by Structured Settlement Watchdog
Jim Yad ("Nickname"), 66, is a retired homebuilder from Yuma Arizona who is unfortunately caught up in the SuttonPark payment servicing mess. He reached out to me on December 9, 2024.
Jim's Structured Settlement
A structured settlement was created as part of a 1992 agreement in a wrongful death medical malpractice lawsuit resulting from the passing of Jim's first wife when he was only 29. Jim was represented by an esteemed lawyer from Binghamton, New York, whom I am acquainted with. Although I was not part of that settlement process, Jim contacted me after reading recent blogs on this platform to assist in providing information to those impacted by the regrettable events at SuttonPark, which is based in Boca Raton in Florida.
The structured settlement included monthly income for life with with payments increasing annually at a fixed rate. and was funded with an annuity from Allstate Life Insurance Company of New York. Jim was living in New York at the time, later moving to North Carolina and finally settled in Yuma Arizona with his second wife for their golden years. Jim's children also received structured settlements. Those have been fully paid out.
Allstate Life Insurance Company of New York ceased writing structured settlements in 2013, and Allstate later divested the company through a sale to Wilton Re in 2021. Allstate - Business Wire Press Release - Wilton Re
Jim's Partial Sale of Structured Settlement Payments
Jim Yad sold some of his structured settlement payment rights to a Florida company in 2017. Due to the sale being a partial structured settlement transfer, a payment servicing agreement was arranged and/or ended up with SuttonPark.
The payment servicing experiece went well until Q4 2024 and Jim mentioned very positive interactions over the years with Percy Forde, the Director of Servicing at SuttonPark. Percy Forde is one of the few payment servicing employees that is still believed to be at SuttonPark. Jim Yad's November payment was still overdue as of Tuesday and the he's worried about the December payment. he sent a communication to [email protected] earlier this week.
As a retiree, Jim relies on his remaining structured settlement payments. He receives his social security check, but the structured settlement payments are crucial, and it's painful to be affected by the decision to lay off most of the SuttonPark servicing department. This left fewer than five people to manage the overwhelming task of processing thousands of payments, akin to moving a "pig through the python" in the Florida Everglades or a "herd of large capybara through an anaconda in the Pantanal" This situation arose at what was once the largest aggregator and servicer of such payments.I identified the factoring company involved in the deal with Jim and contacted them to explore how they could assist in facilitating the process.
Keep Jim in your prayers as well as all others afflicted by the SuttonPark payment servicing nightmare. I will contnue to publish SuttonPark payment servicing delay impact stories. This situation could have been avoided.
Remember that structured settlement payment servicing is necessary in part because certain insurers do not split payments, or parts of payments. Transfers of payment streams with cost of living increases are commonly subject to payment servicing.
Comments and Trackback Policy