Let’s start with the basics. A structured settlement is an agreement reached during a lawsuit, where the guilty party agrees to pay the victim a specified amount of money in periodic payments. Settlements and their respective amounts awarded have to be approved by court and are supposed to reflect how much money you’ll need, in order to cover basic expenses and be provided with a fair compensation for your suffering.
The most common structured settlements are awarded in personal injury, workers’ compensation, and product liability lawsuits. The settlement awarded may be based on expenses resulting directly from an injury, or the settlement may be considered compensation for pain and suffering.
Selling a settlement may sound complicated and seems as though you’re trading money that isn’t yours yet. Rather than waiting for small checks to come in periodic installments, turning to a settlement payment service is a good option. An entire agreement for this transaction must be legally approved by court before any money is processed. Therefore, you won’t have to worry about any additional legal problems. The service that buys your settlement then becomes the recipient of the periodic payments, while you receive all of the money up front, in one lump sum payment.
This is probably the best part: once you sell your structured settlement for a lump sum of cash, that money is yours and you can decide what you want to do with it. There are some fees involved in the process — such as court fees and processing fees. Our experts here at 123 Lump Sum can explain exactly what these fees are for and how much you should expect to pay. Once you’re awarded the lump sum from the settlement payment, the rest is completely up to you! Many people use their payments to pay off outstanding debt or medical bills, but some people use it to make big life changes, like starting a small business or going back to college