by Structured Settlement Watchdog
West Palm Beach bogus marketing pitch from company or trade name “Annuity Status”
Door Number 1
“We are a team of structured settlement consultants and after years of helping people exchange their future annuity payments for a lump-sum of money we found out there is a bigger need to actually help people find payments owed to them from insurance companies.
We take note and gather information about your structured settlement, dates, insurance companies involved and companies you might have sold payments to in the past“. Linkedin June 20, 2021 HUGE RED FLAG
Door Number 2
So they claim that they USED to do that, but now they help people find stuff so they can build up a data base to fleece them for pennies on the dollar? Take a look! Within days of the statements made in Door Number One…
- It is ” a structured settlement factoring company that helps people raise cash from their annuity payments LinkedIn June 20, 2021
- “Make moving that much easier with some extra cash for your structured settlement payments”. Facebook Business Status Updated June 18, 2021
- ” Get More Cash For More trips with cash for your structured settlement payments” Facebook Business Status Update June 16, 2021
- “Boost your savings with an honest cash offer for your structured settlement payments”. June 2021
- Annuity Status video is par for the course “Feel like you hit the jackpot with cash for your structured settlement payments” (as the tiny change purse in your pocket is filed with small change) Video June 2021. Ain’t that the “pennies on the dollar” truth?
- Annuity Status also states “Through court records, searching prior transactions, contacting insurance companies and sending letters to your policy insurance issuer”. Annuity Status website June 22, 2022 Another Red Flag. “Policy insurance issuer” is an indication of a non native English speaker.
But setting that aside, no insurance company is going to talk to anyone but the Payee, the Guardian (if applicable), or someone with Power of Attorney over your affairs. Do not give Annuity Status (or anyone else like them) Power of Attorney over your structured settlement or your affairs.
Annuity Status Offers Premium Referral Fees to Lawyers in Exchange for their client’s information
$2,000 payoffs to lawyers for referring their clients to sell their structured settlements (some of which may have confidentiality provisions) for pennies on the dollar?
I think you need to seriously question the ethics of a lawyer who takes a $2,000 fee for doing nothing but a referral the consequences of which are that the lawyer’s client has to sell more of his or her stable income payments to raise cash (or Annuity Status is charging the client more money than necessary).
Annuity Status “Misgenders” the term “Structured Setttlement Broker”
Some companies in the secondary market “misgender” structured settlement terms. See my May 13, 2021 post It’s Thursday and J G Wentworth/Peachtree Go Fluid as a “Structured Settlement Broker”, and May 19, 2021 post Peachtree Targets Dreamers With “Trojan Horse” Value Proposition.
Check credentials to see if you are dealing with a legitimate structured settlement consultant
- Certified Structured Settlement Consultant (verify through NSSTA)
- Master Structured Settlement Consultant (verify through NSSTA)
- Registered Settlement Planner (verify through Society of Settlement Planners)
Verify membership in the National Structured Settlements Trade Association, Society of Settlement Planners and/or American Association of Settlement Consultants in addition to other qualifications.