by Structured Settlement Watchdog
Understanding the risks of selling structured settlements involves exposing a factoring company’s deceptive “Statue of Liberty play,” which disguises a pennies-on-the-dollar offer as a lucrative “Summertime Jackpot,” and reframing this narrative to reveal its true implications.
You are have the freedom to trade your structured settlement for a pile of pennies, if a judge approves, but it isn’t a jackpot.
Anyone who has seen the National Treasure movie series may remember the clue “Laboulaye Lady” in the sequel.
Édouard René Lefèbvre de Laboulaye (18 January 1811 – 25 May 1883) was a French jurist, poet, author, and anti-slavery activist. In 1865, he came up with the idea of a monument from the French people to the United States, which eventually became the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. He believed this gesture would help strengthen the bond between the two nations.
The Statue of Liberty was sculpted by Frederic Auguste Bartoldi and dedicated on October 28, 1886.
A Florida factoring company on June 1, 2023 posted to Instagram ad featuring a “Pop Art” rendition of Lady Liberty that serves to hoist it on its own petard.
A member of the National Association of Settlement Purchasers (NASP) has made inflated, exaggerated claims while soliciting structured settlement annuitants, mischaracterizing pennies on the dollar as:
- a “Summertime Jackpot”
- a “Sizzling Lump Sum of Cash”
- to “cash in those payments and make your dreams shine brighter than the summer sun”.
NASP Member’s Instagram on date of posting
“June 1st marks the beginning of sunny days and unlimited possibilities! Let ________Settlement Funding turn your structured settlement into a summertime jackpot! Cash in those payments and make your dreams shine brighter than the summer sun!” (the image accompanying the Florida company ad includes “sizzling lump sum of cash”)
The important lesson
An important lesson for anyone pondering such a value proposition can be found in the poignant lyrics scribed by the great Pete Townshend of the British rock group The Who from to the song I’m Free in the rock opera “Tommy”, just months before men landed on The Moon. I’ve summed it up for you here.
What is a Jackpot?
A jackpot is “a large cash prize in a game or lottery, especially one that accumulates until it is won”.
- Selling a structured settlement is not a game.
- Selling a structured settlement is not a lottery.
- You, or someone who loved you, suffered a physical injury loss or died
- Selling your structured settlement is not “won”.
Selling a Structured Settlement? Get the 411 on Cash Now. Don’t be a Victim