What happens when a young person, say in their early 20s, suddenly receives more money than they could ever imagine? Most likely, they'll spend it until there is nothing left. That's what happened to former NFL player Clinton Portis.
Details are important when it comes to structured settlements. So is timing. Counting down, here is the top 10 list of things to remember when creating a structure – for your client or for your legal fees.
Some injured parties may be hesitant to agree to a long-term structured settlement because of the current relatively low yields of the structure’s underlying investments. They may worry that by locking in yields of around 2.63 percent for 10, 20, 30 years or longer, they will not be able to take advantage of higher interest rates in the future.
Bloomberg.com recently told of the plight of Alicia Munnell, a Harvard Ph.D., former member of the president’s Council of Economic Advisors and two-decade veteran of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Munnell, now age 72, made a series of poor financial decisions that has her wondering if she’ll have enough money to live on when she eventually retires. A recent article on Bloomberg.com recently told of the plight of Alicia Munnell, a Harvard Ph.D., former member of the president’s Council of Economic Advisors and two-decade veteran of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Munnell, now age 72, made a series of poor financial decisions that has her wondering if she’ll have enough money to live on when she eventually retires. Her biggest mistake was to pull from her retirement savings to pay for things she wanted now.
Counting down, here is the top 10 list of things to remember when creating a structure.
Structured settlements as we know them today came about in 1982 when the U.S. Congress passed The Periodic Payment Settlement Act of 1982 (Public Law 97-473). The act enables injury victims to obtain customized structured cash payments plans through insurance annuities that assure them guaranteed, tax-free income over time.
While I don’t usually ever recommend selling structured settlement annuity payments, there may be very rare cases where there is no other choice. The factoring horror stories mention in the WSJ article took place in Virginia and Florida.
In March 2014--a little over a year ago--a demographic milestone was reached in California. For the first time, Latinos made up California's largest racial/ethnic group--nudging out the white non-Hispanic population 39 percent to 38.8 percent. According to the Pew Research Center, 33 percent of Hispanics in the U.S. say they do not speak English well.
Structured settlements have helped injured individuals and their families obtain financial security even in the face of lifelong medical challenges. According to the National Structured Settlement Association, more than 25,000 such arrangements are drawn up every year.
Prudential recently shared videos of individuals who have experienced traumatic injury—either to themselves or to family members. They show how structured settlements made a difference in their lives. The videos were produced by Prudential with the help of the Structured Solutions Leadership Council
