Structured settlements funded with United States Treasury Obligations

Structured settlements funded with United States Treasury Obligations can provide claimants with a greater degree of security than annuities for those that are most conservative. Is there a greater level of financial security than an issuer than has the financial strength to effectively write a $700B check and print money?

Internal Revenue Code Section 130(d) states that the term "qualified funding asset" means any annuity contract issued by a company licensed to do business as an insurance company under the laws of any State, or any obligation of the United States.

United States Treasury Bond Trust Structured Settlements are certainly worth a look.

Plaintiff lawyers should not simply avoid a structured settlement due to global financial uncertainty because such a decision could have life impacting consequences to a tort victim. This is because that once a release has been signed (either with a defendant, insurer or qualified settlement fund trustee) the tax benefits of a structured settlement are forever lost.

A United States Treasury Bond Trust may be used alone or in conjunction with an annuity structure. Like annuity structured settlements, payments from a "T Bond Trust" structured settlement can pour over into a settlement preservation trust or other recovery management trust.

There is a trade off to the added security offered by using a United States Treasury Bond Structured Settlement, the yield is generally lower than annuity structured settlements. Innovative T-Bond trust providers however, use a combination of Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) where the bond's underlying principal rises and falls with changes in the inflation rate ( currently the CPI-U), and STRIPS to guarantee deferred lump sum payments. Interest paid on the TIPS adjusts along with the principal.