What is Settlement Planning

WHAT IS

SETTLEMENT PLANNING?

What is Settlement Planning?

Settlement Planning is a collaborative comprehensive holistic approach to helping plaintiffs and their counsel move through the financial transition resulting from a major life event and prepare for incoming settlements. The settlement planning and financial planning decisions that must be made are unique to each person and transition event. This requires experience, patience, empathy, the ability to break down complexity, to educate through a humanistic process.  Settlement planning IS NOT  just about selling a product.  Settlement planning is sometimes known as settlement protection planning.

" Whether a change is motivated by choice or chance, there is a distinct pattern for how we humans internalize and respond to life-altering transitions".   -Sudden Money Institute


Our brand of settlement planning balances the personal and the technical sides of money, employing Sudden Money® protocols and tools in a humanistic process and collaborating with people in transition to help them navigate a path to clearer and more confident decisions.


Settlement Planning involves specialized skills in addition to listening, learning about a person's needs and goals by asking the right questions, providing education to enable clients to make informed decisions, and developing recommended strategies and solutions to help clients both maximize and protect their lawsuit recovery. Through skill and experience we can often help a client crystallize their objectives at a time when the plaintiff may be cognizant of the importance of the decisions required but (1) may not find it easy to focus due to the emotional overlay from a protracted course of litigation; (2) may not find it easy to focus because the grieving process is still too raw (3) may initially lack the degree of sophistication necessary to identify a flawed approach when they encounter one; (4) may feel overwhelmed by an enormous amount of pressure put on them by their attorney to make a decision; (5) may be overwhelmed by competing interests within their own families; (6) may not want to let go; (7) may be affected by a combination of the above or other factors.

Why the use of an Expert Settlement Planner and Certified Financial Transitionist

Is Of Benefit to Claims Professionals


The public relations value of a humanistic approach should not be under estimated by claims professionals, insurers, defendants and their attorneys. Having an understanding of the settlement planning process and then implementing through balancing the personal and the technical, adds another dimension to how insurance companies and defendants can approach mediations and settlement discussions in simple or complex litigation. One or more of the above reasons may affect your ability to close out a file for your client, your insured, or for the following market. Employing an expert settlement planner with financial transition expertise, and/or recommending to your adversary that they engage a settlement planner with these skills, may help keep things moving along.  John Darer of 4structures.com LLC is a Registered Settlement Planner, a Master Structured Settlement Consultant and one of only two Certified Financial Transitionists in the settlement planning and structured settlement space.

certified financial tranistionsit john darer

    What is a Settlement Planner?


A settlement planner is financial advisory team member, someone in your corner, a member of your brain trust, who can provide expert advice, guidance and assistance in a variety of ways to help design the optimal plan for allocation and distribution of plaintiffs' and attorneys' settlement proceeds and provide guidance to the individuals and/or their attorneys through the settlement plan and its implementation. We handle both personal injury settlement planning and settlement planning for wrongful death survivors in aviation, auto, construction, medical malpractice, maritime settlements, as well as settlement planning and expert advice in employment, intellectual property and commercial settlements.


Read more about our settlement planning services.  Settlement planning involves an interdisciplinary approach.

4structures.com LLC President John Darer® CLU® ChFC® MSSC CeFT® RSP CLTC was the first settlement planner in the United States to earn the professional designation of Registered Settlement Planner and is a Certified Financial Transitionist , one of only two settlement experts with the professional certification, earned through an intensive certification program through the Financial Transitionist Institute, a division of the Sudden Money Institute.  The Registered Settlement Planner (RSP) designation is a professional certification awarded by the Registry of Settlement Planners. The designation is awarded to those settlement planners who meet the high standards required of professional settlement planners and agree to abide by the ethical standards adopted by the Registry.   John has also earned the professional designations of Certified Stuctured Settlement Consultant and Master Structured Settlement Consultant, Chartered Financial Consultant, Chartered Life Underwriter and Certified in Long Term Care.

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Read a  Reprint of John Darer’s article on the subject of Settlement Planning   that was published in the Connecticut Law Tribune May 25, 2009 .


John Darer and those who have earned the Registered Settlement Planner designation show a serious commitment to the field of settlement planning through the completion of three graduate level courses offered through the Settlement Planning Education Center , developed in collaboration with the Texas Tech University Personal Financial Planning Division, and the preparation of a comprehensive settlement plan that must be vetted by the Registry of Settlement Planners Board and subscribing to the RSP Code of Ethics. Those who complete the Registered Settlement Planner (RSP) program should be able to:

 

  • Demonstrate a mastery of the legal environment as it relates to planning for the needs of personal injury victims and their families
  • Demonstrate a mastery of the financial planning environment as it relates to planning for the needs of personal injury victims and their families. 
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the entire settlement planning process from defining the scope of the engagement to creating a settlement plan. 
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the role of dissipation risk in a settlement plan. 
  • Acquire knowledge of the ethical issues and practice standards faced by settlement planners. 
  • Acquire the ability to practice in the area of settlement planning without supervision. 
  • Develop a thorough understanding of the tax issues faced in settlement planning. 
  • Prepare and present a written comprehensive settlement plan for a catastrophically injured client. 

 

At 4structures.com, LLC, We Know Settlement Planning®. We passionately believe that the settlement planning discussion should only be engaged with competent, properly trained and credentialed settlement planning experts.  

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Last updated March 3, 2024

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