Settlement Planning Approach

When I was a structured settlement broker, my attorney clients would tell me repeatedly how much better I was than the other structured settlement brokers in my area.  “They” would only ever seem to quote a L/20 or TC20 giving very little thought or consideration to external factors that could possibly threaten existing finances or potential upcoming events, such as possible surgery, etc.   When I put structures together, I went through a thorough exploration of all income, potential income, government benefits, vehicles that may need to be purchased or replaced in the future, children’s education, upcoming potential medical bills, re-training costs and timeframes, and the list could go on and on.

When an annuitant comes to me now wanting to explore cashing out some of their structure, I take that same settlement planning approach to unwinding the structure as I did putting it together.  In a lot of circumstances the structure is the only form of income that the person has and it is brutally important to attempt to not only preserve as much of it as possible but to take many external factors into consideration as well.  It takes someone with that kind of experience and knowledge of the product to fully understand and be appropriate to handle the request.  Who would you want handling a complex trust or estate case, for example? Clearly you would want to know that the person has the background and knowledge to understand the nuances of the more complex cases and furthermore have an expert staff to take it to completion.

A price is just a price - one that any self-serving individual could claim to have the best of, especially when quoting it to someone who doesn’t truly understand the ins and outs of the business.  It’s what comes with that price that makes it all make sense in the end.