Berkshire Hathaway to commence writing structured settlements again

Structured settlement expert Chuck Derrene in Wisconsin discusses his industry background and his newest relationship with Berkshire Hathaway.

As part of this profile of Chuck Derrene and his firm, Premier Structured Settlements, we discuss the exciting news that Berkshire Hathaway is making a return to the structured settlement market by offering their rock solid financial rating and underwriting expertise to people seeing a structured settlement annuity.

In this conversation Chuck looks at the benefits of Berkshire Hathaway coming back into the market, it's financial rating strength that puts it alone at the top of the market with New York Life as the only A++ credits and the approach it is taking as it once again underwrites these important long term financial guarantees for injury victims.

Subsequent to this interview it was futher revealed that Berkshire Hathaway and it's partially owned subsidiary, Symetra, would be jointly marketing the new product. We will have a follow up interview on that topic later this week.

San Antonio structured settlement experts Carola and John Davis discuss structured settlement planning

In this profile video of the San Antonio, TX based team of Carola and John Davis, you can learn more about how they entered the field of structured settlement planning and they kind of services they provide for their clients in the South and Central Texas region, as well as the city of San Antonio. Carola Davis, San Antonio structured settlement expert

SETTLEMENT PARTNERS offers comprehensive services in structuring settlements for all types of tort litigation, taxable or non-taxable. With extensive backgrounds in insurance, personal injury litigation, and financial services, SETTLEMENT PARTNERS works with attorneys in determining the benefits of and allocations to cash, Special Needs Trusts, Minor's Trusts, and structured settlement annuities with consideration to estate tax planning and individual tax consequences using traditional structured settlement annuities and the variable annuity for tax-free distributions.

Ms. Davis is an experienced financial professional, specializing in designing and structuring settlements for personal injury cases, clients with special needs, and taxable payouts to avoid higher tax brackets. She has more than 25 years of diversified insurance experience and 16 years specializing in annuity business. Her broad background in structured settlements, investment counseling, litigation support, and estate tax issues brings an invaluable asset to the settlement table.

Later this summer we will be bringing Carola and John Davis back on Speaking of Settlements to provide further detail on their unique specialization in special needs trusts and how to apply the use of structured settlements in catastrophic loss cases. Until then, if you are located in the San Antonio, TX area and are looking for the top experts or agents in structured settlements, please go to the contact page for Carola Davis here on the expert directory to learn how to contact her.

Oil and Gas lease bonus payments, Allstate innovates once again.

In this weeks edition of Speaking of Settlements we look at one of the more innovative programs in the non-qualified market and that is the structuring of oil and gas lease bonus payments through the use of a structured settlement annuity device.

As many people in the structured settlement profession know, Allstate Financial has been a consistent innovator in the area of structured taxable damage awards, as well as structuring the sales of appreciated real estate through their structured sales program. They continue their progressive ways with the announced ability to now structure oil and gas lease bonus payments, allowing people who are leasing their land for oil and gas drilling to defer bonus payments into future years tax returns.

Oil and Gas lease bonus payments, how to structure them for tax savings

The reason this is so important and valuable is that the bonus payment is on top of the annual or quarterly lease payments and is typically a one time bonus up front. By being able to move those dollars into future years, you are able to spread the tax hit over time, earn interest on the funds while deferring, guarantee payments on a fixed schedule and ideally receive them when you are in a lower tax bracket or have other off setting deductions. Of course, on top of the tax benefits, many people just find the idea of being able to secure future payments with the bonus funds to simply be prudent financial planning and want to take advantage of that option now.

To learn more about the Allstate Financial Oil and Gas leasing bonus program, you can go to my firms website at www.wahlstromandassociates.com.

Structured sales and farm land, the boom in farm land prices creates tax planning opportunities for farmers

In this weeks edition of Speaking of Settlements, I look at the renewed interest by my farmers in using structured sales to spread out the tax hit and guarantee cash flow on the sale of their farm land. I also look at the recent surge of farmers who are leasing land to oil companies due to the discovery of shale under their property and the ability to collect oil and gas leasing bonus payments that can be structured as well.

The use of the structured sale has been on the back burner for several years now, largely as a result of the collapse of the real estate market and financing options for both buyers and sellers. It was a product originally conceived and used successfully for several years when people who own highly appreciated, low cost basis real estate, want to cash out and sell, but don’t want to write huge tax checks to the state and federal government on the capital gain. While we can all agree it makes a lot more sense to use 100% of your net sale proceeds and spread the money out over years, many people are still wondering what a structured sale is, and why it makes sense for those selling farm property.

In almost every case that has been referred to my office over the last year in which farm land is being sold or is under consideration for sale, it is a family owned farm that has almost no cost basis and close to 100% of the sale is going to be subject to capital gains tax. While the tax is a big issue, what is a larger problem is that with the sale of the farm, most farmers or their families are also losing their source of annual income, something they need to sustain through the investment income on the sale proceeds.

The structured sale allows them to design guaranteed payments, on a schedule that makes sense for their situation, paid monthly, annually and for years if not decades into the future. Combined with spreading out the tax hit, putting 100% of the net proceeds to work and creating a guaranteed cash flow and payment stream that provides income to the family, you can see why this is becoming increasingly popular during these uncertain market conditions.

If you want to learn more about structured sales and it’s use when selling farm property, contact my office through our web site at www.wahlstromandassociates.com and we will be happy to assist you.

S&P down grades five major life insurance companies to AA+ from AAA status

In what we can assume will be the first of several down grades for major life insurance companies in the structured settlement markets, S&P quickly down graded five premier life insurance companies yesterday from AAA to AA+.  The companies who were impacted by this are:

New York Life was dropped to a AA+

Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance was dropped to a AA+

USAA was dropped to a AA+.

Knights of Columbus was dropped to a AA+.

Teachers Insurance and Annuity. TIAA, was dropped to a AA+.

So what exactly does this mean and what are the implications for the life insurance industry and structured settlements in general? I address some of the concerns in this weeks video broadcast of Speaking of Settlements but in short the impact should be minimal other than to the pride of the companies listed above.

It is a sickening process in that each of those five firms went to great lengths over the last three years to do the things needed to retain a coveted AAA rating and in some cases make it a key element of their marketing campaigns, only to suffer this immediate down grade as a result of the fact that they hold a large portion of US government obligations precisely because they are so conservative and careful.

As I have been saying for years, our industry uses these ratings at our peril as the rating firms really could care less about the impact of their down grades on companies marketing and reputations and the idea of using S&P as a rating agency for life markets has been a bad idea for decades. I have always preferred AM Best as the best source of information on insurance company standards and solvency and they are not as reactive as the other firms.

Enjoy today’s video on the S&P down grade and it’s impact on the insurance and structured settlement profession, but it would be wise to stop using rating agency rankings as some sort of validation of safety and instead do your own research on markets and firm to match the right company to the right risk.