Structured settlements are designed to help mitigate your financial situation and pay restitution for pain, suffering and injuries. Most of these settlements are due to personal injury or liability claims. However, if you find that your settlement payments aren’t quite enough to make your situation tenable, you might considering selling it. While this is possible, you need to know a bit more about potential structured settlement buyout problems. There are quite a few that can rear their heads, but you can avoid many of these.
You’re Going to Court
One thing that surprises many people is that they have to go back to court in order to sell a structured settlement (technically called a transfer). The judge will be responsible for determining if the sale is in your best interest and allowing it to proceed. This decision will be made on many different factors, including your financial situation and need. The court will not approve a transfer if you don’t actually need the funds immediately or can’t prove that you do.
Buyer Considerations
A huge issue when it comes to structured settlement buyout problems is the funding company buying your payments. The court is going to take a long, hard look at the terms being offered and if they don’t consider them “fair”, your transfer will be denied. What are fair terms? Essentially, the court wants to make sure that you’re not being taken advantage of, so fair would indicate a deal in which you get to keep the majority of your funds. In many instances, you can keep up to 90% of the money due you, but this varies considerably from company to company, so shopping around is very important.
Legal Help
While you might not think it, having a legal professional you can turn to when selling your structured settlement is important. An attorney will be able to look at any deals offered and tell you whether they are worth your time or have a chance of being approved by the court. A legal expert will also help ensure that you are not being taken advantage of by an unscrupulous company.
More Quotes
As mentioned, it’s important that you shop around for the right deal to avoid potential structured settlement buyout problems. The simplest way to do this is to work with an expert brokerage known for connecting people in your situation with industry leading funding companies.