The Art of Selling a Structured Settlement
The object of life seems to be to work until retirement, but what happens when you retire and there is no income left? There is more than likely going to be some type of income from your previous job, as they tend to take care of their own, but there are also other ways to establish a stream of income. Paying into an insurance plan for the majority of your life can reward you with what is known as annuity. For example, you pay a certain amount of money each month(or year), and eventually, after a certain period of time, it will begin to be paid back to you.
How large are these annuity payments exactly? To be honest, it depends on how quickly you want them. Without modification you will get your annuity payments each month, however the size may vary. If you wish to be paid for the rest of your life, you may get a much smaller check in the mail. If, however, you find that it would be more beneficial to receive a larger check, you can forego the idea of getting that check every month for the rest of your life. Instead, you will simply get it for a set period and it will be for larger amounts.
Even still, there are many concerned that they will not receive the entirety of their annuity before they die, and with that being the case, thousand are selling a structured settlement in favor of getting all, or at least most of the payment before death. If you are planning to do so, then you should know that you CAN come out of this with some degree of success, but only if you follow the right advice, and do your best not to trust just ‘anyone’.
Selling a Structured Settlement
The first and most obvious step to selling a structured settlement is to look around on the internet. There are plenty of resources that will help you to get started in selling you structured settlement payments, and there are more than a few financial institutions that will be interested.
The big question people ask when dealing with this type of payment of course, is why they would want to sacrifice their lifetime security for a quick fix, and there are actually plenty of different reasons. First of all, you might be interested in going to college, depending on the time of your life. Keep in mind that annuity payments can be the result of an auto accident or some other type of out of court settlement. They do not always come in your old age! Therefore, if you know that your annuity payments total about $400,000, you will probably want to sell it off so that you can enjoy your college years, and then of course create a more comfortable life for yourself, even if the money happens to run out.
There are many other reasons to seek out a method of selling your structured settlement, of course. Perhaps you want to buy a car, or maybe your house needs repairs immediately. These are all great reasons, though it helps to have a starting point.
Finding a Way of Selling Annuities
Your first step in selling annuities, of course, will be to search online, and luckily, there are a fair a mount of companies willing to work with you. You will obviously want to check into their legitimacy, and ensure that you are not paying someone a fee that they will simply run off with. Once you are certain of that, you will need to take a look at the deals they offer. For example, most companies will offer you some type of reward if they are unable to offer you a decent settlement. This reward can range anywhere from $500 to $1000 depending on the caliber of the company you are dealing with. If you speak with enough companies, there is a strong chance that you will collect this reward from at least one of them. As you can see, there are plenty of things to consider, and plenty of rewards to look forward to in selling structured settlement payments.
The last thing we will make note of is the idea of selling a fixed annuity over a variable annuity. A variable annuity is based upon certain items in your portfolio, or investments as we will call them. The amount of your monthly payment will depend upon the performance of these portfolio items, and with that being the case, they can either be large, or they can be incredibly small. If you are trying to sell an annuity of this manner, you will need to check the current value, and of course, make sure it is worth selling. You can be rest assured that any financial institution you sell to will be performing their own checks.
Selling your annuity payments does not have to be overly complicated, but at the same time, it is never something that you should rush into. Make sure that you ask questions, and above all, make sure you have a plan in place for the money that you are about to receive from the financial institution. The last thing you want is to receive your payment and then spend it all.
Now would be a great time to start researching the prospect and possibility of selling off your annuity. You might have a long road ahead of you, but if you plan carefully, ask the right questions, and pace yourself, you are sure to find that the end justifies the means. We could all use some extra cash at some point in our lives, certainly, and if you happen to have access to an annuity, you have made it all that much easier on yourself.