Today, AT&T made a major announcement: that it will invest more than a half-billion dollars over the next decade to purchase more than 15,000 alternative-fueled vehicles — 8,000 vans powered by compressed natural gas, and another 7,100 hybrid passenger cars. The telecommunications giant estima...

Following what has become an unfortunate tradition of promoting structured settlement "one hit wonders" such as Professor Adam Scales, the Society of Settlement Planners has delved even deeper into the bowels of industry history to fete Kevin A. Mack, a former officer of the Travelers Property &a...

Doing his job to "help elevate the profession" a New York based settlement planner having been duly sworn and deposed recently said:  " A traditional structured settlement is the only mechanism that prevents a minor from cashing in on the entire settlement upon reaching age of majority " according ...

Is your vendor becoming a fine young cannibal? This is something Tony Byrne discussed during his presentation at DC Content Mavens. In hard times vendors are tempted to muscle in on their consultant's business. This has happened to friends and relatives of mine. As a VAR or local dealer you introduc...

Certified Structured Settlement Consultant is a professional designation offered by the National Structured Settlements Trade Association to its members through the Executive program at the University of Notre Dame since 1994. It DOES NOT involve matriculation at the University of Notre Dame. The pr...

Evidence continues to mount that a segment of the structured settlement industry, led by former NSSTA Executive Director Patrick Hindert IS teaming up with the cash now pushers. First, Patrick Hindert has long yakked that the growth of the structured settlement industry is through the factoring indu...

This is the fifth in a series of posts sharing business lessons learned from the movie, AMERICAN GANGSTER. Setting the Scene: The big city street life was new to Frank Lucas’ brothers and cousins. They were used to country life in the backwoods of North Carolina before being recruited into Lucasâ€...

This is the fourth in a series of posts sharing business lessons learned from the movie, AMERICAN GANGSTER. Setting the Scene: “Blue Magic� has transformed Frank Lucas from a nobody to a somebody. Business is booming and Frank needs people he can trust to run his daily operation. For years Frank...

In 1999 The Hartford produced some point of sales pieces for appointed structured settlement annuity brokers to use to compete with alternatives to structured annuities such as bank trusts, CDs, variable annuities and US Treasuries.  The passage of time has rendered some of the key points of these...

I'm not sure whether it was strategic or serendipitous that the World Business Council on Sustainable Development released a report on sustainable consumption just a week before a recessionary Christmas — a time when countless millions were torn between the desire to shop and insufficient means to...