If the factored structured settlement payment streams were annuity policies, they would generally have to be filed and approved in every state where they will be sold. What is being sold to retirees is not an annuity or an insurance contract. Continue reading

Oral arguments in Crystal Linton, et al. v. Consumer Protection Division are due to be heard in the Maryland Court of Appeals on January 6, 2020. The Linton case stems from an alleged massive scam of Baltimore inner city residents by Access Funding, a former buyer of structured settlement payment rights Continue reading

The IRS refined definition of fixed and determinable in a series of PLRs. PLR 199943002 (variable annuities) and 201435006 (fixed annuity with index-linked adjustment rider). Fixed obligations must be set forth in the settlement agreement. Determinable payments can be based on an objective formula. Continue reading

Payments are made to the account from an annuity on a defined schedule to cover expenses projected for future years. Seed money is required to cover the first procedure or replacement and two years of annual payments. Subsequent annual deposits occur annually. Savings of 30% plus possible Continue reading

Nobody, but nobody is awarded a structured settlement. A settlement is a compromise. Nobody is awarded a compromise. Read What is a Structured Settlement? for more information. Continue reading

Not reviewing and/or updating and confirming the beneficiary designation on your structured settlement can have unintended consequences as I wrote October 30, 2018 in Unintended Consequences Can Result From Not Updating Beneficiary When Life Changes. Continue reading

Now, years after carriers that were participating in such practices abolished them, sources say that at least one NSSTA member brokerage firm is offering similar financial incentives to insurers and to service providers such as TPAS as an inducement to cop an exclusive brokerage agreement Continue reading

When "informed" of the latent insurgency, JG Wentworth commandos erected something suitable for the occasion, to which the someone muttered "Make it Rain, on The Scare Crow". Ain't that America folks? Continue reading

Courts do not set up structured settlements. Therefore a Court does not have to set up a structured settlement to avoid taxes. In some cases, a Court must approve a settlement, regardless of whether it includes a structured settlement. Continue reading

Implying that a 24% discount rate is reasonable, when 25-30% of that is on the upper end of reasonable in 2019, is a shocking indictment of credibility of a member of the GA Bar and Fairfield Funding. Deals are being done in the Q4 2019, in some cases for less than a 5% discount rate. Continue reading

40% of investors in factored structured settlement payments are hedge funds, 50% are life insurance companies and 10% individual investors. Would an audit shown rhedge funds and life insurers are profiting from some of the worst cases of financial rape of minorities, and retirees? Continue reading

Thomas Burgess Hamlin, CEO of Somerset, has settled the FINRA claim brought by retiree Barry Cooper over factored structured settlement payments (which at the time of sale were marketed to investors as "secondary market annuities". Payments have been suspended since Jan 2018). Continue reading

Apparently the settlement planners/appointed agents are buying their clients' rights to receive payments from structured settlements funded with the very same life insurance companies' annuities, for pennies on the dollar, that the settlement planner placed. Continue reading

Selling your structured settlement payments is an absolute money loser for anyone who does it. That does not stop structured settlement cash now companies from herding the steer into the stockyards for financial slaughter with new questionable approaches. Continue reading

Is a structured settlement an annuity? A structured settlement is not an annuity, it is a form of settlement that is typically funded with an annuity, but may be funded with other vehicles. An annuity is a type of qualified funding asset defined under IRC 130(d). A structured settlement can also be funded with United States Treasury obligations. Continue reading

Of course not, what the structured settlement consultant says is total howler since one DOES NOT "incur interest" in, or as a result of a structured settlement Continue reading

Peachtree Financial has a Trick that seems like a Treat until you get up close and smell the buzzard's breath pecking you away to the bone. Just more structured settlement secondary market BS. Continue reading

According to the Complaint, the action seeks to redress JG Wentworth's unfair, deceptive and fraudulent conduct that has caused MO consumers to not receive advice of disinterested counsel when evaluating offers to buy structured settlement payments, and subsequently obtain less than fair value of their settlement to the benefit of (JG) Wentworth Continue reading

Woodbridge Structured Funding was the arm of Woodbridge that involved factoring of structured settlement payment rights. As far as we can tell, the Shapiro Ponzi scheme has raised concern, but in the end has not impacted investors in structured settlement payment rights sold to them by Woodbridge. Continue reading

NL Review Brand Foundation of Consumer Updates (NLRBFCU) is a fraud. NL Brand Review holds out what appears to be a fictitious person, Laura Bushnell, with fictitious credentials, as its Editor in Chief. CBC Settlement Funding is cited as its partner by NLRBFCU. Continue reading

Structured settlement factoring origination firm associated with a NY structured settlement primary market agency suggests to investors,that factored structured settlement payment streams have the same risk profile as US Treasury Bonds. 5 Big Reasons Why They Do Not.. Continue reading

Maryland has been a tough nut to crack for structured settlement factoring companies since the Access Funding fraud, that scammed many Baltimore City lead paint victims, which was exposed by the Washington Post in August 2015. Continue reading

What's absurd is zaftig Vikings singing joyfully about a name associated with two bankruptcies, a value proposition of paying unsophisticated people #penniesonthedollar for structured settlement payments. I'd prefer to listen to the "Grateful Dead Gourds" than a bunch of singing "berserkers" Continue reading

We Pay More Funding is the epitome of what is wrong with structured secondary market advertising. We Pay More Funding claims to be "affordable" as it's paying you pennies on the dollar. Thus doing business with We Pay More Funding is a money loser 100% of the time. If you are receiving payments from a structured settlement, selling your payments is one of the worst financial moves you can make. Continue reading

Protective Life kept the customer on hold for 1 hr, with the on hold greeting " We treat you the way you want to be treated" . Apparently that means like crap, the level of which one hopes will not rise further. On hold was a NY lawyer who structured attorney fees through Liberty Life Assurance Company of Boston Continue reading