For most people, momentous events such as starting a business or buying a new home is considered as their life’s aim as per National funding Resources Associates. If you are also one of them or are planning to start a new business, then your current annuity payments might not be sufficient to fulfill your dreams. You can sell a part of your payments or whole of it to get the cash as per your needs. There are many reasons for you selling off your income stream. One of them can be that you may have a wonderful business idea which will definitely give you better returns. A few of the other reasons might include some medical expenses coming your way, paying off some loan, renovating an old house and many more. For all these, the current annuity payments might not be sufficient to get the job done. Therefore, you can sell them to get cash and fulfill your immediate needs.
Choose your selling options
There are a lot of selling options at your disposal. Either you can sell whole of your income stream or sell it in parts. The income stream from structured settlements carries a lot of tax benefits which are not available with the lump sum cash according to Bank Rate. If you sell a part of your structured settlement, you will get a tax advantage on the rest of the amount. So, deciding upon your selling options is one of the major tasks you should do before selling off your structured settlement.
Find out the present value of your payments
There is no doubt regarding the fact that you will be selling your payments at a lesser price than they are. This is due to the fact that the company which buys your income stream will earn something from the deal. So, you should find out the present value of your future payments and eventually should decide how low you want to sell your structured settlement. Your present value of the income stream will depend upon a lot of factors like the economic conditions and the current interest rates.
Study the laws before selling off your payments
There are a lot of institutions which regulate the selling off of your income stream. There are many conditions written in your document which might restrict the sale of your income stream. Therefore you need to comply with certain conditions which might facilitate the sale of your income stream. There are also many acts enacted by many states in US which protect the claimants’ rights while selling their income streams to third party. The major point of consideration in this case is that all the selling that needs to take place has to be approved by a State Court judge.
Do consult a lawyer or attorney
Consulting a lawyer or an attorney is always an option with you. It is not mandatory to have a lawyer by your side but it does help you save thousands of dollars. A learned lawyer will make sure that all your rights are protected, and will save you from the unnecessary hassle. A lawyer will definitely ensure that you pay no out of pocket expenses while selling your income stream because all the upfront fees is paid by the funding source. Also, the process of funding is pretty straight forward and doesn’t take much long. Once the documents are received, it only takes around 6-8 weeks for the processing and getting the funds. You might get the check through an overnight courier or it might come into your a/c directly.
Choosing a broker and comparing different buying offers
Choosing the best broker for your deal will eventually translate into more money for you. In such a business where huge money is involved, there are bound to be some people who compromise on ethics. Some brokers might have connections with some buyers to whom they might give them exclusivity. The buyers might in return incentivize the brokers to get them the best deal. So, you need to ask the broker how many underwriters he is going to present the deal to. If there are broker-funding source connections, then you are bound to suffer as the buyer will bid as low as possible on account of no competition. Therefore, choosing a broker is very important and certification plays a huge role in it. There might be uncertified brokers who might be dealing with only 1-2 funders which will eliminate competitive bidding.
Once you sell your structured settlement, you assume no risk
When the funding source buys your income stream, they assume your risk too. You need not worry even if the payer defaults or goes bankrupt; it is not your headache. You are not answerable to anyone in such circumstances and no one can come back to you.