OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Close This Box!

There is no way to sugar coat this:

AIG was downgraded by all ratings agencies yesterday

A Am Best

A Fitch

A- S&P

A2 Moodys

These ratings reflect the current environment at AIG. They are not reflective of all structured settlement companies.

There has been a lot of speculation as to what will happen today or tomorrow or next week with AIG. Rest assured I am on top of it and will let you know what I know so that you can address the situation or the questions of any of your clients.

First, the AIG core insurance business (life, health, annuities) is not what has caused the impairment.  AIG is a leader in many lines of insurance worldwide.The company operates globally on multiple silo business model. The toxic assets are confined to a single business unit.

Insurers must set claims reserves and actuary certification of asset liability matching is required by New York and most other states.

At the time of this writing there has been no announcement of  bankruptcy, but please note that Insurance regulators work to protect the interest of structured settlement annuitants. There is precedent. In re: Monarch Life bankruptcy creditors were not able to get at the structured settlement assets, even in the absence of secured creditor protections common in today's structured settlements. Executive Life annuitants are still getting paid and that impairment happened in 1991.

I understand that regulators such as NY were at AIG over the weekend, but at this point there has been no move to take over the company.

CNBC reiterates that the insurance subsidiaries would be OK in the event of bankruptcy.  On a separate note Hank Greenberg, former AIG chairman said this morning, in conversation with Maria Bartiromo that this is a short term liquidity problem that can be solved over time not an insolvency problem. Minutes ago CNBC reported that Fed bailout of AIG is back on the table. Things are fluid so stay tuned.

AIG reps who were at a meeting I attended yesterday indicated that a fact sheet will be release sometime today.  We will get information to you as soon as possible.

Readers free to contact me anytime to discuss your thoughts and/or concerns.