Structured Settlements 4Real®Blog 2026

2 responses to “Benefits of Structured Settlements: Stable Income, Safety, Security and Guarantees”

1. 

   Jennifer

   July 15, 2012

   Mr. Darer,
   As a current ELNY shortfall victim, I duly take note that you do not speak of this situation in your sale of structured settlements. I find your clip quite ironic in light of the ELNY situation. What is the structured settlement’s stance on ELNY? What safeguards are in place to confidently offer “safety, security, and guarantee” to those in the market for new structured settlements? “Safety, security, and guarantee” are not in the cards for myself and 1500 others.

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2. 

   John Darer

   July 15, 2012

   Jennifer, thank you for your comment.

   The topic of the post is “Why People Take Structured Settlements: Safety and Guarantees”. This is why many people are attracted to structured settlements.

   But you know that I hear you Jennifer. As you know I was one of the first and the most prolific writers about ELNY situation. I have been outspoken in my support for the plight of you and others. I have asked questions that others did not want asked.

   However, without minimizing your plight and that of the others the ELNY situation is a one-off. The series of events that gave rise to ELNY are unlikely to ever happen again (blue moon high interest rates used in projections beyond bond durations) due to interim regulation.

   There was no structured settlement industry watchdog like me in 1981. I was in college. The Internet as we know it today did not exist in the early 1980s and thus the speed in which information travels has vastly improved. On April 18-19 1775 Paul Revere had to ride a horse to dispense the news that the British were coming, when he’d just have to Tweet about it today. But in the early to mid 1980s, there were newpapers, financial magazines, TV and radio.

   If this was happening in 2012, I and others would be on the air waves asking questions. Moreover, I did not place any ELNY business. EVER!

   In my opinion, grounded in facts (New York Times, prime team leading newscaster of the time Dan Rather CBS News, Heard on the Street Wall Strett Jounral), there were plenty of signals in published reports in 1982-1984 that should have given financial advisers,plaintiff lawyers and judges pause about placing clients into entities that had heavy concentrations of junk bonds in 1982-1986 or later

   That being said, new structured settlement annuitants need to be properly educated. To the extent that their attorneys bring in a consultant, or the plaintiffs do their own research on the Internet, they are. The New York Structured Settlement Protection Act requires certain mandatory disclosures and now most plaintiffs have structured settlement experts or settlement planners.

   The warning about “all your eggs in one basket” credited to Cervantes’ Don Quixote in 1605, more than a century before Paul Revere amde his ride and more than 375 years before ELNY annuity placements. Children generally learn this in between 2nd and 6th grade.

   I believe it’s possible to be empathetic toward ELNY annuitants and their lived experiences, as I have been, while also providing historical context and reinforcing simple, foundational financial lessons that others can keep in mind when making decisions about their future.

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