The Insider's Guide To Structured Settlements, Part I
by James Lokey

What are structured settlements?

Simply put, structured settlements are agreements to make payments over time in exchange for a release of liability. They are usually associated with the settlement of personal injury tort claims.

The seller always asks how we can purchase his payment
streams when he's been told it can't be done. What do we say?

Under the settlement agreement, the plaintiffs (recipients of a structured settlement) are granted only the right to receive certain future payments in return for their release of the defendant's liability. To accommodate the payment of their obligations, the defendants (or their insurer) buy an annuity policy and either retain ownership or assign ownership to another company. The annuitant, therefore, does not own and cannot sell the policy. He does, however, own the right to receive the payments, which is considered personal property and can be assigned.

All of the non-assignment language in the settlement agreement and the annuity policy is generally unenforceable according to the Uniform Commercial Code. While some states have statutes that restrict the assignment of structured settlements, an assignment of the right to receive payments is perfectly legal and binding.

What is the purpose of structured settlements?

Structured settlements are important for their role in successfully resolving thousands of our nation's personal injury tort claims. At the time of settlement, the tax benefits to the defendant, the insurance companies and the claimant make structured settlements mutually beneficial for everyone. Usually they continue to serve the interests of everyone throughout the term of the structure. Circumstances change, however, and the original intent of the structured settlement may no longer serve the interests of the plaintiff.

If structured settlements are so good for everyone, why do so many
people want to sell them?

How does it go? "In life, the only constant is change." Since structured settlements are rigid, inflexible plans. They often fail in their intended purpose. The fundamental flaw in the codes that underpin the structured settlement industry is the irrational assumption that the original structure will serve the best interests of the annuitant (and his beneficiaries) throughout the life of the structure. Beneficiaries' frequent use of the secondary market attests to the fact that their needs are often very different from the original claimant's needs.

Since the payments are virtually guaranteed, why are the discount
rates so high?

While no one argues the safety of the payments, the discount rates reflect uncertainty in other areas. The lack of cooperation from the insurance companies, and sometimes an openly adverse position, means transactions take longer and cost more and resolving problems is expensive. Although the non-assignment language incorporated in most settlements is unnecessary and generally unenforceable, its presence creates a perceived and uncertain legal risk by the investors.

Watch your e-mail for Part II tomorrow!

Jim Lokey is considered the founder of the secondary market for structured settlements, having started the first company to specialize in this investment.

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American Capitalism Gone With A Whimper
by Stansilav Mishin

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breathtaking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people. True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists. (It is now well-established that Lenin and his Soviet Revolution was financed by Wall Street and City of London financial interests who, along with the duped American taxpayers, propped it up for decades. See, for example, Wall Street & The Bolshevik Revolution by Dr. Antony Sutton. -- WJM)

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and "betters."

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather than the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas than the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy." Pride blinds the foolish.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more than Sunday circuses, and their televangelists and top Protestant mega-preachers were more than happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo-Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been record-setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more than another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst
Zimbabwe.

These past few weeks have been the most breath-taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, losses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more than ordinary street thugs in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the sheer volumes. Should we congratulate them?

These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American Congress. Again, Congress has put up little more than a whimper to their masters.

Then came Barack Obama's command that General Motors' president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of "pure" free markets, the American president now has the power to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

So it should be no surprise that the American president has followed this up with a "bold" move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile warranties. I am sure that if given the chance, they would happily try and redesign it for the whole of the world, too.

Prime Minister Putin, less than two months ago, warned Obama and UK's Brown not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western-sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let
our "wise" Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.  Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper...but a "freeman" whimper.

So, should it be any surprise to discover that the Democratic-controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set "fair" maximum salaries, evaluate performance and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses? Congressman Barney Frank, a social pervert basking in his homosexuality (of course, amongst the modern, enlightened American societal norm, as well as that of the general West, homosexuality is not only not a looked down upon life choice, but is often praised as a virtue) and his Marxist enlightenment, has led this effort. He stresses that this only affects companies that receive government monies, but it is retroactive and taken to a logical extreme, this would include any company or industry that has ever received a tax break or incentive.

The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red (that's now the U.S.) as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.

The proud American will go down into his slavery without a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world how free he really is. The world will only snicker. --Stanislav Mishin
(for more of Mr. Mishkin's writings, see mat-rodina.blogspot.com)

Recommended reading:

The Naked Capitalist, by Cleon Skousen

Fourth Reich of the Rich, by Des Griffin

The Creature From Jekyll Island, by G. Edward Griffin

911: Synthetic Terror, by Webster Tarpley