Looking to structure your divorce settlement so as to save taxes and secure income? Allstate has the answer.

Divorce is rarely a happy event but a successful divorce settlement that can bring tax advantages and greater security to both sides of the transaction is going to be great news for many divorce attorney's and their clients across the country.

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Today Allstate Financial has continued it's tradition for innovation and expansion in the structured settlement marketplace by announcing to brokers nationally that Marital Property Transfers, ie Divorce settlements, are now eligible to be structured using their Allstate International Assignments, Ltd, facility and Allstate Life Insurance Company as the funding mechanism. 

This one area of structured settlements has been for the settlement planners who specialize in structured settlements in taxable damage situations, sort of the holy grail, as it is an area of the legal profession where there is a lot of activity and financial planning stress due to the nature of the situation involved. Now with the ability to use a structure to bridge the negotiation gap between parties, the potential exists to provides real value to both sides of the transaction in money saved and security added. 

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Mark Wahlstrom, the host of The Settlement Channel will be doing a commentary on the entire process later this week on Settlement Expert TV, and at that time will provide a more detailed tutorial on how structured divorce settlements work, the tax implications and advantages for both parties if they elect to structure a divorce settlement and who might be most interested in pushing funds into future years and securing cash flows. 

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Obviously the initial benefit of a marital property transfer being funded through a structured divorce settlement is the payer gets a full tax deduction for the amount funded, while the beneficiary of the payments has a secured cash flow from a AA+ rated credit and only pays taxes on the funds in the years in which they receive them. Mark will discuss the creative application of this powerful tool in his commentary later this week. Until then to learn more about the Allstate Financial divorce structured settlement program, keep checking back to our web site and contact Mark Wahlstrom for more details. 

What is the problem with structured settlements? Has the brand been lost?

In this week's edition of Speaking of Settlements, national structured settlement expert, Mark Wahlstrom, looks at some of the empirical data on structured settlement premium written, interest rate trends and the shrinking number of life markets involved in the structured settlement market. 

Mark's conclusion is that there are some fundamental problems in the structured settlement profession as evidenced by shrinking premium, diminished interest from life markets and an aging and static based of structured settlement brokers actively engaged in the profession.

The myth that structured settlement annuity sales have shrunk as a result of lower interest rates is exposed to some degree by the fact that fixed annuity and income annuity sales for the rest of the financial planning industry are up, even at record levels, for certain lines, all with the same interest rate levels the structured settlement profession use as an excuse for poor results. It begs the question as to why structured settlement sales have declined 20% over the last two years, when the rest of the financial service industry is seeing gains of 6% to 15% on similar lines over the same time period. 

If interest rates can not be blamed for this drastic decline, then what is at work in the structured settlement profession to cause such severe drops in premium?

Mark's answer is that the structured settlement brand name has been taken over by the factoring profession and that it is now going to be almost impossible to salvage the integrity of the product in the minds of consumers. The steady drum beat and message that implies that a structured settlement is something to be rid of, ( "It's your money, and you want it NOW!") has polluted the minds of NEW potential clients to a degree that they all wonder why they would ever want to be in a structured settlement when it appears that everyone is trying to get out of one. 

Obviously, those in the structured settlement profession are well versed on the value, importance and integrity of the structured settlement, but as Mark Wahlstrom warned repeatedly over the last five years, the settlement profession's pathetic budget to counter this adverse message from factoring companies has doomed the profession to the loss of it's brand identity with potential newclients.

Listen to this week's edition of Speaking of Settlements and watch for next week's discussion on the implications of the lost battle for the mind's of new customers and what brokers, planners and attorney's can do to manage their professional practice going forward. 

Questions on the BP Oil spill settlement, what does it mean for settlements?

The announced settlement in Federal Court on the BP oil spill case has as usual created more questions for the claimants and gulf coast residents than it has answered.

Legal Broadcast Network will have an exclusive question and answer session with two of the most knowledgable attorneys involved in this case. Attorney Frederick "Rick" Kuykendall of Kuykendall & Associates of Fairhope, AL, and Attorney Wesley J. Farrell of the Miami, FL firm of Farrell and Patel. Legal Broadcast Network will be releasing the interview on it's affiliated channels and here at The Settlement Channel at 2 pm EST, March 5th and will cover questions such as:

• What if you are a resident in the Gulf Coast who was impacted by the spill but you have yet to file a claim? How does the announced BP settlement impact your rights?
• What if you have already recieved some partial payments from the Gulf Coast Claims Facility? What are your rights or options going forward.
• What options in the BP Settlement take into consideration the potential for long term health issues or future claims for illness, injury or medical care needs due to pollution of the Gulf?
• What will happen to claims that are being processed in the Gulf Coast Claims Facility but have yet to be finalized or settled? Do you need to start the process over or do you have other options?
• What is the tax status of my oil spill claim? Is it taxable and do I have the opportunity to structure my payments over time and save on taxes?

In short, this interview with two leading lawyers who have been involved in the BP Gulf Coast litigation from it's outset will be of crucial value and interest to residents, businesses and others impacted by the Gulf oil spill and the possible rights to settle your claims.

If you are a claimant or interested party in the BP Oil spill settlement you need to be sure to view and listen to this exclusive broadcast early next week! Our firm, Wahlstrom & Associates is prepared to work with claimants and their advisors who are wondering what the financial impact of this settlement might be, what settlement options are available and strategies using 468B settlement trusts to defer the tax hit for many claimants.

Check back at Legal Broadcast Network after 2 pm EST on Monday the 5th and we will have the comprehensive interview ready for you to view and share with your friends at that time. We will also be releasing the same interview on The Settlement Channel just after broadcast Monday.