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Genex Capital SSQ Website is a Relic, Posts Insurer Ratings Information 10 Years Old!

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

Genex Capital, the structured settlement buyer operating out of a mailbox at a UPS store in Dover, Delaware,  apparently thinks decade old third party ratings of insurers  are useful to consumers. Many of these companies don't even write structured settlement annuities. There are wide swaths of the alphabet missing. Why would Genex Capital, run by a successful guy named Roger Proctor, a guy who has a multi million dollar condo at the Fairmont Pacific Rim and another home on an island, and Boris Drubetsky  be so lax as to allow the continued display the useless insurance company information?  Has it all "gone to pot" over there?

I continue to marvel at current interest rates juxtaposed against Roger Proctor's decade old wail about interest rates rising in an attempt to get suckers to sell their structured settlement payments to Genex Capital for pennies on the dollar. History has shown that it would have been a financial disaster. Interest rates now stand even lower than they were when Proctor made his wolf call. In June 2009, the 10 year Treasury hit 4%. At time of publishing the 10 Year Treasury is at 1.62% (it has been as low as 1.47% in recent weeks).

If you have a structured settlement that was set up when you were a child there is a really good chance that you are earning more on  a tax free basis than you would be in a savings account , CD or United States Treasury. This structured settlement is desirable to investors who are seeking high yields, high yields than can only be achieved if you get short changed.  If you have a structured settlement that was set up in 2009 for example and the yield exceeds 4-5% with a company like New York Life, Pacific Life, American General, John Hancock, Berkshire Hathaway, USAA Life, MetLife, don't be a fool and sell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Genex Capital Finally Displays Vancouver Address on Website

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

It took years of prodding, but Genex Capital has finally listed its address in Vancouver in addition to its UPS store mailbox in Dover Delaware, at least on its main website. Nobody actually works in the UPS store #4335 mailbox at 73 Greentree Drive in Dover, Delaware.

Genex Capital Assured Annuity, the outlet for structured settlement derivatives that have been mislabeled annuity, still lists the UPS store mailbox and refers to itself as an "investing service" on Facebook.  When Genex Capital sells an investor structured settlement payment rights, what the investor is buying is not an annuity because the annuity itself is not transferred in a structured settlement factoring transaction.

Potential for Consumer Confusion

There is the potential for consumer confusion in that AIG offers Assured Edge Income Builder, a fixed annuity with a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit designed to offer guaranteed income for life, plus a rising income opportunity. Riversource also offers Riversource Assured, a limited flexible purchase payment deferred fixed index annuity.  On the Genex Capital Assured Annuity website Genex includes a table comparing the " annuity" that it offers to other actual annuities from various companies including an AIG subsidiary.

Important difference between real annuities and what Genex Capital and other similar companies mislabel and are offering to investors is:

• Risk. What Genex Capital offers and mislabels an annuity is more risky than annuities. Genex Capital is currently contesting the interpleader in the notorious Terrence Taylor case where 11 factoring transactions were approved in 2 years. They are doing what they need to in an effort to protect investors. Plaintiffs in that case want the interpleader to assure there is money to pay any counterclaims against the counter-party defendant in the underlying case. Class Action Lawsuit threatens thousands of such investments in Virginia. A Florida investor who was sold a structured settlement derivative by one of Genex Capital's competitors is in limbo and has not rceived any payments that were due to start in January 2018. The Wall case imploded for a Pittsburgh couple due to an underlying fraud at the time of the origination by a Genex Capital competitor.
• Licensing requirements. Legitimate annuities are offered through licensed agents or brokers who are licensed in the state their clients live or work.

A Secondary Market Annuity is Not an Annuity

SSQ Structured Settlement Factoring Company Reviews

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

SSQ, which, despite outward appearances, appears to be ultimately controlled out of Vancouver Canada by Genex Capital and/or its designees, according to information that I have developed over the past 14 months, some of which has been posted here. We have more.

Ongoing Business Strategy?

Can the owners and controllers of SSQ website manipulate what are held out as reviews?  

On February 27,2013 an " Editors Note" appeared on one of the "reviews" for JG Wentworth. It's also notable for appearing AFTER my January 15, 2013 postwhere I demonstrated in SSQ Settlement Quotes SEO Madness- 843 Steps Beyond, there were 843 footer backlinks from diverse worldwide locations promoting the Woodbridge review page on the SSQ website and 4,200 to a similar page regarding JG Wentworth. Many of the so-called  "wordpress theme" pages provided 3-4 links back to SSQ.  If the structuredsettlement-quotes(dot)com website were truly independent, then why would SSQ's Canadian owners and operators permit the SEO tactic to optimize the trashing of several of its competitors?  Discussion of Word press themes with links in the footers as described in the January 15th post is fodder for SEO forums like Blackhat World.

Third party evidence suggests that part of the SSQ SEO strategy is to draw web traffic off the names and trademarks of its competitors in the secondary market and the names and trademarks of others in the structured settlement primary market, including life insurance companies that currently or formerly issued structured settlement annuities and casualty insurers. When these companies advertise onTV or radio and then consumers seek additional information about them on the Internet, SSQ's review page or listing for the target company comes up, often a top position.

As measured by Alexa on April 18, 2013,  4 out of 10 of the top queries driving traffic to structuredsettlement-quotes (dot) com from search engines are related to life insurers issuing structured settlement annuities, representing close to 14% of SSQ's Alexa search traffic came from these 4 terms

• New York Life Structured Settlements  5.78%
• Pacific Life Structured Settlement Quotes 3.07%
• Metropolitan Life Structured Settlement Quotes 2.49%
• Prudential Insurance Company of America Structured Settlement Quotes 2.49%

Other notable key words driving traffic to SSQ that supplement the perecentage include but not limited to, according to Alexa:

• John Darer Structured Settlements
  
• Metlife Structured Settlement Quotes

For any of the factoring companies that SSQ provides a review page there is lead generation angle for SSQ . Webpage links to the companies in the directory are not live.

When Did This Apparent Business Strategy Begin?

We estmate that the apparent business strategy began in or about the summer of 2011, based on a series of screen shots captured from the structuredsettlement-quotes (dot) com website by a third party. For example there were no competing company reviews on the SSQ site in March 2011 screenshot capture. Coincidentally the reviews began in the summer of 2011 when Andrew Cravenho is believed to have sold the SSQ web platform he developed to one of the Genex companies or its representatives.

Furthermore this is when on the timeline, the redirect scheme began involving webuypayments.net that later in 2011 embroiled David Springer and Sovereign Funding Group as defendants in lawsuits with competitors JG Wentworth and Woodbridge Structured Funding. The Woodbridge lawsuit against Mt. Airy, MD resident David Springer and Sovereign Funding Group, is still pending in Maryland Federal Court. We  have reason to believe that during the relevant times, there was a business connection between Genex Capital/ Proctor and David Springer/Sovereign Funding.

When one puts 2 and 2 together, isn't the very notion of the SSQ as an independent bidding system. canceled out by the following statement on the SSQ website?  "We shop your payments to our Certified Funders, leading funding companies in the industry pre-approved by us, thereby creating a competition to get you the best price while at the same time saving you the hassle and aggravation of having to deal with numerous companies directly". If the "us" is Genex Capital, then how independent is it?  Now this is not to say that Genex Capital cannot get you a good price. But it certainly is not transparent.  (emphasis ours). We had to do ALOT of digging to determine the Vancouver nexus from multiple sources.

What I am speaking to is:

Are we observing the promotion of independence (where there appears not to be) and is this something that deserves a serious examination when a company advertises that it has served over 11,000 American** customers to get new customers. Where is the transparency? I asked for this is May 2012 and all that happened in the following months was a ramp up in defamatory attacks against the messenger. Coincidence, or not?

Rule #9 of SSQ's Certified Funder requirements "No Anti-Competitive Practice". Whether or not you deem the conduct of SSQ and those who own or control it to be anti-competitive is subject to interpretation. Given what we've been able to develop and the steps that have been observed to have been taken to conceal the true ownership or control of the website I believe the answer is obvious.

The National Association of Settlement Purchasers states on its website that it is dedicated to ensuring the secondary market for structured settlement transfers remains fair, competitive, and transparent. Genex Capital was listed as a member of NASP at the time of posting.

 **(upon information and belief structured settlement cannot be sold in Canada)

 

 

 

 

 

Delaware Insurance Consumer Protection

by John Darer CLU ChFC MSSC CeFT RSP CLTC

The Delaware legislature signed into law H.B. 202, in 2010, to provide increased consumer protection in the event of carrier insolvencies, with implications concerning structured settlement annuity plans to both payees and beneficiaries; and long term care.

According to a write up in the current issue of National Underwriter, Delaware has at least 165 residents who have faced potential loss of coverage because of pending insurer liquidation proceedings, a statement attributed therein, to Delaware Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart. It is not believed that any of these are structured settlement recipients.

According to Delaware Insurance Section 4419 "Advertising" No person, including an insurer, agent or affiliate of an insurer shall make, publish, disseminate, circulate or place before the public, or cause, directly or indirectly, to be made, published, disseminated, circulated or placed before the public, in any newspaper, magazine or other publication, or in the form of a notice, circular, pamphlet, letter or poster, or over any radio station or television station, or in any other way, any advertisement, announcement or statement which uses the existence of the Insurance Guaranty Association of this State for the purpose of sales, solicitation or inducement to purchase any form of insurance covered by this chapter. Provided, however, that this section shall not apply to the Delaware Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association or any other entity which does not sell or solicit insurance.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This post is not intended for use in the sales, solicitation or inducement to purchase any form of insurance covered by Delaware Insurance Section 4419 . Nor may it be used by anyone for such purpose.

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