Annuity Expert Advice by Shawn Plummer is all “Fupped Duck” about structured settlements again, earning the honor of Canard of the Week. One of my goals as Structured Settlement Watchdog is to facilitate a clear path to accurate structured settlement information for consumers. 
In this post John Darer Reviews the latest “Plummer’s Crack”
1. A structured settlement is a financial arrangement in which payments are made to the recipient over time rather than the full amount in a lump sum” says Shawn Plummer Annuity Expert Advice website, retrieved May 14, 2023 for purpose of commentary.
What is “the full amount”?
Let’s apply “Plummer’s Crack” to a lump sum settlement of $1,000,000 after attorney fees. Plummer’s crack is misleading in that it suggests that a cash or structure choice would involve $1,000,000 paid in cash or a series of periodic payments, the sum total of which would be $1,000,000. This completely ignores the amount of tax-free interest that a structured settlement would generate over the time frame that the periodic payments are to be paid.
So, if the “full amount” is defined as the net amount after attorney fees, Plummer is wrong and if the full amount is the cost of future periodic payments, Plummer is also wrong, because the lump sum to needed to pay $1,000,000 in future payments would be less than full amount.
Plummer’s Lack of Understanding of How Structured Settlements Are Established
2. “After the settlement money is negotiated and comes to final terms, the court order will request the funds to be placed into a type of income annuity contract called structured annuities. The annuity is an irrevocable stream of regular payments from an insurance company, which is dictated by the court system”.
- Court Orders are not required in all cases.
- Court Orders are not required in all cases where a structured settlement is being established.
- Court Orders, if applicable, are not “requests”. A Court Order does not say, “Hey, I’d really like you to do this or that”. The Court Order is, like it says, an “order“. Court orders are the means in which decisions or judgments of judicial officers are issued from a court. They can include: an order made after a hearing by a judicial officer, or an order made after parties who have reached their own agreement have applied to a court for Source: Legal Information Institute Cornell Law School.
- An annuity is an insurance product
- An income annuity “contract” {singular) is not called structured annuities (plural)
- The “court system” does not dictate anything. The court system in the United States, at the Federal and State level, is called the judicial branch of Government. “The judicial branches at both levels are responsible for applying and subsequently interpreting the rule of law for underlying cases. The basic principle of the court system in the United States is that there are two sides present in a trial or legal battle. The plaintiff and defendant or parties that represent the opposing sides in the United States Court System will present their arguments before an impartial judge, and in criminal trials, a jury” Source: Understanding the U.S. Court System In A Glance | Court (laws.com)e