The State West Virginia has a pretty good college football team, Harpers Ferry, a glorious old resort, The Greenbriar with a secret bunker from which our government was to be run in the event of "Doomsday". It has inspired lyrics to a song ("Take Me Home Country Roads") and it also has one of the better structured settlement protection acts. Up front and center is the fact that factoring companies must register with the West Virginia Secretary of State before advertising or arranging transfers of a consumer’s future payment rights in the state
Excerpted from the West Virginia Code…
§46A-6G-8. Registration with the secretary of state.
(a) A transferee, or other company in the business of purchasing future payments, shall file a registration statement with the secretary of state before advertising or arranging transfers of consumer’s future payment rights in this state. The registration statement shall contain:
(1) The name and address of the transferee;
(2) The name and address of the transferee’s agent for service of process within the state, or if the company does not have one within the state, a statement that the secretary of state will serve as the agent for service of process; and
(3) A full and complete disclosure of any prior or pending litigation involving alleged violations of this article’s provisions or consumer complaints filed with the attorney general’s office of this state that allege violations of this article’s provisions, or a notarized statement that there has been no such litigation or unresolved complaint relating to the operations of the transferee.
(b) The transferee shall update the statement within thirty days after a change of information occurs.
(c) Each transferee registering pursuant to the provisions of this section shall maintain a copy of the registration statement. The transferee shall allow a consumer, interested party or court to inspect the registration statement on request.
(d) The secretary of state may charge each transferee that files a registration statement with the secretary of state a reasonable fee not to exceed one hundred dollars to cover the cost of filing.
West Virginia defines "Consumer" as any person entitled to receive periodic future payments from an annuity issuer, settlement obligor or any other party as the result of an annuity, settlement, lottery winnings, sweepstakes payoff or other future payment arrangement
West Virginia defines "structured settlement" as an arrangement whereby a settlement obligor, an annuity issuer, or other person agrees to make future payments to a consumer in settlement of a court claim. Therefore if you are a factoring company, or a representative of a factoring company, advertising or soliciting to the citizens of West Virginia be aware that the state has defined terms. So it appears that JG Wentworth’s hyperbole that it is "the leader in the structured settlement industry" wouldn’t fly with Mountaineers!
This is a good start. Let’s see some other states pick up the ball now and run with this.
Since many factoring companies generate referral business from others as a result of their advertising, and the referrers often advertise as well, it seems appropriate to see a requirement that an individual or entity soliciting business on behalf of other individual investors or entities, in such structured settlement factoring transactions or structured settlement transfers, be subject to the same requirements.
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