by Structured Settlement Watchdog
It’s pushing 100 degrees in the nation’s capital, close to that out here on Long Island Sound, and the “The Hindert Chicken Meter” is on roast.
The Pontification of Factoring Role in Structured Settlement Industry Growth?
Is Factoring a Factor?
Many in the structured settlement/settlement planning industry have for years been subjected to Patrick Hindert’s pontification about the role factoring plays in structured settlement industry growth, while he simultaneously slags off the industry.
My Challenge to Hindert
This author has challenged Mr. Hindert to write a white paper to spell out his ideology and the struggle he is fighting. If he really believes in it, then put it out there for all of the world to see.
A Challenge to a Debate
26 days have gone by since Hindert has been challenged. Hindert challenged me to a debate in a phone call shortly before May 13, 2008. The “Hindert Chicken Counter” hit the press on May 24, 2008 when it became obvious that Hindert 
is avoiding the question now. The aforementioned was a continuous clock originally posted on this site, as a lighthearted and good natured motivational stunt, that kept ticking until Patrick Hindert responded, which he never did.
The ultimate issue, for Hindert it seems, is a putative argument between one industry that is highly regulated to protect consumers and another that is clearly not
And for outsiders reading this blog, that while he is a member of the NSSTA, SSP, and various bar associations, this author believes that Mr. Hindert is a zealot whose views don’t come close to representing the industry. The man has promoted a “bill of goods” on factoring, without specificity, through his writings and presentations.
If Hindert wants to convince people that factoring is “MiracleGro” for the structured settlement industry and that factoring industry business practices at this point in time, are not one of the biggest contributing factors to structured settlement necrosis, then lay it out clucker!
Hindert MUST address factoring industry business practices, a subject about which his years of prior commentary has been grossly under weighted. For example on November 6, 2007, in a review of content from the 2007 Advanced Law Institute, Hindert slagged off on purported structured settlement agents business practices yet did not utter a peep about his factoring industry buddies other than to imply that the secondary market did not exhibit the purported practices.
To date, Hindert’s limited public criticism of the factoring industry has primarily focused on the concept map “How the Primary Market Views Factoring”, featuring the work of “Babs” Bowen Arrows (pun intended)
Quoted on factoring from Section 8A.03[3} 33 Rel. of the text book that Hindert co-authored… “Considering these and other factors (visualize eyes rolling-NOW), claimants and their attorneys may now have multiple options for generating future cash to meet unanticipated needs. These options include deferred lump sums and commutation provisions in addition to structured settlement factoring transactions”.
For the record, from a settlement planning perspective, options also include: (a) an appropriate balance of structured payments and cash in hand, (b) a combination of structure and a trust, (c) structure, cash in hand, and trust, and (d) in some cases, recovery management is best served by no structure at all.
Leave a Reply