Structured Settlements 4Real® Blog: Structured Settlements | Settlement Planning News and John Darer Reviews

I Thought That My Settlement Was Confidential: So Why Am I Being Contacted by Strangers?

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

Do you have a structured settlement or structured attorney fee from a settlement that you THOUGHT was private and confidential? After all, you or your guardian (if you were a minor when the structured settlement was created) signed a settlement agreement that said that the terms of the settlement were to be held confidential and not publicized. And you receive annual notices from the annuity company required under Federal Privacy Laws stating that your information is private, protected and how your information is used by them.

Have you been contacted out of the blue and wondered why the stranger seems to know all about what you have and when you are going to receive payments, bearing an opportunity to sell all or parts of your structured settlement ? If so, we would like to hear from you.

The structured settlement watchdog, John Darer, is conducting an investigation into a potential scheme that may involve the unauthorized disclosure of annuitants' private and confidential information by one or more actors in the structured settlement industry. It is well known that some factoring companies comb court records for information, an enterprsing display of scrounging like those who sift through dumpsters for soda cans and bottles (with higher stakes!). But the potential abuse that we are particularly interested in, is where there is no court record of the details of the structured settlement.

You have the right to know how your private information is being used (or abused as the case may be) and we agree.

This is also a call out to both active and former structured settlement agents, structured settlement brokers or settlement planners who have received calls from former plaintiffs or attorneys who've structured their fees, concerned about an out of the blue "cash now" offer from someone or some company that seems to know more than they should.

This is also a very loud wake-up call to the life insurance companies issuing structured annuities. Look beyond the privacy notices you send out. To the extent this is being done it is being done by individuals who may be appointed by you.

This is not an anti-factoring message. This is a call to preserve structured settlement industry and insurance industry honor and integrity.

If you have information that you think can help our investigation, please contact us.

 

Can Confidentiality Agreement Be Rendered Useless by Factoring Company Court Scrapers?

by John Darer® CLU ChFC MSSC RSP CLTC

Can "court scapers", or human bloodhounds, employed or retained by structured settlement payment buyers to generate leads, render your settlement agreement's confidentiality agreement useless?

Let's say you settled the personal injury case several years ago. The settlement agreement provided that none of the parties could speak of the terms and conditions of the settlement and could not speak to the media. Yet all of a sudden the plaintiff receives a call or a post card from a cash now pusher who knows all the intimate details of your settlement (i.e. that you received a structured settlement and whatever else is contained in the agreement) and wants to give you cash for your structured settlements.

In recent years, the Structured Settlement Watchdog® has received calls from blog readers, and has heard anectodes from other industry members whose clients have contacted them, sometimes angry, feeling that their privacy has been invaded and asking "why?"

If you are a defendant or plaintiff attorney that has insisted on a confidentiality clause, how do you feel that your not under seal documents can easily be retrieved by some resourceful flack to be used for economic gain? Will there be any ripple effect on the client's feeling about your firm?

While the Structured Settlement Watchdog® does not contend the legality of the sale of structured settlement payments rights, or the utility of doing so where appropriate,  he has been a passionate advocate for greater than the virtually non existent regulation of sales and advertising practices of structured settlement factoring companies and intermediaries.

If public policy is in favor of structured settlements, as well as privacy standards like those contained in Gramm Leach Bliley, HIPAA, and solicitation standards for annuities and investments to protect  vulnerable seniors, then why is this "crack" being left open? 

Think about it!