Structured Settlements 4Real: What's Real in the Structured Settlements, Settlement Planning, Settlement Consulting and Litigation Recovery Management Space?

Richard G. Halpern (1945-2009)

2009-12-14T13:47:08-05:00

Richard G. Halpern, a passionate and pioneering advocate for tort victims in the United States has passed away from cancer at age 64. Although I've known Rich Halpern for almost 20 years, I've only really got to know him well over the last three. People either loved Rich or hated him. Many in the structured settlement industry never knew the Rich Halpern that I came to know, the father and grandfather, friend, mentor and innovator. I also remember the man who was proud sports car enthusiast who loved to tell the story of how his prized Porsche turned Michael Jordan's head.

Rich told me recently that he was particularly touched by a call he received from one of his grand daughters after her mother flew up to New Jersey to be by Rich's side. Rich felt guilty about temporarily taking her mother away from her and the grand daughter assured him "It's OK grandpa because Mommy is good at making people better".

From time to time I have received calls from others in the industry about how to deal with Rich Halpern. My advice was always been simply pick up the phone and call him. I certainly did.Those too timid or angry to approach Halpern simply missed out on the opportunity to tap one of the most brilliant minds in the history of the industry. Whether or not you agreed with him, the man was simply a wealth of information and experience and simply was not afraid to share it with his friends. I didn't always agree with Rich but always appreciated his point of view.

Halpern held a number of United States patents, including number 7149714, the Proportional Reactive Investment Management System (PRIMS), a system and method to automatically control investments by forcing liquidations when the investment value exceeds a target amount, and forcing additional investment when the investment value falls below the target amount. The amount of the additional investment or liquidation depends upon the difference between the value and the investment target.

Some too young in the industry may not remember that Halpern was, at one time, a member of the National Structured Settlement Trade Association (NSSTA) at a time when the association was not too accommodating to plaintiff advocates. He developed competing products and recovery management solutions to serve the needs of his clients and their profession. For example, Halpern also earned a Private Letter Ruling on United States Treasury Bond Structured Settlement Trusts and developed alternative vehicles as "qualified funding assets" to annuities. Some of the leading plaintiff attorneys in the country relied on or consulted with Rich for help in negotiating their cases. He also founded the Academy of Trial Advocacy.

At a time when the industry has experienced contraction The Halpern Group's business has continued to grow and many of my industry brethren could well have learned lessons from the business model. The production would put many settlement consulting firms to shame.

Rich fought a gallant fight, only learning that he had a type of cancer with a 10% survival rate on his birthday this June. At the end of September 2009 we all thought he'd beaten the odds. This "tough SOB" ( believe me he'd appreciate the reference) even went to a mediation in St. Louis in October 2009! Rich took the time to speak with me for some advice only a week and a half ago, although he must have been in terrible pain. He did that sort of thing for his friends.

I suspect that some in the structured settlement industry will be firing Kalashnikovs into the air with this news. Be that as it may, while Rich lost this final battle on earth, his legacy lives on. I have long been aware that a succession plan is in place. Last month Rich remarked to me how proud he was that The Halpern Group was able to run without him. More details to come.

A memorial service for Richard Halpern will be held 230pm Friday December 18, 2009 at Bradley Smith & Smith Funeral Home 415 Morris Avenue Springfield, New Jersey

Heartless 123 Lump Sum Strings Along Homeless NYC Woman

2009-12-14T12:13:45-05:00

I just got off the phone with a woman who turned to us after suffering the indignity of a string of unfulfilled promises and poor communication from Structured Asset Funding, a/k/a 123 Lump Sum.

The woman, whose name I know but for now will refer to as "The NYC Woman", is the recipient of structured settlement payments resulting from the settlement of the wrongful death litigation following the passing of her mother. In February 2009 she contacted 123 Lump Sum after seeing one of its "cash now" ads. At her first hearing on or about June 22, 2009 the Court rejected. She even confirms that Byrd was up front about the challenges of approval under the New York Structured Settlement Protection Act.

She says was informed however, on or about October 14, 2009, by 123 Lump Sum's Keith Byrd that the transfer WAS approved. The NYC Woman was asked to complete and submit some final paperwork which she returned via regular mail. Assuming a week for mailing which puts us at October 21, 2009. We're now pushing two months at December 14, 2009!

The NYC Woman states she made numerous calls and was finally told on December 7, 2009 by Keith Byrd that her money would be direct deposited on Wednesday December 9, 2009. When the NYC woman called her bank on December 9, 2009 she was informed the money was not there so she called Keith Byrd and after a phone "bounce around" was told that the money would be there last Friday December 11, 2009. But the money wasn't there.

The NYC Woman now lives in a homeless shelter with her 3 children aged 6, 4 and 20 months. All she wants is something better for her family this holiday season. When she talks to me she has a cough that she has developed due to the bitter cold that has embraced the New York area in the last week, while Keith Byrd and his colleagues at Structured Asset Funding kick their heels up in 79 degree weather in South Florida. Can you blame the New York City woman for being stripped of her dignity by these folks and for being naturally upset that she is being strung along with repeated unfulfilled promises. She says it is always she that must call 123 Lump Sum not the other way around. This woman should be cooking a turkey for her kids not having to deal with "turkeys".

Structured Asset Funding a/k/a 123 Lump Sum markets "fast cash now", a marketing tag line that means absolutely less and less by the day

Rhonda Bentzen, Bentzen Funding Solutions calls my "cash now rant" against Structured Asset Funding a "comedy hour". There are 3 little kids and their mother in a New York City homeless shelter that aren't laughing about the service provided by the company that Bentzen keeps.

NOTICE: Structured Settlements 4Real continues to offer a platform for any structured settlement annuitants who have been sold a bill of goods by any cash now pusher. If the company you are dealing with advertises cash now and has not delivered cash now to you we want to give you a voice.

Unglued Bentzen Continues to Avoid Important Questions

2009-12-12T18:58:36-05:00

Is there anyone who gets more wound up about my blogging than Rhonda Bentzen?

Bentzen, a former structured settlement broker who went (by her own written admission) to the "dark side", is a structured settlement factoring broker, formerly the "go to girl" for factoring by the structured settlement industry. Instead of the aspirations to "ride the white horse, as it were", by avoiding questions it's more the case of riding Punxatawney Phil after he's seen his shadow.

If she'd simply answer the legitimate questions that were posed instead of launching personal attacks then the questions might stop. The questions posed on Bentzen's blog and in this post on November 22, 2009 and still associated with herJuly 28,2009 post are:

(1) Please identify which of your competitors has walked away from hundreds of Court Orders as you have alleged in this post. It is in the public interest.

(2) Kindly address what is going on at SAF with respect to funding deals?

(3)Do you personally think it's ethical for a company to advertise fast cash now and then deliver 6-11 months later?

Posted by: John Darer | November 22, 2009 at 11:42 AM

I have had multiple communications from a client of Structured Asset Funding and a copy of a Court document. As of two weeks ago they stated they WERE NOT paid and were about to lose a home. The BBB complaints also speak for themselves. If the annuitants have been paid since the story broke, then GOOD. That's what we are trying to achieve, results. If not we plan on going on the air with their story.

If fewer people are taking financial consideration from Bentzen in order to access then GOOD, why doesn't she simply tell us the percentage, and the reason for the drop? Wasn't it Rhonda Bentzen who made the assertion that payment of financial consideration to structured settlement brokers was good for annuitants ( a concept refuted by her competition)? Did the structured settlement transparency initiative have anything to do with the lower percentage?

Instead of writing something intelligent about servicing or other issues as her competitors have done, why does she simply takes a swing at the person asking the questions?

This author is always open to reconsider a post if evidence is presented that it is incorrect.

For the record:

Bentzen has alleged that this author has called her stupid, malicious gossip, fat and unethical. The record does not lie:

Incidences of the following on this blog in 2210 posts since November 2005:

1. "Bentzen Stupid" 0 Download Blog search Bentzen Stupid

2. "Bentzen Malicious Gossip" 0 Download Bentzen Malicious Gossip search

But Bentzen is a gossip and I have the writing to prove it, not to mention the news column on her blog used to say "gossip" and she once stated in writing that her readers enjoy her gossip column the most.

3. "Bentzen Fat" 0 2 instances came up in a blog search but a close look clearlythe specific reference referred to JG Wentworth's fat Viking opera singers. Bentzen may have Viking heritage but she's not an opera singer and doesn't represent JG Wentworth as far as we know.

<--this ain't Rhonda Bentzen!

4. "Bentzen unethical". The only post that came up was this one. In this post Ms. Bentzen's ethics were questioned, there was an explanation for the questioning and we presented an extensively redacted email that we received from a reader which is self explanatory.

Rhonda Bentzen Chickens Out on Response to Structured Asset Funding Complaints

2009-12-10T08:51:36-05:00

Given the opportunity to address the important issue of the funding company to which she professed all the structured settlement factoring deals referred to her (by her structured settlement industry broker clients) go, Rhonda Bentzen has failed miserably. In a blog post Bentzen has chosen to make an attack on seemingly nebulous "blog bullies" in a rather unintelligent manner. It reminds me of the Thankgiving football game where my 4 year old nephew confirmed his running pattern which we discussed in the huddle, OUT LOUD! Among her Technorati tags are "Darer NSSTA JG" and "factoring John" (the selection of tags demonstrates a lack of knowledge of how these tags work in addition-in view of her post-to the level of Bentzen's hypocrisy) It's a poorly veiled attack and a continued obsession by Ms. Bentzen with this author stretching back to December 2007. It is evident that Bentzen writes very little and what little Bentzen does write, is about little else.

Yet in October 2009 this author received a text message from Bentzen while attending an industry meeting requesting that this author join her for drinks. He declined.

On several occasions Structured Asset Funding has reported by its own customers late funding deals or not responding to customers calls. Do we need to have this person go live on TV to get a response? Bentzen has stated in writing that its not her problem. Then whose is it? This is important because if you choose to do business with Bentzen Fundng Solutions you will end up with Structured Asset Funding. She stated so. Once again, Structured Asset Funding is Rhonda Bentzen/Bentzen Funding Solutions self admitted funding source. There is common ownership according to Florida Secretary of State records.

Earlier in the year we discussed the "The Connecticut Woman case". This involved an August 2008 structured settlement placed by Ron Sullivan of Bradford Settlements-Foxboro, MA, a portion of which was referred, by Sulivan to Bentzen, for factoring when the ink was barely dry and the process took six months. The eventual apology letter came from Andrew Savysky of Structured Asset Funding.

The Better Business Bureau report on Structured Asset Funding contains two separate recent complaints concerning delayed funding despite advertising Fast Cash Now. This was observed by another commentator in Bentzen's own industry.

If Ms. Bentzen has enough time to research and try and impress readers with terms such as "Google bombs" and "trogolytes" (cave dwellers), presumably she has time to simply answer the questions that are important to the credibility of the industry? That is, unless she's CHICKEN!

The questions I posed November 22, 2009 on Bentzen's blog associated with her July 28, 2009 post (immediately preceding the latest one ) have been reproduced below

(1) Please identify which of your competitors has walked away from hundreds of Court Orders as you have alleged in this post. It is in the public interest.

(2) Kindly address what is going on at SAF with respect to funding deals?

(3)Do you personally think it's ethical for a company to advertise fast cash now and then deliver 6-11 months later?

Posted by: John Darer | November 22, 2009 at 11:42 AM

Tough Questions for Rhonda Bentzen November 22, 2009

Bentzen Funding Blog, No Servicing Comments But One Juicy Gossip Entry August 26, 2009

SEC Opens "The Rockford Files" , Thwarts Another "Structured Settlement Funding" Ponzi Scheme

2009-12-10T04:42:55-05:00

The Securities and Exchange Commission says in a December 8, 2009 press release that Rockford Funding Group LLC used cold calling and a Web site to raise at least $11 million from more than 200 investors in 41 different states and Canada since March 2009. Rockford Group falsely touted itself as a leading private equity firm with an $800 million pipeline of investments and many Fortune 500 companies as clients, and told investors their money would be safely invested in structured settlements in private lawsuits.

According to the SEC's complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Rockford Group does not appear to engage in any investment activity that would generate any returns for investors, let alone its claimed returns of at least 15 percent annually. Instead, dividend payments made to investors have been funded by other investors' contributions, and Rockford Group transferred most of the money collected from investors to banks in Latvia and Hong Kong.

IMPORTANT TO OUR READERS AND ANYONE WHO HAS OR IS CONSIDERING A STRUCTURED SETTLEMENT.

The SEC further alleges that Rockford Group HAS NO STRUCTURED SETTLEMENT ASSETS and does not appear to engage in any investment activity that would generate returns for investors.

Genadi Yagodayev the sole member of the Rockford Group is the latest person to be charged with fleecing investors in purported structured settlement funding, following closely on the tails of the recent Scott Rothstein ponzi, which was found not to have anything to do with legitimate structured settlements.

The good thing I take from this news is that structured settlement scams appear to be on the SEC's radar screen.

The important thing for attorneys, judges and personal injury victims is that legitimate structured settlements funded with annuities can only be placed by life insurance agents who are licensed in your state with life insurance companies that are also licensed in your state. It is very easy to go to your state's insurance department web site to verify is the person you are speaking to is indeed licensed in your state.

These scams victimize investors NOT tort victims who are receiving structured settlement payments as part of the settlement of their law suits.

The potential exists however, for tort victims to be caught in one of these scams if a financial advisor suggests that they, or a trust in which they are the beneficiary, invests in the factored structured settlement payments of another tort victim, particularly in private deals. Extreme caution should be exercised in such circumstances. Consider some of the SEC allegations about Rockford:

False claims that the firm has been in existence since 1999, when it actually was not incorporated until December 2008.

False claims that during the past 10 years, its "portfolio has increased 251 percent compared to a 12.8 percent increase in the Dow Jones Index."

Promotional material falsely identifying 20 Fortune 500 corporations as Rockford's major institutional pension plan clients.

False statements to at least one investor that Rockford Group is "going public" and that large investors in its Fixed Dividend Contracts will receive special access to shares sold in its initial public offering.

An opportunity exists for factoring companies and their trade association, National Association of Settlement Purchasers (NASP) to publicly address how their offerings to investors differ from the scam meisters. It's also an excellent time to revisit a licensing standard which would be beneficial to sellers of structured settlement payment rights and investors alike as well as improve the industry's overall reputation.

NSSTA on Factoring Business Practices: Calling Attention Is Not Enough

2009-12-09T09:35:41-05:00

The National Structured Settlement Trade Association (NSSTA) is FINALLY getting into the public discussion of factoring business practices.

The NSSTA posted a video featuring US Senator Richard Durbin that was recorded earlier this year to counter the expected annual holiday season "flea market" for structured settlement payments created by some of the seedier cash now pushers.

The video presented is primarily about pay day loans, which were cited by Durbin to have interest rates as high as 358%. He says they should be outlawed. I agree. I have to say however, that I am a little bit embarassed as an NSSTA member for the unintended "trompe d'oeil" in the presentation that accompanies the video of Durbin's speech:

"After citing examples of interest rates as high as 358 percent charged by pay-day loan operators, Sen. Durbin declared that such practices should be outlawed. "The same is true when it comes to factoring [of structured settlements]," he said. "There are just certain practices we shouldn’t be afraid to say are wrong."

The implication is that factoring rates are in that sort of range. I don't believe that this is what the Senator intended to imply because it is simply not true even in the worst factoring cases. Discount rates should be fair. Some factoring companies, however, do have ethical business practices and should not be lumped in with the reprobates.

Without enumerating NSSTA states "many of the nation's leading disability rights groups, including the American Association of People with Disabilities and the National Organization on Disability, have publicly called attention to the questionable practices of these factoring firms".

NSSTA goes on to say "Forty-seven states and the federal government have enacted structured settlement protection statutes that establish strict conditions for structured settlement factoring transactions. Under the federal law, court oversight and approval is required for anyone who chooses to sell payments from a structured settlement to a third-party company".

All true, but rhetoric and the structured settlement protetcion acts only go so far, in my opinion.

How about publicly highling specific practices that need greater oversight. Top of the list in my opinion is:

Cash now advertising. The FTC needs to get involved and punish companies like Structured Asset Funding which continues to advertise "Fast Cash Now" despite a number of complaints which call that very claim into question. If companies continue to do so because of lack of or unenforced regulation then something has to change. Irony of ironies the NSSTA post has already been tagged by a website called Cash For Structured Settlement.

Including in the above should be some recourse against unlicensed individuals and website hosts, including e-zines that make money off misinformation peppered about by the unlicensed, unqualified individuals wh shun accuracy for the quest of pay per click profit.

If you haven't yet seen it check out my cash now rant on LBN

Qualified Settlement Planning : What is it?

2009-12-08T10:13:28-05:00

What is Qualified Settlement Planning (QSP)? Its acronym sounds like that "Quazy Energy Cereal" from Quaker Oats.

Does "qualified" refer to some special academic qualifications as the name also suggests? If so, what are they?

Does it refer to a professional specialty within a specialty where one only works with tax qualified damages which are excludable under IRC 104(a)(1) and 104(a)(2)? If so, does that mean the "qualified settlement planner" DOES NOT advise on solutions with punitive damages, employment cases, pre and post judgment interest and the rest of the universe of litigation in litigation involving taxable damages?

Does it refer to someone with an expertise in Qualified Settlement Funds?

Folks, let's avoid using ambiguous terms or marketing jargon that appear to have no substance.

Leading Structured Settlement and Settlement Planning Websites Experience Record Traffic

2009-12-07T22:49:38-05:00

The three leading structured settlement/settlement planning subject matter websites have experienced record USA only traffic rankings of late from Alexa, the search engine owned by Amazon.com.

Structured Settlements 4Real 115,852*

Speaking of Settlements 118,153

4structures.com, LLC 176,637

Compare to the leading factoring industry USA traffic generators, measured by Alexa 12/07/2009

JG Wentworth 53,263

Woodbridge Investments 89,122

Settlement Quotes 262,951

Note: The lower the number the better the ranking. Google is the most popular site on Alexa, ranked #1.

*the Alexa badge in the left margin represents the worldwide 3 month Alexa ranking

Structured Settlements 4Real was ranked #62 in the top 500 legal subject matter blogs by Avvo on December 7, 2009. In addition to Structured Settlements 4Real, content written by John Darer and video and audio content featuring John Darer appears on the Speaking of Settlements and Speaking of Justice channels of The Legal Broadcast Network where he is a featured commentator, on YouTube and on the 4structures.com, LLC website.

Patrick Hindert Update on Structured Settlement Securitizations-1

2009-12-06T20:49:45-05:00

The Executive Director of Forge Consulting subsidiary The Settlement Services Group (TSSG) has produced the first in a series of posts about structured settlement securitizations on the S2KM blog. That is only part of the story.

What is the most interesting is Hindert's selection of tags. Tagging is a way of organizing and/or classifying information on the Internet. Sometimes it’s done by just one person (the content creator, in this case Patrick Hindert), and other times it can be done by a community (social tagging.), such as for example if you tag a person's name on an old photo posted on Facebook.

Hindert has tagged the following categories in relation to the structured settlement securitization post, among others

Settlement Consulting
Settlement Planning
Structured Settlement Transaction Diagram
Structured Settlement Annuity
Settlement Planners
Henderson v Sciateco
Periodic Payment Judgments

Hindert's tagging raises the obvious quesion which is "Are settlement consultants and settlement planners getting involved with structured settlement securitizations in any way?" That includes as investors or directly, or indirectly, placing their clients into structured settlement securities/securitizations in private or registered securities transactions? Why else would HIndert tag these key words? TSSG even announces its expertise in structured settlement transfers on its website?

The tag for Henderson v Sciateco is most interesting in terms of relevance.The case refers to the recent California appellate court decision which held that public policy supports state court approved factoring transactions. Even those that Hindert cites as experts In his previous post about the NASP Annual Meeting state that IRC 5891 does not contain a clear statement of public policy about factoring, even though one of them referred to examples of IRC 5891 legislative history that contradict any claim that public policy is against structured settlement factoring.

Is it possible that Hindert is hatching a scheme for "industry growth" that contemplates settlement planners and settlement consultants using structured settlement securities to finance the long term financial obligations to their clients in lieu of or in addition to annuities? Frankly, and I emphasize that this is my personal opinion, I don't find this to be far fetched at all.

Stay tuned!

Two Texas Structured Settlement Companies "Can't Get Lard Unless They Boil The Hog"

2009-12-06T11:48:42-05:00

I know that some of my Texas colleagues in the industry would like us to think they're smart but man this example makes 'em out to be "as sharp as a mashed potato".

In my January 2, 2009 post Structured Settlement Consultants Using Outdated and Inaccurate Comparison with US Treasuries, I related the fact that In 1999 The Hartford produced some point-of-sale pieces for appointed structured settlement annuity brokers to use to compete with alternatives to structured annuities such as bank trusts, CDs, variable annuities and US Treasuries.

The passage of time has rendered some of the key points of these 1999 comparisons inaccurate, not the least of which is that The Hartford is no longer writing structured settlements.

Criticism of Points made by The James Street Group and Structured Annuities, Inc. on The James Street Group and Structured Annuities, Inc. websites respectively

When comparing structured settlements with bank trusts and CDs the FDIC coverage is inaccurately shown as $100,000 when FDIC coverage is in fact $250,000. The FDIC has a convenient Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator (EDIE) in case you want to know more.
When comparing structured settlements to US Treasuries the assertion that US Treasuries do not provide a hedge against inflation is not true. As the name suggests, Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities DO provide protection against inflation. At least that what it says on the Treasury Direct website!
When comparing structured settlements to US Treasuries the assertion that treasuries are subject to federal taxes is somewhat inaccurate because, pursuant to IRC 130(d) United States treasury obligations ARE an alternative permissible qualified funding asset for structured settlements. When used in that context the payments are income tax exempt in the same way that payments from a structured settlement funded by an annuity are income tax exempt.
When comparing structured settlements to United States Treasuries, fails to acknowledge the factorability of structured settlement annuities and the fact that there may be a loss if the structured settlement payment rights are sold.

Pardon me for "hanging my wash on someone else's line", but I personally do not think it is right to use inaccurate marketing materials, particularly those that Hartford was noticed on by this author, in January 2 and verified that they do not approve. That both of these companies pawn the responsibility for the misinformation on The Hartford is being disingenous. They ARE responsible and the folks that run these companies know better.

Of the 5 companies cited in the aformentioned January 2009 post these are the remaining stragglers.

Now y'all may think I'm being "meaner than a skilletful of rattlesnakes", but this "ain't these folks first rodeo". The excuse from Structured Annuities Inc. might be that they have really busy "Dirk Weeks" and James might say he's as " busy as a hound in flea season" but as they say "you can't get lard unless you boil the hog". So start boiling dudes!