There are times in life when a situation will arise where someone needs money for an unforeseen circumstance, or perhaps they decide that they want to pay off a loan now or get out of debt now. Maybe they want to start up a business, or put a downpayment on a home. Maybe that individual has a settlement from a personal injury case that is being paid to them at specific intervals over a period of years. This is usually an arrangement that was agreed upon in court by everyone involved. These are referred to as structured settlements.
Over the course of one year the amount paid out in new structured settlements is about $6 million. On average, just one structured settlement amount to an injured person amounts to $324,000. The payments that are allotted to the recipient are sometimes tax free, depending upon the reason for the award. It is suggested that, when someone wins a case which awards them a large sum of money, whether they prefer getting a lump sum or receiving structured settlement payments, they should consult both a lawyer and an accountant for professional advice on the best way to handle the money so that it does them the most good.
Every so often circumstances will change in the life of the person receiving the structured settlement payments and they will want, or need, the full amount of their settlement in one lump sum. A lawyer will tell the client that when you sell your structured settlements, there is a lot of paperwork that needs to be done and the request will have to go before a judge. In order to receive structured settlement cash now, there are certain steps that have to be taken. When you sell your structured settlements, the process is not necessarily long and drawn out, but it does have to go through all the necessary channels.
Another detail to keep in mind when you sell your structured settlements is that there is usually a 10% surrender charge. In spite of this, of the people who do make the decision to sell their structured settlements, 92% interviewed said that they were satisfied with their decision. Selling a structured settlement is not always an easy decision, most of the time, as seen by these statistics, it works out well.
