by Structured Settlement Watchdog
I continue to question the legitimacy of merchants of structured settlement derivatives using the term annuity to describe a product which is not an annuity.
Such merchants include, but are not limited to:
- Genex Capital, out of Vancouver and a UPS store mailbox in Dover Delaware
- SMA Hub, out of Oregon. Recently SMA Hub has started to use the term "secondary market annuity derivative", which still isn't legitimate because it is actually not a derivative of a secondary market annuity, since a secondary market annuity is not an annuity. What SMA hub and all these users of a scam label are referring to is a structured settlement derivative, or factored structured settlement payment rights.
- Annuity Straight Talk and various entities and websites associated with Nathaniel Pulsipher.
The Genex Capital usage has an interesting wrinkle. That AIG has a registered trademark that includes the terms Assured and Annuity. That registration 3722046, was effective December 8, 2009, with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, about 4 years before Genex Capital "stepped on a duck" by famously announcing a partnership with itself. The VALIC registration had multiple claims for prior art in support.
Genex Capital, which has no pending trademark application with the USPTO uses Assured Annuity to compete with AIG's legitimate annuity product (see second chart below), which are underwritten through Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company (a/k/a VALIC"). VALIC's Assured annuity product bearing the registered trade mark is available for sale where approved by the relevant state insurance regulator and only sold through licensed and appointed brokers or agents. The same goes for the third trademarked legitimate annuity that is registered to Delaware Life.
Genex Capital posts this comparison on assuredannuity(dot)com using rates from January 30, 2017. Given that rates of return on legitimate annuities have risen between January 30, 2017 and September 29, 2018, and that rising interest rates negatively impact structured settlement derivatives. Genex Capital would be making a far more fair rate comparison if it used current rates. What Genex Capital is offering to investment is not an insurance product, is not an annuity. Genex Capital is not regulated by any state insurance department in the United States and despite what Genex may represent as no record of anyone not receiving payments, investing in the product subjects investors to transactional risks not associated with legitimate annuities.
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