Selling payments rather than a policy is the transaction this market is built around, and the mechanics are the same whichever annuity you hold: a buyer values the specific payments you are selling, discounts them back to today, and pays you the balance. What differs is whether a judge has to approve it, and that depends on where the annuity came from.
What a buyer prices
The amounts, the dates, how far the stream runs, and whether the payments are guaranteed or stop on death. Guaranteed payments are worth more because they continue regardless; life-contingent payments carry mortality risk, and a buyer pricing them may ask health questions or require insurance. A quote that does not separate the two is not one you can compare against another.
Which regime you are in
If the annuity funds a structured settlement, every transfer needs advance court approval under your state's act, and a federal excise tax falls on the buyer's discount where there is none, which the record quotes in full on the United States row. If it is an annuity you bought, you are dealing with the issuer's own contract terms instead. The paperwork tells you which: a court application, a notice to the obligor and the annuity issuer, and a question about independent professional advice all point to the first.
What a Florida court has to find
Florida's section conditions everything on express findings by the court, beginning with the fact that the transfer complies with the section and does not contravene other applicable law. It then does something the other statutes on this record do not: it puts a clock and a typeface on the disclosure. At least 10 days before the date on which the payee first incurred an obligation with respect to the transfer, the transferee must have provided the payee a disclosure statement in bold type, no smaller than 14 points in size, and the court must find that the payee received or waived independent professional advice.
Questions people ask about sell annuity payments
Does a court really have to approve this?
Yes, in every state. The federal exception in 26 U.S.C. 5891(b) applies only where the transfer was approved in advance in a qualified order finding it is in the best interest of the payee, taking into account the welfare and support of the payee's dependents.
What is the single biggest variable in the price?
The discount rate, and after that how far in the future the payments fall due. The reported range across the market is between 9% and 18%.
Do you take a share of what I get?
No. Buyers pay a flat fee for the enquiry itself, never a share of the discount and never anything contingent on a transfer completing.