More and more people are finding that selling their structured settlements can be a huge benefit to their financial well-being. There are a lot of reasons to consider selling your structured settlements, so you should definitely consider whether it is right for you.
Before you can decide whether you should go through with a sale or not, you need to try to figure out what a reasonable offer would be on the remaining payments in your structured settlements.
When you sell your structured settlements now, you’ll have to understand that you will not get the full value of the remaining payments. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is that money now is worth more than the same amount of money in the future, as it will have the opportunity to gain interest over time. As a result, the fair value for the structured settlement is actually less than the total sum of the remaining payments.
In addition, you have to keep in mind that the people buying structured settlements do need to turn a profit, so that will be factored into the discounted rate as well. Thus, you’ll want to make sure that you have realistic expectations with regard to how much money you expect to receive for your structured settlement. Once you do that, you can proceed in the process and try to get a few quotes and weigh your options.
It’s really easy now to get quotes for your structured settlements, according to Market Watch. All you have to do is find a site that is offering quotes, such as www.StructuredSettlement-Quotes.com. You can then enter a little bit of information about your structured settlement, as well as your contact information. They will then shop your structured settlement around to buyers, looking for the best offers.
In the United States, about 15,000 structured settlements are bought or sold in a given year. This makes up a total of more than $6 billion changing hands and it is a market that is growing.
That said, if you are not actively involved in the structured settlement market, you may not realize what they are or have too much of an understanding over how they are implemented. They typically originate out of personal injury lawsuits, wrongful death claims or other similar legal action.
When a case is wrapped up, there will often be a structured settlement reached between the winner and loser in the case. Typically, there will be a series of payments that add up to the total amount of the decision. This enables the defendant to find a way to make payments without going into total financial disarray. It can also be advantageous to the recipient if the money is needed to pay for expenses that will be continuing for a long period of time.
According to Forbes, the driving factor behind most structured settlements is taxes. More accurately, it’s avoiding taxes. As long as the structured settlement meets specified requirements, the owner or recipient of the payments can have the federal income tax on the money waived. This is possible when the structured settlement arises out of a lawsuit or an agreement for payment in accordance with damages, which can be excluded from gross income. It can also be the case when there is a structured settlement arising from a workman’s compensation claim.
When the periodic payments are made, they must go to someone who was a claimant in the suit or who has been given a qualified assignment of those payments after the fact.
Essentially, all of that just means that money received in a structured settlement may be tax free when those conditions are met. Whether it comes from the end of a lawsuit, or from a settlement to avoid court all together, these requirements could potentially be met.
In order to get the full tax benefits, there must be a third party set up to be the assignment company. This company buys the annuity that is used to create the structured settlement, and receives a lump sum of money from the defendant. They then administer the policy and pay the recipient in accordance with the agreement in place.
This is a complicated structure, but it is necessary in order to receive the tax benefits that are mentioned above. As a result, it is commonly used to provide benefits to both parties involved.
It’s hard not to wonder about the possibilities of selling a structured settlement with so many people offering you that option. There are plenty of benefits to consider, and for a lot of people selling structured settlements makes perfect sense.
When you consider whether or not to sell your structured settlement, it is important that you consider both the pros and cons, according to Yahoo. In many cases, it makes perfect sense to go ahead and sell your structured settlement and see what you can get for it. However, in others, you may be better off holding onto it. You’ll need to figure out what is right for you and act accordingly.
With that in mind, below are some of the best reasons to sell your structured settlement payments.
This is by far the most common reason that people sell their structured settlement payments. They have an urgent financial need that they cannot account for with the money that they have on hand. As a result, they decide to look into all of their available options.
In many cases, the best available option is to sell their structured settlement and get a lump sum of cash right away that they can tap into in order to handle their pressing needs.
In many of these cases, the need arises due to unforeseen circumstances that are unrelated to the structured settlement. It could be due to car problems, home repairs or other random financial needs. However, in some cases it is directly related to the structured settlement.
Unfortunately, sometimes a structured settlement does not live up to what it is trying to do. For example, if there is a settlement that is supposed to provide for medical care as the result of an accident, it has to be carefully planned in order to ensure that it will continue to live up to the needs of the injured or ill.
Medical costs can rise rapidly as needs escalate and as part of inflation. As a result, if a structured settlement was created with fixed payments, they could very well become insufficient over time. If that is the case, there is often no other option than to sell the structured settlement for a lump sum that can provide some financial relief.
In some cases, the structured settlement is largely adequate to handle medical expenses, but some large unforeseen expenses can arise too. In these cases, it might be better to sell some payments while holding on to other in the future.
This is a balanced approach that can provide immediate financial assistance in the short term while still preserving some long-term financial security.