by Structured Settlement Watchdog
If You Sell Your Structured Settlement
You Decrease your Net Worth in an Instant
“Handling a large lump sum of cash can be exhilarating. And it can be a little unsettling, too. Money causes people to worry, and worry spins half-truths or unfounded myths about financial issues at hand. Selling your structured settlement into a lump-sum payment is an opportunity to increase your net worth — not limit it – a “pro tanto discharge” credited to “Jason from JG Wentworth” guest post on Sam Dogen’s Financial Samurai blog.
Jumping Out of Moving Plane from 14,400 feet
As someone who once jumped out of a perfectly good plane from 14,400 feet and been in a free fall for 9,900 feet, I would say THAT is exhilarating! Fortunately at 5,500 feet my parachute opened.
- Having stable core income is like a parachute. It’s packed with stability.
- Few people who have structured settlement can afford a financial free fall and not have a parachute.
- Nor can they gamble by taking a big loss in net worth today by selling their structured settlement in the hopes of making more money in the future by taking more risk.
Expect to see more litigation against structured settlement factoring companies and others advising people who can ill afford risk to sell their stable income structured settlements at a big loss and alone or in tandem with other advisers put them into riskier investments. I have in my possession a solicitation for investments on the letterhead of a member of the National Association of Settlement Purchasers (not JG Wentworth) which was not at the time of solicitation registered to sell securities or registered as a financial adviser.
It’s the Stuctured Settlement Secondary Market Folks and the “#hits just keep on coming!”
Post Script
What I wrote in December 2016 wasn’t an isolated flare. There were many other instances over the years — different companies, different tactics, same underlying pattern — all aimed at people who could least afford the risk. The #hits kept coming, and the lesson stayed the same: stable income is a parachute, and too many were being encouraged to cut the straps.