Structured Settlements 4Real® Blog: Structured Settlements | Settlement Planning News and Commentary

John Darer Reviews JG Wentworth "Poached Egg Special"

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

JG Wentworth is apparently running a "poached egg" special

Why would a JG Wentworth ad include the name of one of its competitors on March 2, 2023?  Was there a merger or acquistion? Apparently no.  I contacted CBC Settlement Funding moments before posting to confirm that CBC Settlement Funding and JG Wenworth are separate companies and that JG Wentworth does not own CBC Settlement Funding. Perhaps JG Wenwtorth is throwing in a blood test  [CBC=Complete Blood Count]. 

This revelation comes just a day after we highlighted Peachtree Financial, a JG Wentworth company, calling itself a "structured settlement broker" as we honored Annuity.org with The Structured Settlement Canard of the Month.

 

 

The Structured Settlement Agreement Process | Annuity.Org Doesn't Get It Quite Right, As Usual

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

"She's a Jolly Good Farmer, of Untilled Fallow"

Despite spouting purported editorial standards, time has shown that no matter how hard they try, Annuity.org just can't get

Tendency to be wide of the target

structured settlements right. They can't even get out of their own way. Par for the course is Catherine Byerly's latest effort on the structured settlement process,which can best be described as "untilled fallow" in my opinion. The land may not even be arable. The rot contagion spores cross pollinate from Structuredsettlements.com, a publication of the same organization, the latest ineptitude of which I covered here on November 10, 2022  Structuredsettlements.com | Another Episode of What's Wrong Wit Dat? - Structured Settlements 4Real® Blog: Structured Settlements | Settlement Planning News and Commentary (typepad.com) .

Annuity.org Process Step 2

The defendant and the plaintiff work with a qualified assignee to determine the terms of the structured settlement agreement — that is, how much the regular payments should be, how long they should continue for, whether they should increase or be supplemented by larger payouts at certain times, and so on. The defendant provides money for the qualified assignee to buy an annuity for the plaintiff.

What's Wrong Wit Dat Annuity.org?

1. The defendant and/or its insurer, through their lawyers, and the plaintiff(s), through their lawyers negotiate the terms of the settlement agreement.
2. Where a structured settlement is to be established, the plaintiff often works with a settlement planner or structured settlement consultant, who assists in the design of the future periodic payments. The qualified assignee is not involved in that process.
3. The settlement agreement will include a promise to pay future periodic payments to the plaintiff (or in some cases plaintiff's trust)

Annuity.org Process Step 3

The qualified assignee purchases an annuity from a life insurance company, setting up the annuity contract to match the settlement needs. Once the terms of the annuity are set, they cannot be changed. An immediate lump sum may also be set aside to cover attorney fees or to fund a specified trust.

What's Wrong Wit Dat Annuity.org?

1. A qualified assignnee does not set up an annuity contract.
2. A qualified assignment takes on a perodic payment obligation from a Defendant or its insurer, subject to IRC 130(c) and then buys an annuity to fund the periodic payment it has assumed, subject to IRC 130(d)
3. What is a Specified Trust?  According to Law Insider, "Specified Trust Agreements means those trust agreements entered into by USIC for the benefit of the cedents under the Specified Assumed Treaties".   Nothing to do with structured settlements.

Annuity.org and Structuredsettlements.com are unreliable sources of information about structured settlements 

One should never rely on a source of information which is shilling for a company (or recently companies) that buys people's structured settlement payment rights for pennies on the dollar.  I continue to document as I have time, and time again. for more than 5 years, that consumers can do far better. After 5 years it's clear that despite its  posted purported standards, the Annuity.org/Structuredsettlments.com ineptitude is rampant, laced through every figurative "corpuscle" of its publications about structured settlements and that its editorial standards concerning structured settlements are a farce. The company excels at SEO and that's about it.

 

 

Sell Any Annuity Claims It Has "75+Years of Experience" in Gross Misrepresentation

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

Queen Elizabeth II of England celebrated her Platinum Jubilee in June 2022, having ascended to throne on June 2, 1953. Six years earlier, in 1947, then Princess Elizabeth married her late husband Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey in London. The post war year saw the births of Reginald Kenneth Dwight (Elton John), Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and the CIA.

CBC Settlement Funding, a "pennies on the dollar for your structured settlement merchant" out of Conshochocken Pennsylvania has a penchant for quantity over quality in its choices of partners for lead generation. Today CBC Settlement Funding deserves an absolute roasting for their continued use of Sell Any Annuity (sellanyannuity(dot)com), which shuns "stack formation" and makes the grossly misleading claims that it has 75+ years of experience, implausibly putting its establishment back to a time before Rock N Roll and Motown,  the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Yom Kippur War, in the year 1947, when a loaf of bread cost 13 cents, a gallon of gas cost 15 cents, when Jackie Robinson first took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Miracle on 34th Street was one of the year's hit movies.

The first Private Letter Rulings related to structured settlements did not appear for 30 years and the Periodic Payment Settlement Act of 1982 was 35 years later. 54 years later came 9/11/2001 and the Victims of Terrorism Tax Relief Act of 2001, which (among other things) established IRC 5891 (a watershed moment in structured settlement factoring) and 62 years later, in 2009 was when CBC Settlement funding was established. But Sell Any Annuity wants you to believe 75+ years of experience, ROFLMAO!

In this context, stack formation is a "fake it 'til you make it" marketing deception in which a company "stacks" years of experience of multiple individuals to create an illusion that a young company has been around for a long time. A more honest and ethical approach to consumers, in my opinion, would be to use average years of experience.

Unethical and Implausible "Stack Formation" 

9 employees each with 7.5 years of experience and one employee with 10 years of experience =75+ years of experience

Ethical (and Believable)

A company states that its employees average 7.5 years of experience.

 

 

 

 

 

Wily StructuredSettlements.com Suggests "How to Honor A Legacy" With Pennies on the Dollar Rip Off

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

CBC Settlement Funding is one of the worst structured settlement factoring companies in the structured settlement factoring industry. By continuing to

Structuredsettlements.com offers a "cheesy legacy" that you might best put in your rear view mirror

[Note: not a real foot]

patronize the company behind Annuity.org and StructuredSetlements.com, CBC Settlement Funding underscores time and time again that it does not care about disseminating accurate information to consumers. Upon information and belief, the Conshocken Pennsylvania company generates profits off leads generated by the inaccurate information spewed into the world by its lead generation partner's websites Annuity.org and Structuredsettlements.com. Why doesn't CBC Settlement Funding want accurate information? Why don't its investors? If one were to "follow the money", would this be considered socially responsible investing?

As I have shown time and time again, the lead generators for CBC Settlement Funding do not care about accuracy. Despite what they write and despite claiming to follow journalistic standards, the research is consistently poor and it is misleading consumers more often than not. The record is there.

Here's their sales pitch

"Loss and money on their own evoke strong feelings – and together can be explosive. But it doesn't have to be. Instead it can be something beautiful to actively pay respects to the person you lost  [ omitting that it involves you losing a big percentage]. It could be a way to realize your dream of finishing college. Or it could be that you've always wanted to be your own boss. Or maybe you just want a home to call your own. Whatever your dream is, a settlement can be the way you turn that dream into a reality.  Spending your settlement on education, buying a home, or starting a business can be a thoughtful way to honor the legacy of the departed"

If you're grieving a loss, give yourself space to grieve. Give yourself space of mind. Rushing into financial decisions that are not immediately necessary and possibly unwise, at a time can lead to regrets later, not to mention a figurative hand reaching up out of the grave to kick your ass. 

What you should know about Annuity.org and StructuredSettlements.com

1. The websites generate leads for a structured settlement factoring company whose sole value proposition to consumers involves paying pennies on the dollar.  Victims are unfortunate souls who don't do their homework, or don't know the difference. Don't be a victim.
2. The Florida company behind Annuity.org and Structuredsettlements.com has had and currently has a choice. They have the ability to choose between right or wrong,  to put out accurate information or inaccurate information. They choose to put out inaccurate information and for the last 4 years they have been on the same course. What a pity.
3. The posted editorial standards are there for show. Some of the stuff that has purportedly been fact checked and financially reviewed calls the credentials of the puported reviewers into question. I've posted enough critical commentary about why what they post is inaccurate and they clearly do not care. If they do not care about accurate information then why should you as consumers find them credible enough to do business with?

I'm simply interested in seeing that consumers have the clearest path to accurate information about structured settlements. The company that is behind Annuity.Org and StructuredSettlements.com may do a great job of SEO, but after 4 years of their nonsense it is clear that they can only talk the talk, they clearly are severely hampered when it comes to walking the walk on structured settlements.

Annuity.Org | The "Teacher" That Is A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

If you want to learn about structured settlements does it make sense to learn from the stooge of the "animal" that is trying to eat them, leaving very little flesh on the bone of stable secure income? 

Annuity.org is the sheep's clothing for wolf CBC Settlement Funding, and is known for posting some incredibly uninformed things about structured settlements through some incredibly poor research and with stunning breadth across the organization's writers

Annuity.org, a long time stooge of CBC Settlement Funding, and "super spreader" of inaccurate information about structured settlements, has a long list of writers who have a bad case of "don't-know-what-the-eff-they're-talking-about-itis"  when it comes to how structured settlements work.

Despite citing 7 Research Articles, somehow Kim Borwick, writer and editor " Annuity.Org" is the latest writer to fluff their lines in a July 29, 2020 posting whose purpose is expressly to generate leads for CBC Settlement Funding.

Here are six reasons why Annuity.Org is "Annuity.Wrong": 

1. "In general, the IRS taxes only structured settlement money that was negotiated as part of punitive damages or distress that was not caused by a physical illness or injury".

Why Annuity.Org is Annuity.Wrong

In the United States, Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to "lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States. This is also referred to as the "Taxing and Spending Clause. The IRS does not tax structured settlement money or tax anyone for that matter. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is a government agency that is a bureau of the Department of Treasury. The IRS is responsible for collecting taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, our main body of federal statutory tax law of the United States. In the United States children learn about the Constitution from grades 4-7.

2. "Liquefy your structured settlement"

Why Annuity.Org is Annuity.Wrong

Liquefy means turning something into a liquid. A structured settlement is not liquified in a structured settlement factoring transaction. The term liquidity means an asset that can readily be converted into cash, such as a savings accounts, stocks and so on. A structured settlement is established by a meeting of the minds between settling parties. The parties agree on a schedule of future periodic payments. The Defendant, and/or its insurer assignment the obligation to make those payments to a qualified assignment company which in turn buys a qualified funding asset (most of the time an annuity) to fund the future periodic payment obligation. The assignment company is the owner of the annuity and the annuitant only has right to receive payments.  It is the structured settlement payment rights, not the annuity that can be sold, or technically, transferred to a third-party buyer in a structured settlement factoring transaction. The terms of settlement that were agreed to when the structured settlement was established remain in place. 

3. "Consult your state attorney general’s office or consumer protection division to confirm that the factoring company you choose has no complaints on file"

To be fair, Annuity.Wrong is protecting its own client CBC Settlement Funding, which has some pretty stinky poop out there that one would never find by going to the Federal or State Attorney General

Like This  CBC Settlement Funding Persists A Year After Structured Settlement Factoring Petition on 19 Year Old Canceled Due to Mental Illness

4. "The court-approval process takes roughly 45 to 60 days, which is why you may want to select a purchasing company that offers cash advances, also referred to as pre-settlement funding" 

Why Annuity.org is Annuity.Wrong

Pre-settlement funding provides you with a cash advance on the future compensation that you expect to receive from a claim. If you need money before your claim settles to cover bills and living expenses, pre-settlement funding is one way to get you the cash you need as quickly as possible. A structured settlement factoring transaction is not a settlement, it is a factoring transaction. 

It's also not a good idea to get hooked on cash advances. Be mindful that for every $1 you get as an advance, it could cost you $2 or more in structured settlement payments, especially at the rip off out of touch rates that Annuity.org cites as a typical discount rate (see #6 below)

5. "If the court agrees that the sale is in your best interest, you will have to decide on the terms of the sale. You can sell some of your payments, a portion of each payment, or your entire structured settlement". 

Why Annuity.org is Annuity.Wrong

The terms of sale and transfer are agreed before the petition goes to the court seeking approval of a structured settlement transfer.

6. "With this formula, the company calculates the “discount rate.” The discount rate is the percentage that factoring companies charge to account for the inherent risk associated with money that they will receive in the future. The discount rate typically falls between 9 and 20 percent".

Why Annuity.org is Annuity.Wrong

The "typical discount rate of between 9% and 20%" would be rip off range in 2020.  It's a #totalbs narrative when CrowFly is advertising an average discount rate of under 7%. I've seen deals done in the 4s 5s and 6s, with others.  Kim Borwick  and Annuity.org are out of touch.

 

Why CBC Settlement Funding Can't Be Trusted With Your Child's Structured Settlement

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

It's bad enough that CBC Settlement Funding "went in for the kill" on a vulnerable young adult New Jersey resident one year after its first attempt to nab his structured settlement was rejected. The latest attempt by CBC Settlement Funding occurred when the client was in the midst of a full blown psychotic episode (according to 2019 Court records).  Now this shocking lack of nous from CBC Settlement Funding.

"Structured settlements can provide long-standing income for minors. They gain access to funds at 18 years old to prevent frivolous spending and to protect financial security".  

Taking CBC Settlement Funding at Face Value Could be Financially Devastating to Minors and Young Adults. What CBC Says is Not True

 

It is common knowledge that the structured settlement secondary market in general is littered with horrific stories of financial predation of young adults, when they turn age 18 and shortly after. Giving access to funds at age 18 does not prevent frivolous spending. Thus on this showing  CBC= "Clueless Baloney from Conshohocken".  CBC Settlement Funding is based in Conshohocken Pennsylvania and a member of the National Association of Settlement Purchasers

4 Signs of Financial immaturity in Teens  by Naomi Mannino  September 3, 2013  Nasdaq.com 

 

Is CBC Settlement Funding At Center of NL Brand Reviews Fraud?

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

Is CBC Settlement Funding or someone that CBC Settlement Funding uses for its Digital Marketing, behind the fraud that is NL Brand Reviews? 

Consider these two screen shots from NL Brand Reviews captured May 28, 2019. The first one on the Structured Settlement page for NL Brand Reviews says "Sell My Structured Settlement Payments in Just 2 Days" bearing the same phone number as an ad on another page entitled DRB Capital Structured Settlements Independent Review with an "advertisement" that screams out CBC Will Beat Any Offer from DRB".

Is The NL Brand Reviews Fraud a Shill For CBC Settlement Funding?

CBC Settlement Funding Craplach?

NL Brand Reviews is a fraud  NL Brand Reviews holds out what appears to be a fictitious person with fictitious credentials as its Editor in Chief. NL brand Reviews is the latest name associated with the domain nlrbfcu.org, formerly the domain of the National Labor Relations Board Federal Credit Union, a legitimate entity

In the last year nlrbfcu.org has also been:

NLRB Financial Consumer Union

National Review Brand Foundation Of Consumer Updates

Most Purported Brand Review Sites for Structured Settlements Companies Are Rubbish

• StateLocalGovt (Dot) Net                    RUBBISH  

Out of date and out of touch. A one time useful website for government resources until 2010, acquired by a miscreant associated with the structured settlement secondary market seeking ready made SEO. A landfill of online refuse carpeted, figuratively speaking,  by swirling flocks of seagulls and four legged scavengers. Does not respond to notices about inaccuracies.

• Structured Settlement-Quotes.com      RUBBISH

Genex Capital's  "step child" since 2011. Way out of date . Insurer ratings info is a joke, more than a decade old. Brandjacking vehicle.

• Einstein Structured Settlements           RUBBISH

Illiterate, brandjacking website, currently out of service, JG Wentworth showed the puerile Owings Mills bred miscreants "who's their Daddy?"

• StructuredSettlement.US.Com             RUBBISH

Cowardly internet predators who target New York City residents and threw their toys out of the pram by plagiarizing one of our posts and posting it on an unsavory site. Structuredsettlement.us.com tried to hustle New Yorkers with fraudulent nonsense that selling your structured settlement (for pennies on the dollar) "means that you might be able to get more out of your structured settlement than it’s currently giving you."

 

 

CBC Settlement Funding Persists A Year After Structured Settlement Factoring Petition on 19 Year Old Canceled Due to Mental Illness

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

CBC Settlement Funding, LLC induced then 19 year old K.K. to enter into a structured settlement transfer agreement on February 19, 2018. "Then, Mr. and Mrs. K appeared before the New Jersey Superior Court in Morris County, NJ,  to advise that K.K suffered from severe mental illness and repaid $1,000 to CBC Settlement Funding LLC for the cancellation of the contract. That matter was filed under Docket No. MRS-L-000375-18". [Source : Letter of Ernest G. Ianetti, Esq to Hon. Philip J. Maenza , J.S.C. dated April 8, 2019, in court records].

The Conshohocken Vulture Returns For Its Young Prey While He Was in a Mentally Impaired State

Why Does CBC Settlement Funding keep going to the Well of The Mentally Ill?  Just Gross

One year later, K.K.  now aged 20, signed a new contract with CBC Settlement Funding LLC  on March 4, 2019, while, according to attorney Ernest G. Ianetti "he was experiencing what would become a full-blown psychotic episode. 6 days prior to CBC Settlement Funding entering into the second contract, on February 26, 2019, and is documented by traffic tickets issued to him on that date charging him with among, other things, driving the wrong way on a one-way street in violation of N.J.S.A. 39:4–85.1, failure to observe traffic control device in violation of N.J.S.A. 39:4–82, and improper use of a divided highway in violation of N.J.S.A. 39:4 – 82.1."  [ Source Ibid.]

K.K., who was hospitalized for schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type. "...was hospitalized on March 7, 2019, following a 10-day psychotic episode that began on February 26, 2019, and culminated with his arrest and emergent hospitalization at St. Claire’s Hospital on March 7, 2019. On March 16, 2019, K.K. was transferred to Carrier Clinic where he remains hospitalized". The parents are now seeking guardianship. [Source : Letter of Ernest G. Ianette, Esq to Hon. Philip J. Maenza , J.S.C. dated April 8, 2019].  

Ianetti goes on to say "K.K.is not aware that Your Honor entered the order to show cause. Further, it does not appear K.K. is competent to respond to the order to show cause or hire independent counsel. Given his mental health issues and his youth, he may not be emancipated".

Comments

What is the matter with CBC Settlement Funding?  It's bad enough that cash now vultures swarm onto young adults with structured settlements, but now Conshocken based CBC Settlement Funding is adding the mentally ill to the mix?  Have you no decency CBC Settlement Funding? Are you really that desperate for business?

K.K. has parents that care and have the initiative and resources to do so.  How many young minorities with structured settlements slip through the cracks because they do not have the support system?

 

 

 

 

 

Sutton Park Capital CEO's Company Benefits from Reckless Misinformation to Structured Settlement Payees and Investors

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

Steve Pasko's company has been hoovering up other buyers of structured settlement payment rights but hasn't got rid of their dirty laundry.

Annuity.org,  has existed for the benefit of CBC Settlement Funding, since late 2017  a "bauble" of Sutton Park Capital CEO Steve Pasko's  600 Partners LLC.  It is part of the cottage industry that misrepresents structured settlement payment rights as annuities.

Reckless misrepresentation #1 by Annuity.org, which pimps leads for CBC Settlement Funding

"These annuities are also said to carry a lower risk that the company selling the annuity will default on payments".

• A "Secondary Market Annuity" is not an annuity
• Ask Mr & Mrs. Wall and Barry Cooper about "secondary market annuities" and what happened to their $150,000 investments  (speaking to the general statement, CBC did not sell the investments to either of these people). Ask how many tens of thousands the Walls have had to spend to bring their case and pay for the appeal. All they did was buy what they were told was an annuity...but it wasn't.
• The 2017 revisions to the Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association Model Act (#520) expressly exclude protections for structured settlement investors and provide for a retroactive exclusion that would affect structured settlement investors who acquired structured settlement payment rights in the secondary or tertiary structured settlement market prior to the effective date of the adoption of the revisons.  According to the NAIC, 34 states have adopted the 2017 revisions as of March 11 2022. These states include AK, AR, AZ, CT, DE, FL, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, LA, MD, ME, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NV, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA,  WV, and WY.  Two more states, Washington and Rhode Island, were under consideration at the time of posting.  (Updated)

Reckless misrepresentation #2 by Annuity.org

"If you buy one of these annuities previously owned by someone else — also known as a factored structured settlement — you may get a better deal and higher interest returns than if you buy an annuity on the primary market".

• In the secondary market you are not buying an annuity, you are buying structured settlement paymnet rights, a derivative.  Big difference in terms of regulation (or lack thereof, in terms of secondary market) and risk characteristics.
• Structured settlement annuities are neither bought nor sold by annuitants and neither bought nor sold by CBC Settlement Funding. How could Annuity.org get it so wrong?  If you want to know just read this blog.

Reckless misrepresentation #3 by Annuity.org

"But the transaction is more complicated, partly because it has to be approved by a judge and clear state regulatory approvals because the original annuity is considered a binding contract. These transactions involve a lot of paperwork"

The "Secondary Market annuity" transaction is complicated an dthe approval of a judge does not necessarily make it more safe as the Wall retirees discovered after they were the victims of a fraud perpetuated by a forgery that wasn't discovered until a few years after their investment. The forgery was at the origination level and the payments rights were first acquired by an intermediary before they were sold to the Walls.  In a damning indictment of those that use the term “secondary market annuity" to peddle structured settlement derivatives the Walls sued the originator and lost and sued the intermediary and won a summary judgment that was overturned on appeal. The Walls spent tens of thousands of dollars  on top of almost $153,000 invested. While there's still a possibility of recovering for unjust enrichment the optics for scam labeled "secondary market annuities" have taken a big hit.

Another Pasko company "bauble" involved in outrageous and misleading marketing 

In July 2018, the Pasko company "bauble" was the intended beneficiary of an outrageous and wholly misleading marketing approach to structured settlement annuitants, which misrepresented a 100% chance of money losing pennies on the dollar value proposition as a "prize".  "Keep Your Eye on the Prize" was used as the catchpenny in their ad.

Will Love Prevail?

Fred Love of Sutton Park Capital LLC is the new President of the National Association of Settlement Purchasers. One hopes that "Love will prevail" over the wayward "baubles". It certainly doesn't flatter his organization at the moment.

Last updated April12, 2022

 

 

In Sell Any Annuity, Has CBC Settlement Funding Finally Gone Off The Deep End?

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

Sell Any Annuity recently tweeted "Keep Your Eye on the Prize" in reference to its guaranteed to lose money value proposition to sell your structured settlement payments for pennies on the dollar.  More like a booby prize.  There is no "prize" when you sell your structured settlement payments.

via GIPHY   The mating dance of the Blue Footed Booby (Galapagos Islands)

 

Sell Any Annuity pimps leads for CBC Settlement Funding just like Annuity(dot)org and StructuredSettlements(dot)com. The wholly misleading solicitation by, or on behalf of, CBC Settlement Funding is an absolute disgrace and underscores the depths to which the structured settlement secondary market has plummeted. CBC Settlement Funding is a member of the National Association of Settlement Purchasers.

Earlier this year I reported about another fraudulent advertising claim on Twitter made by Sell Any Annuity  CBC Settlement Funding Sell Any Annuity Fraudulent Advertising where annuitants essentially being fleeced for pennies on the dollar were being solicited to "see how much they can earn for their structured settlement". The jiggery pokery being that pennies on the dollar was "earnings".

According to its  December 19, 2017  8-K filing,  Asta Funding Inc. sold its interest in CBC Settlement Funding to CBC Holdings LLC, a Delaware company. The 8-K lists  600 Partners LLC as the Sole Member and Steven W. Pasko as the managing member of the Sole Member. Steven W. Pasko is a Wharton MBA who is the CEO of Sutton Park Capital. Does a Wharton MBA really endorse such wholly misleading advertising?

There is no prize in selling your structured settlement payments