"How ridiculous that such a thing even exists. Just another symptom of a society that wants money for free. I'm not sure who is worse. The benefit recipients, or the jerks willing to buy their annuity.
This is why it's all going to come crashing down on our heads eventually"-he then provides a link to an article he wrote that has nothing to do with the subject.
I grant that Mr. Costello is entitled to his opinion as much as I am entitled to opine this depiction of him as an ignorant butt head and take pity on him for his apparent financial illiteracy.
Unlike Mr. Costello, I work with injured plaintiffs, injured workers, injured children, children who have lost their parents under tragic circumstances, widows, widowers, and many others who benefit from structured settlement annuities. These people are not jerks! These people have merely suffered a misfortune or a tragedy that Andrew Costello clearly cannot possibly fathom.
When these people have liquidity needs for whatever reason, individual investors (that buy their structured settlement payment rights) act as a catalyst for a more efficient secondary market place, because they drive down the effective discount rates charged to consumers . Without the individual market place, buyers like Peachtree Settlement Funding (whose CEO is quoted in Zweig's article) and others who charge discount rates that are likely almost twice the best available rate, will continue to take advantage of the ignorant consumer.
One day Andrew Costello WILL LOSE a loved one, perhaps a parent, a child, a friend, a spouse, perhaps under sudden and tragic circumstances or through a prolonged illness caused or exacerbated by by someone else's negligence like this example Drunken Driver claims life of groom, best man and groomsman.
Perhaps by then he will have learned the human dignity he currently lacks.
A fitting "tribute" to Mr. Costello…?
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