Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. November 26, 2001 Kenneth L. Zwick, Director Office of Management Programs Civil Division United States Department of Justice Main Building Room 3140 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, District of Columbia 20530 Re: September 11th Victim Compensation Fund RIN: 1105-AA79 Structured Settlement Annuitites Dear Sir: The following discussion is submitted as "Comments" pursuant to the Department's Notice of Inquiry and Advance Notice of Rulemaking published on November 5, 2001 regarding the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund(the "Fund"). These Comments are provided on behalf of John Hancock Life Insurance Company, of which I am a Vice President of Risk Management with responsibilities for certain annuity product lines. These include the Company's annuity products customarily used to fund structured settlements. We believe that it is highly desirable to permit the Fund to offer benefits in the form of periodic payments, and to have the government provide for those payments through the purchase of annuitites form life insurance companies. Although our Comments may be considered as responding to "Topic#6" as they certainly relate to the "Nature and Amount of Compensation", providing for appropriately funded structured settlement should also be considered a general comment on the administration of the Fund. Many of the claimants seeking compensation from the Fund will be the dependents of those individuals who died on September 11th. These people will need the benefits from their claims for many years to come. Parents with young children, the children themselves, the elderly who lost working adult children -- all of these people will be relying on the payments from the Fund to replace the financial support of those loved ones who died. Unfortunately, the experience is that individuals who received cash settlements have had the misfortune of watching the money dissipate due to poor judgement, bad advice, expensive hobbies, needy family and friends or just plain bad luck. Historically, a vast majority of all large settlements for personal physical injury damages are gone after five short years. In many cases, with their means of support gone, these individuals must then rely on public assistance. Structured settlements, backed with annuities issued by financially sound life insurance companies are designed to assure that the money is there when it is needed. Periodic payments cannot easily be assigned or advanced by financially unsophisticated beneficiaries. Payment schedules can be set to provide larger sums when timely(e.g. for college tuition) and the cost to the purchaser comes at a discounted value when the settlement is funded. Moreover, we believe that the purchaser, in the instant case the United States government, will have the lowest cost, and the payments will be most secure when the structured settlements are funded through competitive bidding among life insurance companies meeting the highest financial standards. In the present situation, there will thousands of children as beneficiaries fo the Fund and the deferral of a portion of their benefits will be desirable. There is ample precedent for the use of structure settlement annuities in programs not dissimilar from the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. Such annuities are routinely utilized in the Department's administration of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. It is not yet known whether the procedures established by the Department will require the application of any part of the various state Payment to Minors Acts. However, it should be noted that many of these statutes specifically authorize the use of structured settlement annuities from approved insurance companies [see New York Civil Practice Law and Rules Article 12, Section 1206(c)]. The John Hancock Life Insurance Company, has been issuing annuities for over 60 years and is a provider of structured settlement annuities. The Company is pleased to offer the expertise and experience of its staff in aiding the Department in establishing the procedures for the Fund, either directly or by participation with other members of the insurance industry. We thank you for your attention to our discussion above, All acknowledgments and inquiries regarding our comments should be directed to . Sincerely, Comment by: John Hancock Life Insurance Company Boston, MA September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-11-26 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA005488.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-11-26