Even if you’re resolute about selling your structured settlement, there are plenty of reasons why it won’t – or perhaps shouldn’t – happen.
Contrary Legal or Financial Advice. Most states require sellers of structured settlements to seek out legal and/or financial advisors to review the sale and help you determine if selling is in your best interest. Expect them both to look at the discount rate, the rate that the buyer uses to scale back your settlement to an amount he’s willing to pay for it. The discount rate is intended to compensate the buyer for the lost ability to invest the cash, as well as for his overhead. But your lawyer or financial advisor might suggest not selling if the rate’s too high. They may suggest that you can do better elsewhere, or they might remind you that you’re not in a position to make up lost revenue when your structured settlement is gone.
The Court. A judge will have to look over the structured settlement transaction and approve it. You may even have to appear in court, depending on the state where you live. A judge may decide that your reason for wanting to sell isn’t compelling enough. Or the judge may question or outright deny the transaction based on – again – that discount rate. This happened in one case in New York in 2010.
The Seller. When you’re looking over bids that you’ve received for your structured settlement – and hopefully you’ve used a site like QuoteMeAPrice to find competing bidders – hopefully you are checking out the companies who’ve made offers. You may find that other prospective sellers complained about buyers who backed out of the deal midstream. Unfortunately, this happens – the buyer may look over his offer and decide that he can do better elsewhere, or that the discount rate will fall short of the profit he wanted to make. If this happens you will have to start over again.
You. Most states provide for a “cooling off” period after the structured settlement sale has jumped through all of the hoops mentioned previously. This is your last chance to think over your decision to sell and make sure you’re doing what’s right for you. Think hard about the reasons why you’re selling. Think about the stream of payments that will no longer be yours, and make sure you will still be able to support yourself. Think about how the discount rate will cut into the settlement you would have gotten over time. Finally, think about your plan to use that money, and make sure selling your settlement is the best option.
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.
