by Structured Settlement Watchdog
Apparently factoring company representatives are taking the Basic Training Course of the National Structured Settlements Trade Association!
Why are these people permitted to take part in education courses when individually, or through their companies, they practice predatory advertising that ultimately confuses or hurts the consumers we serve?.
Why are factoring company representatives permitted to suck up NSSTA's educational resources when they use, in my opinion, questionable means** to dominate the search engine rankings to the detriment of NSSTA's members?
I can only hope that the Board of Directors and Education Committee members were not aware that this. I, and no doubt others who read this, find it hard to fathom that NSSTA would give these people any legitimacy at all. Between this and the Society of Settlement Planners taking in tens of thousands of dollars of factoring company money to support its goals, it's no wonder factoring companies like JG Wentworth, Novation Capital get the impression that they are part of the structured settlement industry (which they aren't).
Get a load of this email sent by Timothy Aikman of Strategic Capital Corporation to an NSSTA member.Download strategic_capitalnssta_basic_claim_4222006.pdf . Aikman attempts to use his attendance at the NSSTA Basic Training as a springboard for legitimacy. The fact that he thinks the NSSTA Basic Training course is so valuable underscores how little he knows about the structured settlement industry. I have heard that Sian Owen, Vice-President of Marketing of Strategic Capital used her attendance of the meeting as an excuse to mail attendees soliciting for factoring business. This is not what NSSTA is all about. NSSTA leadership must clamp down severely and assure that its membership is served.
Timothy Aikman refers to his firm using Northwestern Mutual trademark "the quiet company"
Pardon me but this term is associated with Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and is registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (www.uspto.gov) under Serial Number 7314066. It has been used in commerce for 34 years and the mark is still alive according to USPTO records. I started my career with Northwestern Mutual. It is the most admired life insurance company in the world, by its peers, according to Fortune magazine. They've spent years building up that brand. You think you are going to capitalize on that? No way!
Paraphrasing the late Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas "Mr. Aikman, I served with the Quiet Company. I know the Quiet Company. The Quiet Company is a friend of mine. Mr. Aikman and Strategic Capital, you're not the Quiet Company."
Ironically the last name of the late Senator whose 1988 vice-presidential debate rebuttal I've paraphrased here is also the last name of a recently former Strategic Capital representative named Bentzen whose contacts Aikman is attempting to solicit.
Why trust a man or company that wantonly uses the trademark of another and represents an industry that seemingly has no respect for insurance advertising laws?
** among other things, using insurance based terms such as structured settlement broker, structured settlement company and structured settlement quote in advertising to give off a certain impression, when not insurance licensed and in some cases without certificates of authority to act in a particular state as covered in previous blog entries.
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