Cash for Structured Settlement Transfers: The Tough Truth

Structured settlement companies, also known as factoring companies, are in in the business of trading cash to people who have received a structured settlement annuity from a successful lawsuit. If you are looking to cash out and get that lump sum payment.

There are many important parts of a negotiation for your payment rights. If you want cash for payments, don’t be so quick to sell. Do you know that if you do sell your rights to a brokerage company you will be transferring ALL of your future payment rights to them?

There is a reason that you see the commercials for structured settlement payment transfers on television all of the time. They are making a lot of money in this business. Most of these companies do business ethically, but you must remember that its in their best interest to get you to relinquish your payment rights to them. So no matter how friendly they may sound on the phone or in person ” theyre not your friends. They want your money.

So unless youre in dire straits or you absolutely need the money or the house will be foreclosed ” or some other life shaking event ” in is in your best interest, financially, to take the slow drip payments.

Structured settlement companies profit, in part, by paying people like you a lump sum of cash that is less than the discounted face value of your annuity payments.

Luckily, for you, abuse by some structured settlement companies, has ensured that you are now guaranteed favorable tax treatment when you do decide to sell your structured settlement.

California has a law, Structured Settlement Transfer, SSTA, that requires: (1) disclosures to the seller of the structured settlement payment rights, (2) notice to the Attorney General, and (3) court approval.

The approval requires the company to file petitions in the county where the transferor lives for approval of the transfer. In order to grant the petition for approval, the court must find:

(1) The deal of structured settlement payment rights to the brokerage company is in the best interest of the transferor;

(2) the structured settlement seller has been advised in writing to seek legal and financial professional consultation and either has received counsel or decided to waive it;

(3) the seller has received the disclosure forms;

(4) the payment rights transfer does not interfere with any court orders;

(5) the seller understands the agreement, disclosure form; and

(6) the seller understands the right to cancel the sale and does not wish to do so.

Posted in Uncategorized