Year-end is quickly approaching.  It's the time of year when most of us are working with our accountants to get organized for upcoming tax preparation.  It's a good time for you and your clients to look at your own situations to see if you can take advantage of any of the legal tax deferral opportunities that Non-Qualified structured settlements can provide.  If you, or anyone you know, have any of the following cases or situations, it's not too late to defer some income taxes for 2011:

• Structured attorney fees (on physical injury or non-physical injury cases)
• Whistleblower cases
  
• Defamation of character cases
  
• Business disputes
  
• Stock fraud
  
• Wrongful termination
  
• Breach of contract
  
• Discrimination
  
• Class action settlements
  
• Oil and gas bonuses
  
• Divorce settlements
  
• 409A Deferred comp payouts (Similar to attorney fees earned, someone who is paid by more than one "employer" on a per case or per project basis, like a real estate agent, attorney, architect, celebrity endorsements, etc.)
  
• Installment sales (Selling a property, business, idea, item by having the seller pay the buyer over several years)

You, your clients, or your friends who find themselves with any of the above-listed situations can legally defer income taxes until they actually begin taking payments, whether it's next year, several years from now, or over the rest of their lives.   It's not only a time-proven method of tax-deferral, but it's one of the safest vehicles out there.  Don't hand your hard-earned money over to the IRS any sooner than you have to,  and don't put your future financial security at risk in the incredibly volatile financial markets, or in the black hole that is the real-estate market.

Please call if you have any questions or feel free to forward this to your friends or colleagues.  We're always here to help!

—Kelly and Shelly