Settlement planning, answered.

A fiduciary is held to the highest standard of care, with a legal obligation to act in the client's best interests. This matters because a planner holding only an insurance license generally has no fiduciary duty to the client and is held only to a suitability standard. When a settlement planner is engaged by the plaintiff's legal team, the planner shares the same duty of loyalty to the injured party; the Society of Settlement Planners' membership standards call for plans to be consummated to a fiduciary standard.

A structured-settlement broker must hold an insurance license to sell annuity products and may work for the defense, the plaintiff, or both, while a fiduciary planner working for the plaintiff is obligated to act in the injured party's best interests. A defense-aligned broker owes its duty of loyalty to the insurance carrier rather than the plaintiff — in Adrian v. Mesirow, a court found a defense structured-settlement consultant was not liable to the plaintiff because the duty ran to the defendant. That is why plaintiff attorneys are advised to engage their own planner rather than rely on the defense's broker.

Yes. Minted Settlement Planning is an independent fiduciary firm, bound to act in the recipient's best interests rather than to sell a particular product. Independence means we are not captive to a single carrier, so the plan is built around the client's situation — structured income, benefit preservation, and long-term medical-cost planning — not around one company's annuity.

Under IRC §104(a)(2), gross income does not include damages (other than punitive damages) received on account of personal physical injuries or physical sickness, so compensatory damages flowing from a physical injury are generally tax-free — including related medical expenses and emotional distress arising from that physical injury. However, punitive damages, interest on the award, lost wages in non-physical-injury cases, emotional distress not arising from a physical injury, and previously deducted medical expenses that provided a tax benefit are taxable (IRS Publication 4345). Because the allocation in the settlement agreement drives the result, the structure of the settlement matters.

The Periodic Payment Settlement Act of 1982 amended IRC §104(a)(2) and enacted IRC §130, establishing that the full amount of qualifying structured-settlement payments for physical injury or sickness is excluded from income — including the investment growth inside the funding annuity. The defendant or insurer assigns the payment obligation to a qualified-assignment company, which funds it with an annuity or U.S. government obligation; because the claimant never has constructive receipt of a lump sum, the entire payment stream remains tax-free. By contrast, if a claimant takes a cash lump sum and invests it, the investment earnings are generally taxable.

A structured settlement is a voluntary agreement in which an injured claimant receives all or part of a settlement as a stream of periodic payments rather than a single lump sum, funded by an annuity purchased by the defendant or its insurer. The defendant assigns its payment obligation to a third-party assignment company, which buys an annuity from a life insurance company to match the agreed payment schedule. Payments for physical injury are tax-free and can be tailored — monthly income, future lump sums, lifetime payments, or combinations.

The decision weighs immediate needs and flexibility against long-term security and tax efficiency. A lump sum offers full, immediate access but carries risks of overspending, mismanagement, taxable investment earnings, and loss of means-tested benefits; a structured settlement provides guaranteed, tax-free income and protection against dissipation, but the schedule is locked in and cannot be changed once funded. Many plans combine both — some cash for immediate needs such as debt, medical equipment, or a vehicle, plus a structure for long-term stability.

No — once funded, a structured settlement cannot be altered, accelerated, deferred, increased, or decreased by the recipient, and this inflexibility is a condition of its tax-free treatment under IRC §130. A recipient who needs cash can sell future payments to a factoring company in the secondary market, but 26 U.S.C. §5891 imposes a tax equal to 40 percent of the factoring discount on a person who acquires structured-settlement payment rights unless the transfer is approved in advance by a qualified court order finding the transfer is in the best interest of the payee. State Structured Settlement Protection Acts likewise require advance court approval, and sales typically occur at a steep discount to present value.

Guarantees associated with structured-settlement annuities are backed by the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company, so the strength of the carrier matters. Because the payments are only as solid as the company behind them, an independent planner can compare highly rated carriers and, where appropriate, split an annuity among multiple insurers to serve the recipient's interest. This is one practical advantage of working with a planner who is not channeled to a single affiliated carrier.

A structured settlement does not quote a published interest rate the way a bank CD does. The economics are built into the annuity: the issuing life insurance company prices each payment stream using prevailing annuity rates and, for lifetime payments, the recipient's life expectancy, which produces an internal rate of return on the amount funded. The decisive advantages are that the growth inside the annuity is income-tax-free under IRC §104(a)(2) and §130 and the payments are guaranteed by the carrier — so a structure is best compared with the after-tax, risk-adjusted return of investing a lump sum, not with a headline interest rate. Because rates move with the market and vary by carrier, an independent planner can compare highly rated companies before the structure is funded.

Yes. SSI and Medicaid are means-tested, and a personal-injury settlement is generally counted as income in the month received and as a resource thereafter, so an unplanned lump sum can push a recipient over the SSI resource limit and suspend or terminate benefits (SSA.gov). Planning tools such as a Special Needs Trust, a pooled trust, an ABLE account, or a documented spend-down can preserve eligibility when used correctly. Because deposit into a personal account alone can make the funds a countable resource that month, this must be addressed before the money is received.

A Special Needs Trust (SNT) holds settlement funds for a person with a disability so the assets are not counted for SSI and Medicaid, while still supplementing the beneficiary's quality of life. A first-party (self-settled) SNT under 42 U.S.C. §1396p(d)(4)(A) is funded with the beneficiary's own settlement money, must be established before the beneficiary turns 65, and must repay Medicaid at the beneficiary's death; a pooled trust under §1396p(d)(4)(C) is established and managed by a nonprofit association and may be used regardless of age. An SNT is needed when a recipient relies on means-tested benefits like SSI or Medicaid and the settlement would otherwise disqualify them.

A Medicare Set-Aside allocates a portion of a settlement to pay for future injury-related medical care that Medicare would otherwise cover, protecting Medicare's interests under the Medicare Secondary Payer law, and those funds must be spent before Medicare pays for related care (CMS.gov). MSAs are principally a workers'-compensation practice: CMS review of a Workers' Compensation MSA applies when the claimant is a Medicare beneficiary and the total settlement is greater than $25,000, or when the claimant has a reasonable expectation of Medicare enrollment within 30 months and the anticipated settlement for future medical expenses and lost wages is expected to be greater than $250,000. Submission to CMS is voluntary but recommended; CMS has no formal review program for liability MSAs, though parties must still consider Medicare's interests.

An ABLE (Achieving a Better Life Experience) account, authorized under 26 U.S.C. §529A, is a tax-advantaged savings account that lets a person with a disability save and grow money tax-free for qualified disability expenses without losing means-tested benefits, with up to $100,000 excluded from the SSI resource limit (IRS; ABLE National Resource Center). It can hold a portion of a settlement and is often used alongside a Special Needs Trust rather than instead of one. Eligibility and contribution rules are set by statute and change over time, so the current limits should be confirmed before funding.

Depositing a settlement into a personal bank account can itself make the funds a countable resource that month, which is why benefit-preservation tools must be set up before the money is received. For 2026, the SSI resource limit is $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple — thresholds last raised in 1989 — so even a modest deposit can suspend or terminate benefits (SSA.gov). The fix is to route the recovery through a first-party Special Needs Trust, a pooled trust, or an ABLE account before funds are placed in a personal account, which is one reason screening every client for means-tested benefits at intake matters.

Yes — settlements for minors typically require court approval and specific annuity and release language, and structured settlements are frequently used so that funds are protected until the child reaches adulthood. Benefit recipients among minors may also need a Special Needs Trust to preserve SSI or Medicaid eligibility. Because these rules vary by state and must be addressed before the settlement is finalized, early planning is especially important in cases involving a minor or a person who lacks capacity.

A life-care plan is an evidence-based document that projects every future treatment, medication, surgery, therapy, piece of equipment, home modification, and attendant-care need over the injured person's lifetime, with costs attached. It is prepared by a Certified Life Care Planner and often paired with an economist who reduces the stream to present value. In catastrophic cases it is usually the largest part of the damages, and it is the foundation Minted uses to price and fund future medical costs inside the plan.

Attorney fee deferral lets a contingency-fee attorney defer receipt of — and tax on — legal fees by structuring them into periodic payments, smoothing income across years instead of recognizing it all at once. The practice is grounded in Childs v. Commissioner, 103 T.C. 634 (1994), aff'd, 89 F.3d 856 (11th Cir. 1996), in which the Tax Court held the fees were not constructively received because the arrangement was made before the attorneys had an unconditional right to payment and they could not pledge, transfer, or accelerate the payments. The decision to defer must be made before the settlement agreement is signed, and the fees must flow from the defendant to an assignment company without the attorney taking constructive receipt.

A Qualified Settlement Fund, established under IRC §468B and Treasury Regulation §1.468B-1, is a fund, account, or trust that is established pursuant to or approved by a governmental authority such as a court and subject to its continuing jurisdiction, used to resolve one or more claims and to hold segregated assets while allocation and distribution are worked out. It lets defendants obtain a release and an immediate tax deduction upon funding, while giving plaintiffs and their counsel time to resolve liens, make planning decisions, and avoid constructive receipt. QSFs are common in mass-tort and multi-claimant cases but are also used in single-claimant matters.

Referring to an independent, plaintiff-aligned planner closes the benefit, Medicare, and structuring gaps that create malpractice exposure, because failing to preserve government benefits or address Medicare's interest has produced legal-malpractice claims against attorneys. Bringing in a planner early — before any release is signed — preserves the client's ability to structure payments tax-free, protect SSI or Medicaid eligibility, and, where appropriate, defer the attorney's own fees. It protects the client and the firm at the same time.

Settlement planning draws on federal law — the Internal Revenue Code, the Social Security Act, and CMS guidance — that applies nationwide, and many planners serve clients across the country, though some elements are governed by state law that varies by jurisdiction. Structured-settlement transfers are governed by each state's Structured Settlement Protection Act, special-needs-trust administration and Medicaid rules have state-specific features, and selling annuities requires appropriate state insurance licensure. In practice, a planner can coordinate a nationwide plan but must account for the client's home-state rules. Minted Settlement Planning is based in San Antonio, Texas and serves recipients and referring attorneys in all 50 states.

Minted is an independent fiduciary boutique that builds long-term medical-cost planning — projected future care and Medicare Set-Asides — into the plan, a step many planners overlook. The same credentialed team that takes the referral works the case directly, combining a CFP® with five additional advanced designations and an MDRT Top of the Table advisor. The focus is the whole picture — structured income, taxes, benefit preservation, and future medical costs — rather than the placement of a single product.

Getting started takes a short conversation. To build a plan we look at the case and the recovery amount, the client's current and expected medical needs, whether they receive or may need means-tested benefits such as Medicaid or SSI, their tax picture, and the key dates — especially when the release is expected to be signed. A straightforward structure can be arranged in a matter of weeks, while plans involving trusts, Medicare Set-Asides, or a Qualified Settlement Fund take longer because they involve other professionals and, sometimes, court approval. The single most important factor is timing: the earlier we are involved, the more options stay open.

Yes. Minted is engaged by the plaintiff's legal team and works alongside the referring attorney, and we are glad to coordinate with a client's existing financial advisor, accountant, or estate attorney. As an independent fiduciary we are not trying to displace those relationships — our role is the settlement-specific work (structured income, benefit preservation, Medicare and future-medical issues, and tax-aware coordination) that sits at the intersection of the case and the client's longer-term plan.

You can start with a consultation — attorneys can refer a client and clients can reach out directly through the contact page, ideally before the settlement is finalized so every tax and benefit-protection option remains open. We review the recovery, the client's benefits and future medical needs, and the planning decisions that must be made before the release is signed. There is no obligation, and the conversation is educational, not a product pitch.