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Saturday, August 15, 2009

Important Cash for Structured Settlement Facts

By Richard Panyan

Conditions you should be aware of in the transfer of cash for structured settlement payment rights.

If you need to get cash cash for structured settlement, there are some important matters that you should be concerned with. The long term cost of selling your structured settlements for a lump sum payout are substantial. Most people don't take these fees into consideration and only focus on the immediate impact of a large cash windfall.

If you finally do decide to go with a structured settlement brokerage company this what you need to know about the law.

If you're in a lawsuit, some services "offer" you the ability to "sell" your structured settlements to them. In exchange, they provide you with a lump sum of cash in the event you need this type of financial resource.

Laws do protect consumers from brokerage companies that are unscrupulous. Usually, the settlement agreement also specifies a nonassignability clause. Basically, this is unenforceable, though.

It's been estimated that more than 50,000 structured settlements go into the system every year. These settlements give premiums to annuity. What's important to remember is that these premiums are highly favored in terms of the tax treatment you get, whether you are the claimant or the insurer. In turn, this lowers insurers' costs.

The price terms usually unfair. Summary accounts show that some sales are completed with a 12 percent or 15.8 percent discount rate, but other sales have been completed with a rate as high as 55, 65, and 75 percent. In addition, since the discount rate is always calculated on the purchase price which includes brokerage and other expenses "agreed" to by the seller in the contract, the real discount rate and cost of the transaction to the seller is artificially depressed. Moreover, there is no requirement to disclose to the seller, in understandable terms, the total costs of the transaction. Given the unfairness of some of the transfer agreements, consumers need protection from factoring companies that take unfair advantage.

With a structured settlement that qualifies for preferential tax treatment, the claimant does not have the right to delay, accelerate, decrease or increase the future payments he or she receives from the structured settlement company. If the claimant's circumstances change, such that they need additional funds from the settlement, the only means by which the claimant can have access to these funds is to sell either a portion or all of the settlement.

Industry watchdogs also say that structured settlement factoring businesses that are dark are also rapidly increasing. One company, in fact, announced that it had undertaken almost 8000 structured settlement purchase transactions totaling $370 million in value. During the first three quarters of 1997, this same company "bought" 3700 structured settlements, and paid $74 million for $163 million in structured settlement payments.

What that means is that the long-term fiscal security and careful planning so painstakingly set up to take care of the needs of the injured victim and his or her family are being tossed aside. This is all because factoring companies offer quick cash at deep discounts for future structured settlement payments -- but at what cost? Once these victims have given away their only source of assured future financial income, they may indeed have to go on public assistance to cover future basic living expenses and medical expenses -- even though this is what the structured settlement plan was set up to avoid. - 23211

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