by Structured Settlement Watchdog®
Texas IRA Custodian Misinforms in Forbes Publication
Forbes magazine has published an article about investing in structured settlement payment streams that fraudulently refers to them as structured settlement annuities. The Forbes article authored by Kelli Click, President of Strata Trust Company, is shocking.
According to its website, Strata Trust Company has offices in Austin and Waco, Texas. STRATA operates as a Texas-chartered trust company with direct oversight by the Texas Department of Banking, with $1.8 billion in assets under custody. Strata Trust Company is a self-directed IRA custodian, specialized in holding alternative assets within IRAs.
Factored Structured Settlement Payment Streams ARE Receivables; NOT Annuities
What a customer of Strata Trust is buying when they or their trust invests in a structured settlement receivable (factored structured settlement payment stream), is not a structured settlement annuity.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (which knows something about annuities), in its Statutory Issue Letter No. 160, opined that factored structured settlement payments streams are neither annuities nor insurance products. Perhaps the Texas Insurance Commissioner can have a visit with the Texas Department of Banking and have a little word about what Strata Trust is disseminating to the public through national news media.
Click bait. Officer fails to disclose Transactional Risk of investing in Structured Settlement Payment Streams in Forbes article
- Click bait! “They offer a stream of payments that often has virtually no risk in that the structured settlement payments are made by an insurance company”. In misrepresenting the factored structured settlement payments streams as annuities, Kelli Click simply focuses on default risk of the insurance company, this is an outrage.
- Given that there is a recent published legal decision in Wall v Corona Capital in which retiree investors lost all their $152,999 investment due to a fraud and have had to spend tens of thousand in legal fees, in precisely what Strata Trust’s rep is peddling and mischaracterizing as annuities, the Kelli Click Forbes published article is an outrage.
- Given that there is public knowledge of the recent Maryland Court of Special Appeals decision that has delayed payments and created uncertainty for investors in certain Access Funding originated factored structured settlement payment streams, at least one of which has led to a FINRA complaint against the Oregon entity which sold to them to the retirees as annuities in exchange for a $150,000 investment, precisely what Strata Trust ‘s rep is peddling as annuities, the Kelli Click Forbes published article is an outrage.
- Further to the last point read Investors in Secondary Market “Annuities” Crushed by MD Court of Special Appeals Reversal of Access Funding Trial Court – Structured Settlements 4Real®Blog April 23, 2019
- Given that a number of states have expressly carved out or have introduced bills to expressly carve out structured settlement investors (as differentiated from payees or beneficiaries actually receiving structured settlement payments as damages), precisely the type of people that are prospects for Strata Trust Company, from ANY coverage under state guaranty associations in the event of insurer insolvency, the Kelli Click Forbes published article is an outrage.
- Given that in a March 29, 2017 decision, in the matter of Greenwald v Caballero-Goehringer, Delaware Superior Court C.A. No. K14C-04-027 JJC., a Delaware Superior Court judge rejected an attempt to portray structured settlement payment rights as an annuity in a minor’s prove up hearing, the Kelli Click Forbes published article is an outrage. The trail led to Daniel Reisinger, a Pennsylvania and Delaware based actively licensed insurance agent, represented as the owner of the website Safe Investing Services, whose website falsely portrayed factored structured settlement payments streams structured settlement as Structured Settlement Annuities.
- Given that on May 9, 2013, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued a prescient investor alert in which it stated that “your ‘rights’ to the income stream you purchased could face legal challenges”, the Kelli Click Forbes published article is an outrage.
- Given that over 200 structured settlement transfer documents in New York and Florida were forged and both were well circulated news stories in mainstream media, the Kelli Click Forbes published article is an outrage.
Perhaps it’s time that the Texas Commissioners of Banking and Insurance Had a Visit
It’s only 2 miles (short 5 minute drive) between the Texas Commissioners of Banking and Insurance [ Source: MapQuest ]
Charles G. Cooper Commissioner Texas Department of Banking 2601 N. Lamar Blvd Austin, Texas 78705 Telephone: 512-475-1300
Kent Sullivan Commissioner Texas Department of Insurance 333 Guadalupe Austin, TX 78701
Texas Business and Commerce Code §§ 17.45 and 17.46: Lists a number of false, misleading, or deceptive acts in the context of advertising that are deemed unlawful, including, but not limited to, advertising goods or services with intent not to sell them as advertised.
Problem to be discussed by Texas Commissioners Kent Sullivan and Charles G. Cooper
- You have a regulated entity, Strata Trust Company, whose President Kelli Click, has written an article published in a national publication, holding out a non insurance product as an insurance product and all that it implies.
- Notwithstanding, Mr. Sullivan, that the NAIC has already opined that factored structured settlement payment streams are not annuities or insurance products, by using the term annuity, the trust company representative, Mr. Cooper and Mr. Sullivan, implies that the trust company peddlers of factored structured settlement payments steams have an active insurance license and all that it implies.
- Furthermore, Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Cooper, the undeniable truth is that the ownership of the structured settlement annuity isn’t transferred in a structured settlement factoring transaction. Calling those factored structured settlement payments an annuity is like slapping a cowboy hat on a scam and calling it honest—it’s a downright fraud on investors!
Texas Banking Law
§17.2. Advertising.
(a) An advertisement published by or on behalf of a trust company may not include the following:
(1) a guaranteed rate of return or interest rate on funds deposited in trust;
(2) a statement that tends to deceive or mislead the public; or
(3) a term that may deceive the public into belief that the trust company is engaged in the banking business.
(b) Advertisements published by or on behalf of a trust company must be retained in the trust company’s records for examination by department personnel.
(c) A trust company that violates this section is subject to an enforcement action initiated by the banking commissioner under Finance Code, §§185.001, et seq.