by John Darer CLU ChFC MSSC CeFT RSP CLTC
The structured settlement factoring industry and its surrogates generate an enormous amount of content about areas of structured settlements that are not a part of their business.
Unsurprisingly there is a lot of content generated by the structured settlement factoring industry that is inaccurate and should not be relied upon by consumers.
For example, here is something that purports to be giving advice about about the taxation of non qualified structured settlements and how parties should document settlement agreements on the Peachtree website.
Peachtree Content Connects The Wrong Dots, Inaccurately Suggests that Taxation of Employment and Property Damage Settlements is Treated the same
“For non-qualified structured settlements (such as those arising from employment disputes or property damage claims), the tax treatment is different:
- The portion of each payment representing the return of principal is tax-free.
- Any portion representing interest or earnings is taxable as ordinary income.
In these cases, the settlement agreement should specify how much of each payment is considered interest for tax purposes.” Do Structured Settloements Earn Interest retrieved October 21, 2024
If I had to make an educated guess, the Peachtree content purporting to be about non qualified structured settlements was AI generated, because a subject matter expert can see that the content has been randomly plucked. I can’t imagine any individual responsible for fact checking the Peachtree content before publishing, who actually knew what they were writing about, allowing the errant content connecting the wrong dots to be published. Surely Peachtree can stick to what they know best.
One nagging question for Peachtree’s fact checker? Explain “return of principal” in an employment dispute structured settlement. And I’m not talking about Principal Joe Carter in the movie “Lean On Me” with actor Morgan Freeman.