Rather then re-type my entire blog post over at The Settlement Channel, my blog and podcast site directed at the structured settlement industry and trial lawyers, click here to read my most recent post on the questionable marketing and practices that appear to be starting to pop up in the structured sales marketing area.

In short, there are many of the firms that were national sellers and marketers of Private Annuity Trusts, deciding to take the term structured sale, and use it as a means of steering internet traffic and key word searches, and then suggest to clients and advisors that a product other then the structured sales annuity be used to fund the installment sale.

I'll have to do more investigation, as I'm sure the legal and compliance departments of Allstate and Prudential will be doing shortly, but from a quick read of these sites that are springing up we are going to see many of the PAT marketing firms using similar tactics to bait and switch people into products or concepts that might not stand up to IRS or regulatory scrutiny.

In short, if the marketer/advisor you are talking to can not PROVE to you that they are appointed by Allstate Life or Prudential Life's structured sales marketing division they are NOT appointed and most likely do not have access to the product that is used to fund structured sales.

If you have a question about a marketer or advisor I strongly suggest you contact my office, or if you prefer, contact the settlement annuity divisions of Prudential or Allstate. If you request them I will be more then happy to send you the contact information so you can carefully vet the advisor you are dealing with.