Structured Settlements 4Real®Blog 2026

I was prompted to read Tacker LeCarpentier’s February 16, 2009 article on Sound Diversified Settlement Planning in the North Carolina Lawyers Weekly after the NSSTA posted a link with “belated kudos” on its website, describing the piece as “perceptive.” However, upon reading it, I was left with considerable doubt as to whether the person who selected that adjective had truly taken the time to review the article.

What had the potential to be a strong article by LeCarpentier ultimately left me disappointed. While he adequately outlines the benefits of structured settlements, he relies too heavily on puffery, neglects thorough research, and fails to propose alternatives to their limitations. Instead, he uses the opportunity to criticize The Halpern Group, a direct competitor that, as of 2009, had established a solid presence in his territory and with the North Carolina Association for Justice.

As a Registered Settlement Planner, I am frustrated by individuals who claim the title without proper registration, who “talk the talk” but “walk the wobble,” seemingly motivated by an ulterior agenda to promote structured annuities as a one-size-fits-all solution.

LeCarpentier, a North Carolina licensed attorney and Director of Annuities for a subsidiary of Lawyer’s Mutual Liability Insurance Company of North Carolina says:

“Sound, diversified settlement planning simply involves the appropriate allocation of settlement assets among a variety of risk categories in order to:

1. first and foremost, provide income guarantees, security, liquidity and flexibility;
2. avoid the risk of dissipation of settlement assets;
3. avoid the volatility and uncertainty of the equity and bond markets (especially in today’s uncertain and unsettled financial circumstances);
4. secure ongoing funding for past, present and future special needs, or life-care planning;
5. ensure maximum tax advantages; and
6. obtain a favorable return on principal with minimal risk

Points that LeCarpentier Agrees with Halpern:

1. Virtually all plaintiffs will squander their financial recovery within a few years

2. Many, but not all, claimants are unprepared to manage their settlements, thus putting their settlement funds and their financial futures at serious risk

3. Claimants, including their attorneys and other financial advisors, should understand all of the products and services available to them.

LeCarpentier admits that “all of these products (including structured annuities) have pros and cons, and therefore an effective and professional settlement planner should be weighing the individual needs of the claimant, evaluating the pros and cons of each of these products and recommending to the claimant and/or the claimant’s family the appropriate mix of products and services that best secure and protect the claimant’s settlement proceeds so as to provide long-term security and income for the claimant, prevent dissipation of assets and obtain the most advantageous tax position and return for the claimant.

He continues with  “those hardships might include medical emergencies, job loss and other personal or family emergencies. That is why I am a strong advocate for diversification and guarantees, security and protection, not merely liquidity, flexibility and safety, as my competitor recently stated as his company’s goals (see R. Halpern, Protecting plaintiffs from the squandered settlement, North Carolina Lawyers Weekly, Dec. 1, 2008, p. 13)”.

“An effective settlement planner can create a plan that allocates the claimant’s settlement funds among several products that allow for security through income guarantees, flexibility, liquidity and tax advantages, while avoiding the possibility that a claimant might outlive his or her settlement funds”.

LeCarpentier  says: “You simply cannot outlive a life-contingent annuity”.  Comment: TRUE, in such case the annuitant, if the measuring life, will receive an income he or she cannot outlive.  

Tacker LeCarpentier goes on to say “diversification also avoids the claimant becoming a target of many of the unsavory companies making up the factoring industry (“cash now pushers”). Many of these factoring companies employ massive advertising, sales calls to vulnerable annuitants and other predatory sales tactics to buy annuities of all types at heavily discounted prices.

Comment: Is Le Carpentier saying that diversification of annuity products avoids the annuitant becoming a target (of factoring companies)? Horsefeathers!

In Fact, a number of settlement planners, including NSSTA and SSP member Patrick Hindert have published opinions that factoring is an improvement on the structured settlement product

A significant number of settlement planners assist annuitants in factoring their structured settlements, receiving compensation for such work, sometimes without full transparency. Most industry participants do not disclose factoring activities in their published materials. The structured settlement transparency initiative aimed to demonstrate to the trial bar that these practices are relatively uncommon and to inform them of the questions they should incorporate into their due diligence when evaluating settlement consultants and other financial advisers.

To make matters worse, factoring companies are believed to employ “court scrapers” who obtain court documents identifying annuitants and then contact them to pressure them into selling their structured settlements.

Le Carpentier then asks: Why would claimants risk placing all their settlement funds into a recovery-management program unless its administrator could testify under oath that the program will deliver the tax-free, guaranteed payment streams of a life-contingent structured-settlement annuity?

Comments

1. In that instance, LeCarpentier appeared hypocritical, insisting that Halpern provide a statement under oath while declining to do so himself in relation to the structured settlement transparency initiative.

2. Has The Halpern Group asserted that the Recovery Management Trust or any of its products “will provide the tax-free, guaranteed payment streams of a life-contingent structured-settlement annuity”? If there is relevant information I have overlooked, would LeCarpentier please indicate where it can be found.

3. Does Tacker LeCarpentier suggest that all or most tort victims require a life contingent structured settlement annuity? Inasmuch as the term “life contingent annuity” also applies to life contingent lump sums, why is Le Carpentier using it to describe a life annuity?. Even if we’re just talking annuities why limit the plaintiff’s choice to 12.5% of the possibilities for types of structured settlement payments

4. While LeCarpentier notes that “although certain income streams to a claimant from a trust can be made on a tax-exempt basis, nearly all trusts must pay taxes within the trust on investment gains (using Internal Revenue Service Form 1041),” he overlooks that tax exemption is not always a concern, such as when out-of-pocket medical expenses qualify for tax deductions. As LeCarpentier himself has stated, one of the principles of “sound diversified settlement planning” is to maximize tax advantages. The perceived drawback of a trust product lacking certain tax benefits is offset by available deductions, and an active manager can design a tax-efficient portfolio to address both liquidity and tax considerations. Furthermore, the passage of the Disability Savings Act would render his tax argument largely irrelevant up to the limits of the Disability Savings Account.
5. The contradiction in his own advocacy persists as LeCarpentier addresses the costs of creating and managing a trust, which he asserts do not apply to Section 130 qualified structured settlements. He asks, “So, would you and your client prefer to have 100 percent of the claimant’s settlement proceeds invested in an annuity now, or 91.5 to 96 percent of those funds invested now?” Yet, this raises the question—didn’t LeCarpentier just advocate for diversification?

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