Keep a structured settlement for what it WILL do, not what it might do. The "will do" is the contractually guaranteed income inherent in a qualified funding asset issued by a regulated life insurance company licensed to do business in your state

Think about it.  Think about what life event led to you receiving the structured settlement payments. Write it down. What does that mean to you?  Write it down. How would you benefit by keeping the payment schedule? Write it down and then read it the next day. You don't have to do anything today.

Selling your structured settlement payments is a money loser.   You'll always lose money.

Despite the best laid plans, life situations might change and what made sense when a structured settlement was created may become "derailed" by an unanticipated occurrence or living beyond your means. While selling a structured settlement may not make sense for most people, some people choose to sell structured settlement payment rights for pennies on the dollar of cash now, to pay for a variety of expenses like urgent medical care, education or essential home repairs. The National Association of Settlement Purchasers estimates that less than 20% of structured settlement recipients ever complete a Secondary Market transaction.  For those that do, some are misled into selling (or repeat selling) with lies perpetrated by unlicensed and unregulated salespeople posing as "advisers" and suffer disastrous financial consequences that may be difficult or impossible to fix. 

Beware a structured settlement payment buyers' self-serving strategy

to get you to sell the closest payments first

Any number of payment rights can be purchased, in any combination and size.  Unethical structured settlement payment buyers may try to get you to sell the closest payments for pennies on the dollar first, because you will get more for your sold dollar in future payments.  However, for those who already have difficulty managing a budget, the strategy sets you on a rapid and expensive road to financial failure if you have inadequate means to support yourself. It is also self-serving for the unlicensed and structured settlement factoring company whose sales practices are unregulated. It is not financial planning; in some cases, it is brutal financial rape for which there is no Special Victims Unit. 

Once a structured settlement transfer petition is filed with court, privacy suffers

If you like your privacy, then don't start the process to sell your structured settlement. Once a petition to transfer your structured settlement payments is submitted to Court for approval, as is required by law, court scrapers appear like cadaver flies. Prepare to be bombarded with mailings, texts or calls promising you the world, or from real sounding "structured settlement audits", " structured settlement registries" or fake "government departments."  If not, you will be.  Just be aware its all "snowballs rolling downhill" from there after submitting that first petition.  Buyers and their lead generators scrape court records by electronic and personal means. 

WARNING!  If you receive a letter or call,  or you're a plaintiff lawyer whose client receives a letter or call from a structured settlement factoring company soliciting you to sell payments either (1) before your structured settlement annuity has been issued, (2) within months of it being issued, or (3) within a very short time after you have initiated a change of address or beneficiary, please contact us.  The person may seem to know facts about your policy that should not be public information.

Exercise caution if the settlement planner that originally placed your structured settlement suddenly solicits you to sell your large structured settlement for pennies on the dollar, to invest the proceeds with them or a company in which they have a financial interest

If the settlement planner who placed your structured settlement and earned tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands in commissions is suddenly soliciting you by mail or electronic means, to sell your structured settlement payments only a few years later, be worried. Be very worried.  Avoid being on the wrong end of a "triple play" driven by greedy settlement planners who (1) earn big commissions placing you into a structured settlement ,  (2) share in huge profit spreads from the sale of your large structured settlement payment rights with a third party factoring company; only to (3)  earn  even more asset under management fees through a related or affiliated registered investment adviser.   Be informed. Make them put it in writing. If they won't, perhaps you should rethink doing business with them.

The lawyer provided by the buyer of your structured settlement payments

doesn't represent you. It's a lie.

According to a legal complaint filed against a Florida factoring company in May 2020,  Michael Luback, then of Structured Asset Services, emailed Rochester New York resident Kenneth Lape on December 5, 2014 and said "please reach out to Andrew Cummings 305-979-8420 when you have a minute. He is representing you at the hearing Monday..."  It was a lie.  Attorney Cummings represented Structured Asset Funding, LLC.  [see Philip Lape v Structured Asset Funding, LLC  New York State Supreme Court  County of Monroe Index Number E2020003377]. The  Lape case remains pending with ongoing outstanding discovery issues in December 2023,  with Judge Anne Marie Taddeo having denied Defendant's summary judgment motion in July 2021 and further, denied Defendant's motion to stay discovery pending their appeal in October 2021. reasoning that any further delay in conducting discovery will only serve to prejudice Plaintiff's ability to prosecute his case.  With Judge Taddeo's retirement, Judge Elena S. Cariola is currently presiding.

You will not get all your cash today (or ever) if you sell your structured settlement payments

Getting a lump sum of cash for structured settlement is not like visiting an ATM. You can't just get all the cash today or ever. In accordance with Federal law and state structured settlement protection acts, it is necessary to apply for and obtain court approval of the sale of structured settlement payment rights. The transaction must be in your best interest and the best interest of any applicable dependents in the Court's discretion. A "structured settlement factoring transaction" is defined under the Internal Revenue Code, [see IRC 5891(c)(3)(A)] even though some structured settlement payment purchasing companies and lead generation websites have  mischaracterized it as a "structured settlement transaction" and unfortunately contributed to some consumer confusion.

If a Representative of a Structured Settlement Buyer or Their Lawyer Tells You to

Lie About Your State or County of Residence, Run Now!

A number of unethical structured settlement factoring companies will prey upon your desperation for cash and/or lack of sophistication by suggesting that you can get it done easier in another state, or in your state, but not the county where you actually live. Don't fall for this sucker play even if you're desperate for cash. In such cases, you're being set up by them to commit fraud.  Don't accept airline tickets, or gift cards to pay for travel expenses to another state. Don't sign short term leases in a state that you do not reside in, or open bank accounts at the instruction of a structured settlement factoring company or its lawyers.  Popular interstate forum shopping scenarios have included New York to Florida, New York to certain counties in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, anywhere to Virginia, New York to Connecticut, to certain counties in Georgia or South Carolina.  If you later want to contest the deal you can be sure that the structured settlement factoring companies will argue to a judge that you were complicit in the fraud.   Who needs that?

Beware Financial Advisers Working In Tandem with a Payment Buyer using Unrealistic And/or Deceptive Investment Projections on the Proceeds

This is where an unethical factoring company attempts to mask their pennies on the dollar value proposition by working with a financial adviser who shows you "pretty looking" investment projections to to take your eye off the ball. the investment projections are probably not achievable without risk, a risk that you may not fully appreciate or be willing to tolerate. Instead of using a Monte Carlo analysis, the returns on examples we've seen projected were linear and fail to take into account income or capital gains taxes that might be due on investment returns if you invested post sale of structured settelment payment rights. The structured settlement these predators are trying to raid are income tax free, if the payments represent damages on account of physical injury, physical sickness, wrongful death, wrongful imprisonment, or claims of workers compensation (per the relevant sections of the Internal Revenue Code)

Avoid Getting Hustled To Sell Life Contingent Payments

Because You Want To Leave Money to Survivors

Life contingent payments are those structured settlement payments that are only paid if you are living.  When lifetime structured settlements are established they generally include a certain period or guarantee period, which denotes how long payments will be made whether or not you survive the payment schedule. If the structured settlement was established when you were a child,  after 30 or 40 years you may have some runway left, but no more certain period.

Hustlers in the structured settlement secondary market may try to get you to part ways with your structured settlement for obscene discounts.  Some may tag team with an investment adviser. Remember that you would be starting with pennies on the dollar and would have to make up what you lost by doing the ill advised sale before you start making any money.  Some of the more unethical companies may even try to scare you with stories about possible insolvencies.  If you're healthy, you can keep your stable tax free structured settlement payments and use part of what you receive each month to pay for life insurance you buy to cover the contingency of your death. This will probably be more advantageous than getting hustled by structured settlement cash now pushers. If you would like to know more about this strategy,  please contact us at the number above.

Be Sure To Carefully Read and Fully Understand Any Affidavit of Payee You Are Asked to Sign

Look out for inconsistencies. Make sure the stated reasons are accurate in every way and make sense.  In one glaring example, in 2020, one Queens New York law firm representing a Pennsylvania structured settlement factoring company, submitted petitions for three separate individuals in three separate counties in New York that had the same typo and the same improbable inconsistency in the reasons for selling .  Astute Judges don't give an "A" for creative writing.

I. Our principles with respect to structured settlement factoring

4structures.com LLC is neither in the structured settlement factoring origination business, nor an intermediary and is not a competitor of structured settlement factoring companies, or tertiary market companies. However 4structures and its President have a keen interest in seeing that consumers are treated fairly and are provided with accurate information about structured settlements and that the secondary market and tertiary markets are adequately regulated. John Darer is widely recognized as the Structured Settlement Watchdog , a role he has served in a pro bono capacity for almost 18 years.  In his role of Structured Settlement Watchdog, John covers the good, the bad and the ugly. He has written extensive commentary, providing information on issues that in his opinion are important, or should be important to structured settlement consumers.

What We May Do

(1) Should someone contact us with questions concerning a possible sale of structured settlement payment rights to address a liquidity need in 2023, we will do our best to understand their situation and examine alternative options. Please note that if the original case was resolved in Bronx County or Westchester County New York, and we participated in the placement of the structured annuity, having signed a Structure Broker's Affidavit, under local court rules designed to protect profoundly injured people, neither we (nor any other placing broker) could speak with you on the subject unless authorized to do so by the New York Supreme Court in Bronx County or Westchester County.

(2) Setting aside Bronx or Westchester venued cases (or any other jurisdiction with similar rules), if, in the end, a structured settlement factoring transaction is the only viable option for the selling structured annuitant (and sometimes it really is), at the selling structured settlement annuitant's request we may:

(a) Provide independent professional advice

(b) Refer them to several companies that we know, We reserve the right to charge a fee for this service, commensurate with the service provided. No fee will be charged to any annuitant where we placed the structured settlement annuity as the broker or co-broker. In other cases, if a fee is charged it will be fully disclosed. It is believed some structured settlement brokers and settlement planners conceal that they are paid referral fees, the amount of such fees and the impact of such fees on the amount of cash the seller receives or the amount of future payments that need to be sold to pay such fees.

What We Don't Do

(1) We DON'T solicit structured settlement annuitants to sell their structured settlement payment rights. However, we encourage our own clients and others to call us if they are feeling financial pressure,  so we can have a chat about the situation and help them safely explore alternatives. We would rather you speak to safely test and talk through assumptions, instead of giving  confidential information to one of the countless lead generation web sites that are registered anonymously, and those behind them who operate in the shadows while disseminating wholly misleading information.

(2) We also DO NOT violate confidentiality or privacy provisions in settlement agreements on cases in which we have previously been invited to participate by sharing case documents with factoring, settlement purchasing or settlement transfer companies, including factoring brokers. Is there any legal exposure to the attorneys who refer structured settlement consultants or settlement planners (who end up doing so), or their clients?

(3) We DO NOT sell protected information to factoring companies, factoring brokers or list brokers, under any circumstances.

II. Other Considerations if you are thinking about

selling your structured settlement payments: