A recent state court lawsuit in California and a recent disciplinary order in Texas have refocused attention on the questionable business of factoring companies, which acquire and resell income streams from pensions and annuities. Here I discuss the lawsuit and the order, and present the views of securities regulators on the subject.
The California Lawsuit
DRB Capital is a Delaware LLC based in Florida. Its website (www.drbcapital.com) provides some information. DRB offers cash for structured settlements, annuities, and "pre-settlement funding." The site does not disclose the names of the DRB officers. However, it is clear that DRB is a factoring company in the business of reselling, perhaps to clients of insurance agents and financial advisers, streams of income that DRB acquires through assignments from payees of structured settlement annuities and retirement annuities.
On November 13, 2018, DRB filed a lawsuit against Robert Perez (a California resident), New York Life Insurance Company, and New York Life Insurance and Annuity Corporation (NYLIAC). Perez is the payee of an individual retirement annuity (IRA) he inherited. Under a proposed assignment, Perez was to receive from DRB a lump sum in exchange for assigning to DRB 89 monthly IRA payments of $683.57 each beginning January 22, 2020 and ending May 22, 2027. The payments amount to a simple total of $60,837.73.
The complaint did not include a a copy of the IRA. Nor did it include a copy of the proposed assignment agreement between DRB and Perez. The complaint named both New York Life and NYLIAC as defendants, but NYLIAC issued the IRA. The complaint did not disclose the size of the lump sum DRB was to pay Perez in exchange for the assignment of the 89 IRA payments. Therefore, when the lump sum is viewed as a loan by DRB to Perez (which is precisely what it is), it is impossible to calculate the annual interest rate on the loan. DRB said NYLIAC will not honor the assignment of the payments without a court order. Thus DRB sought a court order declaring the assignment valid and enforceable.
The complaint did not include a a copy of the IRA. Nor did it include a copy of the proposed assignment agreement between DRB and Perez. The complaint named both New York Life and NYLIAC as defendants, but NYLIAC issued the IRA. The complaint did not disclose the size of the lump sum DRB was to pay Perez in exchange for the assignment of the 89 IRA payments. Therefore, when the lump sum is viewed as a loan by DRB to Perez (which is precisely what it is), it is impossible to calculate the annual interest rate on the loan. DRB said NYLIAC will not honor the assignment of the payments without a court order. Thus DRB sought a court order declaring the assignment valid and enforceable.
On January 23, 2019, NYLIAC responded to the DRB complaint in a "demurrer." NYLIAC said New York Life was not the issuer of the IRA and therefore was not a proper party in the case. NYLIAC said "the express anti-assignment language in the annuity contract ... bars the relief requested by DRB in the Complaint." NYLIAC said "the relief requested by DRB in the Complaint is barred because it would contravene Section 408 of the Internal Revenue Code and materially increase the burdens and risks of both Mr. Perez and NYLIAC." NYLIAC asked the court to sustain the demurrer without leave to amend.
On May 31, 2019, California Superior Court Judge Kenneth J. Medel issued an order sustaining NYLIAC's demurrer without leave to amend. He also ordered New York Life removed from the case. The DRB complaint, the NYLIAC demurrer, and the court order are in the complimentary package offered at the end of this post. (See DRB v. Perez, Superior Court of California, County of San Diego, Case No. 37-2018-00057432-CU-MC-CTL.)
The Texas Disciplinary Order
On June 6, 2019, Texas Securities Commissioner Travis J. Iles issued a disciplinary order directed at an individual and a firm in Dallas who had sold stream-of-income investments to clients. Commissioner Iles reprimanded the individual and the firm. He also directed them to pay almost $89,000 (twice the commissions they had received) to certain clients. The Texas order is in the complimentary package offered at the end of this post.
The Warnings from Securities Regulators
In May 2013, the Office of Investor Education and Advocacy of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) jointly issued an "Investor Bulletin" entitled "Pension or Settlement Streams." The bulletin is mandatory reading for anyone considering a sale of or an investment in a pension stream. Here are the first two paragraphs of the bulletin:
Do you receive a monthly pension from a former employer? Are you getting regular distributions from a settlement following a personal injury lawsuit? If so, you may be targeted by salespeople offering you a lump sum today to buy the rights to some or all of the payments you would otherwise receive in the future. Retired government employees and retired members of the military are among those being approached with such offers. Typically the lump sum offered will be less—sometimes much less—than the total of the periodic payments you would otherwise receive.
After acquiring the rights to a future income stream (such as a retiree's pension payments), these pension purchasing or structured settlement companies, sometimes called "factoring companies," may turn around and sell these income streams to retail investors, often through a financial adviser, broker or insurance agent. These products go by various names—pension loans, pension income programs, mirrored pensions, factored structured settlements or secondary-market annuities. They may be pitched to investors with words like "guaranteed" and "safe"—and may tout robust returns that outpace more traditionally conservative investments such as CDs or money market accounts. The advertised returns may sound enticing, but investors should be aware that these investments can be risky and complex. FINRA and the SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy are issuing this Investor Alert to inform anyone considering selling their rights to an income stream—or investing in someone else's income stream—of the risks involved and to urge investors to proceed with caution.
The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) is an organization of state, district, and territory securities regulators in the U.S. and Mexico, and provincial securities regulators in Canada. On April 4, 2016, NASAA issued an "Informed Investor Advisory: Pension Advance Scams." The advisory explains how the "scam" works. The "bottom line" says: "Before making any decisions with your money, ask questions, do your homework and contact your state or provincial securities regulator."
On April 5, 2016, the day after NASAA issued its advisory, the Texas State Securities Board issued an "Investor Alert." It is entitled "Pitfalls of Pension Advance Schemes." The SEC/FINRA bulletin, the NASAA advisory, and the Texas alert are in the complimentary package offered at the end of this post.
My Writings About Factoring Companies
I wrote articles about factoring companies in the August 2011 and October 2011 issues of The Insurance Forum, my monthly newsletter. There I discussed the activities of such companies in detail, including the high annual interest rates associated with factoring transactions. The articles are in the complimentary package offered at the end of this post.
I also posted two blog items on the subject: No. 115 (September 11, 2015) and No. 190 (November 28, 2016). More recently, I posted No. 293 (November 1, 2018) about a tragic situation in which one element of the case involved the assignment of a portion of the proceeds from a structured settlement annuity.
General Observations
In the October 2011 Forum article mentioned above, I expressed the opinion that regulation of the secondary market for structured settlement annuities and retirement annuities did not exist. I referred to the situation as a "regulatory vacuum." What federal, state, and provincial securities regulators have been doing more recently is encouraging, but I think regulatory attention in this area remains inadequate.
Available Material
I am offering a complimentary 40-page PDF consisting of the DRB complaint (3 pages), the NYLIAC demurrer (13 pages), the California court order (2 pages), the Texas disciplinary order (9 pages), the SEC/FINRA bulletin (4 pages), the NASAA advisory (2 pages), the Texas alert (2 pages), and the two Forum articles (5 pages). Email jmbelth@gmail.com and ask for the June 2019 package about factoring companies.
===================================
Email: jmbelth@gmail.com
Blog: www.josephmbelth.com