Most judges and most courts will require you to appear in court so that the judge has an opportunity to ask you questions and so that the judge is comfortable that you know what you are doing.

At the hearing, you need to be ready to answer the judge’s questions.  The judge may want to know exactly what you want to do with the money, and you need to be ready to explain clearly why you need the money and what you intend doing with the cash.  You can make sure you are prepared for the hearing by having a list of what you will do with the money, and even having backup for all specific expenses and costs that you have.

A good factoring company will make sure that, before the hearing, its lawyer goes over with you what you can expect at the court hearing, so that you have a good idea about what to expect and what the judge is like.

Some courts do not require you to appear, and in those cases you may need to sign an affidavit affirming that you understand what you are doing with your payments.

The first thing a company is going to ask is how much money you need or if there are certain payments you want to sell.

If you accept an offer, the company will send you an application and all the sale documents, including a disclosure statement and purchase and sale agreement that will have all of the conditions of the purchase.

The factoring company is then required by law to have a hearing before a judge to request that the purchase be approved.   A lot of companies will tell you that the fact the sale will ultimately be approved by a judge, proves you have gotten a good deal.  Unfortunately, that isn’t what it means at all.  It only means that your transaction has been approved and it tells the insurance company to send your payments to the buyer.

When the judge approves the purchase the Company will make your lump sum payment of cash to you.

Strategic Capital Corporation pays them.

A company determines how much they will pay you for future payments by calculating the present value of the payments that you are selling.  They do this by applying a discount factor to the future payments.  That discount factor is like the interest you pay on a loan.

If you are expecting a payment in 5 or 10 years, someone will be prepared to buy that payment, but “today” the buyer will pay you less than the amount of that payment in the future.  That is because the buyer needs to be paid “interest” or a “return” for putting up the money “today” and waiting for the payment to come due some time in the future.

Strategic Capital corporation has purchased structured settlement payment from annuitants and has funded them in as little as 18 days. Courts in some states are faster than in other states because different states have different transfer requirements as well as different court processes.  Depending on the state the annuitant resides in, the funding process could take anywhere from 60 days to 90 days.