Is The Structured Settlement That I Entered Into When My Catastrophic Injury Case Was Settled Safe In Today’s Economy?
Since 1979, the Philadelphia catastrophic injury lawyers at Reiff & Bily have effectuated many structured settlements on behalf of catastrophically injured clients. Recently, we have received calls from clients that are concerned about the security of their structured investment. In light of the recent downturn of world capital markets, these calls are no surprise. Briefly put, events on Wall Street seem to put more credibility than ever in every structured annuity entered into on behalf of a client. According to authorities while world stock markets have lost trillions of dollars in the last few months, not a single dollar was lost in any structured settlement written. For the most part, they are guaranteed, safe, secure, low risk and offer the best rate of return around. Every structured annuity issued in this country must be backed dollar for dollar by a secure and liquid asset in the insurance companies general account. The majority of the assets backing up each annuity are the safest possible assets, namely U.S. Treasury Bonds.
Other assets backing annuities may be bonds of varying rating degrees with the majority being rated AA or higher. For those of you who may be owners of AIG annuity policies, you should know that by state law the insurance entities that maintain these are required to keep enough capital and surplus to satisfy the future obligations of their policyholders. AIG life insurance, general insurance and retirement services businesses remain adequately capitalized as of this writing to be able to meet all of their obligations. Even assuming the worst case scenario if AIG goes bankrupt it would have little or no effect on those annuities secured by a separate insurance division such as American General. The insurance industry is highly regulated and each state has an individual insurance department.
It is important that if you have any doubts regarding the security of your structured settlement or annuity, you should contact your attorney and the appropriate representatives from the company that issued the same, as well as the state insurance department for peace of mind.
The law firm of Reiff & Bily has been representing catastrophically injured individuals since 1979 and is committed to protecting consumers’ rights. For a free consultation, please contact us at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.
