If unforeseen circumstances have caused a financial crisis for you or your family and you need a liquid cash flow, then selling your annuity or settlement payments may be the solution to your problems. Those who cannot meet their mortgage payments or have unexpected medical bills should consider all their options. It is important to protect other assets or sources of income, so you need to calculate the risks and the potential benefits. If selling your annuity is the best way out of financial difficulty, there is help for you to get the best price.
The following comment was left on this blog from a disgruntled client of Stone Street Capital. Please read our notes at the bottom of the page for tips to avoid these types of companies.
“I have included my response to the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and I would like to share with consumers.
I am in reciept(sic.) of the response from Stone Street capital regarding my BBB complaint and would like to respond. I find it highly unlikely that Stone Street would be confused about my feelings or complaints against them as I have been very vocal throughout the transaction. First let me point out that I am exceptionally familiar with the process of this type of transaction as I have sold payments twice before.
I entered into an agreement with Stone Street in November of 2009 with the understanding that the case would be filed right away and that I would be funded by February of 2010 which is why the sale began with my March 2010 payments. I was very much surprised and dissappointed(sic.) when I learned that the case was filed in King County Court until February 1, 2010 which gave us a hearing date of March 16, 2010. As far as the modified deal. Stone Street failed to file the amended documents with the court as required. The sale price that was on record with the court was close to ten thousand dollars less than the ammended(sic.) agreement. As far as purchase price, I feel that I was a victim of bait and switch. I was initially offered a net price of $62,000. The ammended(sic.) documents left me responsible for the $1900 attorney/processing fees.
There have been many articles written throughout the World Wide Web that promote misinformation about the structured settlement factoring industry and specifically selling the rights to structured settlement payments. This author would like to dismiss these myths and provide a faq for annuitants to refer to when selling the rights to their payments.
In a recent article published by a representative of Stone Street Capital, a list of characteristics were provided to look for in a structured settlement factoring company that you may want to do business with.
Here is a summarized list:
- Is the company you are working with a broker or direct funder?
- How long has the company been in business?
- Is the company you are working with a member of the Better Business Bureau? If so, what is their rating?
Mike Green, an attorney based out of Philadelphia who represents several structured settlement factoring companies published an informative article on the Settlement Capital blog late last week. There are a couple of points that were mentioned in the article that I would like to discuss.
In the article published by Mr. Green, he explained the concept of an annuity’s present value. I would like to provide a few examples on the concept.
The lump sum you receive from the sale of your structured settlement payments will have the same tax treatment as your structured settlement annuity. In other words if your structured settlement payments were tax free then the lump sum you would receive from the sale would be tax free as well.
Most structured settlement annuities qualify for tax free treatment under section 130 of the Internal Revenue Code. The U.S Governement has taken several steps to protect tort victims and other parties from unfair taxes that resulted from personal injury settlements.
Thousands of annuitants sell the rights to their annuity payments every year, but what can each of these individuals due to secure their financial future? The simple answer is to plan ahead for both the certain and uncertain events that will happen.
Annuitants sell the rights to their payments for a multitude of reasons, most caused by a financial situation such as debt. Once a lump sum of money is received for selling their structured settlement, the last thing these individuals need is to be placed in the same exact position a few years later. If this situation were to occur again, the annuitant will either have to sell more payments or may have to file bankruptcy.
The confidence of AIG’s structured settlement annuity policy holders has been shaken, but should these policy holders sell the rights to their annuity payments?
Due to the circumstances surrounding the recent events of AIG’s financial difficulties the media has spawned a frenzy among policy holders. This author believes annuitants should be cautious about selling the rights to their annuity payments. Here is why:
Many annuity policies and settlement agreements usually include anti-assignment or anti-sale language. Even though this language is included within your settlement documents, you are still able to sell your future structured settlement payments!
Here is an example of the language that may be contained inside your annuity policy or settlement agreement:
Guaranteed payments are payments that will be made for a guaranteed period of time to either the annuitant or to a beneficiary. Non-guaranteed payments or life contingent payments are payed out for a period of time that is dependent upon the annuitants vital status. In other words if the annuitant dies, so do the payments.
How does this effect a structured settlement factoring transaction?
Structured settlement factoring transactions are priced using many variables to determine the overall risk involved in the transaction (i.e. Insurance company rating–A- AAA, length of payment stream, and guaranteed vs. non-guaranteed payments). If a structured settlement factoring company purchases a life contingent payment stream and the annuitant dies a year later, the factoring company will never receive any money.
Life contingent payment streams are not impossible to accomplish, but are more expensive. Depending upon the annuitants age, health, driving record, medications, and other information a life insurance policy can be purchased with the factoring company as the beneficiary. The purpose of the life insurance policy is to ensure the factoring company that they will either receive all the life contingent payments that were originally purchased, or upon death of the annuitant, the factoring company will receive a payout from the life insurance policy.
Not only are non-guaranteed payments more expensive to sell, but the transactions take much longer to fund as well. If you would like more information on non-guaranteed payments vs. guaranteed payments please comment.
