"Cash Now" It's Financial Crack Dude!
"Cash Now Pushers" are specialty finance or factoring companies, or pay per post bloggers who stimulate gullible young adults, seniors and injured people with structured settlements
to sell their rights to them for deep discounts in a way that appears to be less than forthright using the term "cash now" or a derivative. Some promise "cash now", "all of your cash now", all of your money now", "money now", "cash today" and/or "cash instantly" for your structured settlements.
"Cash Now" is a blatant false advertising "honey trap" since the transactions these companies are peddling may actually take MONTHS. On January 13, 2009, the Legal Broadcast Network posted this video in which Earl Nesbitt, the Executive Director of the National Association of Settlements Purchasers (NASP) was asked "So It's Not Exactly CASH NOW?", to which Nesbitt chuckled "It's Certainly Not! You're not Going To Get a Money Gram The Next Day!"
As to the cash now pushers, based on overwhelming evidence, it simply can't be explained away as an honest mistake. A complete audit of these companies' transactions with consumers over many years to determine the length of time from contact to cash would prove the falsity of their "cash now" inducements.
In April 2009 Structured Settlements 4Real exposed the story of a CT woman, who started her partial structured settlement factoring deal in October 2008 with Bentzen Funding Solutions and didn't get paid until late April 2009. It turns out Bentzen funds structured settlement factoring transactions through "cash now pusher" Structured Asset Funding (SAF). The owners of SAF own Bentzen Funding Solutions, according to the Florida Secretary of State public records. Apparently when the rubber hit the road neither SAF nor Bentzen could get the funding. Eventually after the annuitant sought counsel and public pressure through blog postings was put on SAF/Bentzen they eventually paid. SAF advertises "fast cash now". Adding insult to this unfortunate situation was that the woman was referred to Bentzen by a structured settlement broker who placed the woman into the structured settlement less than 2 months prior to initiating the structured settlement transfer.
This author believes an initiative to amend structured settlement protection acts to require factoring companies to post sufficient reserves to cover the deal being petitioned for prior to seeking Court approval of a structured settlement factoring transaction, is sorely needed.
Your children, young adults, seniors and the seriously injured and vulnerable, need consumer protection!
"Cash Now" Pushers (current and past as of August 24, 2009)
List compiled from Internet search results, views of company web sites and television ads
Many of these companies offer multiple product lines such as pre-settlement advances to tort victims, loan money to attorneys and make large donations to trial lawyer associations, thus blurring the lines of "what is and should never be" (nod to Led Zeppelin).
Any individual or company on the cash now pusher list who ceases advertising that they, or those that they are paid to write about can deliver "cash now", "fast cash now", "money now" "cash today" for structured settlements will be removed from this list provided written evidence is supplied to this author.
Since this list has posted 3 companies have been deleted from the list by changing their tune.
It is agreed that "cash now" is a marketing practice in the FACTORING industry, inspired by JG Wentworth and aped by a number of others listed above. There is a big difference between a person needing "cash now" and the factoring company's ability to deliver it. When Peachtree Settlement Funding advertised it could give you "all of your money" now it was absolute fraud. Just because everyone's doing it, or that nobody is enforcing FTC rules doesn't make it right. The fact that people have to explain that now means something other than what it literally means underscores the scienter.
Only 25 years ago life insurance agents were calling whole life policies a savings plan, or "insured savings plan" without mentioning that they were selling life insurance. That practice has ceased for the most part.
Other insurance agents were calling variable annuities mutual funds until that practice got "s^&t-canned by regulators and lawsuits.
What It is, IS WHAT IT IS Brother! If a company cannot sell its wares without the snake oil then what does that say about the integrity of that company?
Posted by: structuredsettlements | January 27, 2009 at 08:41 PM
This is common Jargon and marketing practice used in the industry and I dont see anything deceptive in the wording. The terminology "cash now" is simply used to express the prosess of exchanging future payments for a lump sum of cash sooner. Many people may not realize that it is a court approved transaction and there is alot of paperwork that must be completed before the insurance company will transfer the payments. Some company's will offer cash advances once the paperwork is completed so that term is not really inaccurate depending on how you interpret it in my opinion
Posted by: Anonymous | January 27, 2009 at 08:01 PM