A payment nobody collects is a participation failure
Distribution reports count what went out. Claimants count what arrived. In US settlements the difference is mostly paper: cheques posted to addresses years out of date, to people who never bank them.
That gap reads as an administrative footnote and behaves like a participation problem. It is the same population we spent the case keeping reachable, failing at the last step for a reason that has nothing to do with the merits.
A claimant’s value is measured when the money reaches them — in a form they will use.
Four ways money goes out and does not arrive
None of these show up in a distribution report as a failure. They show up as residue, and then as a question about who benefited from it.
One method for the whole class
A single payment rail suits the administrator, not the class member. Take-up follows the method, not the merits.
Fine print between distributed and received
Fees, expiries and conditions quietly narrow the amount a claimant actually keeps. Courts have started reading them.
Exceptions handled in inboxes
Failed deliveries and non-responders sit in threads, so “reasonable efforts” becomes an assertion rather than a record.
The accounting assembled afterwards
When counsel or the court asks how the distribution ran, the answer is reconstructed against a deadline instead of already existing.
Payment optionality, with the record as standard output
Talli is a US digital payments platform built for settlement disbursement — class actions, mass torts, bankruptcy distributions, QSFs and trustee accounts. It is a technology provider rather than a bank: banking and card issuance sit with its partner banks, Stearns Bank N.A. and Patriot Bank N.A., both FDIC members.
Two things make it a register entry rather than a vendor. The claimant chooses the payment method from a disclosed set, and the audit trail, tax reporting and post-distribution accounting are produced as the platform runs — not assembled when somebody asks.
- Firm
- Talli — digital disbursement for settlements and court-supervised distributions
- Standing
- Technology provider, not a bank. Banking services through Stearns Bank N.A. and Patriot Bank N.A., members FDIC; prepaid cards issued by those banks under Mastercard licence
- Where it helps
- Digital disbursement: claimant-elected payment methods, identity verification, exception management and the distribution record
- Methods
- ACH, PayPal, Venmo, prepaid card, gift card, and paper cheque for claimants who need one — every option disclosed upfront
- Verification
- KYC and identity verification on every payee before funds move
- Reporting
- 1099 generation, payment-level audit trails and full post-distribution accountings as standard output
- Reach
- United States. Six practice areas including class action, mass tort, bankruptcy, shareholder services, IOLTA and QSF
- Integration
- Documented API, so payee status reconciles against the claimant record rather than travelling as spreadsheets
- Reference
- talli.ai
- Scale
- 500,000+ recipients paid across settlement distributions
- Take-up
- 34% increase across check-issued populations, on the A.B. Data engagement
- Exceptions
- 60% reduction in unresolved exceptions and manual reissuance
- Their figures
- Figures as published by Talli, including its case study with A.B. Data. Not independently verified by us; to be evidenced before the entry goes live.
Two columns. One case file.
We are responsible for the population still answering when the payment window opens, and for the communications that put the election in front of them. Talli is responsible for every dollar that moves after that, and for the record it leaves.
Money does not touch Mediatasks, and the claimant relationship does not transfer. The shared surface is the payee file and the method each claimant chose.
Participation infrastructure
The claimant, end to end.
- Claimant acquisition and registration
- Eligibility validation and data quality
- One claimant record, maintained for the life of the case
- Dormant-cohort recovery before the payment window opens
- The election journey: explaining the methods and collecting the choice
Digital disbursement
The money, end to end.
- Disclosed payment methods, elected by the claimant
- KYC and identity verification before funds move
- Payment status visible live to claimant and case team
- Failed deliveries and non-responders in one documented queue
- 1099s, payment-level audit trail and post-distribution accounting
Fig. 01 — the join. Column A delivers a population that can choose and be verified; column B pays it and evidences it.
Money never passes through Mediatasks. That is a design decision, not a limitation.
Stage by stage
The election is the hinge. A claimant can only choose a method if somebody has reached them, explained the options and recorded the answer against their file.
Stage 04 is where the two disciplines genuinely need each other.
Payment optionality is worth nothing if the class never sees the options. Getting a dormant cohort to make a choice is participation work that shows up as take-up.
Case design Participation strategy, and a claimant record built to carry what payout will require. Method mix and disclosure language specified now, so the plan filed with the court is the plan that runs.
Registration Identity and contactability captured to specification, with provenance on every field. Guidance on what can be relied on at payout, and what deliberately should not be collected yet.
Quiet years Scheduled contact that keeps the population reachable through the life of the case. Rails, banking relationships and reporting structure agreed well before settlement.
Election The methods explained in the firm’s name, the choice collected, the non-responders chased. Disclosed options presented, KYC run on each payee before anything is released.
Disburse Claimant communications and query handling through the payment window. Payment at volume across the elected methods, with live status on every line.
Account Outreach on every exception, documented against the claimant record. Exception queue, tax reporting and the post-distribution accounting, ready when asked for.
Take-up is designed at case design and collected in the payment window. It is not a number you discover at the end.
Documents, not introductions
A register entry that produces nothing but a warm handshake is not worth publishing. These are the artefacts the joint engagement is designed to put on your desk.
Funds sit with the regulated party at every step. Mediatasks holds data, never money.
The two firms are separately owned and separately instructed. Payments run on Talli’s platform and its partner banks’ permissions; Mediatasks is not a payment institution and does not handle client money. Data-sharing terms are agreed in writing before any payee file moves.
Built for how a US class actually gets paid
The partner register sits above the operating modes, not inside one. Whichever configuration of the Participation Operating System™ a matter runs on, digital disbursement attaches the same way — at the point a US class has to be paid across methods the class member can actually use.
We hold no exclusivity over a discipline, and neither do the firms on the register. Which firm a matter uses depends on jurisdiction, court, scale and what the distribution plan has to survive.
CasePartners™
Your book, our infrastructure. The payment window is where an unengaged book shows what it cost.
Read the mode →LeadPartners™
We build the book, so the election can be designed into the journey rather than bolted on at the end.
Read the mode →ArbPartners™
US mass arbitration. Awards resolve individually, so disbursement runs continuously rather than once.
Read the mode →- Jurisdiction
- United States, including court-supervised distributions, QSFs and trustee accounts.
- Best introduced
- At case design, when the distribution plan and its disclosure language are still being written.
- Also useful
- Where a prior distribution left significant residue, and the next one has to answer for it.
- Not a fit
- UK and EU matters paying under FCA permissions. Nor where a court-appointed administrator has its own paying agent already mandated.
Questions of substance
Why let the claimant choose the method rather than pick one rail?+
Because take-up follows the method. A US class is dispersed across banking habits, and a single rail that suits the administrator suits only part of the class. Letting the claimant elect from a disclosed set — and recording the choice — is what turns a distribution report into money that was actually received.
Is Talli a bank?+
No, and it says so plainly. It is a technology provider; banking services and card issuance sit with its partner banks, Stearns Bank N.A. and Patriot Bank N.A., both FDIC members. Where the money legally sits is a question the specification answers in writing before anything moves.
Prepaid cards and gift cards — are those appropriate for a class?+
Only where the claimant chooses them and the terms are disclosed in full at the point of choice. Any method that quietly reduces what a class member keeps is a method that will be read back to you later. The election exists so the claimant decides, not the administrator.
Who chases the claimants who never respond?+
We do, in your firm’s name, against the exception queue. That is the clearest reason the two disciplines belong together: a documented outreach record is worth more than a residue figure and an explanation.
What about tax reporting?+
1099 generation, payment-level audit trails and post-distribution accountings are standard output of the platform rather than a separate exercise at the end. The point of the entry is that the answer already exists when it is asked for.
How is the arrangement paid for?+
Each firm is paid for its own work, on terms agreed with you in writing before it begins. Neither firm pays the other for an introduction, and no place on the register is bought.
Request the specification.
The joint specification sets out scope, the method and disclosure model, the division of responsibility at payout, reporting and audit, and the commercial basis in full. Sent as a PDF, no call required.
Request the specification
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