Both settlement industry trade associations for the primary market will be holding their annual meetings in Washington D.C during the week of May 3, 2010. Both offer strong programs (see below) for different reasons. As an observation, the SSP program appears to place more emphasis on the practical while the NSSTA program focuses on the necessary, connecting with important legislators in Congress that are critical to the industry.
Note that while the SSP Educational meeting is open to outsiders (albeit at a higher price than members), NSSTA's meeting is only open to membership
That one meeting dovetails from the other permits interested parties to attend both if they can swing the price tag. Nobody's being cheap here, but in the middle of a recession, the cost of attending both meetings (assuming SSP member discount), including hotel, meeting cost and travel and meals is estimated at around $3,000.00, or $3,500.00 without the SSP member discount.
SSP (May 2, 2010 - May 4, 2010) -
- Marketing Foundations - Frank Maguire
- MSP and SCHIP Compliance - Doug Brand
- The Anatomy of a Life Care Plan - Paul Deutsch
- Working with Life Care Plans: an Economist's perspective - Frederick Raffa
- The AAJ Legislative View - John Bowman
- Justifying and Expanding the Structured Settlement Tax Subsidy - Jeremy Babener
- The Structured Settlement Tax Panel - Richard Risk; Michael Montemurro; Jeremy Babener; Daniel Hindert; Gregg Polsky; Brant Hellwig.
- Structured Settlement Public Policy - Patrick Hindert
- Settlement Planning for Minors - Joseph Tombs
- Growing Your Settlement Planning Practice - Mark Newton
- Litigation Update - Anthony Alfieri
- Medicare Set-Aside Panel - Doug Shaw, Jason Lazarus; Mark Popolizio
- Medicare Secondary Payer Compliance Panel - Erica Cooper; Katie Fox; Jason Lazarus; Mark Popolizio
- Medical Underwriting for Structured Settlements - Rosemary Brindamour.
Thank you to Patrick Hindert for posting this information.
NSSTA (May 4, 2010 - May 6, 2010) -
- Washington Legislative Update - Eric Vaughn
- Opening Remarks - Dan Durbin
- Congressional Keynote - John Lewis
- NSSTA Legal Committee Update - Peter Vodola; Ilana Hanau; Craig Ulman.
- Congressional Chiefs of Staff - Debbie Curtis; Kristin Nicholson; Derek Harley; Kate Winkler; Jim Brandell;
- Congressional Luncheon - Joe Crowley;
- The Truth about Scott Rothstein - Peter Arnold
- Capital Hill Briefing - Eric Vaughn
- Capital Hill Meetings and Reception - Steny Hoyer; Bob Ethridge.
- Medical Underwriting - Rosemary Brindamour; Hilary Topalian.
- Congressional Keynote - Dave Camp
- Congressional Keynote - Pete Stark
- Ethics - Dan Clark
- The Future of NSSTA - Michael Kelly; Eric Vaughn; Joe Bornstein.
- Congressional luncheon - Peter Roskam.
- Settlement Planning - Karen Meyers; Joseph DiGangi.
- Structured Settlement Tax Issues - Rafael Gonzalez; Doug Shaw; Jessica Smythe.
I am pleased to see that the Society of Settlement Planners has moved away from an abundance of program dealing with factoring and to restore a focus on practical applications that settlement planners can use.
In my opinion this is the greatest value the organization can offer to the industry and a reason to stimulate mainstream interest and growth.
As an aside, no offense is meant to the planners of the NSSTA meeting or the presenter, Peter Arnold, but why kill an entire session on the Scott Rothstein story? It's a dead issue. Who is still asking about it? Any confusion about the Rothstein scam and structured settlements was squelched through the considerable efforts of NSSTA members Mark Wahlstrom, Bruce Debacher, John Darer, Vice Executive DIrector Elect Peter Arnold and Florida lawyer Roger Bernstein almost 6 months ago. While the initial story WAS about Rothstein, the REAL story is how the combined efforts of new and old media and a little sweat equity and teamwork under pressure got the job done for everyone. In a news story that is sure to have Patrick Hindert kvelling as much as I,
"Web 2.0" had a prominent role in nipping this thing in the bud. This author called for an NSSTA "media SWAT team" several years ago. The important thing to take way is that while this "operation" was not a NSSTA operation, it worked.
I would have liked to see NSSTA or SSP to address the more timely issue of in force structured settlement payments or receivables (some marketers are calling them inforce annuities even though they are not annuities). Members will be running into competition from inside and outside the industry. They need to be knowledgable. There need to be standards. This issue needs to come above the surface.
Structured Settlements 4Real Scott Rothstein coverage Archive
"Structured Settlement Industry Seeking Distance From Rothstein: Crack down Coming For "Cash Now" Outfits"? Broward Palm BeachNews Times December 30, 2009, includes video that John Darer and Mark Wahlstrom aired on Legal Broadcast Network more or less the day the story broke in October.
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