Governor Dannel P. Malloy (D) signed into law Public Act 15-167 on July 2, 2015 providing creditor protections to retirees in pension de-risking transfers. Public Act 15-167 takes effect today. Prior to the enactment of this ground-breaking legislation, annuity payments intended for retirement could be garnished by creditors in Connecticut. Edward Stone Law, on behalf […]
Revisions to the Illinois Structured Settlement Protection Act, 5 ILCS 153/1 went into effect last month in the wake of Settlement Funding, LLC v. Brenston, 998 N.E. 2d 111 (Ill. App. Ct. 2013) where the Illinois Appellate Court held that the trial court erred in permitting a transfer where the settlement agreement contained an anti-assignment clause […]
Companies continue to de-risk their pension plans at a rapid pace. J.C. Penney Co., based in Plano, Texas offered 31,000 retirees a lump sum buyout offer which expires today. This offer follows an earlier lump sum buyout offer in 2012 that 25,000 retirees elected to take. While the I.R.S. restricted lump sum buyouts with new regulations […]
The Washington Post reported that “Prince George County Circuit Court has implemented significant reforms” in its handling of structured settlement payment petitions filed pursuant to the Maryland Structured Settlement Protection Act. All sellers and their independent advisors must now appear at the hearings, and all petitions must be filed using the seller’s full name, rather […]
Council members Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3), Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), Anita Bonds (D-At Large), David Grosso (I-At Large) and Brandon T. Todd (D-Ward 4) introduced a structured settlement protection act to protect District of Columbia residents seeking to sell their structured settlement payment streams. While we agree with the op-ed in The Washington Post on September 11, 2015 […]
As the last of the Executive Life cases seem to be winding their way through the court system, the U.S. government escaped liability in Nutt et al v. United States, No. 14-CV-282, 2015 WL 3525191 (Fed. Cl. June 4, 2015) for a contract it purchased in settlement of a wrongful death claim in 1983, where a […]
Plaintiffs’ have filed a petition for re-hearing with the 5th Circuit in Lee v. Verizon Communs., Inc., 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 14588 (5th Cir. Tex. Aug. 17, 2015), asking that the court re-visit its decision and preserving their right to appeal. Hopefully the 5th Circuit will realize that the risks associated with kicking retirees to […]
The Wall Street Journal’s CFO Journal reported in “Tax Policies Spur Companies to Offer Pension Buy-outs” that in the wake of the IRS’s recent decision to continue using its current mortality tables and new regulations limiting lump-sum buyouts, Newell Rubbermaid and E.W. Scripps will offer lump-sum buyouts to thousands of former employees, with E.W. Scripps also offering an […]
The most recent company to jump on the pension de-risking bandwagon is Lincoln Electric Company who announced that it was de-risking over $900 million in pension obligations to 1900 retirees by transferring its pension obligations to The Principal Financial Group by purchasing a group annuity contract to cover those pension obligations. While pension de-risking offers […]
National media coverage of the practices of the structured settlement factoring industry has continued, with MSNBC airing a lengthy segment by reporter Melissa Harris-Perry on August 30, 2015. The segment included a discussion with reporter Terrence McCoy of The Washington Post, Judith Browne Dianis, noted civil rights attorney and Co-Director of the Advancement Project, E.J. […]
