by Structured Settlement Watchdog®
The term Settlement Exchange falsely implies a regulated marketplace. Settlement exchange is nothing like a stock exchange, which IS highly regulated. There is no federal or state supervision of a so called "settlement exchange". Structured settlement sellers or structured settlement investors should therefore not be confused.
Some examples of the websites and/or entities being marketed as settlement exchanges or structured settlement exchanges:
- Income Stream Exchange, started by T Allen Dyer (a/k/a Todd Dyer, a felon who served jail time for various financial crimes. including fraud and was recently indicted by a Wisconsin Grand Jury for more alleged crimes. After scathing news appeared about him in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and reported by me here, Dyer emailed me to tell me that he no longer has an interest in the website (being marketed as an exchange, an unregulated exchange)
- Structured Settlement Exchange Corporation (sell-a-structured-settlement.net) Orlando, FL virtual office that also houses a private investigator, appliance repair, Daytona, Boca, Tampa and Jacksonville bodyguard services, ASHRM vendors directory, all have same address and suite number. Indeed the whois record for this unregulated "structured settlement exchange" says it is owned by All Pro Legal Investigations PA. The corporate registration in the name of Donna Smith at the same address. Only established March 17, 2015 according to the Florida Secretary of State filing.
- SSQ-Genex Capital, website states that it is a "structured settlement exchange company" and that it is a "structured settlement and annuity exchange". Between May 2012 and June 2015, Genex Capital concealed its ownership and control of SSQ and Genex Capital management even went so far as to deny in writing its involvement in SSQ. Woodbridge Structured Funding sued Genex Capital in 2014. In its amended complaint against Genex Capital , Genex Strategies, Inc, and SSQ, Woodbridge alleged "SSQ is nothing more than a fraudulent and deceptive scheme designed to mislead and deceive consumers and benefit certain companies and persons, and in particular Genex Capital and persons and companies affiliated with Genex Capital". Following the settlement of that lawsuit, Genex Capital disclosed that SSQ was part of the Genex Capital Group and made the same disclosures on similar websites where it had concealed ownership.
- SellSettlements.net [Matthew Lutz Pittsburgh PA -Tarpon Bay Capital] - Lutz's website requires you to enter personal information on a registration form with no contract or terms of service, privacy policy or contact phone number.
- Settlement Exchange.Org [registered anonymously but Settlement Exchange, LLC comes up on the radar of the North Carolina Secretary of State. It is associated with Clarence Dean Kill Devil Hills, NC]. Formed August 25, 2010 and administratively dissolved with an unknown date. The website is still active as is a BBB listing. How the Better Business Bureau of Southeastern Virginia & Northeastern North Carolina gives an accredited rating to a company that has been administratively dissolved is anyone's guess. But then again the Better Business Bureau of Greater Maryland has "set a fine example" with its incompetence with respect to David Springer and Sovereign Funding Group.
With respect to real regulated financial exchanges, a good example is the New York Stock Exchange.
The Securities Exchange Commission is the federal government's oversight agency for regulating securities trading in the United States. The agency not only supervises U.S. financial markets, including Self-regulatory organizations like the New York Stock Exchange, but it also supervises brokerage firms and transfer agents who facilitate securities transactions for buyers and sellers. In addition, the SEC requires publicly owned companies to adhere to policies of full disclosure concerning internal financial matters. - [See more at: http://wiki.fool.com/Who_Regulates_the_New_York_Stock_Exchange%3F#sthash.baSMhqSV.dpuf]
It's bad enough that there is no licensing requirement or regulatory oversight dealing with how consumers and investors are solicited, but to insinuate an structured settlement exchange and what that implies to both investors and consumers is ludicrous.
In 2013, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has this to say about solicitors of structured settlement annuitants to sell their structured settlement payments for a lump sum of cash:
Are you getting regular distributions from a settlement following a personal injury lawsuit? If so, you may be targeted by salespeople offering you a lump sum today to buy the rights to some or all of the payments you would otherwise receive in the future. Retired government employees and retired members of the military are among those being approached with such offers.
Typically the lump sum offered will be less—sometimes much less—than the total of the periodic payments you would otherwise receive.
You will need to think about how to replace the cash flow your pension or structured settlement income provides, especially if you depend on that income stream to pay monthly or other expenses. Furthermore, be aware that some salespeople can be aggressive or persuasive when trying to get you to sell your income stream and, in some cases, there may be outright fraud. - See
One can only speculate why politicians have not regulated this market segment. It is known that there is
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