Guide to Structured Settlement: FACTORING AUDIT TECHNIQUE GUIDE

Structured settlements are settlements of tort claims involving physical injuries or physical sickness, and workers’ compensation claims, under which settlement proceeds take the form of periodic payments, including scheduled lump sum payments. Structured settlements generally are funded by single-premium annuity contracts held by the party that is contractually obligated to make the future settlement payments. Under federal tax rules designed to encourage the use of structured settlements, the full amount of each periodic payment, including the amount attributable to earnings under the annuity contract, is excludable from the settlement recipient’s income under IRC section 104(a)(1) or (2). Congress has endorsed the use of structured settlement as a means of assuring continuing income to injury victims and minimizing the risk that lump sum recoveries will be dissipated, leaving victims of disabling injuries to fall back on public assistance.

Consistent with the congressional policy favoring the use of structured settlements, and for reasons linked to their tax treatment, structured settlement agreements typically provide that a settlement recipient’s rights to receive future payments may not be assigned or otherwise transferred. In some cases, transfers of payment rights are also restricted or prohibited under applicable statutes or court orders. Notwithstanding these restrictions, an active secondary market in structured settlement payment rights developed in the early 1990s. Through aggressive advertising, specialized finance companies – now commonly referred to as factoring companies – began persuading structured settlement recipients (referred to herein as “payees”) to trade future payments for present cash.
To circumvent the restrictions on assignment of payment rights, factoring companies arranged for payees to redirect their payments to factoring company addresses. The factoring companies would then collect the payments (endorsing checks in the payee’s names, using powers of attorney and signature stamps) without informing insurers that payment rights had been assigned.

Many payees who dealt with factoring companies were exploited. By fashioning transactions as purchases of future payment rights or as loans originated in states with generous usury laws, factoring companies often charged sharp discounts to payees who were ill equipped to appreciate the value of their future payments or to understand the onerous terms of factoring agreements. In some cases, factoring companies charged discounts equivalent to annual interest rates as high as 70 percent. Payees who defaulted often were sued in remote forums specified in the factoring companies’ form contracts. In many cases, these actions commenced with entry of confessed judgments against payees. Insurers responsible for making ostensibly nonassignable settlement payments became embroiled in collection actions brought by factoring companies. Insurers also faced uncertain tax consequences and risks of multiple liability when assigned settlement payments became subject to competing claims.

Wanna read more? Click Structured Settlement Factoring Audit Technique Guide