The official reason given that Pru pulled out of the non qualified structure market was management's perception of limited success, of which 50% was structured attorney fees. It appears management felt that the attorney fee market could be served using the IRC 130 qualified assignment process. This precludes non qualified cases including divorce, environmental, employment and other applications.
In a memorandum delivered to its appointed brokers Saturday May 30, 2009 Prudential (1) reaffirmed its commitment to the structured settlement market (2) stated that Prudential collected close to $1B in structured settlement annuity premium in 2008 and (3) implied that it should exceed that in 2009 if one projects out from its $289MM first quarter.
While I appreciated getting the memorandum I and others ares still puzzled as to why the memorandum DID NOT accompany the after 5pm EDT announcement on Friday, which perhaps left more that a few folks humming a few bars of The Smiths' classic…
"Panic on the streets of London
Panic on the streets of Birmingham
I wonder to myself
Could life ever be sane again ?"
As they say "perception is everything"!
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