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Structured Settlements Are Like Ants
Ants are powerful creatures. The powerful ant legs are able to lift 20 times their body weight, and run the equivalent of a man running as fast as a racehorse. Structured Settlements are strong agreements that turn an agreement to pay a plaintiff into an ironclad guaranteed structured award. Ants have powerful armor on their bodies, called an exoskeleton. Structured settlements have several layers of protection. Attorneys work to preserve fairness and best interest of affected parties. Insurance companies protect the investment and insure payments are made. State and federal laws protect all parties with aggressive qualifications for the creation and distribution of structured settlements. Ant colonies have a distinct odor that is unique to the members of that group. Structured settlements are individually and distinctly arranged to meet the personal needs of the award recipient. The payments from a settlement annuity are structured to address financial needs over time. People generally consider ants as pests and do whatever they can to get rid of them. It's easy enough to put sugar outside your door and keep them outside where they belong. Annuitants also get tired of receiving payments spread out over time. There are federal and state approved programs that allow for the acceleration of the settlement payments. Jason Rigler"Settlement Advocate" and consultant for Prosperity Partners Customer Service Department.
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The Cost of Not Having Money The self-esteem factor of not having enough money is underestimated. You know what I mean don't you? The agony of financially struggling and the ecstasy of financial abundance are dramatically different moments in a person's life. And I for one would choose the abundance over the struggling any day. What is a Structured Settlement A Structured Settlement is an agreement between a personal injury victim ( a Plaintiff ) and an Insurance company ( the Defendant )to compensate the Plaintiff by the defendant with long term periodicpayments instead of a single cash lump sum. Individual Voluntary Arrangements. IVA What is an IVA? Consider a Structured Settlement? Structured settlements have been around for a long time however their popularity has steadily increased over the past 6 years. In 1999 only 7% of insurance settlements that were under $7,000 were completed as structured settlements. While we don't have hard data for the current year, the number is much higher now. The Target Capital Structure Firms can choose whatever mix of debt and equity they desire to finance their assets, subject to the willingness of investors to provide such funds. And, as we shall see, there exist many different mixes of debt and equity, or capital structures - in some firms, such as Chrysler Corporation, debt accounts for more than 70 percent of the financing, while other firms, such as Microsoft, have little or no debt. Structured Settlements Offer Advantages over Lump-Sum Payments A structured settlement, which offers injury victims cash payments through a long-term annuity as compensation for their damages and medical expenses, offer a number of possible advantages over payment in a lump sum. While the lump sum payment is the traditional way for responsible parties to pay accident claims, the structured settlement offers payments over the span of an agreed-upon period of time. This length of time may span from several years up to the remainder of the life of the injured party, depending on the severity of the accident, the amount of money involved, and the agreement reached between the two parties. Depending on the specific circumstances of the case, structured settlements can have numerous advantages over a lump-sum payment: They are tax free. Thanks to a 1982 change in the Federal tax code, payments on a structured settlement are free of state and Federal taxes. The paying party funds the settlement through the purchase of an annuity which earns the interest to fund the continued payments. This is not the case with a lump-sum payment, which the injured party must invest themselves. Any interest earned on those investments are taxable. They are potentially safer. Most people who come into a large sum of money suddenly find that they are quite popular with long-lost relatives, unscrupulous purveyors of investment schemes, and good, old-fashioned thieves. 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