by Structured Settlement Watchdog ®
"Financial Solutions for your future" says the Freedom Financial Solutions tweet on May 15th
"Getting the Cash You Need Now" says the Freedom Financial Solutions home page.
Let's face the truth. People who are thinking cash now are forgoing future income, because they are thinking about today. The annuitant's awareness of the future impact should not be taken for granted.
I spoke with a someone recently who had been overly generous with more than adult children who were living at the annuitant's home, not paying any rent and "sponging" off Mom, who is on Social Security Disability.
How Disabled Do You Have to Be To Collect Social Security Disability?
Social Security pays only for total disability. No benefits are payable for partial disability or for short-term disability.
"Disability" under Social Security is based on your inability to work. We consider you disabled under Social Security rules if:
- You cannot do work that you did before;
- Social Security decides that you cannot adjust to other work because of your medical condition(s); and
- Your disability has lasted or is expected to last for at least one year or to result in death.
This is a strict definition of disability
Social Security program rules assume that working families have access to other resources to provide support during periods of short-term disabilities, including workers' compensation, insurance, savings and investments.
The structured settlement was set up for the woman to replace her lost retirement benefits. She was considering selling her structured settlement to help out one of her adult children pay for something related to an addictive behavior. After getting an assessment of her situation I was able to open her eyes about how what she was considering doing would affect her not too distant future. Fortunately for her she called me because she didn't realize just how great the future impact would be. She decided to not do a structured settlement factoring transaction.
So when I see "Freedom taking Liberty" I have to laugh.
It is important that annuitants have the sense to contact someone with the patience and the financial qualifications to help them gain a complete understanding of their situation and to weigh their options.