Different laws exist in nearly every state when it comes to selling a structured settlement for cash. What is true regardless where you live is this: it takes time between when you sign the agreement and the time you can receive your lump sum. Why is that? Well the short answer is that the framework set up by the law, generally speaking, has both a disclosure period, notice period and court hearing requirement. These periods vary from state to state but the laws require that the applicable time period be complied with. More than any other factor, the longest wait can be the scheduled hearing date.
What this mean for you is that getting your lump sum is simply not going to happen overnight. Depending on your state, the court’s availability and even the time of year, the time between sighing a contract and getting a lump sum can be anywhere from 30 to 90 days. That’s a big window and a lot of time. No doubt this process can be counterintuitive to a system that is intended to facilitate your need to get cash now when it is in your best interest to do so.
We understand the dilemma and as a result we provide a cash advance on your purchase price to nearly every customer (where permitted). The amount and timing of cash advances we provide vary, but we are happy to discuss this feature and what advance may be available to you.
The good news is that cash advances are available for instant release: by wire, western union or overnight mail.
Three Important Things to Know
1. Catalina Structured Funding provides nearly every customer at least one Cash Advance and more often than not, more than one cash advance.
2. Cash advances on structured settlement buyouts can be wired or overnight to you- depending on your preference.
3. Sometimes a Cash Advance can be released to customer within 24 or LESS of initial phone call to us.
Many people that call Catalina Structured Funding and other structured settlement buyers are surprised to find out that the process of converting all or part of your settlement annuity to cash takes anywhere from 30 to 90 days (depending on the State and County where you live). There is common misconception that you can literally get “cash now”. Presumably, this erroneous belief has been popularized by the television advertisements that utilize the slogan. Due to regulations imposed by state and federal law, however, you simply cannot get a lump sum for a structured settlement overnight, i.e., “now”. Whether you agree or disagree with the regulations, this is the law of the land.
While the process to get your full lump sum does indeed take some time, some structured settlement buyers do offer cash advances. These cash advances are really advances on the purchase price the buyer has committed to give you in exchange for the portion of the structured settlement you have agreed to sell. In other words, assume you have agreed to sell your structured settlement to Company “A” for a lump sum of $32,000. Company “A” may be willing to give you a $1,000 advance on that $32,000 while you wait for your transaction to work its way through the court system.
It is important to be aware that in the above example, the $1,000 would be deducted from your lump sum at time of funding. That is to say, instead of receiving the $32,000 at the time of funding, you would get $31,000- since you would have already received $1,000. In this regard it is important you track and understand the nature of this type of cash advance on structured settlement you receive and understand it will be accounted for at the time of funding your transaction.
While receiving a buyer may offer a cash advance on an annuity sale. you must also consider
1) the competency and honesty of the buyer
2) the appropriateness of the offer being made to you in connection with the sale of your structured settlement.
These factors should take priority over simply getting money in your pocket quickly. Moreover, getting a structured settlement advance should not be the exclusive motivating factor in pursuing a transaction but rather should be whether the overall transaction is in the best of you and your dependents, if any.
