Introducing the Payee Protection Policy
Independent Life is proud to introduce the structured settlement industry’s first Payee Protection Policy. This new offering is directly in line with our company’s mission to provide trustworthy, competitive and innovative annuity products that professional structured settlement consultants can easily integrate with other financial products and governmental benefits to produce optimum settlement planning solutions for personal injury victims and their families.
Trustworthiness, along with safety and security, is the cornerstone of our company; whether it be customer service, privacy, or providing the payments, as promised. Payees, parents, attorneys and judges place their trust in Independent Life to secure payments for the payees, as they mutually intend at the time of the settlement. We will apply the principles of this Payee Protection Policy to honor that trust.
Each year, thousands of structured settlement payees participate in 5891 transactions, transferring payment rights to factoring companies. These companies use highly persuasive marketing tactics to lead payees, who are often no longer represented by professional advisors, to transfer payments to themselves, often offering inadequate compensation. Generally, the structured settlement professionals, settlement planners and attorneys, who participated in the settlement, are not even aware of the impending 5891 transfers.
So, this team of professionals, who collectively advised the payee on the original payout plan, is unable to assist the payee in finding a reasonable alternative or at least in making an educated decision. The life insurance companies continue making payments (to a different payee assuming a transfer occurs), but the original payee’s payment plan is never really secure when structured settlement payment right can so easily be transferred to a third-party.
When the structured settlement is created, the biggest benefit and source of comfort for the payee, their families and their legal advisors is that they can depend on these payments being made in accordance with the payment schedule specifically prescribed in the settlement agreement. Any proposed sale and transfer of these payment rights would result in a major change to the financial outlook of the original payee. In such event, Independent Life will engage the professionals who designed the plan so that the payee does not have to undertake this process alone. Independent Life is also committed to fighting back against unfair pricing practices, predatory practices, and forum shopping which some times occur with these proposed transfers.
Independent Life has created the first Payee Protection Policy in the structured settlement industry that will offer SECURITY for our payees. We will take the extra steps to re-engage the professionals that established the payment plan to secure it or weigh in on the wisdom of changing it. Independent Life will attempt to protect its payees from any and all proposed transfer petitions we view as unfair to our payees.
Click here for a copy of our Payee Protection Policy and review the covenants we are making with planners and our mutual clients as it relates to attempts to sell structured settlements.
