Unlike any other financial marketplace in the United States, the structured settlement secondary market segment is not subject to licensing and many companies paying cash now for structured settlement payments are soliciting business from citizens of states where they are not even registered to do business.
To compound that, some of these structured settlement factoring companies and their agents are inducing people to commit fraud on the courts, so the factoring companies can make massive profits at the expense of their victims. Some structured settlement secondary market companies have even committing fraud themselves.
Public records show that people with felony records and bans from other financial regulatory organizations participate and/or have participated in the structured settlements secondary market. Unfortunately a huge gap in regulation fails to protect how consumers and investors can be solicited. What regulation there is, is not consistently effective enough and weaknesses are exploited to the detriment of American consumers. As things stand in March 2020, with the exception of Maryland and its ambitious Attorney General Brian Frosh and Louisiana which recently required structured settlement purchaser registration, there is inexplicably, no regulatory body that consumers, investors in structured settlement payment rights, or participants in the structured settlements secondary market can easily turn to if they wish to address questionable business conduct by companies in the structured settlement secondary market.
So the Structured Settlement Watchdog® writes/barks about it. With respect to raising awareness, the blog Structured Settlements 4Real® is a success, and is ranked among with top websites in the structured settlement industry. Read some of our testimonials.
- Help root out and correct inaccuracy in social media and other online media related to structured settlements
- Help curtail the ongoing wholly misleading and fraudulent practice of misrepresentation to investors of factored structured settlement payment rights as "annuities", secondary market annuities", or through snappy but misleading acronyms such as SMA, SMAP, and SMIA and bogus claims like "unparalleled financial safety", by salespeople and their companies, including some settlement planners and financial planners who have insurance or securities licenses who should know better In 2017, in the matter of Greenwald v Caballero-Goehringer M.D. et al, a Delaware judge dismissed an attempt to portray a Genex Capital Receivables Purchase Agreement as a structured settlement annuity in a medical malpractice case involving a minor. In December 2018, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners implicitly stated in Statutory Issue Paper 160, that factored structured settlement payments are neither an annuity or an insurance product. The author of what is widely regarded as the seminal industry text wrote in September 2020 that these are neither annuities nor structured settlements.
- Help curtail the bogus insinuation by merchants of factored structured settlement payment streams that investors in such derivatives of structured settlements enjoy the same statutory protections as buyers and/or payees of legitimate annuities. The Life & Health Guaranty Associations Model Act, adopted so far by 15 states, expressly excludes such investments from state insurance guaranty fund protection
- Encourage the disclosure of transaction risk that has been absent in the sales materials of many of these salespeople. The documented case history can not be written off.
- Root out and expose misrepresentation and fraud in the structured settlement secondary market
- Expose the use of fake testimonials by members of the structured settlement secondary market
- Encourage potential informants and other commentators who expose, or help to expose bad business practices, with the goal to improve the greater structured settlement industry
- Encourage individuals (ether annuitants, brokers or structured settlement factoring insiders) with knowledge of bad practices, to come forward to provide information that will lead, if applicable, to the criminal prosecution of the most serious offenders whether in the United States, or elsewhere. An international structured settlement ''neighborhood watch" if you will
- Encourage the establishment and maintenance of higher standards for Independent Professional Advice (Structured Settlement IPA) under state structured settlement protection acts.
- Seek resolution for structured settlement annuitants and help preserve the integrity of the industry by reporting instances where a structured settlement protection act's "best interest standard" has been inadequately enforced
- Encourage legislators to establish critical licensing and/or registration and oversight for the structured settlements secondary market, so that individuals with criminal records are not allowed to be put in positions of trust involving money consistent with securities and insurance regulations
- As a deterrent to abuse, encourage the universal adoption of a law, similar to that in effect in California, that requires the attorney of record to be notified if a structured settlement annuitant is selling structured settlement payments within 5 years of establishment of the structured settlement.
GIVE STRUCTURED SETTLEMENT CONSUMERS A VOICE IN THE ABSENCE OF a regulaTOR
Legitimate stories need to be heard
RAISE AND MAINTAIN AWARENESS OF BAD BUSINESS PRACTICES
Critical topics need to be addressed: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
CLEAR THE PATH FOR LEGITIMATE STRUCTURED SETTLEMENT INFORMATION
via critical commentary/education
WHY IS THERE A STRUCTURED SETTLEMENT WATCHDOG?
PRO BONO MISSION OF THE WATCHDOG
STRUCTURED SETTLEMENT WATCHDOG®
Who is the structured settlement watchdog?
Structured Settlement Watchdog® John Darer®, is an experienced AM Best Recommended Structured Settlement Expert, Master Structured Settlement Consultant, Certified Financial Transitionist and Registered Settlement Planner who has voluntarily served as the industry watchdog since 2005 when he created the Structured Settlements 4Real® blog, a leading source of structured settlement information and news and expert opinion, including settlement planning issues/ ideas and alternative deferred payment solutions. John Darer's Structured Settlement Watchdog® commentary exposes bad business conduct in the structured settlement secondary market, provides relevant information that may be helpful to attorneys, plaintiffs, defendants, claims adjusters, judges, investigative reporters in local and national news media, sellers and buyers of structured settlement payment rights, law makers, law enforcement, attorneys general, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the FTC, consumer and disability advocate groups and interested others. The content is informative, irreverent and effective with over 1 million page views.