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March 31, 2007

Horse Riding Without A Saddle?

The following biography of John T. Bair, CEO of Forge Consulting was distributed to registrants at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Settlement Planners on March 7, 2007.

Download john_bair_biography_distributed_at_ssp_meeting_march_7_2007.pdf

In the biography, Forge Consulting, LLC is held out as a plaintiff-exclusive settlement adviser firm. Oddly there was no mention of the extensive services that John T. Bair has provided to defendants or their counsel in each of the last 3 years (actually 4 years is the time period covered by his two signed declarations), as he declared he has, under penalty of perjury, to the United States Department of Justice.

As previously reported on this blog, the marketing material distributed, by Forge Consulting, to attendees at the July 2006 ATLA meeting in Seattle and the February 2007 American Association for Justice  (AAJ)  winter meetings in Miami clearly held Forge Consulting out as a plaintiff-exclusive settlement planners and providing investment planning services. I covered the transparency issue relating to lack of disclosure of broker dealer or registered investment adviser in my Valentine's Day post.

Yesterday's post covered the NASD and SEC rules on testimonials by financial advisers as well as a sampling of state insurance rules on the subject. These rules are especially relevant in view of the extensive testimonials posted on the Forge Consulting, LLC website at www.forgeconsulting.com and, in particular, the wholesale manner in which the purported testimonial of Presidential candidate John Edwards is used on the website as well as in written marketing solicitations for structured settlement, insurance and investment products and/or services.

Posted at 12:19 AM in Settlement Planning Ethics, Society of Settlement Planners (SSP), Structured Settlement Brokers, US Department of Justice |

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    with a stable readership that seeks credible structured settlement information and/or opinion about topical issues related to settlement planning, targeted to lawyers, injured persons and their family members, guardians, survivors, judges, magistrates, special masters, mediators, administrators, trust companies, insurance company executives and adjusters, financial advisers settlement professionals, financial professionals, insurance regulators, government leaders, federal and state law enforcement, buyers and sellers of structured settlement payment rights, the news media and other interested parties. 4structures.com LLC established the structured settlement blog in 2005 and for over 16 years it has been a leading source for critical commentary. The John Darer authored blog has been among the most prolific, regularly providing fresh structured settlement, settlement planning and litigation recovery management content and commentary. John Darer®, CLU ChFC MSSC CeFT® RSP CLTC, President of Stamford, CT based 4structures.com, LLC, is an experienced New York City area structured settlement expert, structured settlement broker, Certified Financial Transitionist, and Registered Settlement Planner. In his capacity as a journalist, and professionally, Darer passionately believes that exposing a business practice is both healthy and newsworthy. It is in the best interest of tort victims, their families and their legal advisers, that the settlement planning discussion involve those that are properly trained in the topic, properly informed on the topic and, with respect to structured settlements, properly licensed and/or appointed). It has significant instructional and deterrent value to other practitioners and firms as well as those who may be caught in the cross hairs. WHAT YOU GET here is the straight stuff with a touch of irreverence and humor. We hope you enjoy and find the content to be helpful. Subscribe to the structured settlement blog feed, or a specific category feed through your blog reader, or through the Feedburner icon on this page. Followers of JDDarer™ on Twitter may also receive select content. Thank you for reading!

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Structured Settlement Best Practices Corner

  • New York Insurance Advertising law requires the full name of the Insurer to be listed along with the city and state of the principal office. Stating that you represent these fine companies using Insurance company logos without the preceding information are also illegal
  • When it comes to settlement documents it is the ultimate responsibility of the lawyers or claims adjusters who receive input concerning the structured settlement aspects of the documents to actually read the entire document, exercise independent thought and advise their clients properly
  • Be aware that financial advisors use of testimonials is prohibited or restricted
  • Most states require that Testimonials represent the CURRENT opinion of the person who made the testimonial. Be prepared to back it up.
  • Number of States That Prohibit Payment of QSF expenses by licensed agents and brokers
    5 Survey not yet complete.

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  • Comments and Trackback Policy
    Comments to this blog are encouraged, welcome and add spice to the interactive nature of blogs. However, the unscrupulous practice by some to deliver comment spam, to connect all manner of unrelated products to structured settlements, detracts from user experience, is NOT tolerated by this author and thus necessitates the practice of comment screening.

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Why Take a Structured Settlement?

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