NSSTA President Jim Early of Ringler Associates Discusses the Future of the Structured Settlement Profession

Structured settlements haven’t been around forever. In their present form, they are a relatively new addition to the world of torts. Jim Early, newly-installed president of the National Structured Settlements Trade Association (NSSTA) and Senior Advisor to Ringler Associates, explains the development of structured settlements and discusses what the future may hold in this report.

Early explains that the structured settlement, in its present form, comes from the settlement of Thalidomide cases in Canada. Thalidomide was given to pregnant mothers, and many gave birth to children with serious birth defects. Today, structured settlements are routinely used “to protect injured parties from premature dissipation of settlement funds.”

Jim Early

As to the future, Early says that the primary challenge for NSTTA is to protect the sections of the Internal Revenue Code that apply to structured settlements, especially §§104 and 130. One thing that helps, Early explains, is that the NSSTA has no political enemies on the left or on the right. There is a structured settlement caucus in Congress with members from both sides of the aisle who all see the value of structured settlements. The only real danger Early sees is that sweeping tax reform could sweep up §§104 and 130 for change.

As to a challenge for the future, Early says that NSSTA members “need to become settlement planners rather than annuity brokers.” Now more than ever, there are a host of factors that must be considered in planning the best settlement for an injured victim. For example, a settlement might require a special needs trust. All of the relevant factors need to be considered.

Another challenge for NSSTA members will be to protect injury victims from abuses in factoring (the purchase of a structured settlement payment stream for a lump sum that may be dissipated improvidently). Early points out that there are now structured settlement protection acts in forty-nine states.

The toughest challenge for the NSSTA will be to deal with an aging structured settlement work force. Early says that it is important to attract some younger people into the structured settlement profession.

Early believes that the future is bright for the structured settlement profession. Early is pleased that all participants in the process are now encouraged to have someone participate on their behalf to bring increased professionalism to the process. Also, the emphasis is increasingly on preserving capital and avoiding risk in planning the investments of the settlement proceeds. Structured settlement professionals “bring certainty and security to the process.”

Early says that dealing with his duties with NSSTA is not a challenge because he is now in an advisory capacity with Ringler Associates. He looks forward to working on the challenges ahead.

James M. Early is a Senior Advisor to Ringler Associates, assisting in strategic business partnerships and collaborating with Ringler’s 150-plus Consultants nationwide. He is also the President of the National Structured Settlement Trade Association (NSSTA). He has been with Ringler since January 2002. He has spent more than 40 years in insurance and settlement planning, providing structures in thousands of cases since 1985. The Settlement Channel is a featured network of Sequence Media Group.

Ringler Associates President Geoff Hunt Talks about the Acquisition of Galaher Settlements

Ringler Associates has acquired Galaher Settlements, as The Settlement Channel reported in January 2017. Ringler’s president, Geoff Hunt, discusses the acquisition of Galaher and what he sees in the future for the structured settlement profession in this report.

Geoffrey E. Hunt

Although Ringler was already the country’s largest structured settlement company at the time it acquired Galaher, the move made sense, says Hunt. The structured settlement industry is “ripe for some consolidation.” A larger company is better able to reinvest in the business. Ringler went looking for a quality company that would benefit from joining Ringler. Galaher had excellent information technology in its business. Also, adding Galaher provided an opportunity to have relationships with the larger CPA firms in the country. Hunt does not believe that the Galaher acquisition will have much effect on the structured settlement marketplace. Customers should not see much change.

One change that is visible on Ringler’s website is a new look associated with rebranding. Hunt explains that the rebranding was driven by consultants who worked with Ringler. The view was that Ringler needed to rethink its branding, looking ahead to a new approach to its business. Ringler is “moving from the broker of a product to a consultant for settlement solutions.”

On a personal note, Hunt says that things have gone very well in the two years since he joined Ringler. As for Ringler’s future, it is investing in training and development to move employees from brokers to settlement consultants. Ringler also has a number of strategic partners, and those relationships allow Ringler to bring more products and services to the table when consulting with an injured party. Ringler is also moving to attract more young and diverse talent into its team of consultants.

Hunt says that one challenge for Ringler and its consultants is to get past the notion that they are selling an interest rate product. There is a continuing challenge to educate everyone, including the plaintiffs’ bar, about what structured settlement consultants can do for their clients. It is also important for Ringler not only to maintain sound enterprise management, but also to make sure that the plaintiffs’ bar understands that Ringler is a solid company to deal with.

Geoffrey E. Hunt serves as the President and CEO of Ringler Associates, chosen unanimously by the Board of Directors. His experience in finance, management and the insurance industry spans over 30 years. His experience includes time spent with Deloitte, Liberty Mutual, and Narragansett Bay Insurance Co., which he co-founded. The Settlement Channel is a featured network of Sequence Media Group.

Structured settlements paid into a trust can protect injury victims from factoring

In this weeks interview I was joined by Chris Foregger of Capital First Trust Company to examine how to protect the income, lump sums and design of a structured settlement program for vulnerable plaintiffs POST settlement. This is one of the most contentious areas in all of settlement planning and structured settlements, as the structured settlement profession loves to attack settlement purchasers as predatory, while almost totally ignoring the fact that by failing to use an on going trust management program the profession has failed to protect the people for whom the stucture was originally designed. 

As the Freddie Gray case and other factoring stories of the last year illustrated, there is a gaping hole in the planning profession that is being ignored at the time of settlement. That hole is the lack of on going protection of the structured settlement and income stream for minors and other's who might become incompetent to make rationale decisions about selling their income stream at a future date. So much of the factoring abuses that the structured settlement profession rails against could actually be prevented if structured settlement professionals took the time to educate trial lawyers on the necessity of using asset protection trusts for vulnerable victims.

Not every client is vulnerable at the time of settlement. However, many deteriorate and can reasonably be assumed to be vulnerable in the future due to medical conditions, brain injury or other mitigating factors. In this interview I discuss with Chris Foregger of Capital First Trust Company how to effectively and efficiently utilize an asset protection trust to maintain the on going integrity of a structured settlement program, while not taking away the right of the claimant to sell future payments if it is in their best interest to do so. 

You can learn more about First Capital Trust Company by visiting their web site at www.firstcapitaltrust.com and also more about Wahlstrom & Associates by clicking the link.