Frequently asked questions

Yes. The payments are court-ordered and remain the obligation of the original insurance carrier — typically A rated names. Your income depends on the carrier’s claims-paying ability, not on stock or bond markets. This is why we describe them as guaranteed fixed income.

Nearly every state — 49 of 50 — has enacted a Structured Settlement Protection Act requiring full disclosures and a judge’s approval before any payment stream changes hands. On the federal side, a 2002 law (IRC §5891) preserved the favorable tax treatment of court-approved transfers and imposes a punitive excise tax on any transfer completed without a court order. The result: this market runs through the courts, by design.

The transaction simply doesn’t close — and it costs you nothing. No reputable funding company will close without the order, because federal tax law makes unapproved transfers economically ruinous. That’s a feature, not a risk: every stream we deliver arrives with a judge’s order behind it.

Not exactly. You’re acquiring the rights to specific payments under an existing annuity contract. The insurance carrier keeps paying exactly as scheduled — but to you, per the court order. That’s why the product is called a Secondary Market Annuity, and why the exact payment schedule appears on every one of our fact sheets.

You purchase the right to a fixed schedule of future payments at a discount to their total value. That discount produces your effective annual yield, which is locked the day you fund and does not change for the full term — regardless of what interest rates do afterward.

Effective annual yield is the compounded annual return of the payment schedule against your purchase price. APR states the same economics on a Truth-in-Lending basis, which is why it reads slightly lower. We publish both on every deal so you can compare apples to apples with any other fixed-income product.

Fewer than one in five structured settlement recipients ever sells a payment — industry estimates put it under 20%. Quality paper backed by A rated carriers is genuinely scarce, which is why our deals are often reserved within days of listing, and why we send offer sheets to our list before deals go public.

It varies by deal. Split portions can start in the single-digit thousands, while full streams range higher. Browse our live inventory to see current purchase prices, or call us and we’ll match you to something that fits your budget and timeline.

Yes. We work with GoldStar Trust Company, a leading self-directed IRA custodian whose approved asset list names structured settlements and secondary market annuities. Traditional, Roth, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs all qualify; direct rollovers and transfers are not taxable events, and GoldStar’s fees are simple — $50 to open, $150 a year. Using a qualified account can allow your income stream to grow tax-deferred (or tax-free in a Roth). See our step-by-step guide at Invest Through Your IRA. We’re not tax advisors, so confirm specifics with yours.

We confirm availability, walk you through the paperwork, and the payment rights are formally assigned to you via the court-approved transfer. Once funded, payments arrive on the fixed schedule shown on the deal’s fact sheet. There’s no cost to reserve, and no cost to you if a transaction isn’t approved.