Structured Settlements 4Real®Blog 2026

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Already criticized by the Hon. Judge Duck, Monteverde Equity Partners now finds itself back as the Halloween bench convenes. Judge Duck issues a seasonal warning: Don’t let these goblins gobble up your structured settlement payments.

Key Facts

Monteverde Equity Partners, a structured settlement factoring company already criticized for targeting a 17‑year‑old and for submitting materially flawed “comparable annuity quotes” in a prior New York transfer petition in Saratoga County, now presents a “Carriers & Institutions” page on its website that contains systemic issuer‑identification errors. The company recently filed a petition in Bronx County Supreme Court — Monteverde Equity Partners, LLC v. Pacific Life and Annuity Services, Inc. et al (filed June 8, 2026). UniCourt records confirm the filing: Monteverde Equity Partners, LLC v. Pacific Life and Annuity Services, Inc. et al.

The Carriers & Institutions page lists 34 entities under the heading “Structured Settlement & Annuity Issuers.” For emphasis and clarity, the Carriers & Institutions page’s “Structured Settlement & Annuity Issuers” list is the section under review.

A comparison against three freely accessible public resources — the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) Insurance Company Search, New York Insurance Law §1113(a), and the Life Insurance Council of New York (LICONY) member directory — shows that a substantial majority of those 34 entries contain at least one material inaccuracy.

These resources require no subscription, no login, and no specialized knowledge to use.

The Three Free Public Resources

1. The NY DFS Insurance Company Search The DFS portal allows any user to search every insurer licensed to do business in New York by name, NAIC number, group code, or line of business. It returns exact legal names and the specific “Writing Powers” — the lines of business (keyed to §1113(a) paragraph numbers) each carrier is authorized to write. DFS PortalDFS Portal. Insurance Company Search – Guest Applications – DFS Portal It is updated continuously.

2. New York Insurance Law §1113(a) This is the foundational statutory framework for licensed insurance in New York. Paragraph (1) defines “Life Insurance.” Paragraph (2) defines “Annuities” as “all agreements to make periodical payments for a period certain or where the making or continuance of all or some of a series of such payments, or the amount of any such payment, depends upon the continuance of human life.” NewYork.Public.LawNewYork.Public.Law. N.Y. Insurance Law Section 1113 – Kinds of insurance authorized (2026) Critically, the DFS writing-powers table appended to the statute contains explicit statutory bars: for paragraphs 1 (Life) and 2 (Annuities), the table states: “Property and Casualty companies are not permitted to write this kind of insurance.” Department of Financial ServicesDepartment of Financial Services. Insurance Companies: Insurance Company Search | Department of Financial Services This is not an obscure regulatory opinion — it is printed directly on the DFS website.

3. The LICONY Domestic Member List The Life Insurance Council of New York publishes a free public directory of its 53 domestic and 21 foreign member companies — the companies that collectively provide the vast majority of annuities and life insurance to New Yorkers. Life Insurance Council of New YorkLife Insurance Council of New York. Members – Life Insurance Council of New York The list is sorted alphabetically, includes exact legal names, and links to each company’s website. It is the fastest single-stop verification tool for confirming whether a named entity is actually a NY-licensed life/annuity issuer.

Error Category 1: Property & Casualty Carriers Listed as Annuity Issuers (9 Entities)

This is the most fundamental class of error. §1113(a) and the DFS writing-powers table are unambiguous: P&C carriers cannot issue annuities in New York. Yet Monteverde’s page lists nine P&C carriers as entities for which they “successfully process” structured settlement transfers:

In each case where there is a correct affiliated life/annuity entity (Amica Life, State Farm Life & Accident), Monteverde lists the wrong company in the same family — the brand name that people recognize, not the licensed insurer.

The Hartford situation is particularly illustrative: three separate Hartford entities appear on the page (CEBSCO, Insurance Company of the Midwest, and Hartford Underwriters), and none of them is the Hartford entity that actually issued structured settlement annuities — which would be Hartford Life Insurance Company or Hartford Life and Accident Insurance Company. Neither of those appears on the list at all.

Error Category 2: Assignment Companies and SPEs Listed as Issuers (15 Entities)

More than half the entries on Monteverde’s page — 15 of 34 — are not annuity issuers. They are qualified assignment companies (QACs) or special purpose entities (SPEs): the intermediary shells used in IRC §130 qualified assignments to hold periodic payment obligations. The QAC assumes the obligation from the settling defendant or liability carrier; the backing life insurance company writes the annuity that funds those payments. Listing a QAC as an “annuity issuer” confuses the assignment obligor with the underwriting insurer — a foundational distinction in structured settlement law.

(✓ = LICONY member or associate member) Life Insurance Council of New YorkLife Insurance Council of New York. Member Companies – Life Insurance Council of New York

A simple DFS search for any of these QAC names would return either no results or a result showing no writing powers — because QACs are not licensed insurers. The LICONY list would immediately surface the correct parent issuer.

Error Category 3: Incorrect or Imprecise Legal Names (8 Entities)

Even among the legitimate life/annuity issuers on the list, several are named incorrectly in ways that would be consequential if these names appeared in court petitions or disclosure statements:

“Berkshire Hathaway (BHG Structured Settlement)” — Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is a holding company, not a licensed insurer. The relevant entities are Berkshire Hathaway Life Insurance Company of Nebraska or General Re Life Corporation. “BHG Structured Settlement” is not a licensed insurer name.

“Metropolitan Life (MetLife Tower Resources)” — The licensed insurer is Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. “MetLife Tower Resources” was an internal program name, not a legal entity, and does not appear in the DFS licensing database. MetLife Tower Resource Group, Inc. is the qualified assignment company where structured settlement annuities are issued by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.

“New York Life Insurance” — Missing the word “Company.” The licensed entity is New York Life Insurance Company. For annuity-specific transactions, the relevant subsidiary New York Life Insurance and Annuity Corporation.is the qualified assignment company.

“Pacific Life & Annuity” — The NY-authorized subsidiary is Pacific Life and Annuity Company. The irony: Monteverde Equity Partners has a pending Supreme Court case against Pacific Life and Annuity Services, Inc. — a servicing entity — and yet uses an abbreviated form of Pacific Life’s name on their own website. Source: UniCourt. Monteverde Equity Partners, LLC v Pacific Life and Annuity Services, Inc et al

“United States Life Insurance Company” — The correct full legal name, as listed by LICONY, is United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York (part of Corebridge Financial). Dropping the jurisdictional suffix creates ambiguity with parent entities organized in other states. Life Insurance Council of New YorkLife Insurance Council of New York. Member Companies – Life Insurance Council of New York

“Talcott Resolution Life and Annuity Insurance” — Missing the word “Company” at the end. The correct name is Talcott Resolution Life and Annuity Insurance Company (formerly Hartford Life and Annuity Insurance Company).

“Wilton/Everlake (Formerly Allstate)” — This conflates two distinct regulatory histories. Wilton Re assumed the former Allstate Life Insurance Company of New York block; the resulting entity rebranded as Everlake Life Insurance Company. These are sequential legal successor entities with separate DFS filings — not a unified “Wilton/Everlake.”

“Jamestown Life Insurance Company” — No entity by this name appears to be currently or historically licensed as a New York insurer in the DFS database or on the LICONY member list. It is unclear what entity this is intended to reference.

Error Category 4: Stale or Defunct Entities Presented as Active (2 Entities)

Guaranty Association Benefits Company (GABC) was a special-purpose entity created to assume the obligations of the failed Executive Life Insurance Company of New York (ELNY) following its 1991 insolvency. As of July 1, 2026, Pacific Life assumed GABC’s remaining annuity obligations. Listing GABC as a current operational carrier at the time this analysis is written (October 2026) means the entry is factually outdated by over three months. catalinastructuredfunding.comcatalinastructuredfunding.com. Structured Settlement Annuity Companies: Full Issuer List | Catalina

Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company — beyond the §1113(a) disqualification noted above, Allianz wound down Fireman’s Fund’s U.S. operations beginning in 2014. It is not writing new business and has not been for over a decade.

Why This Matters Beyond the Website

The Carriers & Institutions page describes itself as a showcase of entities for which Monteverde “successfully processes” transfers. If the entity names displayed publicly are inaccurate, the same inaccuracies plausibly carry forward into:

• Disclosure statements filed with transferors under the New York Structured Settlement Protection Act (SSPA), which require identification of the annuity issuer
• Court petitions seeking judicial approval of transfers, where the court and opposing parties rely on accurate issuer identification to evaluate the transaction
• Contact and verification with the actual annuity servicer or obligor — a process that breaks down when the entity name used doesn’t match the licensed insurer’s name in the insurer’s own records

The pending matter in Bronx County — where Monteverde sued Pacific Life and Annuity Services, Inc. (a servicing company) alongside Pacific Life and Company (the parent holding company) — raises its own questions about whether the correct licensed NY subsidiary was properly identified in those filings. UniCourtUniCourt. Monteverde Equity Partners, LLC v Pacific Life and Annuity Services, Inc et al

What a Proper Methodology Looks Like

A factoring company operating in this space should, at minimum, do the following before listing any entity as an issuer:

1. DFS Name Search → confirm the exact legal name and domicile state of the licensed insurer
2. DFS Writing Powers → confirm the insurer holds paragraph 2 (Annuities) authority in New York; confirm it is not exclusively a P&C carrier
3. LICONY Cross-Check → confirm membership/association status for NY-market issuers; note the correct domestic NY subsidiary vs. out-of-state parent
4. QAC vs. Issuer Distinction → if a named entity ends in “Assignment Corporation,” “Settlement Service,” “Assignment Company,” or similar, search for the backing life insurer, not the QAC itself
5. Currency Check → confirm the entity is still licensed and writing business (or at minimum, that its legacy obligations have not been transferred to a successor)

Three public websites. No cost. No specialized access. The DFS database alone would have eliminated virtually every error in every category above.

Sources: New York DFS Insurance Company Search (dfs.ny.gov); New York Insurance Law §1113(a) (justia.com) LICONY Member Companies list (licony.org); Monteverde Equity Partners Carriers & Institutions page (mv-equity.com/carriers-and-institutions); UniCourt case record, Monteverde Equity Partners LLC v. Pacific Life and Annuity Services, Inc. et al, Bronx County Supreme Court No. filed 06/08/2026.