Structured settlements are popular because certain sells.   

For some it's certainty in the face of chaos. For others it's certainty as a solid foundation during a period of financial transition in their lives on which they can build with confidence. For young adults it's a  baseline of stable income to those that want to follow career aspirations and explore opportunities with promise that may not pay as well at first.

Judging by the JP Morgan 2020 Retirement Guide study, a structured settlement bought at the beginning of 2000 would have beat the return of an investment in the S&P 500 over the ensuing 20 years. Emotional investors who traded in and out, missing the biggest trading days had an even worse result. Please read our Structured Settlements v Alternative Investments page for additional details.

Major Stock Market Events 2000-2019

March 10, 2000 Collapse of the Dot-com bubble

September 11, 2001 Economic effects arising from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks

October 9, 2002 Stock Market Down Turn. After recovering from lows reached following 9/11 the market began to dip, beginning in March 2002 gradually picking up momentum and accelerating with dramatic declines in July and September retracing lows last reached in 1997 and 1998. 

February 27, 2007 Chinese stock bubble. Unexpected sell off leads to drop of 9%. Largest drop in a decade. Triggers worldwide drops in stock markets

October 11, 2007 US Bear Market of 2007-2009 Before the closing lows of March 2009, all major US indexes all suffered declines of more than 50% in early March 2009. It was the worst stock market crash since the Great Depression era in the 1930s

November 27, 2009 Dubai request of debt deferment causes global markets to drop

April 27, 2010 European Sovereign Debt Crisis, after Greece's debt is downgraded to junk by S&P, causes global markets to drop

May 6, 2010 2010 Flash Crash

August 1, 2011 Short bear market in S&P 500, a 21.58% drop before rebounding and ending the year flat

June 12, 2015 2015-2016 Chinese stock market begins to crash. A steep sell off in January 2016 impacts global markets

August 18, 2015 $10 trillion in global markets wiped out since June 3, 2015. On August 24, 2015, severe drop wipes out all gains for 2015.

September 20, 2018 S&P 500 drops almost 20% between September 20th and Christmas Eve

Whew! All that before the 2020 Stock Market Crash. 52 Week return of the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) 2.23% as of May 15, 2020.

Crypto Carnage  Bitcoin Plunges 2022

The S&P 500 lost 18.11% during 2022, when you include the return from dividends.

The COVID-19 sharpened the focus of how important "certain" is. Says Brittany Gillingham, an industry colleague from Guelph, Canada. “We’ve received calls... from clients...terrified about what’s going to happen to their money. And we’ve been in the blessed position of being able to say: ‘The payment will hit your bank account on April 01, and nothing’s going to change because structures are completely immune from the drop in the markets.’ "After a structured settlement industry record $6.4B production year in 2019, the first quarter results for 2020 kept up the good numbers, despite the dramatic  Covid-19 shut downs that began in March 2020.

The industry started strong with $1.608 Billion of structured settlement annuity premium placed

This represents an increase of $140,107,085 or +10% over the same period in 2019

Industry case count totaled 6,533. This represents a decrease of 951 cases or -13% over the same period in 2019

Average case size was $246,243 which is an increase of $50,011 per case or +25% over the same period in 2019 

 [data compiled by Matthew Ross]

That includes Pacific Life's indexed linked annuity adjustment, but does not in include market based structured settlements! 

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