by John Darer® CLU ChFC CSSC RSP CLTC
Is that "Tompora" in your belly or are you just happy to "sashimi" goes the corny joke
I tell it because personal finance columnist Susan Tompor's June 20, 2013 piece for the Detroit Free Press deserves to be gutted by a "Fugu" chef and artfully displayed like the image above for having mislabeled structured settlements.
Tompor has something important to say which is essentially, that seniors need beware of "cash now pushers" bearing "good tidings" for retiree's pension plan payments or rights to an income stream, such as hmm, a "structured settlement"
Tompora inaccurately states or includes as a non sequitur:
- A “mirrored pension” or structured settlement shouldn’t be confused with the one-time lump sum payouts that have been made to former retirees by their old employers, like the General Motors and Ford offers that first rolled out last year. Comment: "Mirrored penisons" ARE NOT structured settlements as the term "structured settlement" is defined in the Internal Revenue Code [IRC 5891 (C)(1)]
- These are different deals, and structured settlements are way more costly for consumers. Comment: Structured settlements are actually less costly for consumers. There are no ongoing administration fees or commissions.
- A structured settlement can be filled with high fees for brokerage commissions, legal fees and various administrative charges. Comment: And donuts can be filled with jelly or cream. I repeat "structured settlements are actually less costly for consumers. There are no ongoing administration fees or commissions".
- The products carry various names: mirrored pensions, pension income programs, pension loans, secondary-market annuities and factored structured settlements. Comment: Non sequitur! Secondary market annuities are a misnomer for annuity or structured settlement payment rights (another defined term under the Internal Revenue Code) that are sold to individual investors. They are and properly defined as structured settlement receivables. An assignee of a tranferee (investor) is signing a Receivables Purcahse Agreement (RPA) Factored structured settlements are also off topic.
"Free" doesn't mean you don't have to do the "RE"-search
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