by Structured Settlement Watchdog ®
The massive regulatory gap between every other financial services sector and the the sector that solicits, sellers and investors in structured settlement receivabless has never been more evident than in the case of Alan Lewis, a California insurance agent who spent 4 months in jail before his release July 10, 2014
Alan Lewis faced 29 felony counts for incurring surrender charges when selling annuities thanks to the California Life and Annuity Consumer Protection Program
- Something that should make a certain Florida settlement purchaser and a certain bank sit up and take notice, Lewis was charged with embezzlement and grand theft based on 12 clients who incurred surrender charges when they canceled their annuities to buy new fixed indexed annuities, according to a report in the August edition of Insurance News Net.
- Lewis was also charged with burglary because Lewis visited clients' homes during the sales process.
Now imagine how such a comparable law could apply to the sale of structured settlement payment rights and the aggressive manner in which annuitants are currently approached by some cash now pushers .
A number of settlement purchasers are actually encouraging people to sell their stable value structured settlement payments at a loss, concurrent with teaming up with institutions that are providing other services to the settlement purchasers like servicing, and financial advisers, to sell them greater risk-bearing financial products which in turn bear new commissions and/or surrender charges.
In essence, selling a structured settlement in the secondary market is like selling a regular annuity that has surrender charges, save the requirement for judicial approval]
- Other advisers are approaching seniors and others with investments in structured settlement payment rights (structured settlement receivables) mislabeling them "annuities".
- Still others, non-Florida residents, have been bribed with money or gifts such as Ipads and coached to sell their structured settlement payments in Florida in the hopes that a judge in the Sunshine State will rubber stamp the transfer application.
- The CEO of a settlement purchasing intermediary admitted in a deposition to submitting fake information about his company to the Better Business Bureau of Greater Maryland.