News and Tips on structured settlement transfers.

Annuities

30
Apr 11

Why You Need Objective Advice Before Selling Your Structured Settlement

Structured settlement factoring companies – the buyers who take your payment stream in exchange for a lump sum – are in business to make money. They are not in existence to help you, and they are not on your side. This doesn’t mean they are evil; it simply means they are in business. As a result, it’s important that you look out for your best interests before you agree to sell your structured settlement.

Get Advice

First, if you can, tell a trusted friend or a financial advisor that you are considering selling your structured settlement. Another person may be able to give you objective suggestions for other ways that you can get the cash you need, or meet your financial obligations, without selling. A financial advisor may also be able to help you get alternative financing, or work with you to restructure your debts to something more manageable. Even though financial advisors charge a fee, it may be well worth it, considering how much you will give up if you sell your structured settlement.

Watch Out For Pressure Tactics

While selling a structured settlement is new for you, it is just another day for the structured settlement buyer. They know the hopes and fears of structured settlement holders, and may try to play on your emotions to get you to sign on for a deal in a hurry, or agree to a deal that is not the best for you. Avoid this kind of pressure. If possible, get a friend to be with you whenever you are dealing with the structured settlement companies to give you a second opinion, and get you to hold off before signing in a hurry. If you don’t have anyone who can serve in this role, promise to wait at least 24 hours before making a decision – write it down and post it prominently if you need to. Tell the company that you have a financial advisor who must look over every aspect of the deal, even if you don’t really have such a person. A company may try to convince you that the deal will be off the table if you wait; this is even a greater red flag to back away.

Get Legal Advice

Most states require structured settlement holders to get legal advice before selling their structured settlements. Choose an attorney who is independent (avoid any attorney who is “preferred” or “recommended” by the structured settlement buyer) and who has experience with structured settlement factoring transactions. Listen carefully to his or her advice. If s/he tells you that selling is a bad idea, reconsider your decision to sell.

If you need help selling your structured settlement, annuity or lottery payments,
contact us today. We are here to answer your questions and help you obtain the
highest possible price for your payments.

23
Apr 11

Before You Sell Your Structured Settlement, Read This!

If you’re desperate for cash, the ads promising quick cash for your structured settlement can be really tempting. But keep a few things in mind before you decide to go ahead.

Think of What You’re Giving Up

All structured settlement factoring companies use a discount rate to figure up what they will pay you for your settlement. That means that the lump sum you will get in exchange for the payment stream you’re selling will be less than the total amount of the payments – sometimes a lot less. The discount rate ensures that the structured settlement buyer’s costs will be covered, and also that he will make a profit on the purchase of your settlement.

What Will You Do When It’s Gone?

Once you sell your structured settlement, it’s gone. Structured settlements are intended to provide for your living and medical expenses, so without it, how will you cover your needs? If you have no other income and are not able to work, seriously reconsider how you will survive without your structured settlement payments.

Do You Really Need To Sell?

It’s easy to become convinced that you are desperate for cash when a large expense pops up. But really consider what those expenses are. Is there some other way to get what you need, or pay the bills? If it’s a debt you wish to pay, try restructuring it or working out a payment plan. If it’s something you think you need to buy, reconsider whether you really need that new car or vacation. Even if you really need money, if selling your structured settlement won’t take care of the need once and for all (for example, if it’s only enough to pay some of your debts), don’t bother – you’ll be no better off and your structured settlement will be gone.

Not As Easy As You Think

Beware structured settlement buyers who make the process sound fast and easy. Even if everything goes smoothly, you won’t complete your sell in less than 30-45 days. If you need cash faster than that, you are out of luck – no matter what the settlement buyer promises you.

The most important thing to remember is that a structured settlement is intended to protect and provide for you. Structured settlement buyers are in business to make a profit, not to help you. Before you sell, really give some hard thought to what your life will be like without the settlement payments.

22
Apr 11

Cashing Out Your Structured Settlement – The Essentials

While the ads featuring everyday joes and janes singing about getting cash now seem whimsical and appealing, selling your structured settlement is a serious decision, nor is it as fast and easy as some companies make it out to be.

Selling your structured settlement is, in legal terms, called a structured settlement factoring transaction. By factoring, it means that you are giving up a future stream of payments for a lump sum today which will be less – possibly significantly less – than the total amount of those payments.

Every state has laws that govern structured settlement factoring transactions. These laws are meant to protect sellers from unscrupulous buyers. As a result, there is a controlled process that must be followed for every structured settlement sale.

Before you choose a buyer for your structured settlement, be sure that you’ve shopped around (www.quotemeaprice.com makes this easy by allowing you to post the details of your settlement and get competing bids), and be sure that you’ve checked out the prospective buyer through the Better Business Bureau. If the buyer you’ve selected has lots of unresolved complaints, you might want to reconsider selling.

Most states require structured settlement sellers to seek out the advice of a lawyer to see if selling your settlement is right for you. Make sure to choose a lawyer who has seen structured settlement sales before. Make sure the lawyer is independent, too; don’t use a lawyer who is recommended or “preferred” by your structured settlement buyer, because s/he may not have your best interests at heart.

Depending on the state in which you live, you may also have to seek out a financial advisor for his opinion on the sale. Even if it isn’t required, you might want to talk to one anyway – s/he can tell you what to expect from the sale of your structured settlement, and may be able to point out other options to get the cash you need, rather than selling your settlement. As with the lawyer, make sure your financial advisor is independent of the buyer of your settlement.

If you decide to go ahead and cash out your structured settlement, it will have to be court-approved. You may even have to appear in front of the judge yourself. The judge will review the details of the sale, as well as the reason you’re cashing out, and will pay particular attention to the discount rate. If the judge believes the sale is not in your best interest, s/he can deny it.

The final step is the cooling-off period. This is usually a few days after the sale is approved by a court where you can decided to back out of the deal altogether. Use this time to consider seriously if selling your structured settlement is truly your best option.

12
Apr 11

What Can Derail Your Structured Settlement Sale

Plenty of things can go wrong when you’ve decided to sell your structured settlement, and may even cause the sale to be cancelled altogether.

Change to the Deal. Once you’ve chosen a buyer (hopefully you’ve shopped around on a site like www.quotemeaprice.com) and decided on a lump sum you will receive for the sale of your structured settlement, the buyer may try to change the deal. This is a common complaint against structured settlement buyers, and should be a red flag to you to walk away. Same goes if the buyer tries to introduce new fees that weren’t part of the deal to begin with.

Advice. Your state’s laws will likely require you to get legal and possibly also financial advice from a professional. This is meant to be an objective opinion as to whether the sale of your settlement is in your best interests. If the lawyer or financial advisor counsels you against selling your structured settlement, they can’t stop you from proceeding, but you should seriously consider their advice. They may be able to help you resolve whatever financial problems have caused you to consider selling, or help you come up with other options for raising money.

Foot-Dragging. Structured settlement buyers are frequently accused of intentionally slowing down the sales process. They may do this if they are trying to time their investments, if they’re trying to secure the cash that they will use to pay you, or if they are considering other deals.

Naysaying Judge. One of the final steps in the structured settlement factoring process involves putting your proposed sale in front of a judge for his or her approval. The judge may review the sale and conclude it is not in your best interest to sell, especially if the buyer is charging a discount rate that the judge believes to be excessive.

Cool It Down. Even after the entire process is completed, you will still have a “cooling off” period during which you can choose to nix the entire deal. This is your last chance to think hard about whether selling is right for you.

No Payment. As terrible as it may seem, there have been instances in the past where a structured settlement factoring transaction was completed, but the buyer was short on funds and did not pay the seller. If this happens, a reputable company should cancel the agreement, but there have been companies that have refused to cancel the agreement. The end result is, the seller gave up his settlement and got nothing in return. Your best defense against this is to do due diligence – thoroughly check out any prospective buyers to see if they’ve done this in the past.

9
Apr 11

Why Selling a Structured Settlement Takes Longer than You Think

The ads all promise “cash now!” but the truth is, the sale of your structured settlement is going to take quite a bit longer than that.

The process of selling your structured settlement will take, on average, 45-60 days to complete, depending on which state you live in.

Why the delay? After all, isn’t it your money? Aren’t you giving permission to sell it?

The answer is, it’s the law. All states have statutes governing structured settlement factoring transactions. As a result, there is a strict process that must be followed, and specific steps, often with specific waiting periods.

After you choose a buyer for your structured settlement (and hopefully you’ve used a site like www.quotemeaprice.com to shop around for the best deal), there will be paperwork for you to review and sign, and send back to the seller. This is one reason for the delay. Your state may also require you to get legal and possibly financial advice regarding the transaction, so you will need even more time to find these professionals and sit down with them to review your sale. State processes require this so that you will get independent advice as to whether the transaction is suitable for you, and in your best interests. Even if your state doesn’t require you to get this advice, you should do it anyway.

Once all the contracts and agreements have been signed, and you’ve gotten professional advice, your structured settlement sale will need to be approved by a judge. Depending on your state’s law, you may even have to appear in court. So, this takes more time to get your court date on a docket.

Once all this is done, most states grant a “cooling off” period during which you can change your mind and cancel the entire deal if you want to.

While this may seem frustrating, especially if you need cash in a hurry, the entire process is designed to protect you. Structured settlements are intended to provide for your needs over a period of time, so selling it should not be a light decision. State processes are also designed to ensure that you get objective opinions (lawyer, financial advisor, and judge) as to whether selling your settlement is a good idea, and giving you the opportunity to think it through one last time. So, no matter what a buyer promises, don’t expect to get cash at light speed.

13
Mar 11

Structured Settlements and Kids

Unfortunately, bad things don’t just always happen to adults. When a child suffers a terrible injury and a lawsuit follows, the end result might be a structured settlement.

When the plaintiff in a personal injury lawsuit is a child, the court usually will put part of the settlement into a blocked bank account designed to pay current and future expenses. This bank account will remain restricted until the child reaches the age of majority (usually 18). Lawyers’ fees and other expenses will also be paid from the settlement. If Medicaid was used to pay some of the child’s medical expenses, they may also have a claim to part of the settlement (check with your lawyer about this). The remainder is placed into a structured settlement. Since a minor child cannot legally enter into a contract, the process of making the settlement binding is called confirmation, court approval, guardianship, or minor’s compromise proceeding.

Just like for adults, a structured settlement is typically a lump sum that is placed in an annuity that will invest the money then make a stream of payments to the annuitant (in this case, the child) over time. The idea of the structured settlement is to ensure that the child has a stream of income to meet his needs for months or years. This might be a lifetime if the child is permanently and totally disabled. Parents and attorneys for the child should review any proposed structured settlement carefully to determine if the amount of the settlement will be sufficient for the child.

But what if circumstances change and you need cash sooner than the annuity will provide it? It is possible to sell a child’s structured settlement, but it’s more difficult than selling one that an adult controls.

Structured settlements for minor children will often have a no-sale provision designed to prohibit its sale in a factoring transaction. Even with a no-sale provision, however, a court can approve a structured settlement sale if it can be demonstrated that there is a great an immediate need for the cash, and that the child’s needs are better met by selling the settlement than waiting for the next payment. You can expect, however, that the court will scrutinize a claim like this very carefully.

Once your child reaches adulthood and gains control of his settlement and that restricted bank account, the temptation to spend it all now will be immense, and it’s tough to expect an 18-year-old to have the maturity to know that he’ll need the money later. At this point, the best gift you can give your child is solid financial advice, maybe even the services of a financial planner, to help protect him when you aren’t around.

8
Mar 11

Structured Settlement Sales – Understanding the Process

How does the sale of your structured settlement work? Here’s a quick summary of what you can expect.

First, find a buyer. You can use www.quotemeaprice.com to get competing buyers to bid on your settlement. You don’t have to sell your entire settlement; you can sell a portion or just a few of the payments you have coming to you.

Check out the bids you get, paying attention to all the details. You want the best lump sum, but watch out for any extra fees. Do “due diligence” by checking out the reputations of the prospective buyers. You can do this by going to the Better Business Bureau’s website and looking at what kinds of complaints, if any, have been submitted against the buyers. If you see lots of complaints alleging that the companies changed the original deal, snuck in lots of fees, or didn’t pay the lump sum as promised, these should be red flags. Also, beware any buyer who claims to be able to complete your structured settlement transaction in less than 45-60 days; all states have a legal process that must be followed, and it will take at least that long from start to finish.

Once you’ve picked a buyer, pay close attention to all of the contracts and paperwork you receive. Look for any changes to the original offer, and check the fine print for additional fees. If you don’t understand something, ask. If the buyer doesn’t sufficiently answer your question, tells you not to worry about it, or starts pressuring you to sign, you should walk away.

Most states require structured settlement sellers to get legal and/or financial advice. Make sure you find a lawyer who is independent – don’t take the buyer’s recommended experts or accept referrals from them – and who has handled structured settlement transactions before. Specifically, the lawyer should evaluate whether the sale is in your best interest, and should make sure the buyer isn’t trying to pass on fees to you that state law says he has to pay.

The sale of your structured settlement will have to be approved by a judge, and you may even have to appear in court for this. If the judge believes that the sale is not in your best interest, s/he can refuse to approve it, and you’ll have to start over again if you still want to sell.

Finally, you’ll have a “cooling off” period after the sale is approved before it is finalized. This is your last chance to re-think the whole thing, and decide once and for all whether you truly want to sell.

7
Mar 11

Who Would Buy a Structured Settlement?

Sure, you know why you want to sell your structured settlement – an emergency need for cash fast that can’t be settled any other way. You may not like the idea of having to wait for your money, and at times like this, it can be pretty inconvenient. So, why would a company want to buy your settlement from you?

Stability. A typical structured settlement is backed up by an annuity, usually administered by an insurance company. If your settlement was related to a personal injury lawsuit, the defendant placed a lump sum with the insurance company, who then put the funds into an annuity contract where they money would be invested in conservative holdings so as to generate a stable stream of interest. That interest income, plus the initial sum, pays out to you over months or years. Barring financial disaster for the insurance company and your annuity contract being unprotected, the company who buys your settlement is virtually guaranteed that the stream of payments he is buying will come through as planned.

Rate of Return. If you’ve been shopping your structured settlement on www.quotemeaprice.com already, then you’ve found that buyers are offering you lump sums that are less than the total amount of your payment. This difference is being caused by the discount rate. It is essentially a reverse interest t percentage that the buyer uses to scale back the payment stream to an amount he is willing to pay you. The discount rate is intended to cover the buyer’s costs, such as legal fees and administrative overhead, but it also contains his rate of return – his built-in profit. After all, structured settlement buyers are not in business to provide funds to you, they are looking to make money. If this seems unfair to you, remember that you are in need of quick cash and the buyer is essentially providing a service. Also, just as if you were borrowing money from a bank that would charge you interest, there is a charge for getting your money ahead of schedule.

Here’s the good news for you: a site like www.quotemeaprice.com allows you to get several offers from competing buyers, and lets you choose the one that best suits your needs. Of course, you don’t have to accept any offer, and you don’t have to sell your settlement if you don’t want to. That’s why you should always weigh the decision to sell heavily, and get objective advice.

5
Mar 11

Getting the Best Deal for Your Structured Settlement

OK. So you have a pressing financial emergency. You’ve considered all your options, and you realize that cashing out your structured settlement is the best way to get the money you need. So now what? You want to make sure you get the best possible deal. Here’s how.

Shop Around. Choose a site like www.QuoteMeAPrice.com where you can advertise the details of your structured settlement, and let buyers fight to give you the best deal. Let them really duke it out, and don’t jump at the very first offer. Sometimes, buyers will float a low offer just to see how quickly you’ll bite. Resist the temptation to accept the first deal you see.

Check Them Out. Not all buyers are created equal. You want a structured settlement factoring company that is going to treat you honestly, will stick with the deal they offer you, and won’t try to play games with you. Once you’ve gotten a list of prospective buyers from your bids at QuoteMeAPrice, check them all out on the Better Business Bureau. Virtually every buyer will have some complaints, but you should look at the nature and the amount of complaints. Are there lots of accusations of hidden fees? Changing the deal mid-stream? If so, maybe you should avoid that buyer.

The opposite extreme – no information available at all – can also be a warning sign. This could mean that the company is brand new to the structured settlement factoring business. While that isn’t a danger sign per se, you don’t have any history to consider, and no clients to ask. Proceed at your own risk.

Consider the Warning Signs. So, you’ve gotten bids. You created a short list. You did your due diligence. And now, you’ve chosen your buyer. But your vigilance shouldn’t end there. Read the deal carefully. Read all documents carefully, and ask questions about anything you don’t understand. If any part of the written documentation doesn’t agree with the deal you were offered, insist that the contract be changed. Also, take a hard look for any fees that you will be paying. Are these fees permitted under the laws that govern structured settlement factoring transactions in your state? Even if they are, every fee takes money out of your pocket – try negotiating them first before you sign.

Selling your structured settlement is a huge decision with a big impact on your personal finances. You owe it to yourself to get your best deal.

4
Mar 11

How Structured Settlements Work

The commercials are tempting, featuring funny people in silly situations promising to get you cash now. You wonder why you got this structured settlement in the first place. Why bother?

Structured settlements originated in Canada in the 1970s and grew quickly in popularity. Why? There are a few reasons.

First, defendants in a personal injury lawsuit realized they could invest an amount of cash smaller than the actual amount of the settlement, and, through careful and conservative vesting, actually meet the settlement obligation they agreed to in court. The defendants were free of their settlement obligation without the hassles of administering and paying the funds on a regular basis.

Second, plaintiffs and their attorneys realized that the structured settlement was a great way to ensure a steady stream of income to an injured person. Because the defendant was no longer involved, and administration of the payment stream had been turned over to an objective third party (an insurance company), the risk of default was lessened significantly.

If you are an annuitant – that is, a person receiving the structured settlement – this whole process may seem unfair to you. After all, you were awarded a certain amount in a lawsuit, why can’t you have it all now? Why do you have to wait? What if you have other things to spend it on?

In truth, the structured settlement guards against all that. Were you to receive a huge cash settlement up front, it would be difficult to resist the temptation to blow the whole wad at once. Even if you are the paragon of restraint, chances are some family member or friend or some other “emergency” would present itself, demanding the cash. A structured settlement protects you from all that.

If you were disabled, and are unable to work, either temporarily or permanently, a structured settlement is designed to ensure that you have cash when you need it and in the amount that you need. The payment schedule prevents you from spending it frivolously. The structured settlement, in effect, protects you from yourself.

Of course, you can sell it. You can sell all or part of your settlement for cash in about 60 days or so, depending on your state. Just know that you will not get the full amount of your settlement – not even close. Buyers will cut down the full amount in order to cover their costs and make a profit – and it’s your price to pay for wanting cash quick. It’s an option, but if you can wait, you probably should.

Let Companies Compete to Buy your Structured Settlement!

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