Sell Annuity Payments for Cash Take Financial Control Today!

When it comes to our finances, none of us want to leave anything to chance. We want to know that our money is being handled in the most appropriate manner and that the professionals that we charge with giving us advice are soundly leading us in the right direction.  Colonial Settlement works with you to ensure that you are getting all that you can from your structured settlement – helping you to sell annuity payments for the cash you need today.

At Colonial Settlement we understand the complexities of structured settlements – financial arrangements that are very often made when a personal injury case is settled for a cash award. When this money is distributed to the recipient through a structured settlement it is an alternative to the money being paid out all at once. Instead, the settlement amount is deposited into an annuity from which various payments are made to the recipient on a scheduled basis.

Structured settlements can be useful and satisfactory arrangements for many people or for a period of time. But what if you prefer to have all of your money at once? Or you find yourself facing financial circumstances that require a lump sum of money.  The purchase of a new home, the cost of a child’s education, business opportunities that present themselves, the loss of a job, or unexpected medical and financial emergencies can all result in the need for cash in hand. At Colonial Settlement we can help turn your structured settlement payments into cash by helping you sell annuity payments in exchange for the money you need.

Why Colonial Settlement? It’s simple. Because when it comes to your money you want to work with professionals you can trust. Our expert team understands the structured settlement and how to get our clients the money they need today. But we also always operate with complete integrity throughout the process. It is not our goal to have you sell structured settlement annuities in their entirety; nor should you work with anyone who suggests such a thing. We only want to help you sell those payments that will give you the cash you need – cash for structured settlement annuity payments in your hand today.

Each annuity payment is yours. Subsequently, you should have every right to do with it what you choose. At Colonial Settlement, we’ll remove the red tape that so often becomes an obstacle for many people and help you sell structured settlement payments easily, conveniently, and with the peace of mind that comes from knowing that your interests are being protected.

You have options when it comes to getting cash for annuity payment arrangements made for:

Structured Settlements
Real Estate Notes and Deeds of Trust
Business Notes
Lottery Winnings
Life Insurance Polices (Senior Settlements)


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Can I sell my structured settlement payments? Is it a good investment decision?

Can I sell my structured settlement payments? Is selling a structured settlement a good investment decision? The answer is "Yes." Thousands of people every year sell structured settlement payments for a lump sum of cash. Moreover, the regular payments offered by a structured settlement are a source of great comfort to retired individuals and those with an impaired earning ability.

A structured settlement offers the advantage of a regular income without having to worry about managing it. India Classifieds offers free online Ads posting for Buying and/or selling products and services such “as sell my structured settlement payments and other products & services” from india-classifieds.in.

There are many reasons to sell structured settlement payments, but most of the time there is a financial burden in the house hold. India-classifieds.in can relieve that burden and provide you with a quick turnaround process.

How much you will get is of course dependant on who you are selling to. The majority of buyers will usually be able to give you a figure within 24 hours. That is an average time to allow for the gathering of any information about your circumstances, as well as the details of your structured settlement. A good buyer will not charge you for a quote.
Over at India-classifieds.in, you can find out more, easy to read information on how to get cash for structured settlements payment. Just because it's financial, it does not need to be difficult.

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Wrongful Death Structured Settlements

Although many people seem to think a wrongful death action is a criminal case, it is not. A wrongful death action is a civil suit with the award called a structured settlement.

Those who have experienced the loss of a loved one thanks to the actions of another individual or a company may file a wrongful death claim or lawsuit in civil court. Perhaps the best example of a potential wrongful death suit is the proposed suit to be launched by Katherine Jackson, Michael Jackson’s mother.

The people who choose to bring the lawsuit are called plaintiffs and the people they file the suit against are called defendants. The main difference between civil and criminal actions is that in a civil action damages are awarded to the plaintiff and in a criminal lawsuit it’s the state taking action after a crime has been committed.

The kind of damages awarded in civil cases tends to vary from state to state and it’s best to consult with a skilled wrongful death attorney for further information. Some of the factors taken into consideration when an award is determined have to do with how the deceased handled money while alive, what income would have been earned had they lived (future earnings), the cost of the death which includes medical and funeral expenses, and the suffering and pain of the family left behind to cope without their deceased family member. Awards in these kinds of cases are typically referred to as a settlement, and are usually paid out over a “structured or specified” length of time.

Structured settlements are handled in a variety of ways. Typically, once the award has been made a structured settlement factoring transaction kicks in, letting the family get a lump sum payment instead of many smaller, proportioned amounts. At this point some plaintiffs opt to sell their rights to get all or part of their future payments immediately. This is something that definitely needs to be discussed with a highly qualified wrongful death attorney, as although there may be advantages to selling the structured settlement, it isn’t the right route to go for everyone.

It’s not unusual for people to sell their settlements to get money up front because in most instances by the time the award comes through they are in need of money to pay overdue bills and other expenses such as educational needs, improved housing, different transport, and unexpected and continuing medical bills and rehabilitation.


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Markit to Acquire Loan Settlement System

Markit, a global financial information services company, today announced it has agreed to acquire ClearPar from FIS. ClearPar is an automated syndicated loan operations platform used for the settlement of par and distressed loan trades in the U.S. and Europe.Markit will integrate ClearPar with parts of its WSO division, a provider of portfolio management software and services for the syndicated loan market, to create an electronic loan settlement platform for buy-side and sell-side market participants. The combination of ClearPar and Markit's loan business will help reduce counterparty and operational risk in the approximately $600 billion leveraged loan market by improving loan settlement times.
Lance Uggla, Chief Executive Officer of Markit, said in a release: "Markit has spent the past five years focused on all aspects of the loan market, from loan pricing, identifiers and indices to portfolio management software and services. Our acquisition of ClearPar enhances our loan offering and allows us to combine parts of Markit WSO, a platform that is used by the buy-side, with ClearPar, which is widely used by the sell-side. By bringing these two assets together, Markit will be able to connect the market electronically, creating significant operational efficiencies. I believe this will be well received by market participants and regulatory bodies alike."
Armins Rusis, Executive Vice President and Global Co-Head of Fixed Income at Markit, said in the release: "We are excited about the ClearPar acquisition and the positive impact it will have on the marketplace. The combination of Markit's loan processing and data platform with ClearPar's settlement system will allow us to introduce faster, more accurate settlement of loan trades. Existing and prospective investors in the syndicated loan market have been seeking a global solution for some time."
ClearPar, launched in 2001, is part of FIS's Advanced Commercial Banking Solutions (ACBS) division and provides a middle-office platform for trade settlement in the syndicated loan market. The platform supports primary assignments and secondary market trading for U.S. and European credits, including a distressed debt settlement service that launched earlier this year. Markit WSO provides data, software and services designed to make the management of syndicated bank loans and structured deals more efficient and accurate.
E.A. Kratzman, President of Katonah Debt Advisors, said in the release: "As a major investor in credit, I view the combination of Markit and ClearPar as the most positive step toward true automation of closing and settlement in the loan market in many years. Most market participants are eager to see syndicated loan processing and trade settlement achieve the levels of workflow speed and efficiency that have evolved in other financial markets."
Richard Levy, President of FIS' ACBS division, said in the release: "FIS is proud of the innovation we have brought to the commercial loan marketplace including LMA settlement and, most recently, distressed trade settlement. This transaction will allow FIS' ACBS division to sharpen its focus on its market leading Loan Servicing System and front-office suite of products in sales, syndication and loan trading."


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Weakening Dollar, Rising Urban Unemployment

On Wednesday the Treasury’s five-year auction yield was 2.69% with 21.15% allotted at the high and bid to cover was 1.92 to 1. The average of the past ten auctions has been 2.20%. Indirect, central bank participation was 35.7% versus an average of 36.8%. Overall that was weak demand. Do not forget the Treasury has to raise $2 trillion by 9/30/09.
            The result of these mediocre to poor auctions has to be more pressure on the dollar, as budget deficits continue to widen.
            Mortgage applications fell for the first time in four weeks, driven by a drop in demand for refinancing loans. Both purchase and refi loans fell 6.3%.
            This is an early appraisal of the Chinese visit to Washington. There is no question the Chinese have the Illuminists stymied. The big question is has China demanded the rest of our high technology expertise that Bill Clinton was unable to deliver to them? Or have they pledged government properties to the Chinese?
Unadjusted yoy labor Department jobless claims are up 35%.
Commercial paper outstanding fell by $27.6 billion to $1.066 trillion outstanding from $1.093 trillion the prior week. In August it was $2.2 trillion. Asset backed CP outstanding rose $900 million to $437.8 billion, after falling $4.6 billion the prior week.
The Treasury’s borrowing need have been exploding and the auctions are getting progressively weaker. This presents a serious problem for the dollar. Once 78 on the USDX is broken the index should freefall. We expect the government will staunchly defend 78, but will lose the battle probably in October or at least by the end of the year. As a result you will see more bonds being issued in foreign currencies such as the yen, yuan and euro bonds. Wal-Mart just issued $1 billion in Samarai bonds in yen. Issuance of foreign currency denominated bonds by corporations and eventually by the US Treasury will signal that the day of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency will be coming to an end. Lenders will want to get repaid in a currency they know will have future value. This kind of issuance puts more and more pressure on the dollar. Issuance of bonds in a foreign currency will be a clarion call that dollar hegemony is ending. The result will be other currencies will gain in strength versus the dollar, but the flip side is that they are all fiat currencies and all will fall versus gold.
As we view the sham hearings of the CFTC and position limits on oil in particular, we are reminded that the hearings are a political cover for higher prices. Constituents are complaining of higher gasoline prices and government is more than willing to respond. What the insiders behind the scenes want to do is suppress oil prices not only to assuage the citizens, but also to keep gold from rising as oil rises. Today suppressing oil prices is truly an awesome task given the composition of sources of supply and demand. Exploration is at a low and that can only eventually bring higher prices.
            The unemployment rate climbed in all of the U.S.’s biggest urban areas during June, and 18 places had joblessness of at least 15%.
            “For the sixth consecutive month, all 372 metropolitan areas had over-the-year unemployment rate increases,” the Labor Department said in its report Wednesday.
The numbers in the department’s Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment report are not seasonally adjusted.
The report said 144 metro areas reported jobless rates of at least 10%, up from six areas a year prior.
            El Centro, Calif., had the largest jobless rate from June 2008, at 27.5%. Yuma, Ariz., was second with 23.1%.  The lowest rate was in Bismarck, N.D., at 3.8%.
            So much for the ongoing secrecy of the nation’s independent central banking system. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 75% of Americans favor auditing the Federal Reserve and making the results available to the public.
            Just nine percent (9%) of adults think that’s a bad idea and oppose it. Fifteen percent (15%) aren’t sure. Over half the members of the House now support a bill giving the Government Accounting Office, Congress’ investigative agency, the authorization to audit the books of the Federal Reserve Board.
            Support for the bill has grown now that the Obama administration is proposing to give the Fed greater economic regulatory powers. The Fed, which sets U.S. monetary policy, was created as an independent agency to keep it free of politically-motivated interference.

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Life Settlements and Longevity Structures: Pricing and Risk Management

Recent turbulence in the financial markets has highlighted the need for diversified portfolios with lower correlations between the different investments. Life settlements meet this need, offering investors the prospect of high, stable returns, uncorrelated with the broader financial markets.

This book provides readers of all levels of experience with essential information on the process surrounding the acquisition and management of a portfolio of life settlements; the assessment, modelling and mitigation of the associated longevity, interest rate and credit risks; and practical approaches to financing and risk management structures. It begins with the history of life insurance and looks at how the need for new financing sources has led to the growth of the life settlements market in the United States.

The authors provide a detailed exploration of the mathematical formulae surrounding the generation of mortality curves, drawing a parallel between the tools deployed in the credit derivatives market and those available to model longevity risk. Structured products and securitisation techniques are introduced and explained, starting with simple vanilla products and models before illustrating some of the investment structures associated with life settlements. Capital market mechanisms available to assist the investor in limiting the risks associated with life settlement portfolios are outlined, as are opportunities to use life settlement portfolios to mitigate the risks of traditional capital markets. The last section of the book covers derivative products, either available now or under consideration, that will reduce or potentially eliminate longevity risks within life settlement portfolios. It then reviews hedging and risk management strategies and considers how to measure the effectiveness of risk mitigation.


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TD Ameritrade's ARS settlement excludes RIAs

TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.'s agreement with regulators last week to buy back $456 million of auction rate securities from individual investors, charities and small- business clients leaves registered investment advisers out in the cold.
 The pact with the Securities and Exchange Commission and state regulators in New York and Pennsylvania doesn't extend to clients who bought the securities through independent RIAs or who transferred auction rate securities to TD Ameritrade for custody after buying them from another firm.

That is be-cause regulators focused on sales practice violations committed directly by TD Ameritrade brokers, who marketed the securities as liquid alternatives to money markets funds, with slightly higher yields, according to regulators.

“At the end of the day, our view— and all the federal and state regulators agreed with us — was that it applies to the retail clients only, be-cause there was no intermediary between us and them,” said Fred Tomczyk, president and chief executive of the Omaha, Neb.-based firm. “The regulators realize that the independent RIAs were themselves acting as fiduciaries, and we were acting as custodians.”

TD Ameritrade's settlement is being closely monitored because it could be a precedent for future settlements as regulators press auction rate cases against other brokers, including some RIA custodians, whose clients are stuck with the flawed securities. When Boston-based Fidelity Investments last year agreed to repurchase some ARS, it similarly excluded clients of RIAs from the offer.

Mr. Tomczyk conceded that the distinction might irritate RIAs who keep their customers' assets with TD Ameritrade and who conduct much of their trading through the firm. The advisers may be especially irked because the firm has been pushing hard in recent years to develop its institutional arm for RIAs as part of its plan to diversify from a largely commission-based revenue model.

Advisers who purchased ARS for clients are in some ways in the same boat as TD Ameritrade and other “downstream” brokers who initially argued that they were so far removed from the underwriting of the securities and the operations of the auctions that they weren't responsible for failing to anticipate the market's collapse.

That collapse left investors stuck with more than $300 billion of the long-term debt, which was sold with promises that it could be redeemed at weekly or, approximately, monthly intervals.

“We totally understand those points, and in our hearts we agree with them,” Mr. Tomczyk said of aggrieved advisers. “But as an organization you have to stand back and do what's right for the organization.”


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Shrink Your Debt

In general, the best choices for debt negotiation and settlement are unsecured loans and credit cards. Since there is no collateral that can be attached to satisfy the debt, creditors are more likely to negotiate to avoid writing off the entire debt. The two most common approaches for debt negotiation are to pay a lump sum that is less than the total amount owed, or to restructure the payment schedule with lower monthly payments.

With the first option, you negotiate a reduced, upfront payment that permanently cancels the entire debt. Many creditors will only accept this approach because their goal is to erase the debt from their books without having to wait an extended period. If you are already struggling with your current debts, it may be difficult to raise the cash necessary to accomplish this. In which case, you might consider the second option to reduce the principal and possibly stretch out the payments.

Contacting Creditors
Many companies specialize in debt negotiation and settlement assistance. While some of them are very reputable and do achieve results, with some advance planning and strategic thinking, you can do the negotiating for yourself.

The first step is to contact the creditor and ask to speak with a manager authorized to negotiate. Briefly explain your circumstances, and make an appointment for a personal meeting if geographically feasible. A face-to-face meeting demonstrates that you are serious about resolving your problem, and allows you the undivided attention of the person you are dealing with. It’s also a good idea to take notes of all conversations, regardless of how they are conducted. Sign and date all your notes.

Negotiation Strategy
Do not threaten to close your accounts if you are having trouble paying your bills. You will be perceived as someone that has shirked their responsibilities and opted for the easy way out. The best approach is to deal directly and openly with your creditors in order to find a mutually acceptable solution.

Your first offer should be less than you are willing and able to pay, to allow room to maneuver and counteroffer if necessary. With the prospect of rising defaults due to a faltering economy, creditors are more likely to deal and this leverage should be used to your advantage. The old saying “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” definitely applies to debt settlement.

Many creditors sell delinquent accounts to collection agencies, usually for a fraction of the account value. Knowing this puts you in a position to make a lowball offer and judge the reaction of the agency. All the agency needs to do to turn a profit is to settle for something slightly above the amount they paid for your account. Keep this in mind as you try to reach a settlement. Be patient and firm, and resist the temptation to raise your offer during the negotiation process. You can ask that the collection be removed from your credit file as a condition of settlement, but that will not erase the detrimental impact of the original creditor.

Unsecured creditors face the risk of getting nothing if you decide to declare bankruptcy. While there is no way to predict what each creditor will accept in lieu of full payment, your target should be to pay one-third to two-thirds of the outstanding balance, depending on your particular circumstances. Many creditors will be very tempted to accept a 50-50 split as the final settlement, even if it takes a few counteroffers to arrive at that conclusion.

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