forge, there is a collaboration between two of what  might be described as the industry's "pantomime villains".

The strategic significance of the day is marred by the farcical premise that Hindert has "bagged the elephant", an  "exclusive interview" with his new boss, Charles Schell and Hindert's director of sales, Timothy Morbach.

 

Reading between the lines, the two company set up may have been desirable to Forge principals because it appears that some TSSG folks do defense work. Not that there should be any problem with doing so, but without the separation it would once again draw into question the validity of Forge Consulting's "plaintiff exclusive" advertising thrust that it hard sells to the plaintiffs' bar. 

In early 2007 the industry learned that in 2005 and 2006 certain principals of Forge, including Charles Schell Download Charlie Schell DOJ Declaration 3-1-2005, attested under penalty of perjury  to the United States Department of Justice that they had provided substantial services to defendants for 3 years ( while concurrently advertising that they were plaintiff exclusive). The attestations were for the express purpose of getting business from the United States government attorneys. Regardless of which one of the mutually exclusive statements was true and despite a clear violation of its code of ethics, NSSTA chose to ignore this activity by recently honored one of the declaration signing Forge principals by placing him in charge of membership. As an aside, this author understands that the Board member who nominated this person for the position is the same one who continues to  mischaracterize the CSSC designation. It's dreadful but some trial lawyers have turned a blind eye to the shenanigans ostensibly because of its hefty financial contributions. It seems to be the case of money talks and bullshit DOESN'T walk.

That being said, the common ownership of plaintiff and defense interests in the structured settlement./settlement consulting industry is not without precedent and this author's position is that the way of the future is providing expertise not political rhetoric.

In other news there's fresh crop on the S2KM Comment Spam farm... by another service that helps students "cheat" on their research papers. Read the following excerpt

"Enjoy all the parties and dine out with your friends and get your desired grades and meet the deadlines with a custom written research paper. And YES you do not need to visit the libraries any more…"