Finance Articles

Legal finance, often known as pre settlement funding, is a way for the plaintiff in a legal case to get cash in hand, while awaiting the final judgments and settlements in his or her case. To keep the case on the right course, it can also be used to keep money flowing for attorney’s fees. Help you out of the tight money situations which can arise as you patiently wait for your case’s disposition, Rapid Legal Finance can.

You can use the value of your case to receive a cash advance, usually within 24 hours of approval! Having to wait for your case to be settled after being hurt in an automobile accident or suffering other forms of personal injury can often add insult to injury. You have suffered an injury, along with your finances, while you wait an extended period for your settlement. That’s why Rapid Legal Finance prides in providing quick approvals, for low rate pre settlement funding.

It’s a conflict of interest for your attorney to loan you money, in most states. Receiving a cash loan from Rapid legal Finance presents no violate of concern, because they are not involved in your legal case, in any way. So a lawsuit settlement loan from Rapid Legal Finance does not interfere with that relationship.

It’s easy to apply for your lawsuit financing, either online or by telephone. A follow up call from one of our lenders will be made to explain how lawsuit cash advance works and confirm your application once you have made your application. After that, they gather the documents they need from your attorney to verify your eligibility for settlement lending. It generally takes less than 48 hours to receive notification of eligibility and a day or so of approval before you are on your way to holding the cash in your hands. Remember you do not owe and pay nothing if your case is not settled in your favor.

Rapid Legal Finance is committed to helping you get the funding you deserve at reasonable rates in a timely manner. You still have to keep up with your bill payments, while your settlement is pending. When your accident injury keeps you from being able to work, the requirement for funds is even greater. Legal Finance could very well be the option for you to choose.

Legal finance, often known as pre settlement funding, is a way for the plaintiff in a legal case to get cash in hand, while awaiting the final judgments and settlements in his or her case. To keep the case on the right course, it can also be used to keep money flowing for attorney’s fees. Help you out of the tight money situations which can arise as you patiently wait for your case’s disposition, Rapid Legal Finance can.

You can use the value of your case to receive a cash advance, usually within 24 hours of approval! Waiting for your case to be settled can be excruciatingly painful, adding insult to injury, as it were, if you’ve been hurt in an automobile accident or suffered some other form of personal injury. Your finances can take a real beating, during a lengthy wait for a settlement. Rapid legal finance has a fast approval process and low rate funding.

According to the laws of the majority of states, it is a conflict of interest to borrow money from your lawyer. Because they are not involved in your legal case, in any way, receiving a cash loan from Rapid Legal Finance presents no conflict of interest. Every matter about your lawsuit is between you and your attorney, therefore a lawsuit settlement loan from Rapid Legal Finance doesn’t influence this relationship.

Application for financing can be done on the internet or the phone. After you apply, you will receive a call from a lender confirming your application and explaining how a lawsuit cash advance works. After that, they interact the documents they necessary from your professional to prove your eligibility for resolution lending. It generally takes less than 48 hours to receive notification of eligibility and a day or so of approval before you are on your way to holding the cash in your hands. Remember you do not owe and pay nothing if your case is not settled in your favor.

Rapid Legal Finance is committed to helping you get the funding you deserve at reasonable rates in a timely manner. You still have to keep up with your bill payments, while your settlement is pending. If injuries from an accident prevent you from working, the need for cash can be even more extreme. Rapid Legal Finance could very well be the option for you to choose.

We can find ourselves accepting a structured settlement for many reasons. Sometimes, for example, we may be offered this kind of deal after a lawsuit awards us compensation after an accident. Or, we may have a big lottery win and be offered a structured settlement deal instead of a one-off payment.

This kind of financial settlement can suit a lot of people who are potentially being awarded a lot of money. This kind of settlement will pay you your settlement in ‘chunks’ according to a schedule that you agree with the company paying out the money. So, you could opt for a monthly income, an annual payment or a lump sum payment every five years depending on your preference.

This can be a lot easier than managing a large lump sum. A lot of people given a lot of money can actually find it hard to cope with. They may simply go on wild spending sprees and fritter away their cash, they may give it away to friends, family and hangers on or they may simply not know how to invest it and invest it badly. This need not be an issue with a structured settlement deal.

Sometimes, however, the structured settlement that looks good in the beginning may start to look less attractive over time. You may want to have more money to buy a house or to buy a business on a beach somewhere sunny and hot. You can look at selling your settlement here — either all or part of it — but you may not wish to take this final step. In which case a structured settlement loan may be a better option for you.

You need to be aware that the legislation that governs what you can and cannot do with a structured settlement is not the same all over the world. Each country (and sometimes specific regions in a country) will have individual rules and regulations governing these settlements. So, in some cases you will not be able to sell your settlement or use it as collateral to raise a loan.

But, some forms of lending are available in some cases so if you are considering a loan as an option then you may want to investigate what you can do with your structured settlement. For example, in some places, mortgage lenders will view regular structured settlement payments in the same way that they view an income.

So, in this instance, you may be able to use a structured settlement as an alternative source of income to take out a mortgage. This can be useful in cases where you are no longer able to work but would like to buy your own home or another property.

Industry experts recommend that you always check out the legislation governing your structured settlement and its terms to find out what, if anything, you can do with it before you try to borrow against it or sell it on. This way you will know exactly what your options are and which solution will be your best choice to raise extra cash.

Structured settlements have both advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages however are answered by investors. Whenever your existing arrangement doesn’t match already the financial needs, there is an option to still trade several or all upcoming structured settlement payments for a lump sum amount. Find out more with this article.

When someone suffers a form of loss, they can always sue the responsible person. If the person affected wins their case, they acquire pecuniary compensation for their disability or loss. Thus, the winning party acquires compensation for a period of time or even a lifetime by receiving a monthly structured settlement payment.

These periodic payments are guaranteed long-term income and have superior tax advantages as well. Income taxes are in fact eliminated from all structured settlement payment.

One of problems with structured settlement payments is when the inflation rate overtaken already your monthly compensation. When this time comes where your monthly payments are already enough for the financial needs, problems truly arise. Yet investors answered that dilemma.

If your structured settlement agreement no longer meets your financial needs, it is still possible to trade future payments for instant hard cash. Commonly, however, you will receive less than the supposed total of the payments you sell. This is because of the lost tax advantages, the interests, and discounts in the process.

Selling your structured settlement payments have one real advantage to give you access to a big single payment of cash for an immediate demand. Before opting to such major financial conclusion, be certain to ask for competent legal advice. Your structured settlement gives you all the options already with your money, just choose the best one.

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If you are offered the chance to take a structured settlement deal then you may well think about using a structured settlement broker to help you get the best possible solution. These specialists can help you negotiate and broker the best settlement for your needs and circumstances and can also give sound advice on how to actually structure your deal to best suit you.

The chances are, however, that you won’t already know a reputable structured settlements broker that you can call on here. Few of us have regular exposure to negotiating this kind of financial deal, after all. The following questions may help you assess which broker’s services will suit you best:

#1. Are you a member of NSSTA? The National Structured Settlements Trade Association is a reputable regulatory body within this industry. A broker who takes the time and makes the effort to join the NSSTA is bound to follow their guidelines on responsible behavior. This makes it more likely that you have found a reliable and trustworthy agent to work on your behalf.

#2 Have you worked on this kind of case before? You don’t want to be the test guinea pig on this kind of deal. The money you are awarded here could be vital to you and your family. So, look for a broker with relevant experience in related cases who can give you the best advice for your own individual needs. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to go with a large brokerage firm — an individual with relevant experience could suit you just as well.

#3 Can you work in the open market? A broker can give you great advice on how to make your structured settlement work but he/she may be able to offer you more than this. They may, for example, be able to link you up with the insurance companies that sell the annuities that your settlement is based on. In some cases a broker may be restricted to working with just a few companies here and in others he/she may work across the open market. The more companies they can approach, the more choice you’ll be given.

The aim of any structured settlement broker should be to work with you to make sure that he/she understands your case and your financial needs. They should then advise you on the best options to choose to make sure that you get the right package to suit you both now and in the future.

This isn’t a question of simply taking a standard route. A good broker may factor in payments at specific times to cover certain costs such as up and coming college fees and other expenses as well as looking at giving you a regular income source.

One good way of finding a broker is to ask advice from people who have been in a similar situation or who understand the industry itself. So, for example, most lawyers may well have connections with structured settlement specialists and should be able to give you some names to talk to if you need advice on what to do next.

Cash flow notes are documents that outline a ‘promise’ to pay or repay money that is owed. So, in basic terms, your mortgage is a cash flow note as is an informal IOU that you write out when you borrow money from a friend or member of your family. Although the terms of agreements may not always go by the name of cash flow note themselves, they all basically work to the same principles.

These notes outline the situation and the terms behind the borrowing or commitment to pay that has been agreed to. So, for example, a cash flow note that relates to an annuity that was given as part of a structured settlement agreement will outline the payments that will be made to the recipient, when they will be made and when the agreement will be done. A mortgage, on the other hand, will outline your borrowings, the interest charged, your repayment commitments and the actual mortgage terms.

There is actually a thriving market that trades in cash flow notes. You can, for example, sell your commitment or agreement here to a third party either to pass on a debt or to raise additional cash. This can be a particularly useful way of raising a lump sum of money when you need it.

Say, for example, that you agreed an annuity based structured settlement with an insurance company following an accident a few years ago. The terms of your cash flow note here state that you will be paid annual payments of $25,000 a year for five years.

Now you might have already had a couple of payments made under your settlement terms but you may decide that you’d rather actually have a lump sum to use now than wait for the rest of the payments to come through every year. So, you could, in many cases, sell on the settlement’s cash flow note to a third party.

Here, the third party offers you a lump sum to buy your cash flow note. They will then get any benefits or payments that remain to be made from it. You won’t get the actual real value of your settlement in the lump sum but this can be a useful way of cashing in your policy agreement for immediate money.

You can sell these kinds of agreements direct to the third party or you can go through a broker. Brokers here look to link up buyers and sellers of cash flow notes. Using a broker may be a good tip here — if they work across the market generally then they could get you a better range of offers and prices than you could get for yourself.

Some businesses such as debt collectors also buy this kind of agreement. They may, for example, buy debts off a company that is having problems getting people to make their agreed repayments. In this scenario the debt collector then chases the individual or company for the money owed. Anything they get back here is then theirs to keep as they have already paid something to the original company to buy the debts in the first place.

If you have some spare cash to invest then you may be considering real estate investment as an option. Investing in property has become a particularly popular way of looking for financial investment growth in recent years both for individuals and professional investors. Even though the current market does not have a great outlook at the moment, many investors still believe that there are many advantages to continuing to invest in it. Let take a look at the reasons why:

#1 Stability — despite recent falls the real estate market is generally held to be a stable investment market. Many investors prefer to invest their cash in tangible assets such as bricks and mortar rather than in stocks and shares as they feel that real estate is an essential part of both our domestic and commercial everyday lives. This is best viewed as a medium to long term investment unless you are looking at buying a property, doing it up and turning it around for a quick cash profit.

#2 Income — investing in both domestic and commercial real estate can be used as a useful and viable source of regular income streams. You could, quite simply, invest in a house and then rent it out to tenants. You will then hopefully make profit on the rent that you charge although you will need to factor in other costs here such as mortgage payments (if you need one to buy the property) and maintenance and repair costs. Investment in business property is also a popular move for many investors.

#3 Profit — the aim of any real estate investment is to turn a profit. This could see a short term profit if you do up and sell a property quickly, for example. Or you could invest for long term profit in the hope that hanging on to a property for a while will see its value rise over time. The profit here, if you rent out the property in which you have invested, can also be boosted by any income profit that you make from renting it out.

Real estate investment used to be generally reserved for professional investors or ones who were looking to make a career out of this kind of investment portfolio. Nowadays, however, many people are dabbling in real estate investment rather than following traditional savings or investment routes.

So, for example, if you have some cash to spare you could use it to buy a new property or put it towards a down payment backed up by a specialist investment mortgage. Like any investment you should research the market first before doing this. This is not necessarily the way to make a fast buck at the moment but that’s not to say that things won’t get better in the future.

For example, investing in a real estate market that has dropped in value may reap a lot of financial rewards in years to come when the market eventually rises again. So, if you can ride the lows you may well find that the highs are a profitable investment for you in real estate.

Structured settlements are legally approved methods of making payments for issues such as injury and accident compensation. Rather than giving out a lump sum here these deals are designed to make a series of payments over time to a schedule that you work out with the company in question.

Oftentimes people accept a structured settlement but then start to think that the money might be better in a lump sum payment. They may even see adverts for structured settlement brokers who will help them sell their deals on to other people. How bad could this be? After all, you could sell your deal to somebody else and get a cash lump sum for it. But, there are reasons not to sell this kind of deal, including:

#1. In some places you actually cannot sell part or all of your structured settlement. This may depend on where you live and what kind of settlement deal you have. Some of these deals, for example, were set up for specific reasons (i.e. to financially support people in need after injury or accident) and they were given tax breaks as an incentive. Sometimes the law just won’t let you give these benefits to somebody else.

#2. If you can and do sell on your structured settlement then that is it. Once you accept a cash payment you sign the settlement over to the buyer. They then get the remaining payments and you won’t. Later on down the line it can be hard to cope without the payment that you were expecting even if you did sell for a lump sum.

#3. You won’t get the real value of your settlement when someone else buys it. So, if your settlement is worth $50,000 in terms of the payments that will be made on it then you cannot expect to be paid $50,000 for it. The buyer needs to make a profit too. So, you’ll get a convenient lump sum but you’ll lose out in the long term.

#4. Any tax breaks that are given as part of a structured settlement will add it its overall value over time from your own perspective. If you sell on your settlement then you won’t have these tax breaks that could potentially make you more money as somebody else will own it.

#5. You may be essentially selling your future financial security here and you cannot get the settlement back once you’ve sold it on. So, don’t just think about your needs now, think about future needs as well. You may need to put the kids through college, you may lose your job or you may simply want to retire early. A settlement deal could help out with all these issues.

After considering these questions you may still want to sell on your deal — this is fine as long as you know that this is the best thing for you to do. Do, however, try to shop around for quotes before you sell part or all of any structured settlement to make sure that you get the best financial returns.

If you are making a claim for compensation then you may find that the company that you are taking to court or taking legal action against will offer you a structured settlement instead. This kind of settlement pays out a series of payments up to a certain lump sum rather than a single lump sum all at once.

Structured settlements can be negotiated at any time depending on the actual case. So, for example, an insurance company may suggest this option instead of a lump sum before a case gets to court. Alternatively, they may suggest it after a court case has found in your favor.

You will generally find it useful to use professional services to help you negotiate your actual settlement and the terms here. There are, for example, a range of structured settlement brokers in the market that will work on your behalf to make sure that you get the fairest possible deal.

Please note, however, that these brokers should not be confused with structured settlement buying brokers. Buying brokers help facilitate deals for people who already have structured settlements in place and who want to sell them on to a third party for a cash lump sum. The brokers who will help you get the best terms for your settlement in the first place are a different type of specialist.

For most us it can be daunting to negotiate the best deal for this kind of settlement. We need to be sure that we are getting a good deal in financial terms and that we are adequately represented. After all, you could be facing a barrage of specialists from the company trying to negotiate the settlement with you. They will all know what they are doing and, perhaps more importantly, they’ll know that you don’t necessarily know what you are doing.

You will also usually find that using a broker to help you negotiate the terms of your structured settlement will make the whole procedure go through more smoothly and quickly. The paperwork and filing that needs to be done here will, for example, be handled for you so you do not need to worry about it.

It is also vital to have good legal advice and help here. You need a settlement that is legally binding and that gives you the best possible terms. This isn’t just about getting the best financial deal that you can. Your broker should also advise you on all elements of the structured settlement deal that you are negotiating.

So, for example, you should think about what will happen to your payments if you die before your settlement is paid up in full. Will the company carry on making the payments to your family? Can you negotiate a lump sum payment instead if that is what they would prefer? These kinds of terms are just as vital as the actual financial payments that you are offered.

So, do make sure to find an experienced and qualified structured settlements broker if you need to negotiate this kind of deal. This way you’ll get the best financial compensation package that works for you.

Investors buy annuities for many different reasons. Some simply buy them as an additional form of investment, some buy them as part of a pension/retirement fund package and some are given annuities as part of a structured settlement compensation deal. In addition, some investors take this route for long term financial gain and some for immediate returns.

The advantage of an annuity as a whole is the fact that this kind of investment product is designed to give you a regular source of income when you actually start drawing money from it. So, for example, you will earn more in this way than simply leaving your savings or pension fund sitting in a standard savings account in the majority of cases. Your annuity here will pay you a specific income to the schedule you originally set up when you purchased it.

There are two primary types of annuity to choose from here: fixed annuities and variable annuities. Variable annuities are probably the most commonly used when people look for long term investments that will pay out in years to come. So, what are the advantages and disadvantages here?

You will know from the word go what a fixed annuity will pay out as it is ‘fixed’ to pay the same return at the pre-agreed times. A variable annuity, however, is not fixed in the same way. So, for example, if the funds in which the annuity is invested rise because stocks and shares rise generally, then your fund will grow bigger. With a fixed annuity here you would not get the rise built into your annuity due to its nature.

So, a variable annuity could well give you a bigger income in the long run. This is usually the route chosen by people looking for a long term investment as they know that markets tend to grow faster over time than other saving sources. But, what happens if markets drop?

This can give a disadvantage to a variable annuity. If the investment markets in which it is wrapped decrease in value then so will the annuity. So, your income here could well go down. This wouldn’t happen with a fixed annuity which is designed to stay constant.

Given that most people invest in annuities for the long term rather than the short term, the variable route is most often the option of choice here. This gives your investment room to grow so that you potentially have a greater source of income when you come to draw on your investment.

You should not buy any annuity before taking considered and qualified advice on which type will best suit your individual circumstances. In some cases your age and income needs may well dictate that a fixed annuity will be your best bet, for example.

If, however, you have some time to play with and are willing to take a smaller risk to get a greater income then most annuity experts will recommend that you look at a variable investment here to make sure that you get the highest possible returns in the long run.