Dog Breeds, Bites and Insurance Claims

February 18, 2013 – According to the Insurance Information Institute, dog bites accounted for more than one-third of ALL homeowners liability dollars paid in 2011.  It took a total of about $479 million to satisfy more than 16,000 claims that year.

That’s $3.53 trillion in dog dollars.

Laws vary by state but generally homeowners are responsible for the damage caused by their dogs, including personal injury caused by a dog that bites someone.  And your insurance premiums can be influenced by a number of dog-related factors primarily:

Breed of dog

Dog’s biting history

Since the financial impact of dog ownership can be significant (see our blog post from last year entitled Doggone Insurance Claims), it pays to be a responsible dog owner.

Those who want to be extra cautious about limiting the possibility someone will be injured by their family pet may wish to be selective when choosing a breed in the first place.

According to DogsBite.org, a 30-year study on dog bites revealed some telling statistics about certain breeds.  Among the findings:

• The pit bull is far and away the breed most likely to cause bodily harm
  • Pit bulls were responsible for 233 deaths and 1,268 maimings during this period
  • 911 children were harmed by pit bulls
  • Pit bulls caused 12 times more fatalities than even a wolf hybrid
  • When a pit bull has a “bad moment” and attacks someone, that person has an “off the charts” actuarial risk of being killed or maimed as opposed to simply being bitten

When people are bitten and receive insurance settlements for their damages, structured settlements are often chosen as a preferred method of resolution.  In addition to enabling the victim to set aside future dollars which can pay for scar revision and counseling, some of the general damage dollars are often used to arrange for college funding for minors.

The dog lover in me feels bad that anyone ever has to suffer from being bitten by a dog.  But the insurance professional in me is appreciative of these studies designed to help policyholders and the public at large make more informed choices about the animals they choose.

February 18, 2013 – An article from last week’s issue of Claims Journal serves as a timely reminder to claims professionals everywhere of the interconnectivity between structured settlements, the current debate on income taxes and effective claims resolution.

In short, rising tax rates make tax-free income more attractive when settling injury claims.

This is but one of the messages the author deftly carries in his excellent article “Higher Taxes Make Tax Free Structured settlements a Compelling Option.”

Compelling is the operative word here.  Not only are structured settlements compelling to those on the receiving end of the future cash flows, they are also compelling as tools to help claims professionals properly address claimants’ future needs and design settlement offers to better meet those needs.

Being aware of the tax implications can help swing the dialog to a more practical settlement discussion.

While this particular article is necessarily focused on traditional structured settlements which are in compliance with Sections 104(a)(1) & (2) of the Internal Revenue Code for personal, physical injury, an even greater case can be made for their value when implementing non-physical injury structured settlements.

Because many personal injury settlements arise from disputes which are non-physical in nature (employment disputes, punitive damages, copyright infringement and discrimination to name a few), the tax implications of these completely settlements can be even more pronounced.

This last message is one we have been broadcasting as loudly as we know how in many of our previous newsletters and blog posts.  Since taxes can seriously erode the value of taxable settlements occurring (especially) at the higher resolution values, choosing a non-physical injury structured settlement can often mean the difference between walking away with a good portion of your settlement and writing a heftier-than-necessary check to the government.

We prefer to see our clients keep as much of their recovery as possible.

We created a helpful webinar entitled “Taxable Damages:  Mitigating Your Tax Liability with a Structured Settlement” to help clients better understand the implication of taxes on their non-physical injury settlements and hope you’ll call us anytime we can be of assistance to you or someone you know.

February 17, 2013 – Before the year gets away from us as years are wont to do, I thought we’d pause for a moment to reflect upon the number of people whose lives have been positively impacted in these first few weeks of 2013 as a result of our firm’s involvement in many changes in our offices like our new call centre furniture and new buildings.

Helped secure the futures of five minor children by aiding their parents and their attorneys with the placement of their structured settlement choices following resolution of their personal, physical injury claims on five separate settlements.Since January 1, 2013 we have:

• Helped a young man who was severely injured on the job with the settlement of his workers’ compensation settlement.  Because his ability to earn a living had been compromised, we helped him secure his financial future with100% income tax-free structured settlement cash flows he can never outlive.  In addition, we helped him find affordable health care since he was denied coverage and otherwise would have been uninsured.
• Helped a baby boomer attorney tired of exposing his life savings to market risk secure his retirement funds by rolling them over to some non-structured settlement annuities which will provide guaranteed future income to meet his anticipated future needs without worry of market volatility.
• Assisted two clients whose situations required the use of Special Needs Trusts in order to protect their public benefits.
• Provided guidance to two clients in the process of of selling their appreciated assets who are seeking to defer capital gains taxes utilizing a Structured Sale.  Sales are pending and they are looking forward to achieving the tax deferral they desire.

• Consulted with two individuals embroiled in employment disputes in helping them analyze the tax savings potentially realized by choosing a Non-Physical Injury Structured Settlement at settlement.
• Attended six mediations or trials at the request of claims professionals or attorneys to aid in the negotiation and resolution process.
• Met with a number of attorneys, financial planners, claims associates, life company partners and others to discuss matters of mutual interest.
• Attended a Board of Directors meeting as an Officer of the National Structured Settlements Trade Association.

And this doesn’t even count responding to the countless calls and emails we receive on a daily basis from those seeking out our expertise on a variety of related issues.

Our firm is committed to helping clients achieve long-term financial security through the effective use of structured settlements and related products and services.

So whether you need assistance with structured settlement choices or are just looking for expert advice on how to arrange your financial affairs, call us.  Chances are good we can help you.  We look forward to being of service to YOU!

February 14, 2013 – Let’s start with the obvious:  It depends on the event.

But since it’s St. Valentine’s Day and our thoughts turn to romance, let’s start with the odds that any given person will ever date a Supermodel.

The answer?  1 in 88,000.

At least according to “What Are Your Odds Of Winning The Lottery?” they are.

But those odds are good compared to the odds of being struck by lightning (1 in 700,000), attacked by a shark (1 in 11,500,000) or killed by a mountain lion (1 in 32,000,000).

And ALL pale in comparison to your odds of winning the Mega Millions lottery jackpot.

I won’t ruin the surprise here but you can find out for yourself your lotto odds along with those of many other random events occurring by visiting the aforementioned infographic article to see for yourself.

Spoiler alert:  They ain’t good!

The entire focus of our firm’s practice is helping clients avoid placing their money on bets with a high probability of failure.  That’s why we stick with the sure things:  Structured settlements and related products and services.

We like things that are tried, true and guaranteed.

Your odds of being safe, secure and living free from financial worry increase dramatically when you choose low risk options for your insurance settlement proceeds or retirement funds roll-over.

So if you must play the odds, at least bet on the sure thing.  Choose guaranteed security for yourself and your family.

And whenever you’re ready, we’ll be here.

You can bet on that!

February 11, 2013 – An excellent blog written by Julie Brook for the Continuing Education of the Bar (CEBblog) last August is being revisited here today for one very good reason.

The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA).

The straightforwardly titled “Is the Money You Got in Your Employment Case Taxable?” blog very succinctly breaks down the general tax treatment of employment damages.  Many of these facts are surprisingly overlooked by many practitioners to the financial detriment of their client.

With ATRA increasing the top marginal tax bracket from 35% to 39.6% and many states, including California, increasing state tax rates to make up budget shortfalls, understanding this critical dynamic is more important than ever.

Best Employment Attorney Advice Ever:  Because taxes can erode the net recovery of many employment settlements, it is VITAL to consider a Non-Physical Injury Structured Settlement before finalizing any settlement discussions.

Structured settlements have been a preferred settlement option for many physical injury plaintiffs since their inception more than 30 years ago because of the significant tax advantage.

But on non-physical injury settlements, such as those resulting from most employment disputes, the tax advantage is even greater.

This topic is important enough that we have created a special website dedicated to helping clients better understand the benefits.

Visit:  MyTaxableSettlement.com to learn more.

Private Letter Ruling 200836019 lays the foundation for preferential tax treatment of employment settlements when using a non-physical injury structured settlement.

Call us today for a confidential analysis of your own situation.  We are pretty confident we can save you money.

February 3, 2013

Dear Phil,

Congratulations on winning the 2013 Waste Management Phoenix Open!  It was well deserved and, quite literally, couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

But knowing how you feel about your current tax situation (even though you backtracked a little on your original stance as one would expect a habitual nice guy to do), we couldn’t resist the urge to reach out to show you how we might be able to help you going forward.

You pay a boatload of taxes.  No doubt about it.  And it’s worse this year than it was last.  With the new top Federal tax rate of 39.6%, the increase of California’s state taxes to 13.3% (even though the “millionaire’s tax” is supposed to be “temporary”) when you include the California Mental Health tax for income over $1,000,000, nobody could blame you for wanting to lighten the load a bit.

Nobody wants to pay more taxes than they have to so here’s what you should think about to help yourself out:

Before you sign your next endorsement deal, let us show you how you can benefit from a Structured Celebrity Endorsement deal. 

It’s similar to a Taxable Structured Settlement only designed specifically for endorsement income.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1:  Let’s say you are ready to sign a deal for $5,000,000.  But you want to lower your taxes, maybe postpone receipt of the income into a future year when you live in a tax friendlier state, or just put it off for a rainy day since you never know when your fortunes will change (Lance Armstrong) or when your other investments will go sour (the entire world in 2009).

Step 2:  Using a Structured Celebrity Endorsement instead, you could defer this entire $5,000,000 for, say, 10 years after which point you could receive a guaranteed $350,000 tax-deferred for the next 30 years.

Step 3:  Smile.  You’ve just turned your $5,000,000 into $10,500,000, half of which was pre-tax interest earned and your family’s future is secure for a very, very long time.

Depending on what assumptions you make about present and future tax brackets, this could be the equivalent of earning 6%, 7%, 8%, 9%, 10% on a guaranteed investment.  This is the kind of return any millionaire would gladly snap up.

We hope you’ll join that crowd.

We are not providing tax or legal advice and these numbers are just for illustrative, not contractual, purposes but we think you’ll like this deal.

And we definitely want to keep you in California.  You have a lot of success on “your” courses and we’d hate to see anything jeopardize that.  Especially for something as silly as taxes you can easily avoid.

ASRHipSettlement.com News

January 31, 2013 – As the nation’s first trial alleging defective design among other causes of action against DePuy Orthopaedics regarding the recalled Articular Surface Replacement (ASR) artificial hip implant device moves forward in Los Angeles, some headlines are painting a bleak picture for the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary.

Today’s New York Times features a headline that points out J&J’s own internal review inadequacies when it set out to assess the device’s potential risks before it was used on more than 90,000 patients.

Our firm continues to monitor Kransky v DePuy et al because of the impact it may have on the more than 10,000 other lawsuits currently pending in courts across the country.  As a bellwether case, it is likely to have meaningful bearing on future settlement talks.

To read why our firm feels so personally connected to this particular litigation and to learn about the structured settlement option potentially available to the plaintiffs, visit our dedicated website to learn more at . . .

ASRHipSettlement.com

Our firm will continue to monitor this case with great interest.

January 31, 2013 – While most parties involved in settling Workers’ Compensation claims are familiar with the concept of Structured Medicare Set-Aside Arrangements (MSAs), it remains a surprisingly underutilized approach to satisfying the parties’ obligations under the Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) laws.

That’s why we were pleased to read the straightforwardly titled “The Value of Using Structured Settlements When Addressing Medicare Set Asides” published on Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc.’s website yesterday.

The article hits all the high notes and provides an excellent example of how MSAs can work to the advantage of both parties:

Because the structured MSA can potentially lower the cost of satisfying the MSP obligation, the defense can benefit in cost savings.

Because the structured MSA can “free up” some of the settlement dollars, the injured worker can potentially end up with more cash at settlement while ensuring medical needs are properly addressed.

We compliment author Rebecca Shafer, JD on a terrific piece on a timely topic.

For additional information on structured settlements and for MSA quotes, please call us anytime we can help.

January 31, 2013 – A few days ago, we passed along the news that A. M. Best has just upgraded the outlook for American General Life from stable to positive.

We cheered that good news.

Today, we’re cheering even louder because of the 2 minute YouTube video we just watched which was produced by American General and is 100% dedicated to structured settlements.

We don’t want to take up any more time talking about this today.

We just want you to grab your popcorn  and join us in saying . . .

“THANK YOU American General!”

. . . for your commitment to the structured settlements industry and all the people it helps.

January 30, 2013 – At first blush, this may seem like news to yawn about.

But today’s close of the 10-Year Treasury yield above 2% for the first time in nine months is important for a couple reasons.

Reason One

Today’s close at 2.03% means the yield is 42% better than it was at its bottom of 1.43% six months ago.

This may be bad news if you are a bond investor since rising yields mean loss of investment value but for those who are only looking for future guaranteed benefits from fixed products like structured settlements, it means you get appreciably more “bang for your buck.”

Reason Two

If you look at the longer term historical trend line, it looks like the yield bottom may finally be in our rear view mirror.  Only time will tell for sure but it’s starting to look like investors are feeling progressively bearish toward bonds.

This will only bode well for structured settlement recipients going forward.

Reason Three

Small movements are BIG movements.  Let me explain:

A 0.5% rise when yields are at 5.0% means you’re only getting about 10% more money per purchase dollar; however,

A 0.5% rise when yields are at 1.5% means you’re getting about 33% more money per purchasing dollar.

Moral:  At these levels, learn to celebrate small movements!

Fixed products like structured settlements don’t track in total lock step with Treasuries per se but the latter is often used as a general benchmark for where things are headed in our industry.  And we like what we’re seeing.

So lock in those fixed interest mortgage rates while you can, folks!  Quite possibly, the low rate opportunities may soon be gone for good.  Or at least for another generation.

Meanwhile, we’re cheering the rate improvements we’re seeing from most of our life company partners and are optimistic the best is yet to come.