BP Oil Spill fund of $20 Billion, will this lead to substantial settlements?

In todays Speaking of Justice we call again on noted mass tort and environmental attorney Frederick "Rick" Kuykendall to discuss the recently announced $20 billion BP Oil Spill damage fund. This fund, established through negotiations from the Obama White House is unprecedented in US legal history as a private fund created to specifically compensate injured individuals and businesses in the Gulf Coast region. BP CEO Tony Hayward Associated Press Photo

Rick Kuykendall is uniquely qualified to discuss this case and is a member of the Gulf Coast Litigation Group that is a partnership of some of the leading lawyers from Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Florida. In today's three part conversation, we first look at how this was set up, the appointment of Kenneth Feinberg to act as special master or trustee and the impact of this fund on pending and potential litigation in the states, counties and cities of the impacted Gulf Coast region.

The unprecedented scope of this disaster, coupled with the potential size of this case, called for bold and creative thinking as opposed to the legal feeding frenzy we have been witnessing over the last six weeks. While the legal issues related to the BP Oil Spill litigation will continue to be refined and defined over the coming months, there is little question that the creation of the Oil Spill Damage fund is a major event in US legal history and is going to be followed closely on LBN.

Watch for part two of this interview later today featuring Attorney Tom Bilek of the Bilek firm in Houston, TX in which he covers his arguements in court today in New Orleans on the issue of protecting workers who are assisting in the oil clean up.

Also, part three of this discussion will cover today's hearing on Capital Hill with BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward and the statements by several law makers who refer to the fund as " A shakedown" and distortion of the US legal system.



Settlement and retirement planning in a low interest rate world

I will be starting twice weekly broadcasts of Speaking of Settlements begining this week and as part of this increase in programming I am working on several series, the first of which is how to handle the task of doing settlement, income or retirement planning in this brutally low interest rate market.

As I mentioned on a broadcast earlier this week, LIMRA came out with a study showing that sales of fixed annuity product in the US were down over 50% from 2009, which was already on record as a horrible year for structured settlements. What this indicates and any honest settlement planner or broker will tell you, is that the structured settlement and annuity professions are mired in a miserable sales slump.

There are two primary reasons, on top of several secondary ones, that are at the root cause of this slump.

The first is that the lowest historical rates on fixed interest savings and bond products in the 20th century are making people refuse to commit long to fixed annuity and savings products with returns that are often 2% or less.

The second is people are coming to realize that taxes will be going up in 2011, dramatically for some, and they are electing to take as much income or gains now as they can to pay down debt, rebuild cash positions and strengthen their personal and corporate balance sheets, all while keeping funds available to reinvest or deploy when the economic climate improves. If you are going to take income, this is the year to do it and the smart money is already starting the process.

However, all those facts aside, as planners and advisors we are still the one's that our clients, injury victims, savers and others planning for retirement turn to for guidance, and we have to come to grips with some of the clear economic signals and begin to assist our clients in how to plan accordingly.

This video lays out some of the elements of this 6 part outline on how to help people plan in this unique market and time in our country's history. I'll be looking at the issues of improved mortality and lengthened life expectancy, the looming reality of a double dip recession in 2011, the certainty of much higher marginal income tax rates and capital gains rates in 2011 and the fact that we won't see a big spike in yields until the economy improves and the private sector begins to have access to capital and produces real gains in payrolls and personal incomes.

It's not a simple world and it takes some thought, but unless you have a grasp on where the economy is headed and the fact that most  people are currently hoarding cash and then are typically spending it down due to the inability of investment to produce sufficient income, you can't start to make a plausible case for why immediate annuities, life income annuities and structured settlements make sense.

Be sure to watch all 5 segments that follow this introduction and I promise you will come out of it with some solid ideas and concepts that you can use in your next meeting with clients or when examining your savings and income needs.

Tax deductible retirement plans for trial lawyers

Ok, if you are a trial lawyer and last week you had a painful conversation with your CPA or tax professional about the amount of tax you owed, or how depleted your retirement account is, then you absolutely need to contact my office and learn more about some options only available to trial lawyers.

This weeks edition of Speaking of Settlements gives you a quick look at how trial lawyers and litigators can accomplish the following:

• Convert taxable income into fully tax deductible income by taking advantage of structured legal fees and certain retirement plan options.
• Remove all market risk from your retirement planning and know in advance exactly how much retirement income you will have at a certain age, regardless of market performance.
• Cut your current tax bill by the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars by doing some very basic and simple advance planning.

As I state in the video, this is not some esoteric plan that is going to give your CPA a heart attack or keep you up at night wondering when the IRS is going to knock on your door. No, this is plan that is based on long standing tax law and principals that allow trial lawyers to defer their taxable income into future years, guarantee those payments and then direct them into exceptionally conservative guaranteed benefit retirement plans.

It's a basic plan, it works like nothing else in the financial community but you have to speak with an expert BEFORE your case settles in order to take full advantage of it.

If your tax bill is killing you and your retirement plans are a mess, please contact my office at Wahlstrom & Associates and lets talk about how you can begin to clean up this disaster. Lets face it, the last few years have been hard on trial lawyers bank accounts, but you have a chance to fix it and get control over your finances if you simply plan ahead and systematically convert some of your current legal fees into guaranteed future income.

You only have yourself to blame if you are paying too much in taxes and your retirement plan is something that keeps you up at night. The solution is staring you in the face, you just have to get educated and put the plan in motion.