Problem cashing out a settlement- it's taking forever... or is it?

March 24, 2013 7:59 PM

I shopped around to sell my structured settlement and now it's taking forever to get through the process. Is my story normal or am I being sold a bill of goods?

I got a structured settlement when I was 21 and it's in payments of 225 per month for a certain period of time. Last December I needed some money and I did some shopping around and got some bids to cash it out. I got a bid for about 22k. I finally got all the paperwork in at the beginning of February to the company I was doing the transaction with from my insurance company.

Ever since then I have been getting the runaround from the company I made the deal with (Woodbridge). They claim I am waiting for a "court date" and I just need to be patient. I don't have my own lawyer and they have assigned me one and I am going to go in front of a judge to say why I need the money. They told me it would be done by around February 24th but that it is taking longer than usual because the "courts are busy".

It's almost April. Is this a normal time frame for these kinds of transactions? Any advice on what I could do would be helpful as I don't know how to proceed. I have tried calling and I just keep getting the same line... "be patient". I'm fine with being patient but I don't want this to drag on for months and months.

Throwaway email is [e-mail].

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (2 answers total)

This may not be as helpful as you'd like, but it's not just you! My office helped 3 separate clients buy a structured settlement from a seller like you through Woodbridge, and it took at least a month longer than originally stated all 3 times. I found that Woodbridge also had terrible, terrible customer service, so much so that we won't be recommending them for our clients again. I've never dealt with another company for buying/selling Woodbridge, so I don't know if other companies would have a better/easier deal for you.
They should be able to give you a new court date though. If they're jerks about it, I wouldn't hesitate to remind them that they're also making money off the deal.
Sorry I don't have better news for you!
posted by csox at 7:15 AM on March 25, 2013

Annddd...that should read "I've never dealt with another company for buying/selling structured settlements other than Woodbridge, so I don't know if other companies would have a better/easier deal for you"
posted by csox at 4:42 PM on March 25, 2013