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

Certified Settlement Consultant is a Phony Credential

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

A settlement planner "being duly sworn, deposes and says he is "the founder of a comprehensive settlement planning and management firm, and am a certified settlement consultant". The thing is that there is and was no such professional designation. Certified Settlement Consultant is a phony designation. One could dismiss it as a typo if it were made only once, but the subject settlement planner reiterated the phony credential twice in the same April 2, 2018 affidavit addressed to the Surrogate's Court of the State of New York Court in Erie County.

In March 2020, the same settlement planner used Qualified Settlement Fund Planner, another phony credential.  

End Distracted Driving of Phony Credentials on the structured settlement information highway!

Silly Structured Settlement Statements | "Greatest Gift 'The IRS' Ever Gave to Injured Individuals"?

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

When you receive a gift, one learns from an early age that it's good manners to say thank you to the actual source of the gift.

We are approaching the 8th anniversary of one of the silliest statements of misplaced gratitude

"The goose and the golden eggs"

by a structured settlement consulting firm. And the structured settlement consulting firm even doubled down on the silliness.

Silly Structured Settlement Statements (say that 10 times really fast).  Breathe deeply.  OK, let's move on...

• "Structures are "The Greatest Gift the IRS ever gave to injured individuals"  August 2015
• "Structures are not only the greatest gift the IRS provided to injured to injured individuals" but also the goose and its golden eggs"   March 2021

The statements by the structured settlement consulting firm demonstrate an unfortunate lack of familiarity with the roles of Congress, the power granted to Congress to levy taxes by the United States Constitution, and the role of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

The IRS

1. In the United States, the Congress passes tax laws and requires taxpayers to comply.
2. The taxpayer’s role is to understand and meet his or her tax obligations.
3. The IRS role is to help the large majority of compliant taxpayers with the tax law, while ensuring that the minority who are unwilling to comply pay their fair share.  [ Source: IRS.gov  The Agency Its  Mission and Statutory Authority]
   

Who are you going to thank?

Who Deserves Thanks?

Thank you Congress of 1982. Thank you President Reagan for signing the Periodic Payment Settlement Act of 1982 into law on Janauary 22, 1983 and Thank you to the pioneers of the structured settlement industry and industry lawyer for their advocacy in those early days. Finally, thank you to members of Congress and our industry over the ensuing 40 plus years who have carried the torch and shared our story to those it needed to be shared to, and members of the IRS, such as Mike Montemurro and others who took the time to understand the value of what our industry does and provide guidance and assitance as new product applications were introduced over the years.

When last checked on May 9, 2023, the subject company website still showed "Copyright 2020" in the footer on each and every page of its website.  "Does Anyone Really Know What Time It is...Does Anyone Really Care?"-ChicagoTransit Authority

Last updated May 9, 2023

3 Misleading Terms Used in Advertising By Structured Settlement Factoring Companies, Originators and Rights Sellers

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

Here are three misleading terms that one encounters when solicited by structured settlement factoring companies and intermediaries of sellers of structured settlement payment rights, including one or two glib settlement planners.

1. Selling a Settlement

Why is "selling a settlement" misleading?

All is not what it seems

• A settlement is the end of a civil action brought about by agreement between the parties. [Source: Black's Law Dictionary Free Online Legal Dictionary 2nd Ed. ]
• A structured settlement is a negotiated stream of periodic payments, paid as damages in exchange for a release of liability, that is customized to the needs of a particular plaintiff or plaintiffs.
• A settlement agreement sets forth the terms of settlement including, but not limited to the consideration for the plaintiff's release of liability. Part of that consideration could include a structured settlement and/or cash, disposition of liens, indemnification, confidentiality and so on.
• A structured settlement factoring transaction is a means to raise liquidity for someone who is receiving structured settlement payments, where there is no other viable means, via the transfer of structured settlement payment rights.  A qualified court order is necessary for the buyer of structured settlement payment rights to avoid a 40% excise tax on the factoring discount.

2. Secondary Market Annuity

The use of the term secondary market annuity by certain merchants to solicit an investor to buy structured settlement payment rights is self indulgent twaddle. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners in its Statutory Issue Paper 160 (finalized April 2019) clearly states that acquired structured settlement payment rights are not an annuity or an insurance product.  On January 11, 2020 one New York settlement planner with an active insurance license, even crowed that "these assets are life insurance products, guaranteed by the issuer, and in most states by the National Organization of Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Associations (NOLHGA).  When you invest in structured settlement payment rights you are simply not buying an insurance product. 

3. "Super Bonds"

Investing in other people's structured settlement payments leaves you neither "shaken" nor "stirred". They are not a Bond!

A deceptive sale pitch to rope in investors.  A bond "is a debt security, similar to an IOU. Borrowers issue bonds to raise money from investors willing to lend them money for a certain amount of time. When you buy a bond, you are lending to the issuer, which may be a government, municipality, or corporation. In return, the issuer promises to pay you a specified rate of interest during the life of the bond and to repay the principal, also known as face value or par value of the bond, when it "matures," or comes due after a set period of time".  [Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission]

There is no loan in a structured settlement factoring transaction. The rights to periodic payments are transferred.  You are essentially buying a derivative of a regulated product, the derivative instrument being not regulated by anyone. Investors can lose, and some have lost hundreds of thousands.

Last updated November 26, 2021

 

 

 

 

Question About Bairs Foundation Interest on Loans After Milestone Consulting Tweets Saunders Video

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

 

Milestone Consulting tweeted a video featuring Florida personal injury trial lawyer Joe Saunders of Pinellas Park, a member of Injury Board who " thinks that Bairs Foundation "charges like 5%" on pre settlement litigation loans to plaintiffs.  The same video was also promoted on Facebook.

 

According to its website on October 20, 2020, the Bairs Foundation states "We base our interest rate on the Wall Street Journal U.S. Prime Rate, plus 6.5%, adjusted on a monthly basis. The interest rate for the month is predicated on what prime is at on the first day of the month. As of June 1, 2019, the interest is 12% simple interest".  [screenshot excerpt right]

Screenshot from Bairs Foundation 10-20-2020

 

According to PrimeRate.com the current U.S. Prime Rate is 3.25%.  3.25% plus 6.5% equals 9.75%.

 

9.75%-5% equals 4.75%, less than what one would calculate using the formula that the Bairs Foundation actually says on its website.

 

What is the Prime Rate?    The prime rate, also known as the prime lending rate, is an interest rate used by banks generally to represent the interest rate at which banks lend to customers with good credit. Some variable interest rates, such as what the Bairs Foundation says it charges on its website, may be expressed as a percentage above or below prime rate

 

The Prime Rate  History

 

Here is an excerpt of the transcript from Injury Board member Joe Saunders' YouTube video that Milestone Consulting posted to its YouTube account on October 16, 2020 and then tweeted today  [Source: YouTube].

"maybe more importantly a milestone has

00:30

set up a foundation the bear

00:32

foundation that provides litigation

00:35

loans

00:37

it very low rates is a counter to the

00:41

loan sharks that charge

00:42

100 percent the bear foundation i think

00:45

it's

00:46

five percent or something for small

00:48

litigation loans up to maybe five

00:50

thousand dollars

00:51

or so um so you know they're a really

00:55

valuable asset to be able to use"

 

The Milestone tweet follows days after Milestone claim to have a yield of 7%-9% on market based periodic payments was rightly questioned.

 

Why would Milestone Consulting publish a video on its YouTube Channel and tweet  and post to Facebook about it, when the Bairs Foundation website says something that is completely inconsistent? Who reviews this stuff? Although one might presume that Mr. Saunders stated the 5% to the best of his recollection, Milestone chose to publish the video with the inaccuracy and then further promote it in a tweet. Hmm

How to Buy An Annuity Exposes John Bair's Naughty Marketing Deception

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

As a British bobby might say " Hello, Hello what have we here?" What we have is a naughty boy getting hoisted on his own petard, sir.

The same day Milestone sent an email blast to trial lawyers all over America suggesting they should eliminate annuities from their client portfolios and settlement plans, John Bair published " How to Buy an Annuity" for CrowFly, LLC, his factoring company, in the CrowFly Legal Examiner.

Consider these two headlines both published by entities controlled or directed by John Bair on the very same day, April 20, 2020: 

CrowFly LLC Blog by John Bair 4-20-2020

1. " Eliminate annuities from your client portfolios and settlement plans"  Milestone blast email to lawyers all across the United States
2. " How to Buy an Annuity"  Blog on Crowfly, LLC Legal Examiner. Bair is a Founder and Director of CrowFly, LLC  (see screen shot right)

It is critical for readers to note that the target of both the blast email and Bair's blog post are personal injury trial lawyers all across America who have a steady supply of clients with annuities and both they and their clients (with a large enough settlement) are potential investors.

In my opinion, much more than hypocrisy is on exhibit here. 

CrowFly LLC Offers What Its Director Bair Misrepresents as "Annuities", With No Insurance License? 

Despite  being the director of an entity not having an insurance license in New York Download ALiS __ Producer Search CrowFly LLC NY DFS 4-22-2020, the following, authored by John Bair was published on April 20, 2020

"Consider a discounted annuity from crowfly(dot)com, as the yields of 4% to 5% are attractive and are from some of the most highly rated insurers. Buying a secondary market annuity also helps out another person who is in need or has fallen on tough times. There is a strong social impact of buying an annuity from someone else. Both sides of the equation win. Also, the yield to a buyer of a structured settlement annuity is a net yield; there are no ongoing monthly or annual expenses. Structured settlement annuities, or structured settlements, can be a great source of income. They are typically annuities and should..." 

1. I questioned Bair's motivation for his Milestone email blast trashing annuities in my April 20th post.
   

   Milestone pushes its agenda 4-20-2020 in an email to trial lawyers, the same day as the  blog in the first screen shot was published
   There is, and there is further potential for conflict of interest. Is Bair, via MIlestone "privately" trashing existing annuities to drum up business for CrowFly?  I think it's something that trial lawyers need to get their heads around. 
2. Is there a strong social benefit from buying an annuity from someone else?  If the investors that CrowFly, LLC is soliciting are making 4%-5%. it is possible that the selling annuitant is selling at a higher price that is not as favorable as the best available in the market place for sellers.  CrowFly says on its website that as of 4-20-2020, its average discount rate is 6.05% Is there a social benefit to giving someone pennies on the dollar, or less pennies on the dollar?  There are factoring deals being done by other companies at more competitive rates.
3. The saturation marketing campaign pushing qualified settlement funds as if it were The Second Coming seems fishy to me. Is it the figurative "gateway drug" to the settlement planning cocktails he and his company have to serve? Despite what Bair says, QSF's are not needed or necessary to the degree he suggests. Is it just one big money grab for entities controlled by Bair.  Milestone Consulting, LLC, Seventh Amendment Holdings LLC, CrowFly, LLC and two assignment companies? IMPORTANT UPDATE Research in 2022 subsequently has uncovered New York structured settlement transfer petitions submitted on behalf of Seventh Amendment Holdings, LLC and United States Periodic Payment Assignment Company (USPPAC). One was from 2015 and the other 2017. The annuitants were placed by Bair while he was with Forge or Milestone Consulting. Also see our January 15, 2022 post for additional cases uncovered where CrowFly, LLC submitted petitions to factor structured settlements that John Bair had written while with Forge and Milestone.
4. One of those cocktails is a misleading sales pitch that factored structured settlement payment streams are structured settlement annuities. It is clear that they are not annuities according to the NAIC, the entity that is made up by insurance commissioners in all 50 states in which Bair holds licenses. Bair has been involved with structured settlements for 21 years. He knows better,  but for some reason has instead of calling it what it is, he made the choice to deceive investors by advertising non-annuities as annuities in solicitation of investments.
5. Upon information and belief, CrowFly's daily paid key word ad budget has been over $1,200 (i.e $30,000 plus per month).
6. Two of CrowFly's three Google Five Star reviews are from CrowFly Director John T. Bair and his wife Amy.  

 

 

 

CrowFly Founder Misleads in Pitching Factored Structured Settlements as Life Insurance Products to Replace Treasuries

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

Why is Milestone Consulting CEO and CrowFly Board Member Misrepresenting Non Insurance Products as Insurance Products To Investors?

In January 2020, in his Milestone Consulting hat, Milestone CEO John T. Bair claimed that structured settlements were irrelevant. He doubled down in a post in February. Now in March 12, 2020, with his CrowFly, LLC factoring origination hat on, CrowFly Board member published  " Can Recycled Structured Settlement Annuities Replace U.S. Treasuries in Your Portfolio?"

Bair sets up the misrepresentation with a nod to Bob Dylan "The times, they are a-changing. War, pandemic, inflation, recession, oil shortages, housing markets, liquidity in the markets. These and thousands of other factors can make the stock market a wild ride for some, and downright devastating for others.

I'll tee up my touche with a quote from "Bare" Naked Ladies "Hold it now and watch the hoodwink As I make you stop,  and think"*

Bair says 'replace your low-yielding corporates and Treasuries in exchange for a 20-year guaranteed structured settlement that yields 4.5 percent — a value proposition if you’ve ever seen one. Interested in these “super bonds”?' 

Bair, proposes that "there is, on average, $2 billion worth of assets that are made available every year as people with structured settlements face life circumstances and need to sell at a slight discount". He says these assets are life insurance products, guaranteed by the issuer, and in most states by the National Organization of Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Associations (NOLHGA). Are these regulatory safety nets as good as Uncle Sam? No, but they are the next best thing in terms of credit. The ratings of the companies whose paper circulates in this market are Berkshire Hathaway, MetLife, New York Life, Prudential, Pacific, and others — all A+ and A++ A.M best rated insurers. Their guarantees have held up through major wars and other global calamities. So, it’s secure paper in my opinion.

Let's take Bair's statements one by one show why, in my opinion, they are wholly misleading:

1. What Bair calls " Recycled Structured Settlement Annuities" are not in fact annuities, they are factored structured settlement payment streams.  Life insurers buy individual streams or securitizations of factored structured settlement payments streams as investments, but they are not permitted to account for them as annuities or insurance products pursuant to the NAIC's Statutory Issue Paper 160.
2. The buyer of a factored structured settlement payment stream (such as that being peddled by Mr. Bair as a Treasury alternative) is not buying an annuity or a life insurance product per Statutory Issue Paper 160. 
3. One has to pose a big question WHY Bair fails to refer to the instrument he is pitching to investors truthfully and accurately. Instead of " factored structured settlement payment streams"  (NAIC) or "structured settlement payment rights  (Internal Revenue Code), in the most recent publication he uses " recycled structured settlement annuities and "super bonds".   He has also used in other published sales pitches, the tertiary market scam label "Secondary market annuity".
4. One wonders how securities regulators view the use of the term "super bonds".  Factored structured settlement payment streams are not bonds. Another former heavy user of "secondary market annuity" settled a FINRA complaint against him and a former employee for an aggregate $105,000  [Cooper v Somerset et al.]
5. Bair's published statement, "These assets are life insurance products, guaranteed by the issuer, and in most states by the National Organization of Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Associations (NOLHGA). Here Bair is lying to investors.  31 states have adopted the Life  & Health Guaranty Fund Model Act (#520) which at Section 3A(5) expressly does not cover "a person who acquires rights to receive payments through a structured settlement
   factoring transaction as defined in 26 U.S.C. 5891(c)(3)(A), regardless of whether the transaction occurred before or after such section became effective.
6. Factored structured settlement payments streams are not insurance products according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners as set forth in Statutory Issue Paper 160. Furthermore, in a January 26, 2009 opinion letter addressed to me, subsequently published by the New York State Insurance Department (now Department of Financial Services),  the Office of General Counsel concluded in answer to my quesion, that N.Y. Insurance Law Section 7718 broadly prohibits the existence of LIGCONY for the purpose of selling, soliciting or inducing the purchase of annuity contracts. Thus a statement that "state insurance guaranty funds provide an additional layer of protection for future structured settlement recipients", which is aimed at New York residents, runs afoul of Insurance Law,  Can Mr. Bair, who individually and through Milestone is licensed as an insurance agent in the State of New York and many other states legally make (1) the false claim that factored structured settlements are life insurance products in the inducement to buy/invest and (2) draw a conclusion from the false claim in (1), in inducing the purchase of factored structured settlement payment streams,  that they are guaranteed by NOLHGA
7. Bair and his agency continue to be appointed by many, but not all of the life insurers issuing structured settlement annuities.

Don't misconstrue this sharply word piece. Bair is a maverick and he does a lot of good things like End Distracted Driving and other pro bono work, but Bair sometimes just leaves you scratching your head with a reckless disregard for the truth such as here. It's just not necessary. Substitute olive oil for the snake oil. It's a lot healthier.

 

*from Barenaked Ladies " One Day" , 1999 Reprise records, written Ed Roberston

 

 

Athene Settles in Class Action Re Nix of Aviva Structured Settlement Capital Maintenance Agreements

by John Darer CLU ChFC MSSC RSP CLTC

Relief for Aviva (Now Athene) structured settlement annuitants. Details to follow

 

Defendants Athene London Assignment Corporation (f/k/a Aviva London Assignment Corporation), Athene Holding Ltd. (“AHL”) , and Athene Annuity and Life Company (successor to Aviva Life Insurance Company) (collectively, “Athene Defendants”) and Plaintiff John W.Griffiths have reached a class-wide settlement (“Settlement”) of the above captioned action, subject to approval by the Massachusetts District Court and the Board of Directors of AHL. According to papers submitted to Court on September 28th, the remaining Defendant, Aviva International Insurance Limited (f/k/a CGU International Insurance, plc)(“CGU”), is engaged in active settlement discussions with Plaintiff, and the parties hope to obtain a global resolution of this matter. Details to follow.

Settlement Planning | Wirehouse Refers Clients to Chat Room for Unsuitable Unsupervised "Advice" Says Accuser

by John Darer CLU ChFC MSSC RSP CLTC

TD Ameritrade steered a disabled couple looking for a managed account to chat rooms where they lost about half a million dollars, according to the clients’ FINRA arbitration filing and a report in Financial Planning magazine. Kevin and Natalie Flynn accused TD Ameritrade of violating FINRA’s “know your customer” rules, as well as unsuitable investments and a failure to supervise — two of the most frequent client claims.   Neither of the Flynns has been able to work for years, and Kevin Flynn visited a Manchester, New Hampshire, branch of TD Ameritrade in June 2010 looking to invest their disability settlements, according to their statement of claim. Kevin Flynn struggled daily attempting to copy the trades executed by the leaders of the chat rooms, he says.

“We were looking for somebody to manage it, and the rep told us about these chat rooms where you just do what they do,” says Kevin Flynn, 60. “It was very fast, the way that they traded.”

In my opinion referring  a settlement recipient to a chat room is not financial planning or settlement planning.  It comes under the category of "Financial WTF". It is clearly a cookie cutter approach to gather assets using a digital cookie cutter, no more appropriate than executing a six pack of beer stock recommendation from Uncle Vinnie at Shmuck family picnic.

The Flynns could have used a settlement planner so that they could have made a better, more informed decision.  Read more about Settlement planning

 

AP Foreclosure Sham Story Conjures Memory of Seneca One "Annuity Specialist"

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

The Associated Press story  "Scams push foreclosure fraud to limit, taking victims' homes "  on April 23, 2017, conjures up memories of Brian Pettiford, a former "annuity specialist" at Seneca One, who was hired by Seneca One despite at the time of his hiring his being named as a Defendant in a lawsuit filed May 14, 2010 in the District Court for the District of Columbia (later transferred to District of Maryland), which detailed allegations of Brian Pettiford's participation in a financial sham targeting vulnerable homeowners.

Link to my October 27, 2016 post

Seneca One Finance Hiring Practices Are Creepy. One Employee Hired AFTER Indicted For Theft and Assault. Another In Financial Sham Suit When Hired

Real structured settlement annuity specialists hold active life insurance licenses, are regulated by state insurance commissioners and subject to background checks that might have disqualified the former Seneca One hire before he got to speak to any potential customer about their annuity.

Postscript

Brian Pettiford assumed the alias Mark Belford when  going to work for Ryan Blank and Richart Ruddie at AnnuitySold in Owings Mills, Maryland. AnnuitySold and several other Blank and Ruddie affiliated companies are serving a 7 year ban from doing business in Maryland following an investigation by the Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh's office.

AZ Company Pitched "Secondary Market Annuities" to Seniors and CD Holders With Misleading Information

by Structured Settlement Watchdog®

There are more and more instances of salespeople pitching people to buy "secondary market annuities" with inaccurate and misleading information has been revealed in ongoing research into just how badly seniors, CD holders ,Mom and Pops and injury victims have been targeted.  This post follows the trail with some surprising results.

Sequence Media News YouTube Channel Posted Video of Company That Promoted as Annuities, a Product That Was Not an Annuity

It's disappointing that Sequence Media supports the use of the term " annuity" to market a product that is not an annuity.  Update: As of January 20, 2020 Sequence Media News still has the video up on its You Tube Channel.

It is truly shocking that Sequence Media published  and still mantains a piece from a company that sourced from a company related to Access Funding executives only months after the Washington Post expose about the Access Funding scam of Baltimore City minorities. As you can see for yourself from the screenshot below of a video entitled "Ask Mr. Annuity: Secondary Market Annuities Are “The Key to Income Planning” posted to the Sequence Media YouTube Channel on November 25, 2015, licensed insurance agent** Steve Lance* misrepresented the rating of Hartford Life Insurance Company as A+. In fact at the time the video was posted Hartford Life Insurance Company rated two notches below that at A-, where it had been since March 2013. In fact, AM Best reported  Hartford Life's AM Best rating was downgraded to A from A+ on February 27, 2009.

 Like the other purveyors of structured settlement derivatives, Ask Mr Annuity's  SMA Buyer's guide, in my opinion, did not adequately discuss transactional risk such as that which has impacted a Pennsylvania couple who lost $153,000 of retirement funds invested in a structured settlement derivative and a Florida woman whose payments on $150,000  retirement investment via an Oregon intermediary have been  suspended due to competing claims arising out of the Access Funding Baltimore lead paint mess.  In the PA case, arranged by a NJ intermediary, a qualified order was thought to be obtained but was later vacated after a Sumter County FL judge determined that the court order was procured by fraud, a fraud that was not uncovered by either the originator or intermediary, despite both the originator and the intermediary having each retained attorneys who reviewed and blessed the transaction.       

In another video entitled "Ask Mr. Annuity: Secondary Market Annuities Are a Hedge against Financial Fluctuations", published August 20, 2015 on the Sequence Media YouTube channel, Lance discusses an investment opportunity in factored structured settlement payment stream (misrepresented as an annuity) "backed by" Athene Life and misrepresents that they acquired Aviva with $95 billion in assets. In fact, according to the October 2, 2013 press release issued by Aviva plc, the "transaction proceeds" from the sale of Aviva USA Corporation  to Athene Holding Ltd was "US$2.6bn (£1.7bn) and were subject to customary completion adjustments."  An article of note appeared in the Dealbook section of the New York Times on April 12, 2015 entitled Risky Moves in The Game of Insurance concerning the Aviva transaction,   The article discusses the Athene acquisition of Aviva USA.  Of note is that the URL for the article includes "insurers-bypass-rules-to-add-hidden-risk".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**************************************************************************************************************************************************************

The Bombshell 

• I visited the Ask Mr Annuity web site at askmrannuity(dot)com on April 5, 2017 at 10:44pm EDT. At that time I clicked on a button which said " Click to see our  (i.e. Lance's company's)  current SMA Offerings".  When I clicked on the button a disclaimer popped up which stated "you have clicked on an external link which may not be affiliated with this site. Click OK to open this link in a new window".  So I did. 
• This led to a website at the URL  theannuitiesexchange(dot)com. The screen shot shows the page was created in 2015, the same year that the Ask Mr Annuity videos were published on Sequence Media News' YouTube page.  The subject page prominently displays Ask Mr Annuity logo in the upper right hand corner ask you can see here Download The Annuities Exchange screenshot with Ask Mr Annuity logo 4-5-2017.
• When I Googled  " The annuities exchange" the first listing included the phone number 800-723-4402 as you can see here  Download The annuities exchange - Google Search 4-5-2017. I called 800-723-4402 on April 5, 2017 at 11:12pm and the voicemail greeting stated " Thank you for calling Access Funding..."  [voice greeting hastily changed after this post was published :-) ]
  
• On August 25, 2015, the Washington Post published a blistering front page expose "How companies make millions off lead-poisoned, poor blacks", the first of several articles in award winning coverage by Terrence McCoy.
• Access Funding is a defendant in three lawsuits in Maryland stemming an alleged exploitation of black lead paint victims with structured settlements
• I then determined through a forensic program called DomainTools.com,  that on March 10, 2013 the domain name theannuitiesexchange(dot)com was registered by EPG Solar whose technical and administrative contact is listed as Michael Borkowski with an address in Chevy Chase MD. Thereafter the registrant used a privacy service to conceal identity.  Borkowski happened to be  CEO of Access Funding and received this letter from late Congressman Elijah Cummings investigating the alleged exploitation of black Baltimore City structured settlement annuitants by Access Funding.
• Michael Borkowski is a co-Defendant in several lawsuits related to Access Funding: Borkowski Defendant  MD Attorney General Complaint v Access Funding et al. and Borkowski Defendant in CFPB Complaint v Access Funding et al.

 

Closing Comments

       A Jacksonville Florida retiree invested $150,000 in a "secondary market annuity", sold through Oregon Intermediary Somerset Wealth which at the time of sale heavily promted factored structured setlement payment streams as "secondary market annuities. The structured settlement payment rights turned out to sourced from an entity related to the CEO of Access Funding. The investment represented substantially all of her husbands retirement funds with the expectation that payments would begin to flow in January 2018. In February 2017 she was notified her husband's payments were being suspended pending the outcome of the Maryland litigation against Access Funding et al. due to competing claims. Somerset has since ceased selling factored structured settlement payment streams, using the msileading leable or otherwise. Update:  Three years later the payments are still suspended with ongoing litigation and appeals working their way through Maryalnd Courts. However, a FINRA suit ensued as a result of the delays resulted in a a monetary settlement by the Somerset CEO for $50,000 and another for $55,000 paid for by a registered rep that used to work for the firm. according to FINRA Broker check.

*determined from listening to the posting

**sourced from AZ Department of Insurance records  (4/5/2017),  Steven Lance has been licensed as an insurance agent since 1994.