Structured Settlements 4Real® Blog: Structured Settlements | Settlement Planning News and Commentary, Now in 14th Year!

Structured Settlement Industry Continues to Thrive on Providing Core Safety and Security

by John Darer CLU ChFC MSSC CeFT RSP CLTC

Structured Settlement Industry at "Half Time" 2019.

After returning to $6 billion in production in 2018,  structured settlement industry production for the first six months of 2019 was $3,062,569,865 in premium

Stable income is sexy

for structured settlement annuities  Leading at half time were MetLife (Metropolitan Tower Life Insurance Company and Metropolitan Life insurance Company), Pacific Life Insurance Company (including Pacific Life and Annuity Company for New York structured settlement quotes) and Berkshire Hathaway (which includes Berkshire Hathaway Life Insurance Company of Nebraska, First Berkshire Hathaway Life Insurance Company and National Indemnity Company for reinsurance structured settlements.  Prudential Insurance Company of America and USAA Life Insurance Company round out the top 5 at half time.

Some of the ways structured settlements can be used.

• Provide guaranteed safe and secure income streams
• Provide a strong and stable foundation for plaintiff's settlement planning.
• Can match up with known needs and provide a stable foundation for young adults, young families, optimistic people who want to delay the start of social security and get higher payments. 
• Multiple payments streams can be customized and issued in a single contract, or in multiple contracts across multiple companies for diversification.
• Save significant money on the cost of funding an MSA.
• Attorney fee deferrals  without limitations and the administrative costs of qualified pension plans.

There many other applications. I've been told I'm a good sounding board. Contact me anytime to discuss your personal situation.

Ding Dong The Risk (Lawsuit) Is Dead

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

A disgruntled former structured settlement broker's quest to take down AIG, has been nailed shut as the deadline to file Writ Certiorari has come and gone.

"Writs Thirtanly Over"

So a quest that started January 3, 2017 with Richard B. Risk, Jr, hitched up with a stud attorney, whose track record was promoted as if he was Seattle Slew, and failed like a wilted asparagus. They failed again on Appeal and finally collapsed entirely. The problem with promoting a stud is that the stud still has to perform and in this case, Risk just had no case, no room for the stud to gallop. It was more like a scene from "The Galloping Blase".

The law suit, formerly the " AiG structured settlement class action",  was so poorly pleaded in my opinion, for reasons that I've articulated here over the past two years. Even a layperson could figure that it wouldn't succeed.  The Appeal saw the lower court's dismissal affirmed in AIG's favor, with an opinion written by former Supreme Court Justice David Souter. Appellants did not ask for an en banc review of  the First Circuit's decision and now, according to  Supreme Court Docket September 13, 2019, they have not pursued the last remedy, writ of certiorari to see if the United Supreme Court would review the case. 

What is Writ of Certiorari?   

A Writ of Certiorari orders a lower court to forward all documents in a case it has heard to the higher court for review. While this is most commonly used by the U.S. Supreme Court, other courts, such as the U.S. Court of Appeals, state supreme courts, and state courts of appeal, may issue such a writ. The U.S. Supreme Court is very selective about which cases it will hear, accepting cases only when at least four of the justices believe the case raises a significant federal question that is in the public’s interest.

Supreme Court Rule 13.1 states that the deadline to file a petition for a writ of certiorari is 90 days from the date of entry of judgment by the the Court of Appeals.  The deadline was September 9, 2019.

Risk Law Firm website has attempted to drum up business with the misrepresentation about a class action lawsuit against The Hartford that "His class action lawsuit was followed by the insurer’s exit from the structured settlement annuity marketplace. The insinuation is  (and continues to be as it is still posted) that it was the reason for he insurer's withdrawal.  In " Credit Check for Attorney Dick Risk", I pointed out that the reason they withdrew was for reasons other than Risk and "his class action lawsuit". Unlike the Spencer case, the  Risk's lawsuit against AIG was never certified as a class action.

Risk won't get the chance to gloat about AIG. Au revoir Monsieur Risk!

"Worker's Bonk" Equals Worker's Comp as Adulterous Affair Leads to Fatal "On the Job" Heart Attack

by John Darer CLU ChFC MSSC CeFT RSP CLTC

Married man’s death during sex on business trip ruled a ‘workplace accident’ reads the New York Post headline, reporting a story from the Times of London.

Can You Believe This?

Engineer Xavier X was found dead in his hotel room in Meung-sur-Loire shortly after having sex with a local woman he’d just met, according to the Times of London. Lawyers for his bosses at the Parisian railroad construction company TSO insisted he was not performing duties when he had the heart attack — blaming the “adulterous sex act that he had had with a complete stranger,” according to the report. But appeals court judges in France ruled that an employee on assignment “is entitled to their employer’s protection for the duration of their mission … whether or not the accident takes place as part of a professional activity or as an act of normal life,” the report said. They held up a 2016 lower court ruling in the case that stated, “A sexual encounter is an act of normal life like taking a shower or eating a meal,” according to the Times. That means the February 2013 death of Xavier X, whose surname was not released, is officially an “accident du travail,” which entitles the victim’s family to benefits from both the state and employer. I guess that's the benefits of getting paid the "big francs"

Under French law, any partners and children will receive a monthly benefit of up to 80 percent of his salary until what would have been his retirement age and then a share of his pension. C'est la vie!

If such a ruling were to occur in the United States, could the claim under the worker's death conceivably be resolved through a structured settlement? Pursuant to IRC 104(a)(1)  which exempts payments received under workers compensation acts as compensation for personal injuries or sickness.  Structured settlements are very popular way to settle workers compensation cases and to fund Medicare Set Asides arrangements.

 

 

Synergy Settlement Services v Dave Place et al. v Synergy Settlement Services et al.

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

In the Middle District of Florida, it's already going "below the belt"

After promoting David Place as the guy "who wrote the book on lien resolution", Synergy Settlement Services is "throwing the book" at lawyer Dave Place for breach of

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

contract and seeks injunctive relief and to enforce restrictive covenants. Place named Synergy and its officers, individually,  in counterclaims alleging a hostile work environment including salacious allegations concerning the CEO of Synergy Settlement Services. 

Case Caption    

Synergy Settlement Services, Inc., a Florida Corporation and

Jason D, Lazarus, an Individual,

Omar Quddus, an Individual,

Anthony Prieto , Jr., an Individual, jointly and severally, 

and the Florida Bar Association

Venue: United States District Court Middle District of Florida Case 6:19-cv-1411. The matter was commenced by Synergy in the 9th Judicial District of Florida (Orange County) and removed o the Federal District Court Middle District of Florida at Orlando  

Synergy Alleges in Its Complaint

From July 2012 to April 2019, Place was employed as Synergy's VP and Director of Lien Resolution. Place was responsible for managing Synergy's Lien Resolution Services and team in almost all states in the USA, including contacting and servicing Synergy's customers and expanding its services. Synergy alleges that for the most part Place satisfactorily perform his duties,  but in 2017 Synergy claims that Place violated its policies and Synergy commenced progressive discipline against Place. On April 22, 2019 Synergy terminated Place's employment for cause effective immediately,

Synergy alleges that Place:

• Failed to comply with 2018 Personal Improvement Plan
• Faield to integrate the lien resolution team as directed by Synergy
• Violated Synergy's Pride policy and allege inconsistent, combative, insubordinate behavior
• Fraudulently used the corporate credit card for personal  expenses and association dues not authorized by Synergy and made sexually inappropriate comments to female co-workers  (see Place allegations below)
• On April 30, 2019  (8 days after his employment  with Synergy was terminated), Place formed The Place Firm PLLC and began competing with Synergy
• Accuses Place of spoliation of evidence.

Synergy seeks a 2 year injunction, the imposition of a constructive trust and  an award of liquidated damages.

Place alleged in his counter-claims (and sought millions in damages from Synergy, its CEO and other officers):

• Synergy is engaged in the unauthorized  practice of law  (response page 2)
• Synergy has a history of violating restrictive covenants in existing employment contracts, citing as an example his predecessor Tevra Francis, and another Synergy employee who were employed with knowledge of an existing non-compete with the Garretson Resolution Group, Inc.  (response p 3). Further that Synergy did obtain client, pricing, marketing, sales and other internal information from Paul MacEvoy with the express purpose of using same to directly compete with the Garretson Resolution Group  (Ibid p 8)
• Synergy, by and through its CEO, did create a hostile work environment. Place alleges Synergy's CEO regularly sent pornographic material via Synergy computer equipment to Place's work email, often during working hours. Places alleges that another Synergy officer informed Place on multiple occasions that these materials from the Synergy CEO were a result of his information in a central Florida trial lawyers listserv called "badger"  (Ibid)
• Synergy promoted a sexualized work environment often interfering with Place's ability to perform as VP and Director of Lien Resolution Services. He alleges that the environment included adulterous affairs between Synergy owners and employees and the overt discussion of Synergy's female employee's sexual appeal. (Ibid)
• Synergy CEO would share his sexual exploits via social media application Tinder as "shooting fish in a barrel"  (Ibid p 3-4)
• Synergy owners and executives engaged in overt discussion and encouragement of sexual activity generally, and demonstrated a dismissive attitude to serious complaints of aggressive sexual behavior by Synergy's agents.  (Ibid p 4)
• Synergy's presentation of its corporate " dress code" policy was and is graphic, crude, and overtly sexualizes women. (Ibid p 4)
• Synergy through its agent Omar Quddus, created a hostile work environment by threatening to (be) "lined up and shot" the next Synergy employee who did not have a positive attitude.  (Ibid p4)
• Fraud.  That Synergy intentionally and negligently defrauded Place concerning the strategic plans for the sale of Synergy  (Ibid pgs 4 and 25). That Synergy CEO defrauded Place of his intellectual property  and  as a result, place " ghost wrote" virtually all lien resolution correspondence, list serv posts, emails and presentations for the Synergy CEO who took sole credit.  (Ibid p 29 )
• That Synergy did not comply with its own policies and procedures  (Ibid pgs 
• Defamation Per Se

Synergy advertised on its blog that "Synergy's Dave Place Wrote the book on Lien Resolution", saying Liens in Personal Injury Actions  "was the only book of its kind in Virginia that is intended to help simplify the complexity that characterizes liens and to provide assistance to Virginia’s trial lawyers in securing the maximum net recovery for clients".  The actual list of authors includes Dave Place among at least ten authors and contributors.
ISBN: 9780820580371. Download Synergy David Place wrote the book - Google Search 8-25-2019

Update

Synergy's counsel Gary S. Salzman, Esq. of Orlando's Garganese, Weiss, D'Agresta & Salzman, P.A., pointed out in a letter dated August 27, 2019, that the Florida Circuit Court entered an order on July 23, 2019, which dismissed the counterclaim of Dave Place and The Place Law Firm , PLLC. In the dismissal it states that Place had until August 19, 2019 to amend. Subsequent to the dismissal, on July 29, 2019, Place, signed and he and The Place Law Firm, PLLC filed for removal to the Middle District of Florida where it was entered on August 2, 2019. The caption in the 4 page  Document 1 on the Pacer record for the removal includes Place and The Place Law Firm as Third Party Plaintiffs and Synergy Settlement Services and the officers named above as Third Party Defendant. Download Pacer Doc 1 Synergy v Place Middle District of Florida.  However none of the attachments filed by Place and associated with document 1 referred to the dismissal. It appears that Place's counter claims will be refiled.

The litigation against Place and The Place law Firm is one of a pair lawsuits against individuals formerly associated with its heralded lien resolution team.  In the other lawsuit, filed April 2, 2019 in Orange county Circuit Court, is against William Nathan Parkey and Panoptic Insurance Group, LLC  d/b/a Panoptic Settlement Solutionss and Zipliens, LLC, Synergy seeks injunctive relief, compensatory damages, exemplary damages, and attorney ’s fees under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. According to his website, Parkey is Managing Partner and Chief Compliance Officer for Panoptic Financial Group, a Registered Investment Advisor, offering financial planning and investment services. Nathan consults attorneys and their clients across the state of Kentucky and select areas outside of the state.

That's Not All Folks!   There's another lawsuit pending

David L. Place v Synergy Settlement Services, Inc.,a  Florida Corporation In the Culpeper General District Court Virgina

Case No. V19-891

Dave Place sued Synergy Settlement Services Inc. Culpeper County Virginia back in the Spring for breach of contract.  According to the Bill of Particulars for the lawsuitagainst Synergy and filed exhibits:

1. Synergy owed Dave Place the balance of his $116,504.64  2018 bonus, which the parties agreed would be paid in installments. An offer was alleged to be offered by Synergy and accepted by Place on March 11, 2019. This was covered in multiple emails to and from Synergy and Place as shown in Bill of Particulars Exhibit A to the complaint filed in Culpeper County General DistrictCourt.
2. On April 5, 2019, Synergy's bookeeper, Troy Heinemann, confirmed per the contract the remaining balance due Place was $31,334.88 ( Bill of Particulars Exhibit A)
3. Place alleges in the Bill of Partculars that he has not received  the funds due per the March 11, 2019 contract  (Bill of Particulars )
4. On May 8, 2019 Place gave Synergy the opportunity to cure the breach of the March 11, 2019 contract by email  (Bill of Particulars Exhibit C). The next day Jason Lazarus responded that "Synergy outside counsel was reviewing everything and one of us will  respond to you by next week  (Ibid). The alleged balance remains unresolved as does the lawsuit.

 

 

 

 

Appeal of AIG Class Action Dismissal Fails | Ezell v Lexington Insurance et al Ends in Resounding Failure for Plaintiffs

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

Plaintiffs Made Failed Argument Structured Settlement Broker Commission Paid by Annuity Issuer Shortchanged Plaintiffs

Efforts by a disgruntled former structured settlement broker Richard B Risk Jr., to get another big payday off the backs of an insurance company have ended

Appeal of Ezell Lawsuit against AIG

in resounding failure.  The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts in NORMA EZELL, LEONARD WHITLEY, and ERICA BIDDINGS, on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. LEXINGTON INSURANCE COMPANY; AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP, INC.; AIG ASSURANCE COMPANY; AIG INSURANCE COMPANY; AIG PROPERTY CASUAL TY COMPANY; AIG SPECIAL TY INSURANCE COMPANY; AMERICAN GENERAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY; NATIONAL UNION FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY OF PITTSBURG, PA.; AGC LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY; AMERICAN GENERAL ANNUITY SERVICE CORPORATION; AIG CLAIMS, INC., f/k/a AIG Domestic Claims, Inc., Defendants, Appellees.  The analysis and decision was written by Retired United States Supreme Court Justice David Souter appears below. Disgruntled Dick bringing in "The Big Stick, Steven Berman of Hagens Berman, who had a string of 9 figure recoveries didn't do the trick. The lawsuit was poorly pleaded to begin with and the class representative cases were poorly chosen, in my opinion, for reasons I have explained in prior posts.

Souter wrote "Appellants conceded in their complaint that it is "[i]ndustrywide" practice for brokers to be paid "a standard sales commission of four percent (4%) of the annuity's cost," Amended Complaint ,Paragraph 31, and that the commission would be paid by the annuity issuer, id. , Paragraphs 35, 99(b), 100(b), 120(b), 121(b). Assuming that these allegations are true, as we must at the motion-to-dismiss stage, Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007) , the four­ percent commission payment would have been paid by the life insurance companies that sold the annuities, and would have been accounted for as a standard element of the cost of doing business by the life insurance companies and reflected in the market prices that Lexington paid. The commission, in other words, was included in the price of a given annuity in the marketplace, and the appellants have provided no basis to infer that liability insurers in Lexington's position were under any obligation to inform a settlement party of the items of overhead that it was the annuity industry's continuing practice to account for in pricing their products. Because the words "annuitized" and "total present value" simply committed Lexington to pay the amounts stated as necessary to produce the periodic payments specified in the agreements, the annuity companies' payment of brokers' commissions from out of the money Lexington paid for the annuities does not belie the facts that Lexington paid the amounts it quoted and that appellants received exactly those specific annuity payments the agreements had promised, payments that the appellants have not alleged that they failed to receive". 

"Because there is no dispute that appellants did receive the periodic payment amounts they were promised in agreements containing no uncorrected misrepresentations, there is no allegation in the pleadings that appellants suffered the kind of harm necessary to make out a case of the statutory or common-law violations claimed".

"The basic problem with appellants' complaint is not that they failed to state some facts "with particularity." Fed. R. Civ. P. 9(b). Rather, it is that the facts they have pleaded "with particularity" on the matters discussed here demonstrate the absence of any "circumstances constituting fraud." !Q,_ Accordingly, we affirm the District Court's decision dismissing the amended complaint with prejudice."

Dick Risk's Resounding Failure to Bag the Big One Is Proof of Waning Relevance

Plaintiffs' Appeal in AIG Structured Settlement Class Action Cracks Me Up | Co-Counsel's 2005 and Prior Writing Undermines Advocacy  12/28/2018

AIG Structured Settlement Class Action Dismissed With Prejudice | Ezell v Lexington Insurance et al. September 28, 2018

Structured Settlement Reform | "The Hill Is Alive With The Sound of Musing" 5/23/2017

AIG Structured Settlement Class Action | To Gun Jumpers' Dismay Plaintiff HAD Own Broker | Two Factored Payments  4/13/2017

Structured Settlement Reform | It's Not His Party But He Can Cry If He Wants To 4/21/2015

AIG Structured Settlement Class Action | Old Dick Attempts To Swing "Big Stick"   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's Going on With Structured Settlement Exchange?

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

Structured Settlement Exchange was trademarked on the Supplemental Register of the USPTO in August 2018 by Seventh Amendment Holdings, LLC of Buffalo, New York. The exhibit to the amended Statement of Alleged Use on file with the USPTO includes a screen shot from enuities.com. The enuities.com website, which has been active since at least  June 2018, when I discovered it,  solicited new business in huge print claiming to be able to pay you 50% more for your structured settlement, with a "small print" disclaimer "Beating offers by 50% is possible in specific scenarios but not typical".  If it's not typical then why is it being claimed in advertising?

via GIPHY

 

A search for " structured settlement exchange" on Google today comes up with the following result.  The website however appears to be inactive. What's up?

Structured Settlements | Get Cash For Settlements | 833-SSE-QUOTE
https://www.enuities(dot)com/

Structured Settlements - Get The Cash You Deserve for Your Existing Settlement. We Get You 50% More for Your Structured Settlement? Contact Us …

As reported in November 2018, in October 2018 the President of Milestone Consulting sent an email (from milestoneseventh(dot)com), that I obtained a copy of from its recipient, in which The President of Milestone Consulting claimed that his was "only primary market as well as origination firm in the secondary market that he knew of".

Postscript  On October 4, 2018, the name Structured Settlement Exchange LLC was changed to CrowFly LLC, according to records on file with the New York Secretary of State. Staffers appear on the Milestone Consulting website and the address on file with New York State is the same as Milestone Buffalo.

 

 

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."

 

 

Is the Aviva/Athene Class Action Settlement Check Real?

by Structured Settlement Watchdog® 

I've received numerous calls recently from people who have received checks ranging in value from $90 to over $1,000 who want to know whether or not the check is real. If you are receiving payments from an Athene structured settlement (formerly Aviva or CGU), set up prior to the end of 2008, then you have received the check as part of a class action settlement.

Some people are on the verge of throwing it out because they think it's junk mail [no thanks to the structured settlement secondary market ]

Read  Do You Have an Aviva or Athene Structured Settlement?  May 9, 2018

and Aviva Structured Settlement CMA Class Action Settlement | Aviva Annuitants to Be Noticed 

Note:  Please check to see if there is a deadline for cashing the check. If that deadline has passed, you should contact the class action administrator.

 

Qualified Settlement Fund Adminstrator | Want to Own 468B.COM? A "Mass Tort Domain Made Perfect"

by John Darer® CLU ChFC MSSC CeFT RSP CLTC

Qualified Settlement Fund Administrators, or QSF Administrators involved in class action lawsuits and mass torts may be interested in the internet domain 468B.com which we might be convinced to sell at the right price.  468B.COM is a "mass tort domain made perfect"

There would obviously be significant value in owning a unique, easy to remember 4 character  .COM domain name eponymous to IRC 468B, the relevant tax code section to qualified settlement funds.

 

Allstate in Talks to Sell Annuity Block Including Structured Settlements

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

Reuters reported on April 3, 2019 that Allstate Corp has entered into exclusive talks to sell a book of insurance policies from an area where it no longer generates new business to smaller peer FGL Holdings. Reuters cited " people familiar with the matter". The book of business which Allstate is seeking to sell includes a selection of annuity products, as well as structured settlement policies, the sources said.   Allstate stopped writing new structured settlement annuities in 2013. While it was writing structured settlement annuities Allstate was one of the most competitive and innovative companies, particularly in the are of non qualified assignments.

A number of players, often backed by private equity firms, have emerged in recent years to acquire such blocks, believing they can earn good returns from administering the policies in a more efficient way than traditional insurers.  In recent years for example, Liberty Mutual, The Hartford and CNA have offloaded their annuity blocks. GE Capital, a player until 2006, spun off its annuity and Long Term Care division as part of the creation of Genworth, but still had exposures from a period of time that  GE Capital provided guarantees to back up its assignment company. Such guarantees and similar ones offered by CNA and Aviva were critical to the decision to place business with those companies. Insurance commissioners examining these deals should have this information on their radar and be aware of their non delegable duty to consumers and beneficiaries of insurance products.

 

Reuters reports that "the business for sale is expected to be valued at between $2.5 billion and $3 billion, according to its sources, cautioning that a deal is not certain and asking not to be identified because the matter is confidential".

FGL Holdings was formed by ex-Blackstone Group dealmaker Chinh Chu and William Foley, an insurance veteran who is non-executive chairman of Fidelity National Financial and also the owner of the Vegas Golden Knights ice hockey team. Both Chu and Foley currently serve as co-executive chairmen of FGL. 

Vigilance is important in these portfolio sales as the Athene purchase of Aviva USA amply demonstrates, with a class action suit needed to compensate the annuitants for a contact feature that was terminated without disclosure to annuitants, who were charged more for it at the time of establishment.  In Allstate's case its Advance Funding Exchange Notice is an important liquidity feature. It is important to see that protections remain in any acquisition so that Allstate annuitants are not left to the structured settlement factoring vultures. 

FGL subsidiary, F&G Life is a former writer of structured settlement annuities.