by Structured Settlement Watchdog
Annuitants Who Do Not Shop Around Do So At Their Own Peril When Selling
I don't know whether or not NJ resident Catherine Moronta shopped around for her pending structured settlement factoring transaction, but she's about to get royally shafted for an estimated hundreds of thousands of dollars in 3 separate deals bearing discount rates of 12.8*, 12.81% and 12%. There are hundreds of thousands in the factoring profit spread, according to our sources. See Park St Closing LLC v Moronta C Case# MID-007817-20.
What Concerns Me...The Factoring Company/ Adviser Connection
A December 15, 2020 letter from Jeffrey Eglow, of Newbridge Securities was submitted December 16, 2020 to Judge Michael Cresitelloin support of the Park St Closing LLC petition. In the letter Eglow represents that he has had "many discussions regarding all aspects of her transaction and my advice, I respectfully request her transfer" (emphasis added). It is evident in my opinion, that either there wasn't any discussion about the market in discount rates for income payments that begin in 2020 on one of the deals and 2021 on another with the third being a deferred transaction, or Eglow was brought to "the dance" by those charging her 12% plus . Selling a structured settlement is a money loser, 100% of the time. Instead of investing x$, with a more competitive discount rate Moronta might have considerably more to invest, or she might not need to sell as much.
In November 2020, Eglow was involved as a financial adviser in a New York petition, with another proposed deal with a fat profit spread filed in Niagara County, E173532/2020 NIagara County Tiger Parrish LLC v Michael Monagan et al. Accompanying that petition were Eglow's projections in Exhibit B that show a linear 12.5% Rate of return, but apparently fail to take into account income taxes and there appeared to be no stochastic analysis (also known as Monte Carlo analysis) that take into account multiple variables.
It was in January 2014 that I first encountered an alignment between a factoring companies and an investment adviser, which happened to Eglow in my initial investigation into the Mr. " A.D." case" . When "Mr. D "contacted me on December 31, 2013, he was under the impression that an individual with the surname Escobar was a representative of Wells Fargo and had even contacted Wells Fargo to speak with Escobar. Worried after being told by Wells Fargo that Escobar didn't work there, he contacted me. I subsequently learned that Escobar actually worked for Client First. Client First CEO Burt Kroner freely referred me to Jeffrey Lewis Eglow, until March 1 2015, a West Palm Beach financial advisor with Wells Fargo, to discuss investment suggestions made to "Mr. A.D" for the proceeds of the sale of all of Mr A.D's $62,000 annual income with guaranteed annual increases of 3%, for life stream from his Allstate structured settlement, that I was questioning. This was enough to support him and his two toddlers, but how was an unemployable man going to do that with the $577,000 proceeds from the ill-advised sale? Furthermore Allstate's Advanced Funding Exchange program would have had a lower discount rate than what Client First charged. During the conversation I had with Eglow he admitted to me, among other things, that the introduction to "Mr. D" came from Client First. This jives with this solicitation letter that Client First used. client-first-sell-structured-settlement-investment-show.pdf (typepad.com) that was essentially a billboard for Eglow and others. There was no doubt in my mind after speaking with Eglow at the time, that he did not adequately understand Mr D's situation. He certainly did not have knowledge of Allstate structured settlements or its AFEN, and it appeared that he did not know that this man was unemployable, the annuity being his primary source of income. Fortunately for Mr A.D. the order was vacated.
Eglow was also the financial advisor touted by Bexhill (Client First) in the one of the eleven Terrence Taylor deals in two years. "According to Terrence, as set forth in the legal Complaint against Bexhill, " a representative named Alex told him that Defendant Bexhill, and its agent. Boca Raton based Client First (Funding) were affiliated with Wells Fargo, a nationally recognized banking institution. Alex told Terrence that he could invest the money he received from doing this transfer with Wells Fargo. Alex told Terrence it would be crazy to pass up this deal". [Taylor Amended Complaint at #62]. Alex convinced Terrence that Wells Fargo would double his money if he did the proposed deal with Defendant Bexhill and its agent. Client First. [ Taylor Amended Complaint p 17 at #63]. Bexhill (Client First) quickly settled out the claim against them.
Independent Professional Advice?
In Eglow's home state of Florida, Florida Statute 626.99296 (2) (h) states that “Independent professional advice” means advice of an attorney, certified public accountant, actuary, or other licensed professional adviser:
1. Who is engaged by a payee to render advice concerning the legal, tax, and financial implications of a transfer of structured settlement payment rights;
2. Who is not in any manner affiliated with or compensated by the transferee of the transfer; and
3. Whose compensation for providing the advice is not affected by whether a transfer occurs or does not occur."
While the Catherine Moronta case is pending in New Jersey and the Michael Monagan case is in New York, states whose statutes do not have mandatory independent professional advice, it seems reasonable that in any case, that a representation to the court should follow a certain common standard. In discussing " all aspects of the transaction" did Eglow know as part of "discussing all aspect of the transaction" with Moronta, that there were hundreds of thousands of dollars of fat in the deals?
Moronta's Court date is tomorrow December 18, 2020 at 2:30pm
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