by Structured Settlement Watchdog
Factoring Company deliberately targeted structured settlement annuitants of AIG* and Pacific Life
According to a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) legal Exhibit, the Access Funding Sales Training Manual suggests that Access Funding was formally targeting structured settlement annuitants of AIG* , Pacific Life and “any other insurance company that needs servicing”
What is Structured Settlement Servicing?
Structured settlement servicing, or structured settlement payment servicing is needed where the an 
annuitant wants to sell only part of a lump sum payment or stream of payments and the annuity issuer does not wish to split the payments between the buyer (as to the purchased payments) and the annuitant (as to the remaining unsold payments).
Companies such as Happy State Bank (a/k/a Goldstar Trust) and Security Title and SuttonPark** are some of the better known independent servicers in the space.
Factoring Companies Have Used Servicing to Take Advantage of Structured Settlement Annuitants
According to Access Funding’s training manual “you essentially have the ability to hold that annuitant’s annuity policy hostage. It is much harder for the annuitant to shop around because when a competitor requests a benefit’s (sic) letter it would show that the annuitant’s payments have been sold. Even if a competitor does find out that Access Funding is servicing the payments, they will still need to go through the servicer to do that.
The claim in the Access Funding training manual was a steaming pot of poo poo stew, revealing a laughable ignorance about annuity policy ownership in structured settlements. Here’s the twist: even if a structured settlement factoring transaction happens, the annuitant doesn’t own the policy, can’t sell it, and Access Funding can’t swoop in like cartoon villains to snatch the annuitant’s policy under the cover of darkness—or, as they melodramatically phrase it, “hold the annuitant’s policy hostage” in some imaginary basement lair.
Access Funding Sought to “Hinder the Annuitant’s Ability to Shop Around”
Access Funding said it is huge, from a remarketing standpoint. Loyalty is low throughout the industry, so any advantage over the competition is HUGE. Anything they can do to significantly hinder the annuitant’s ability to shop around on remarkets will lead to less competition and higher spreads. Do not sleep on this and price the deals accordingly”.
Access Funding Bitched About MetLife’s Approach to Structured Settlement Transfers
“Some of you look at MetLife’s policy of having to purchase the entire payments as a hurdle. Turn lemons into lemonade and look at it as an opportunity to do bigger deals. Do you think that a MetLife policy is going to prevent some poor annuitant from selling payments? Of course not! They are just going to be forced to do a bigger deal” said Access in its training manual.
Access Funding Sought to Exploit John Hancock Annuitants
“John Hancock policies almost always come with a COLA. This was significant for Access to point out to its employees because this allows you to sign higher spreads because the average annuitant doesn’t appreciate the value of COLA’s (sic). Remember they are shortsighted”
CONSUMER FINANCIAL
PROTECTION BUREAU,
Plaintiff,
v.
ACCESS FUNDING, LLC,
ACCESS HOLDING, LLC,
RELIANCE FUNDING, LLC,
LEE JUNDANIAN,
RAFFI BOGHOSIAN,
MICHAEL BORKOWSKI, and
CHARLES SMITH,
Defendant
Source: IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF MARYLAND Case No. 1-16-cv-03759-ELH Document 108-4 Filed 5/24/2019
**By mid-2024 SuttonPark had turned into a nightmare for those forced into payment servicing agreements with it and a full blown humanitarian crisis by November 2024. See my Structured Settlement Watchdog commentary Structured Settlements 4Real® Blog: Structured Settlements | Settlement Planning News and John Darer Reviews: SuttonPark Nightmare
*the subject annuity issuers, were spun off from AIG that was finalized in 2022 with AIG LIfe & Retirement Divison rebranded as Corebridge Financial
Last updated August 9, 2025