Structured Settlements 4Real®Blog 2026
Structured settlements expert John Darer reviews the latest structured settlements and settlement planning information and news, and provides expert opinion and highly regarded commentary. that is spicy, Informative, irreverent and effective for over 20 years.
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Category: Rated Ages in Structured Settlements
Rated ages in structured settlements play a key role in pricing life-contingent annuity payments. These lifetime payments can include life-contingent lump sums, a life-contingent tail to a period certain, structured settlement payment streams, and straight life-only payments. A rated age is set higher than a person’s actual age and is only assigned when the underwriter at the issuing life insurance company determines the individual has a shorter-than-normal life expectancy. When this is the case the rated age can be used. A person with a natural age of 40 and a rated age of 50 can be priced as if they were in fact 50 years old. This should cost less than a lifetime annuity for a 40 year old. The insurer absorbs the risk if the person acyually lives longer than a 50 year old would.
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At 4structures.com, LLC we like to keep our clients: (1) alive; and (2) to live as long and productive lives as possible. If during the settlement planning process, we get a rated age from a structured settlement annuity issuer, clients may benefit from a reduced cost solution for the future benefits.
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Rated age requests flooding structured annuity underwriting departments without legitimate intent for business to follow (on the rated age lives) is a blood gorged clot, impacting the structured settlement service artery and affecting everyone’s ability to service business in the structured settlement industry
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In April 2009 Liberty Life Assurance Company of Boston introduced its Concierge Underwriting Program. This new program allows for underwriting on any case that you submit for a rated age, regardless of carrier. To qualify for Concierge Underwriting, a broker must place $500,000 in non-Liberty Mutual Group premium with Liberty Lifeper quarter, and Liberty Life Assurance…
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Structured attorney fees, properly designed, can save and defer taxes for the attorney or law firm. The savings can be significant due to deferring the taxation on the principal and on the accrued but unpaid interest. Neither the principal nor the interest earned on the principal are taxed as ordinary income until the year payments…
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Rated ages will vary based on the opinion of each annuity issuer’s medical underwriter after a review of medical records. Records related to the claims in the law suit as well as other unrelated factors may be considered. A rated age may or may not make a difference in the pricing of a structured settlement.
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A rated age is an important component of a structured settlement pricing when there are life contingent payments
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Allstate Life discontinued medical underwriting for both qualified and non-qualified structured settlement business as of March 31, 2009. Allstate’s decision to no longer issue rated ages is acost cutting measure, said to be due to high underwriting volumes and low placement rates.
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Annuity Issuers Addressing Longevity Risk as Research Concludes People Are Living Longer. If insurers guess wrong on insureds or a lot of people or advances in medicine mean significant blocks are going to exceed expectations then there is a bigger drag on surplus. How they manage that is important.
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The use of structured settlement daily rate pricing may be just the thing that bridges the gap between in negotiations over a hotly disputed item of damages. In another application it may be used to enhance the value of a policy limits offer where the defendant has limited coverage and no assets.
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Rated age refers to an alternate age, determined by the insurer’s underwriter that can be used to price a structured settlement annuity payable for life, instead of the actual age. A rated age serves to reduce the cost of a lifetime payout,or buy more yield on a life contingent annuity for a fixed cost