by Structured Settlement Watchdog®
Lake Tahoe based Consumer Affairs rates “structured settlement buyers” and includes Access Funding, subject of a Maryland Attorney General investigation and blistering Washington Post expose that led to reform of Maryland’s structured settlement protection laws
- It has been alleged that Access Funding exploited black lead paint victims from the Baltimore inner city that were receiving structured settlements.
- Yet Consumer Affairs, apparently blissfully unaware that Access Funding is defunct and ignoring the steady drum beat of bad press about Access Funding, incredibly states that it is “Best for consumers with structured settlements, consumers with annuities and consumers with lottery, or contest winnings”.
Consumer Affairs completely misleads consumers in its attempt to define “Structured Settlement Broker”
According to Consumer Affairs:
- a “ structured settlement broker, also known as an annuity broker, is a professional with specific training in structured payments. Brokers can aid in the whole process of obtaining an advance or full payout against the settlement” To call a representative of Stone Street Capital, JG Wentworth, Oasis Legal Finance, Woodbridge Structured Funding, Seneca One, Peachtree, Olive Branch or Annuity.org/CBC an “annuity broker” is obscenely false and misleading.
- What these companies do is buy structured settlement payment rights or periodic payment rights from lotteries or retirement annuities.
- To call Access Funding a broker implies that they and the company representatives interacting with consumers have an insurance license, when this may not be the case.