by John D. Darer CLU ChFC CSSC RSP
The Nassau County Supreme Court Mineola, New York courtroom of Justice John Galasso, has heard testimony on the pending motion for liquidation of ELNY and approval of the related Restructuring Agreement proposed by the new York Superintendent of Financial Services. The proposed Restructuring Agreement affects a number of structured settlement payees whose structured settlements were set up prior to the collapse of Executive Life Insurance Company of New York in 1991.
Unfortunately some ELNY structured settlement payees are expected to have shortfalls in their annuity benefits, originating from insurance products that were permitted to be sold 23-30 years ago by insurance regulators, that were sold by licensed insurance agents to yield hungry clients, bearing the over optimistic assumption that the high interest rates in effect in the early to mid 1980s would extend for the life of the contracts and failed to account for reinvestment risk. The New York Liquidation Bureau has been heavily criticized by third parties for its role in the current crisis.
Some of those structured settlement annuitants testified yesterday with compelling stories similar to what we have been covering in our Executive Life of New York Liquidation Diaries. One of the ELNY structured settlement annuitants is a California Appellate judge, according to my industry colleague and fellow blogger Patrick Hindert, who is believed to be attending the hearings.
The hearing continues today March 19th in Judge Galasso's courtroom.
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