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Contact Information 2308 Mt Isle Harbor Dr Charlotte, NC 28214 Phone: (704) 370-6946 Fax: (704) 375-9941 Services Provided Future Medical Costs Analysis Vocational Assessments Neuropsychological Assessments Economic Projections Types of Cases Personal Injury Workers Compensation Social Security Disability Short Term Disability Long Term Disability Medical Malpractice VA Disability Claims Divorce Associates Neal S. Taub, MD Medical Director of Mercy Rehabilitation Center Patrick Clifford, CVE Nationally Certified Vocational Evaluator Young Davis, PhD Head of Economics at UNC-Charlotte Jeff Ewert, PhD,ABBP Neuropsychologist Click Here to subscribe to Expert Assessments e-mail bulletins for attorneys. © 2005 BMA	Protecting the Economic Future of Disabled Clients
	Once it has been established that an injured party suffers a short-term or long-term disability, the client’s greatest concern becomes winning a fair award to compensate for loss of future income. It may behoove each party to obtain its own estimate for comparison purposes.
	Clients and attorneys can easily tally lost wages that occurred between the time of injury and the date of a timely settlement. Determining and defending a present value for future earnings case, on the other hand, involves the interplay between a number of variables such as anticipated compensation growth, compounding interest, and inflation rates. Any time you represent a disabled client, you should call Expert Assessments, LLC for an economic projection that will provide the most credible estimate of a fair present value to replace a future stream of earnings. At Expert Assessments, LLC, Young Davis, PhD, Head of Economics at UNC-Charlotte, conducts economic projections. Patrick Clifford, Nationally Certified Vocational Evaluator and expert witness, conducts vocational assessments. Below, you will find some pitfalls that an expert economic projection and a vocational assessment from E.A. will help you avoid. Compensation v. Wages: When estimating growth of future earnings, E.A. will take into account total compensation – not just wages. Over the past 50 years, America’s fringe benefits (such as 401K, health insurance, and cars) have grown faster than wages. Properly assessing earnings will involve looking at profit-sharing, vesting time tables, health insurance benefits, and a host of other perks available to the client. Understanding the full value of working requires that the expert calculate the greater growth rate of these less tangible benefits. Specifically Estimating Future Compensation: An estimate of future compensation may need to take into consideration more than simple national averages on compensation growth. For instance, young people with a college education typically realize compensation growth at greater than average rates. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics now makes available data on specific subsets of workers and demonstrates that variables such as union membership, metropolitan area, and industry expertise can each affect a worker’s earnings growth.
		T-Bills: The 91-day T-Bill is widely accepted as the optimal investment because of the low-risk and the historical tendency for returns that match compensation growth. However, an expert should reevaluate this generalization about the 91-day T-Bill on a case-by-case basis. The T-Bill’s ability to match compensation growth applies best to the long term plan. Over the short term, compensation growth and the T-Bill’s interest rate can vary widely. In addition, as noted earlier, not all clients will realize average compensation growth.
	Inflation v. Interest: Obviously, the declining purchasing power of the dollar, inflation, will eat away the real value of today’s award. What investments will both offset the effects of inflation and provide relative security? The higher returns of stock market investments are generally considered inappropriate because of the risk inherent with stocks (Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation v. Howard E. Pfeifer (462 U.S. 523; 1983; US Supreme Court)). Will the returns on investment offset both anticipated compensation growth and inflation? Through Expert Assessments, LLC attorneys and their clients have access to economic and vocational experts who can provide the most credible projections possible and economic strategies designed to maintain clients in their pre-disability financial standing.