The 2026 NSSTA Annual Conference in San Francisco covers a wide range of topics affecting the structured settlement profession. The program this year includes sessions on disability policy, client decision-making, and artificial intelligence; each addresses an area where developments are actively influencing professional practice and the people for whom structured settlements are designed.
Session 3: The Future of Disability Policy
Wednesday, April 22 | 1:30–2:20 p.m. | Presenter: Andy Imparato, Chief Executive Officer, Disability Rights California
Federal and state policy on health care, income supports, and disability services does not stay static. What changes in those systems has a direct bearing on the individuals’ structured settlements are designed to protect. The people consultants work with are often navigating those same systems for years after a settlement is finalized.
Andy Imparato has spent more than 30 years working on disability rights and policy at both the federal and state level. As Chief Executive Officer of Disability Rights California, he leads a legal services and advocacy organization with 24 offices across the state. His perspective is grounded in that experience and in his own lived experience with disability.
His session will examine where disability policy is heading and how the structure and design of structured settlements could inform more effective long-term support systems for people who need sustained care and services. That perspective on structured settlements as a policy model is not often heard outside the industry, and one worth understanding.
Session 5: Structured Settlement Advocacy: One Attorney, One Client, One Settlement Story
Wednesday, April 22 | 3:10–4:00 p.m. | Session Moderator: Dan Finn, MSSC, CPCU, RICP, Finn Financial Group, LLC | Attorney: Sean M. Novak, Esq., Founding Partner, The Novak Law Firm, P.C.
Plaintiff attorney Sean Novak has made structured settlements a consistent part of his practice. In this session, he will walk through how he introduces the concept to clients and what that conversation actually looks like from his side of the table.
Then one of his clients joins him. They will describe the discussions they had, what factored into their decision to structure, and what they would do differently. That perspective, in the client's own words, is what the session is built around.
Every year, this draws the largest audience at the conference. The reason is straightforward: hearing a client describe what the settlement process was like, how the decision was made, and what the structure has meant for their life is not something structured settlement professionals encounter often. This session delivers that directly.
Session 6: The Good, the Bot, and the Ugly About AI
Wednesday, April 22 | 4:00–4:50 p.m. | Presenter: Meredith K. Lowry, Partner, Wright Lindsey Jennings
Artificial intelligence is already in use across professional services, and the legal and ethical questions it raises are not hypothetical. For professionals who are evaluating or already using these tools, confidentiality, bias, intellectual property, and misinformation are live issues, not future considerations.
Meredith K. Lowry is a registered patent and privacy attorney and partner at Wright Lindsey Jennings, where her practice centers on intellectual property and data privacy. She served as chair of the Arkansas Bar Association's Artificial Intelligence Task Force for 2024–2025, developing guidance on AI use in legal practice. She knows the legal framework being built around these tools in real time.
Her session will cover what AI can and cannot do reliably, where the professional liability exposure sits, and what responsible adoption looks like under emerging legal standards. The session title is informal. The content is not.
About the Conference
The 2026 NSSTA Annual Conference takes place April 21–23 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. The full program includes sessions on Medicare compliance, market-based products, business practices, legislative direction, and Capitol Hill perspective from a career spanning 50 years.
