The first is 800-444-5924, our existing number will be pointing to our new offices.

PLEASE NOTE: Our 800 number has been "ported" or pointed to our disconnected line by the phone company. Hopefully this will be corrected by close of business on October 7th, 2009. In the mean time please contact us on our direct office line at 480-478-0183

The second number is 480-478-0183.

Our new Fax number is 480-478-0626.

Please note our new and permanent address is now

7701 East Gray Road, Unit 103

Scottsdale, AZ 85260

One of the greatest mistakes plaintiffs, injury victims and trial lawyers make it to assume they will always be able to generate a secure, sufficient income through their employments, a wifes job, investment income or other sources. The sad fact is that other then a social security check and some pensions from blue chip employers are the only guaranteed monthly income anyone really has, particularly in a market with depressed interest rates, rising unemployment, under employment and sharply lower savings and retirement accounts.

The structured settlement annuity, when issued by a large, responsible life insurance company has proven over 30 years to be the single most effective means of providing stable, guaranteed, tax free income for injury victims, their families and increasingly for lawyers themselves who need to defer taxes and guarantee income to fund their law practices.

Check out this weeks Speaking of Settlements and remind your clients again why the structured settlement is usually the single most effective means of protecting your clients long term financial health.

Wen Jiabao, Premier of China

Many commentators, investment firms and others have long been warning that China would not tolerate for long the financial misadventures of the US Congress and our exploding deficits if it threatened the viability and stability in pricing of US Treasury's held by China.

Premier Jiabao said " We have lent a huge amount of money to the US. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am definitely a little worried."

Lets just say that China has now officially let it be known that the massive bailout, spending and stimulus program embarked on in the first 50 days of the Obama administration has got it more then a little concerned, as they realize that even more Treasury paper will be flooding the credit markets and that the US has become a debtor nation.

The implications of this policy are laid out in two excellent articles today.

One in the NY Times.

One in the Wall Street Journal.

What this means to the financial markets, tax payers and others is that much as the loan sharks send Vinnie the collector over to your place of business to remind you that Friday is pay day and that they expect you to be on time, China has now sent a clear message to the US that the orgy of spending and printing of money is going to come at a huge cost.

That cost is China and many of the middle east oil producing companies are going to be directing, through the pressure they exert as a major lender, the direction and priorty of US fiscal policy and that our nation is now vulnerable to economic blackmail from countries that are not our friends.

The implications for us are that we as a nation have got to pare back debt, pare back foolish spending, start investing in real businesses, technology and processess that create real wealth and value or we are looking at an extended period of economic decline or malaise as a country. Both parties have their hands all over this deal and it will fall not on political leadership but individual citizens and business people to set the course straight again.

Keep your powder dry, your assets in safe and secure places, invest in your business and educations and spend wisely. It's going to be a new world order and the US and it's citizens just got a glimpse of it this morning.

As settlement planners our focus will continue to be on safety, quality of assets, fixed and floating yield annuity products and assisting clients with protecting their settlement awards and assets.

This event will be held at the beautiful Phoenix Marriott, literally 3 minutes from the Sky Harbor terminals and strategically planned to allow for either a quick and economical same day fly in to attend, or a quality weekend stay over if you want to enjoy some sunshine and fun a couple of days after April 15th.

The text book, which is included in the CE/CLE cost is 468b trusts and qualified settlement funds, authored by Attorney Robert W. Wood of Wood & Porter of San Francisco, CA. It is published by the highly regarded Tax Institute and is an exceptional resource. I've got a copy and it's about the size of the Gutenberg Bible and almost as authoritative! It covers every tax, regulator and procedural aspect of 468b trusts, qualified settlements funds and their use in both qualified and non-qualified cases. There is no finer expert then Robert Wood, he already wrote the text book used in most law and tax curriculums on taxable damage issues and now has written what I predict will become the standard of practice on 468b trusts.

What makes this seminar so unique is it is open to trial lawyers, tax lawyers and professionals, elder law and probate attorneys as well as structured settlement and life insurance company personnel. Perhaps no area of the settlement and legal profession holds more promise then the broad application of these trust, while at the same time facing unneccessary resistance as a result of a standard of how taxes and process is handled to make them understood to the every day planner, attorney or tax professional.

Listen to what the Tax Institute has to say about 468b trusts and Qualified Settlement funds:

"Qualified Settlement Funds (QSFs) are tax qualified trusts for litigation settlement proceeds. They are easy to set up, and offer unparalleled tax and structural benefits. Defendants get an immediate tax deduction and full release, but plaintiffs can defer their income, structure their recovery, etc. They are revolutionizing case settlements, from complex class actions to mom & pop litigation.

Plaintiffs love QSFs, for they can determine when and how to be paid, structure, cash or both.

Defendants love QSFs, for they get their tax deductions immediately!

Plaintiff Lawyers love QSFs, for they can structure their fees, or get paid immediately, even while their clients are still negotiating.

Settlement Administrators love QSFs, which are orderly, tax qualified, and advance settlement goals."

What this is NOT is a seminar on single claimant cases but a truly thoughtful look at the tremendous opportunity to revolutionize and improve the management of a huge area of litigation and settlements!

Featured speakers will of course be Attorney Robert W. Wood on the tax and procedural issues, famed environmental and Civil Action attorney Jan Schlichtmann on how the use of 468b trusts has revolutionized his environmental law practice, Mark Wahlstrom of Wahlstrom and Associates on the key planning and structured settlement opportunities for settlement professionals as well as other experts and providers who will be there for the breakfast, lunch and social hour functions that will give people an exceptional opportunity to network and meet other professionals who are working in this exciting area of settlement planning.

This is event is currently submitting for both CLE and CE credits and is being produced and filmed by The Legal Broadcast Network and it's production arm, LB Network Studios. This is going to be a high value, time and cost efficient event that can dramatically improve your practice and is open to everyone, from defense firms to plaintiff practices and all other disciplines.

You can learn more by going to the event page on The Tax Law Channel or at the LB Network blog where we will profile the speakers, give links to the hotel, contact information for Attorney Rob Wood and answer most of your questions on this event. We hope to see you there!

As anyone who does any work in the structured settlement market knows, the impact of factoring companies such as J.G. Wentworth, Peachtree Funding and others in advertising to annuity holders to "get cash now"has been a major concern of NSSTA and others. We have entire blogs and private initiatives that attempt to address the key word purchase price inflation these companies cause for topics such as structured settlements, settlement planning and structured annuity. A quick scan of Google shows that those terms alone are among the most valuable on the internet, largely because of the huge margins a factoring company can make on the purchase of someone's future payments. I, as much as anyone, am aware of the fact that these terms have been usurped by factoring firms through this saturation of advertising to the point where many legislative and judicial leaders consider the factoring firms "the structured settlement industry" and not NSSTA and it's supporters.

However, as my readers and viewers know i'm actually quite neutral on the issue of factoring, particularly in light of the fact that it is legal, has a clearly defined process that is required to get it done and in a large number of cases is a result of lazy or careless planning by the annuity broker who sold it to the client with little thought toward their cash needs.

This two part interview with Earl Nesbitt goes into a lot of those issues, particularly advertising, the idea of judicial education on factoring process and cooperation between the primary and secondary markets. If you are curious as to what N.A.S.P is up to, what the factoring industry has planned given the recent turmoil in credit markets and the future of factoring issues, you might want to check out this video series.

I will be addressing in some length later this week the topic of NSSTA and it's minuscule investment in advertising, marketing and education, particularly in contrast to the aggressive approach taken by the secondary market. Unless the leaders of our profession had failed to notice, J.G. Wentworth, Peachtree and others are essentially crippled at the moment by the collapse of their banking, hedge fund and secondary market sales options. NOW is the time for NSSTA and it's members to commence judicial education on structured settlements, the value of annuity products, the safety of what we offer and why responsible factoring has a role in our industry. Now is the time to build bridges, move past our battles of the last five years and grow our business and part of that is going to be getting off the factoring company bashing routine that has been the primary focus of our profession for many years now.

Lets get proactive and start selling our product and it's virtues, reclaim the brand now that the factoring companies have fewer dollars to advertise, lobby and influence buyers and get out of the fox hole and build our profession.

This two part edition of "Speaking of Settlements" goes into that post and the theory of a coming boom in structured settlements in greater detail. Obviously I'd like you to view the videos, but if you want the short hand argument as to why I think we are about to see a surge, the five points are as follows:

1. Tax rates are about to rise given the government deficit and Democratic control of the House, Senate and White house. High tax rates make tax free annuity payments such as offered under structured settlements more attractive and as such we will see a relative advantage to using tax free annuity payments over alternative investments that don't enjoy the same tax status.

2. Interest rates are going to rise substantially over the next 3 years as the massive government debt leads to inevitable declines in the value of the dollar and relative increases in interest rates on debt obligations. Again, when compared to alternative investments such as bonds and bank CD's, the high rate of return on structured settlement annuities will compare favorably with other choices that lawyers and plaintiffs have before them, making the structured annuity a favored choice for many.

3. Life insurance companies are going to come out of this financial crisis as one of the few entities that didn't fail and in fact stood strong during the turmoil. The performance of structured settlements in this crisis is going to contrast very favorably with money market funds, banks, stock brokerage and mutual funds, not to mention real estate. People will begin to realize the superior safety of life insurance companies which is going to make our selling job easier when we discuss safety, stability, etc. All one needs to do is look at the 100% gain in the price of Hartford Life's stock last week in a single day once it became clear the insurance industry is still making money, is not going to vanish and that the major life markets such as Met Life, John Hancock, Genworth, Prudential, Hartford and others are not going away, but in fact are going to get stronger. Even AIG looks to be a candidate for a successful work out at this point.

4. Tort reform is dead as a political issue on both the national and state level, which will ultimately lead to a stronger settlement market. The distraction of tort reform, the heavy handed claims and litigation tactics and other clubs used to push people into smaller settlements, poison jurys and reduce the number of cases filed will slowly begin to receed. Nothing huge at first but the pendulum that swung so far to the right over the last 10 years will begin to swing back to the middle as the political climate shifts to a more pro-plaintiff market.

5. The Structured Settlement industry cartel is in it's last days as the information age sweeps over our business and creates greater awareness of pricing, negotiation and access to markets by consumers looking to decide how to settle their claims. The last 25 years has seen complete dominance by defense interests and a few powerful brokers that limited information, access and entry to the structured settlement business. I can't think of any other major financial market that is so totally insulated and sheltered from outside competition, however, with the information age, the intrusion of other financial professionals and increased sophistication of consumers is going to continue to force greater transparency and cooperation on our business.

Take a look at both segments of Structured settlements, the coming Golden Age and watch for some other big news this week related to new marketing opportunities about to be made available to structured settlement professionals nationwide.

In addition to being one of the nations premier experts in settlement planning and using structured settlements, Mark Wahlstrom is also the host of the Settlement Channel, and in this weekly broadcast attempts to answer some of the basic issues on the minds of Vioxx claimants. What are these letters they are receiving from their lawyers, what settlement options do they have, what decisions do they need to make right now and how do they plan to use their settlement funds wisely.

Listen to this 8 minute broadcast to get up to speed on the Vioxx settlement and your settlement options.

If you are a Vioxx claimant and wondering what you should do with your funds or how to protect your financial situation this is a must view video for you.

1. Make sure you have your letter from your law firm or lawyer confirming that you have been awarded an amount in the settlement. We will need to know your lawyers name, the office location and what dates they have given you to get your letter back to them as to your decision.

2. Determine if you are on medicaid or medicare for your health insurance. One of the most important areas to plan around is potential liens on your settlement or to avoid being disqualified from future medicaid benefits. Please let us know right away if you are on either medicare of medicaid!

3. Accurate information about you, your family and your planning needs. Are you retired? Are you on a pension? Does your spouse work or is your spouse potentially on medicare or medicaid as well? All of these questions will need to be asked.

4. What are your immediate cash needs. What bills have mounted up or need to be paid right away. If you decide to structure your payments you will certainly want some amount in cash so give our office some idea of what your immediate needs are.

5. What your future plans or income needs might be. We will assist you with this planning in our conversations.

Our office is open from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm from now until September 19th to assist Vioxx claimants with their decision process. If you have trouble reaching us by telephone you can also reach us by email at mark@markwahlstrom.com.

This is an important one time decision as to what you should do with your Vioxx check so don't waste it by simply paying bills or spending it on items that you won't even need a few months later.

Invest that check, use it wisely and contact our office to assist you with this important planning.

The fact is we are looking at a mortgage crisis that has caused massive instability in financial institutions in the US, with bank failures escalating sharply, real estate plunging in value, commercial lenders and brokerage houses scrambling for cash in the face of liquidity needs and plunging asset values, and now the looming monetary inflation that will pound long term bond holders.

In this video Mark goes over the benefits of a structured settlement annuity in these troubled times and compares it to most of the other financial options available to the average citizen attempting to use their settlement wisely.

Check out this video and watch for each weeks edition of Speaking of Settlements.