by Structured Settlement Watchdog
Insurance News Net appears to have blindly published a press release issued by DRB Capital LLC in its Annuity News section when it had absolutely nothing to do with annuities.
Insurance News Net really went on an adventure with that press release, mixing up the respectable insurance industry—full of licensed professionals dedicated to helping the disabled and bereaved—with the wild west of structured settlement factoring companies. These unregulated cowboys, which DRB Capital itself calls "parasites," seem to have crashed the party. Publishing that under "Annuity News" was like putting a cat in a dog show!
In the regulated insurance industry, commissioners can impose fines, suspend, or revoke licenses, creating real consequences. The risk of losing one's livelihood serves as a strong deterrent. Without this kind of regulation, corrupt companies in the secondary market exploit, bait, and take advantage of young adults, often from Black and Hispanic communities, sometimes causing severe financial harm.
It's a shame that many of the insurance and financial trade journals have become such rags when it comes to reporting about structured settlements. The consequences are consumer and investor confusion.
DRB Capital and the companies it calls "parasites" do not buy structured settlement annuities because they can't. They are not structured settlement companies.
A structured settlement factoring company is a company that buys structured settlement payment rights and then either packages and securitizes them before selling to institutional investors, or sells them to individual investors. Those that sell to individual investors scam label them as annuities. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) published a statutory issue paper in December 2018 in which it was made abundantly clear that such investments are not insurance products or annuities.
