Litigation

• Most life insurance companies limit SPIA payment streams to one payment stream per contract
• With a structured settlement one or more different payment stream can be combined in a single contract, thus reducing the adminstrative burden for the annuity issuer and the payee.
• Moreover structured settlement payments can be designed in a number of different ways, immediate, deferred, income payments and lump sum payments, step payments, fixed increases and more. For more info on the types of structured settelment payments click here

ADVANTAGE: Structured Settlements

The Rated Age Advantage on Lifetime Payments or Life Contigent Payments?

• Rated ages offer a discount on the cost to provide lifetime income. Said another way, a rated age boosts the amount of the annuity payment for each dollar spent on a lifetime annuity
• Most structured settlement annuity issuers offer rated ages.
• Some issuers of SPIAs offer rated ages. Even if a SPIA issuer offers rated ages, the rated ages offered to the class of annuitants eligible for structured settlements is generally more favorable than offered to SPIA annuitants 

ADVANTAGE: Structured Settlements

If you Need Liquidity Down The Road What Are The Options With a SPIA v Structured Settlement?

• Both structured settlements and SPIAs are long term commitmentsofering financial security
  
• You should not be in a structured settlement or SPIA if your time horizon is only a couple of years.
• There is a ready market of individual investors and companies who are willing to purchase the rights to receive both SPIA and structured settlement payments that you may be willing to sell. Some are ethical and some are not so ethical. Beware of wolf applies!
  
• in order to liquidate structured settlement payment rights you must go through a Court where a judge must approve that the liquidation or transfer of payment rights is in your best interest. This is for your protection and the majority of states have a structured settlement protection law on their books.
  
• Liquidation of SPIA payment rights does not involve Court approval. While some may perceive this as advantage it just removes a layer of consumer protection because the business practices companies that are involved in the business of "factoring" are virtually unregulated.
  
• You can sell all or only a portion of your structured settlement or SPIA payment rights.

ADVANTAGE: EVEN

Without knowing all the facts of the particular situation it is hard to say if the financial adviser committing malpractice in the scenario described by my industry colleague. Presuming that a qualified settlement is not being used and from what I understand it isn't , one thing is for sure . Once the plaintiff signs the release with the defendant he or she has forever lost the opportunity to structure the settlement.  CAVEAT EMPTOR!