Structured Settlements 4Real® Blog: Structured Settlements | Settlement Planning News and John Darer Reviews

Which Structured Settlement Industry Members Will Be JG Wentworth "Concubines"? Which Already Are?

If you are a lawyer representing tort victims keep an eye on this space. Our sources indicate that there may be only a few structured settlement brokers who, having  imbibed "Patrick Hindert's Flavor Aid", are lasciviously drooling over what JG Wentworth's bloated bank accounts and leads can do for them. They're trying to figure out how without creating a bad impression with you.

Will there soon  be ads featuring lawyers screaming from balconies "It's MY client and you're a F***ING SOW"

Patrick Hindert Is All "Poultry" On Strategy of Factoring as Structured Settlement Growth Tool

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

It's pushing 100 degrees in the nation's capital, close to that out here on Long Island Sound, and the "The Hindert Chicken Meter" is on roast.

Many in the structured settlement/settlement planning industry have for years  been subjected to Hindert's pontification about how factoring is route one to structured settlement industry growth while he simultaneously slags off the industry.

This author has challenged Mr. Hindert to write a white paper to spell out his ideology and the struggle he is fighting. If he really believes in it, then put it out there for all of the world to see.

26 days have gone by since Hindert has been challenged. Hindert challenged me to a debate in a phone call shortly before May 13, 2008. The "Hindert Chicken Counter" hit the press on May 24, 2008 when it became obvious that Hindert is avoiding the question now. The aforementioned is a continuous clock that will keep ticking until Patrick Hindert responds. You can access the clock and the original challenge by clicking on the "Hindert Chicken Counter" tag at the bottom of this post. or on the category heading on the right of this blog.

And for outsiders reading this blog, that while he is a member of the NSSTA, SSP, and various bar associations, this author believes that Mr. Hindert is a zealot whose views don't come close to representing the industry. The man has promoted a "bill of goods" without specificity, through his writings and presentations;the end run (for him it seems) being a putative alignment between one industry that is highly regulated to protect consumers, and one that so clearly is not.

If Hindert wants to convince people that factoring is "MiracleGro" for the structured settlement industry and, that factoring industry business practices are not one of the biggest contributing factors to structured settlement necrosis, then lay it out clucker!

Hindert MUST address factoring industry business practices, a subject about which his years of prior commentary has been grossly under weighted. For example on November 6, 2007, in a review of content from the 2007 Advanced Law Institute, Hindert slagged off on purported structured settlement agents business practices yet did not utter a peep about his factoring industry buddies other than to imply that the secondary market did not exhibit the purported practices. To date Hindert's feeble public criticism of the factoring industry has been primarily limited to the concept map  "How The Primary Market Views Factoring" featuring a concept map by "Babs" Bowen Arrows.

Quoted on factoring from Section 8A.03[3} 33 Rel. of the text book that Hindert co-authored... "Considering these and other factors (visualize eyes rolling-NOW) , claimants and their attorneys may now have multiple options for generating future cash to meet unanticipated needs. These options include deferred lump sums and commutation provisions in addition to structured settlement factoring transactions".

For the record, from a settlement planning standpoint they also include (a)an appropriate balance of structure and cash in hand (b) structure and a trust (c) structure, cash in hand and trust and (d) sometimes recovery management is best served by no structure at all.

Fortune 500 | 2008 Rankings for Financial Services Companies With Tort Settlement Related Business

by John Darer CLU ChFC CSSC

Fortune Magazine has announced the 2008 Fortune 500, its annual ranking of America's largest corporations. Not surprisingly a number of the largest companies include insurers and banks who directly, or through subsidiaries, provide services to tort victims. Those are listed below (the number denoting the place within the Fortune 500)

• American International Group  13
• MetLife  43
• Allstate 64
• Prudential Financial 74
• New York Life 82
• Liberty Mutual 94
• Hartford Financial Services Group 95
• USAA 176
• Sun Trust Banks 193
• Pacific Life 452

Patrick Hindert Called Out On The Carpet For Specifics

A few weeks ago I received an interesting call from author and factoring promoter Patrick Hindert, who is a member of both the National Structured Settlement Trade Association (NSSTA) and The Society of Settlement Planners (SSP). He wants to debate. Game on.

Hindert told me that he is interested in "growing" the "structured settlement industry" yet he continues to display factoring plumage. Who hasn't been subject to "factoring diarrhea" from Hindert? A survey of Hindert's writings in the last 4 years shows virtually no criticism or opinion of such companies' business practices including, among other things:

1. The  "cash now" advertising fraud on consumers
2. The pervasive deceptive "big for small" lure.
3. The message by some of such companies, like Structured Asset Finance (123 Lump Sum) and others that stable value assets should be transferred (at a large discount) to buy depreciating assets.
4. The methods that some such companies use to get leads on apparently confidential sealed cases)
5. The advertising of terms associated with structured settlements that falsely suggest to consumers that factoring companies have insurance licenses and are regulated accordingly.
6. The consistently "off the mark" high discount rates charged to consumers by Peachtree Settlement Funding. Has Hindert ever suggested that consumers should shop to get better rates OR suggested as an academic, the benefit or value of dealing with such a company that consistently charges rates almost twice the most competitive market rate?
7. The Rapid Settlements representative's creepy practice of showing up at citizen's doors that was covered in Rip Off Report.
8. The use of our nation's flag and the seal of the Better Business Bureau by Patriot Settlement Resources to promote "cash now" advertising fraud.
9. The offering of kickbacks to certain structured settlement brokers, settlement planners financial planners and lawyers to get leads, the acceptance of same and the absence of adequate disclosure of same to consumers and the resulting effect on the transaction.
10. The factoring industry chiseling away at structured settlement protection act requirements to obtain independent financial advice by structured settlement recipients. At the same time inconsistent Hindert promotes settlement planning.

Consider all of the above while Hindert authored numerous challenges and criticism of the trade associations to which he belongs. While I may agree with some of his criticism of the industry (which has heretofore been slow to adapt to new media) as healthy, Hindert's selective silence in comment and criticism of "cash now pusher" business practices is notable.  How do the above business practices help consumers?

Hindert has been an active promoter of the flawed "one structured settlement industry" theory (primary/secondary market) and this author believes the de facto endorsement by the co-author of the seminal industry text has emboldened the factoring industry members who engage in behavior that enrages judges and the plaintiff's bar. How does he resolve the regulated vs unregulated issue?

What are Hindert's specifics to his apparent theory that Route 1 to (primary) industry growth is through the unregulated and unlicensed factoring industry?  Vague is no longer in vogue Hindert!

Hindert is called upon to write a white paper laying out the specifics of his thesis.

DealFlow Media "Structured Settlements Report" Subscribe if you Wish, Ignore If You Wish. Advertise If You Wish. But Understand The Implications.

by JohnDarer CLU ChFC CSSC

DealFlow Media is continuing to give the "hard sell" to structured settlement industry general agents for a publication  which is clearly slanted towards the factoring industry. It doesn't really matter WHO owns DealFlow Media does it? Who influences it?

DealFlow Media now considers "semantics" the words "industry" which, in my opinion, it specifically used to mischaracterize, in an attempt to induce structured settlement general agents and others to part with their money, and "market" as a means for its editor and publisher to cover their posterior in an email to a structured settlement genral agent. The evidence speaks for itself.

Before shelling out up to $1,500 for a subscription or the $4,000 or so for the enterprise version, and/or more dollars for advertising on in its weekly publication, ask yourself, are the 4300 people OTHER THAN the people in the structured settlement industry that DealFlow Media is purportedly sending the Structured Settlements Report to, prospects FOR YOUR BUSINESS?

Do you want to provide content, opinions, or any sort or support, through subscriptions or advertising, to foment the success of a publication whose target market is removed from your own?

I had an intellectual discussion the other day with someone I respect, who has a belief system that he follows, and who has taken extra steps in everything he does to be aware of businesses that contribute to tort reform and is careful not to patronize a business or use products that are manufactured by known big contributors to tort reform efforts. Using similar logic, if a publication, produced by a publisher like DealFlow Media comes out of the gate trying to make a profit slanting against your industry, and the logically deduced overwhelming majority of its subscribers ARE NOT YOUR TARGET MARKET, AND THE MAJORITY OF WHO REPRESENT THAT TARGET MARKET HAVE BUSINESS INTERESTS ANTITHETICAL TO YOURS, why support the publication or publisher?

If you are one of those people that don't have the peripicacity to see through rose colored glasses on this then I'm sorry I cannot help you.