by John Darer CLU ChFC CSSC RSP
Andrew Cravenho of Settlement Quotes, LLC has identified an unethical marketing practice that has the potential to screw unwary plaintiffs out of thousands of dollars when entering into structured settlement factoring transactions.
He says "It has come to our attention that a rumor being spread by a competitor that could affect your choice when choosing a company to work with when cashing out a structured settlement. The false rumor being spread states that certain (factoring) companies provide extremely competitive quotes as a loss leader on a transaction in order to secure future deals from that particular annuitant at vastly higher discount rates to make up for any loss occurred in the original transaction".
"From this author’s experience, with proper planning, there should be very few instances where annuitants have to cash out their future structured settlement payments (rights) multiple times. Our goal as a factoring company should be to solve the annuitant’s liquidity problems the first time without having to do multiple transactions. The cost of doing multiple transactions is extremely expensive due to court costs that are involved with each transaction."
Cravenho goes on to say (When it comes to factoring) "every annuitant’s situation is unique and needs careful planning in order to execute a beneficial transaction.
- The annuitant’s immediate liquidity problems should be solved
- If the annuitant depends on their periodic payments, these payments should stay intact
- Future financial obligations should be addressed to ensure monies are available for these needs
There are instances where annuitants have to complete a second factoring transaction in order to fulfill their financial needs. In this author’s opinion, many annuitants still shop their payments in order to obtain the best price. For Settlement Quotes, this scenario does not change the way we do business. We provide the best price, upfront, every time, regardless of the number of transactions the client has completed with us in the past"
The approach that Andrew Cravenho describes is sensible. The tactic that Cravenho mentions smacks of desperation by those factoring companies and factoring intermediaries that cannot compete.
Why should a plaintiff have to sell more structured settlement payment rights to raise cash than is necessary?
Whether you are a plaintiff, an attorney representing a plaintiff or NSSTA and SSP members referring a case, don't fall for the sleazy broad generalization sales tactic described. If you fall into these categories and have heard the aforementioned sales approach from someone trying to buy your or your client's structured settlement payment rights we'd like to hear your story.
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