Net yields on structured settlements compare favorably for injury victims

In this weeks edition of Speaking of Settlements, Mark Wahlstrom, the President of Wahlstrom & Associates discusses the recent article in the Wall Street Journals Intelligent Investor column by Jason Zweig on the Net-Net-Net returns on most investments.

As discussed in Speaking of Settlements, and linked to this article last week in another blog post, the premise is that the vast majority of investors have exceptionally unrealistic expectations on what they can yield on most investments net of taxes, net of fees and commissions and net of inflation. After all of those elements are factored in the best that some of the most sophisticated investors in America would expect would be between .5% to 4% annually.

When compared to structured settlements yields, net of taxes, net of fee's and with inflation factors available for purchase on the contracts you have returns on structured settlements of 2% to 5% on many contracts, even in today's low interest rate environment, but that return is going to go up even more as interest rates increase and tax rates climb as well.

Watch this weeks edition of Speaking of Settlements on how to learn the accurate way to compare structured settlements against other investments and start educating clients on how competitive and effective our core product is for the vast majority of personal injury victims.

Tax lawyer Rob Wood "Avoid the estate tax or die trying"

(ABC News) While critics have dismissed Sarah Palin's "death panels" to dole out medical care as fiction, a tax loophole may in fact give the heirs of some wealthy people a financial incentive to make this new year their loved one's last.

In 2001, then-President George W. Bush signed a law designed to phase out the estate tax -- a tax on the assets a deceased individual leaves behind. The law reduced the amount wealthy families were taxed after death starting in 2001 -- leading to complete abolition of the tax in 2010, but at the same time it concerned some because of the financial implications of the date when someone died.

For example, a wealthy person who dies on January 1, 2011, and left her heirs $10 million would really be leaving them $5.05 million because of taxes. If they died a day earlier (assuming no changes were made in tax laws), the heirs could receive the full $10 million.

Tax Law Expert Rob Wood writes about this in the Los Angeles/San Francisco Daily Journal.

Tax law expert Rob Wood "Navigates California's Tax System"

Tax lawyer and Tax Law Channel host Rob Wood discusses his recent article in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal on navigating California's tax system with LBN host Scott Drake

Cohen Malad's Irwin Levin Discusses $29 Million Concrete Price Fixing Settlement

Scott Drake speaks with Irwin Levin (Cohen Malad)

A Central Indiana concrete company with ties to Muncie and East Central Indiana government projects has agreed to pay $29 million to settle a class action anti-trust lawsuit alleging it and six other companies conspired to fix the price of ready-mixed concrete.

The Indianapolis Star reported Tuesday that plaintiffs' attorney Irwin Levin of Indianapolis announced the settlement. Defendant Irving Materials Inc. of Greenfield confirmed the agreement but did not specify the amount. The settlement still must be approved by a federal judge.

The FBI Broadens The Investigation of Scott Rothstein Structured Settlement Fraud

In yet more bad news for the structured settlement profession the FBI today put out an announcement for information from the public and investors who had been burned or involved with what they are calling the Rothstein Structure Settlement Investments. (RSSI). Scott Rothstein

Great, just what we needed as a profession, more traffic and news with our trade name dragged into what looks to be a growing fraud in which the term Structured Settlements was used to lull investors into thinking this scam had the legitimacy and security offered by structured settlements.

You can read the entire FBI press release by clicking here.

What is also distressing is that what looked to be a $100 million scam and limited to a few cases is now being announced by the FBI as potentially exceeding $1 billion in losses and involving a network of individuals who were working with Scott Rothstein.

The Legal Broadcast Network will be following this story closely over the next few week but as a special guest we had Civil Action Attorney Jan Schlichtmann join us today to discuss from the perspective of a trial lawyer the distressing trend of lawyers being implicated in not just frauds, but in the betrayal of their clients and associates all in the name of greed. Watch today's extended interview with Jan Schlichtmann on Voices of the Law and tune in next week as we continue to bring in more commentators and news on this scam, as well as shine light on the "cash now" industry that seems to have been the model for how this program was designed.

Watch Attorney Jan Schlichtmann discuss the Scott Rothstein fraud and the issues confronting trial lawyers nationally regarding the proliferation of "cash now schemes" that are being offered to lawyers, plaintiffs and investors with little or no regulation or oversight.