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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The STRUCTURED SETTLEMENTS 4REAL® Blog is a highly regarded source for structured settlement news, information, and commentary, led by structured settlement and settlement planning subect mater expert John Darer CLU ChFC MSSC CeFT RSP CLTC. With two decades of operation, the blog and 4structures.com are recognized as comprehensive resources, offering detailed guides and specialized insights. Established in 2005, the blog caters to a broad audience, including legal professionals, injured individuals, families, and various stakeholders, providing reviews and opinions on settlement planning. John Darer, President of 4structures.com LLC, is a seasoned structured settlement expert with over 40 years of financial services experience and 31 years specializing in structured settlements. Based in Stamford, CT, he is a Certified Financial Transitionist and Registered Settlement Planner, holding insurance licenses in 45 states and the District of Columbia. John Darer is dedicated to transparency and advocacy, he emphasizes the importance of engaging trained and licensed professionals for settlement planning, offering valuable insights through his investigative journalism and professional commentary.

Category: US Department of Justice

  • Risk Averse Court Sides With United States on Structured Settlement Issue

      In Continental Casualty et al. v United States of America et al, U.S. District Court (N.D. Cal)  C-02-4891 and C02-5292, the plaintiffs unsuccessfully challenged the structured settlement policy of the United States. The underlying dispute was over whether or not the settlement agreed for the injured party, Ute Sistrunk, included a structured settlement. The…

  • USDOJ Structured Annuity Brokers-DealFlow Media Report Gets It Wrong, AGAIN!

    by John Darer CLU ChFC CSSC The U.S. Department of Justice released its 2008 Calendar-Year List Of Annuity Brokers who "meet the minimum qualifications for providing annuity brokerage services in connection with structured settlements entered into by the United States". Click here for the list of annuity brokers. Click here for the requirements to be…

  • Structured Settlement Brokers and the United States Department of Justice

    Despite advertising they are plaintiff exclusive, some structured settlement brokers have declared under penalty of perjury that they have had substantial experience in each of the past 3 years in providing structured settlement brokerage services to or on behalf of defendants or their counsel.

  • WARNING: Don’t Get Caught “Operating Under The Influence” Of An Absolute!

    What’s wrong is when someone or some entity has used an absolute and THEN it’s revealed that its representative has made another statement, obviously intended to capture business at the expense of others, that is mutually exclusive to the absolute statement (i.e both statements cannot be true). 

  • Horse Riding Without A Saddle?

    The following biography of John T. Bair, CEO of Forge Consulting was distributed to registrants at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Settlement Planners on March 7, 2007. Download john_bair_biography_distributed_at_ssp_meeting_march_7_2007.pdf In the biography, Forge Consulting, LLC is held out as a plaintiff-exclusive settlement adviser firm. Oddly there was no mention of the extensive services…

  • Factoring US Government Owned Structured Annuities: Voluntary Dismissal Ends Woodbridge Effort

    Plaintiff had no legal authority to enter into any agreement that would require the United States to change the payee of the annuity contract.  The federal case law on this point is uniformly in favor of the United States. 

  • Forgie in the Ball With Diamonds

    Rock and roll historians have long debated the "hidden meaning" behind the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. With Forgie* in the Diamond Ball at Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys (MATA) each year one wonders if its members have examined all its facets. I think not. The following mass mailing letter was recently…

  • Cashing Out US Government Owned Structured Settlement Annuity Fails… AGAIN

    Yet another attempt to cash out a structured settlement entered into with the United States government has failed. In the Consent Judgment by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania filed December 17, 2010, for the Interpleader Action of The American International Life Assurance Company of New York v The United States…

  • United States Owned Structured Settlement Annuity Saves The Day in TX for Estate over Ex-Hubby

    Not reviewing and/or updating and confirming the beneficiary designation on your structured settlement can have unintended consequences as I wrote October 30, 2018 in Unintended Consequences Can Result From Not Updating Beneficiary When Life Changes. Pay attention!

  • Cagney and Bracy

    Is Trish Laborde of Stone Street Capital angling to star with me in a modern day version of Dan Ackroyd and Jane Curtin’s popular Point-Counterpoint segment on Saturday Night Live at the next NASP or NSSTA Annual meeting? I’m talking Weekend Update, as in where Ackroyd starts off his counterpoint with and ascerbic “Jane, you…