New Jersey Structured Settlement Bill A5695: What It Would Change

New Jersey Assembly Bill 5695 would rewrite the state's Structured Settlement Protection Act. As introduced on October 19, 2026, the New Jersey structured settlement bill bans solicitations that look like a check, gives sellers 10 days with a disclosure statement instead of three, adds an effective annual interest rate to that disclosure, and requires every buyer to register with the state and post a $50,000 bond. It is a proposal, not law.

If you receive structured settlement payments in New Jersey, nothing changes for you today. The current statute still governs every sale. Below we walk through what the bill would change, section by section, using the introduced bill text (opens in a new tab), along with where it stands and when it would take effect if passed.

What is New Jersey Assembly Bill 5695?

A5695 is a bill that amends New Jersey's Structured Settlement Protection Act and adds new consumer protections for people who sell future settlement payments. Assemblyman Vincent M. Kearney (District 21) introduced it on October 19, 2026.

The current law, N.J.S.A. 2A:16-63 through 2A:16-69, dates to 2001. It already requires a written disclosure before you sign and a judge's approval before any sale takes effect. A5695 keeps that structure and builds on it in four areas: disclosures, the court's best interest review, conduct rules for buyers, and a new state registration system.

According to the New Jersey Legislature's bill record (opens in a new tab), A5695 was referred to the Assembly Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee on the day it was introduced. No Senate companion bill was listed as of October 22, 2026. To become law, it needs to pass both houses and be signed by the Governor, and bills are often amended in committee.

Does the bill ban check-lookalike structured settlement mail?

Yes. A5695 would prohibit any structured settlement buyer from soliciting a payee with a document that resembles a check or other form of payment. The ban covers the company itself and its employees and representatives.

If you have a structured settlement, you have probably received mail like this. Some solicitations are designed to look like a payment so the envelope gets opened. We cover where those letters and calls come from in our guide to why structured settlement companies call you.

The bill also limits other kinds of contact. A buyer could not communicate with you, a prospective payee, or someone associated with you in any of these situations:

• After you tell the company to stop contacting you.
• At an unusual or inconvenient time, which the bill presumes to mean before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. your local time, unless you opted in to contact at other hours.
• Repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass you.

In practice, these rules resemble the contact limits that already apply to debt collectors under federal law. They would apply specifically to structured settlement buyers in New Jersey.

How would the disclosure statement change?

A5695 would require buyers to deliver the disclosure statement at least 10 days before you sign a transfer agreement, up from three days today. It would also add three new items, including the effective annual interest rate you are paying on the deal.

Current New Jersey law already requires a separate disclosure in bold type of at least 14 points. It lists the payments being sold, their total, their discounted present value, the gross advance, itemized expenses, the net amount you receive, any penalties, and your right to cancel within three business days after signing. The bill keeps all of that and adds the following.

The effective annual interest rate

The new rate disclosure would read, in substance, "you will, in effect, be paying interest at a rate of __ per year." The bill calculates that rate from the net amount you actually receive and the amounts and timing of the payments you transfer. That makes the cost of a sale easier to compare across offers, because a single percentage replaces a set of dollar figures that are hard to line up side by side. Our guide to structured settlement discount rates explains how a nominal rate differs from an effective rate.

Independent professional advice

Independent professional advice means guidance from an attorney, CPA, actuary, or other licensed adviser who is not tied to the buyer. Under A5695, a buyer could not direct you to a particular adviser. It could only point you to a state or local referral service, a bar association, legal aid, or another unrelated organization. The adviser could not be affiliated with or paid by the buyer unless the court orders it.

Have questions about how the current New Jersey disclosure rules apply to an offer you already received? You can reach our team at (800) 317-3769 to talk it through.

What would New Jersey judges have to consider?

A5695 would write a list of best interest factors into the statute. Judges would weigh your age, mental capacity, maturity, understanding of the deal, and stated purpose, along with your dependents, other means of support, prior sales, and any effect on public benefits.

New Jersey judges already apply a detailed best interest review. The framework most courts use comes from In re Keena, 442 N.J. Super. 393 (Law Div. 2015), which we cover on our New Jersey structured settlement page. The bill would put a set of factors into the statute itself. Under it, a judge would consider:

• The welfare and support of your dependents, if any.
• Your reasonable preference, in light of your age, mental capacity, maturity level, understanding of the agreement, and the stated purpose of the sale.
• Whether you have other means of support for future income or medical needs, if the payments were meant to cover them.
• Whether you can still meet obligations to your dependents, including child support and spousal maintenance.
• Any prior sales of your payments, including the timing, amount, stated purpose, and actual use of the money.
• The impact on your eligibility, or your dependents' eligibility, for public benefits.
• Any other facts the court finds relevant.

The final order would have to state that the court considered these factors. Two other changes affect the hearing itself. You would be required to appear in person unless the court finds good cause to excuse you, and a buyer would have to promptly ask the court to dismiss the case if you cancel. Our guide to the structured settlement court hearing explains what that appearance usually involves.

Guardians ad litem, minors, and conservators

A guardian ad litem is an attorney the court appoints to independently assess whether a deal is in your best interest. The bill would let a judge appoint one in any case, at the buyer's expense. Appointment would be mandatory when a minor's payments are being sold or when a payee appears to have a mental or cognitive impairment. Sales by a conservator, parent, or guardian on behalf of someone else would also need extra findings that the money is used solely for that person's benefit. More on the rules for children appears in our guide to structured settlements for minors.

What practices would A5695 prohibit?

The bill lists 14 prohibited practices for structured settlement buyers and their employees. They range from coercion and fraud to check-lookalike mail, first-option clauses on your remaining payments, and contact outside reasonable hours.

Here is the full list from section 7 of the bill, in plain terms. A buyer could not:

1. Complete a purchase without following every requirement of the act.
2. Refuse or fail to fund a sale after the court approves it.
3. Acquire payment rights without court approval or other required steps.
4. Intentionally file the case in a court other than the one the statute specifies.
5. Pay a commission or finder's fee to an outside person for arranging a deal, apart from payments to other registered buyers and their employees and routine transaction costs like filing and escrow fees.
6. Intentionally advertise materially false or misleading information.
7. Coerce, bribe, or intimidate you, including offering a gift, loan, advance, or other inducement to sign.
8. Attempt fraud, including by forgery or false identification.
9. Intervene in another company's pending court case, except in narrow circumstances where you signed with them within 60 days before that case was filed and the filing company broke the law.
10. Knowingly contact you to talk you out of a pending deal with another company, unless no hearing has been held within 90 days after that company filed.
11. Fail to dismiss a pending court case when you ask.
12. Solicit you with a document that resembles a check or other payment.
13. Include a clause giving the buyer first choice or an option to buy your remaining payments.
14. Contact you after you ask them to stop, at inconvenient hours, or in a harassing way.

Two of these would change common industry practices. Item 7 would bar a gift, loan, advance, or other payment offered as an inducement to sign, and item 13 would ban right of first refusal clauses that tie your future payments to one buyer. If you have sold before, our article on selling a structured settlement more than once explains how earlier agreements can affect a later sale.

The bill gives both payees and buyers a way to enforce these rules. You could file a motion in the court where the case is pending. If the court finds a violation, it could revoke or suspend the buyer's registration or bar it from filing new transfer cases or pursuing sales in New Jersey.

Registration, bonding, and penalties for buyers

Starting January 1, 2028, anyone buying structured settlement payments from New Jersey residents would need to register annually with the Commissioner of Banking and Insurance and post a $50,000 surety or cash bond for the benefit of payees.

The registration rules in sections 9 through 16 work like this:

• Fees. $1,250 for an initial registration and $200 for each annual renewal.
• Bond. A $50,000 surety or cash bond, renewed each year and kept in force for at least three years after a registration ends.
• Judgments. A buyer would have 10 days to notify the Commissioner and its surety after any payee wins a judgment against it.
• Fine for not registering. A $10,000 administrative fine if a company fails to file within 15 days after receiving a delinquency notice.
• Exemptions. Employees acting for a registered buyer, and assignees who later acquire payment rights from a registered buyer, would not need to register.

Why the qualified order provision matters

The bill's strongest enforcement provision is in section 16. Federal law, at 26 U.S.C. § 5891 (opens in a new tab), imposes a 40% excise tax on the buyer's discount unless the sale is approved in a "qualified order." A5695 provides that a New Jersey transfer order is not a qualified order if the buyer was unregistered when the order was signed. That tax falls on the buyer, not the seller. We explain how it works in our guide to federal tax rules for structured settlement sales.

Where cases would be filed and other procedural changes

A5695 would require New Jersey residents' transfer cases to be filed in the Superior Court in the county where the payee lives. Nonresidents could file in the court or agency that approved the original settlement.

Today, the statute also allows filing where the annuity issuer or the settlement obligor has its principal place of business. The bill removes that option. Other procedural changes include:

• More detailed court notices. At least 20 days before the hearing, the buyer would have to serve your name, age, and county, a list of your dependents and their ages, and prior approved, proposed, and denied transfers.
• Sworn histories. The buyer would file an affidavit describing its search for your prior sales, and you would file your own affidavit listing every prior transfer.

Two contract protections stay the same. Current law already requires a transfer agreement with a New Jersey resident to resolve disputes under New Jersey law in New Jersey, and it already bars clauses that let the buyer enter a judgment against you without a lawsuit (a confession of judgment). The bill keeps both rules.

What A5695 means if you receive payments in New Jersey

For now, nothing changes. The current Structured Settlement Protection Act still applies to every New Jersey sale, and the bill would only take effect if it passes both houses and is signed.

The protections you already have are substantial. You must get a written disclosure before signing, you can cancel within three business days, and no sale takes effect until a judge finds it is in your best interest. If you are considering a sale, it makes sense to get quotes from more than one buyer and ask each for the same figures, which is the comparison the new interest rate disclosure is designed to make easier.

We will update this article if A5695 moves out of committee or is amended. If you want to talk about your own payments under the current rules, call us at (800) 317-3769 or request a quote online. There is no cost and no obligation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is New Jersey bill A5695 law yet?

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No. A5695 was introduced on October 19, 2026 and referred to the Assembly Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee. It must pass both the Assembly and the Senate and be signed by the Governor before it becomes law, and its text can change along the way.

Would A5695 stop structured settlement companies from mailing me?

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Not entirely. The bill would ban mail that looks like a check or other form of payment. It would also bar contact before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. without your consent and require companies to stop contacting you once you ask them to. Ordinary letters would still be allowed.

What is the effective annual interest rate disclosure?

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It is a single percentage showing what selling your payments costs you when expressed as a yearly interest rate. The bill calculates it from the net amount you receive and the timing of the payments you give up, so you can compare offers on the same footing.

Would I still have to go to court to sell my payments in New Jersey?

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Yes. Court approval is already required under current New Jersey law, and the bill keeps it. The bill would add that you must appear at the hearing in person unless the judge finds good cause to excuse you.

When would the new rules take effect?

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As introduced, most of the bill would take effect January 1, 2027. The registration, bonding, and qualified order provisions in sections 9 through 16 would take effect January 1, 2028. Those dates could shift if the bill is amended or passes late.

Does the bill change anything about a sale I already completed?

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The introduced text does not reopen court orders that were already entered. It governs transfer agreements and court applications going forward. If you have a pending or completed sale, the current statute and your court order control until any new law takes effect.