Structured Settlements
What your future payments are really worth, how selling works, and how to read past the discount rates and fees that quietly cost sellers the most.
Attorney Fee Structured Settlement: How Lawyers Defer Contingent Fees
A structured attorney fee lets a contingent-fee lawyer spread a large fee over future years and defer the tax. Here is how the arrangement actually works.
Structured Settlement Rated Age: Why a Shorter Life Expectancy Raises Your Payments
A rated age is an insurer's estimate that an injury has shortened life expectancy. On a lifetime structured settlement it can lift each monthly payment.
Structured Settlement Partial Sale: Selling Some Payments, Not All
A partial sale lets you raise a lump sum from part of your structured settlement while keeping the rest of your future income. Here is how it works.
Structured Settlement Discount Rate: The Number That Sets Your Offer
The discount rate is the single biggest lever in any structured settlement sale. Here is how it works, why it dwarfs every other factor, and what the court sees.
Structured Settlement Examples: How Payment Schedules Are Designed
Worked examples of how structured settlement payments are laid out — level income, step-ups, future lump sums, and life-contingent designs.
Buying a Structured Settlement: How the Purchase Side Actually Works
Investors can buy the rights to someone else's future structured settlement payments at a discount. Here is how the purchase works, and its real risks.
Non-Qualified Structured Settlement: How It Works and When It Is Used
A non-qualified structured settlement spreads taxable settlement money over future years. Here is how the structure works and where the tax line falls.
Workers' Comp Structured Settlement: How It Works and the Medicare Trap
A workers' comp structured settlement spreads your award into scheduled payments. The part that catches people out is Medicare's set-aside rule.
Structured Settlement Beneficiary: What Happens to Payments After Death
Whether structured settlement payments continue after the recipient dies depends on the payment type and the named beneficiary. Here is how it works.
Structured Settlement Annuity Rates: How They Are Set and What Moves Them
Structured settlement annuity rates are not a single advertised number. Here is how insurers price them and which factors raise or lower your payments.
Structured Settlement Protection Act: The Law That Governs Selling Payments
A Structured Settlement Protection Act is the state law that requires court approval before anyone can sell future settlement payments. Here is how it works.
Structured Settlements for Minors: How a Child's Injury Award Is Protected
When a child wins an injury settlement, the law protects the money until adulthood. Here is how court approval, guardians, and the annuity work.
Structured Settlement Payout Options: How the Payment Stream Is Designed
Structured settlements can pay monthly income, future lump sums, lifetime payments, or a mix. Here is how each payout option is built and what it means.
Selling Annuity Payments: How the Process Works and What It Costs
How a factoring company turns future annuity payments into a lump sum, the discount that comes out of it, and when court approval is required.
Structured Settlement Court Approval: How the Process Actually Works
You cannot sell structured settlement payments without a judge's approval. Here is what the court reviews, why it exists, and how the hearing works.
What Does a Structured Settlement Broker Do?
A structured settlement broker designs the payment plan at the time a case settles. Here is the role, how they are paid, and how it differs from a buyer.
Structured Settlement vs Lump Sum: How to Weigh the Two
A structured settlement pays you over time; a lump sum pays you all at once. The choice changes your taxes, your risk, and your access to the money.
Are Structured Settlements Taxable? What the IRS Rules Say
Structured settlement payments for physical injury are usually federal income tax-free, but several exceptions and a key selling rule change the answer.
Structured Settlement Loan: Why It Usually Isn't a Loan at All
A structured settlement loan usually isn't a loan. Here's what you're really being offered, why the distinction costs money, and how to read the deal.
What Is a Structured Settlement? How the Payments Work
A plain-English guide to how structured settlements pay out over time, who funds them, and how they are usually taxed.
Selling Your Structured Settlement: Process, Pros, and Pitfalls
What it really means to sell my structured settlement, how court approval works, why the discount rate matters most, and how to avoid a bad deal.
How Much Is My Structured Settlement Worth?
Your structured settlement is worth its present value, not the total of future payments. Here is how the discount rate decides your real offer.
Structured Settlement Annuity: How It Differs From a Regular Annuity
A structured settlement annuity funds court-ordered injury payments, is bought on your behalf, and works very differently from one you buy yourself.
How to Compare Structured Settlement Companies Without Getting Burned
A practical framework for comparing structured settlement companies on rate, fees, court costs, and complaint history before you sell a single payment.