The question behind this one is always the same: how much of my money do I keep. The honest answer is that it depends on a rate nobody advertises, applied to a schedule you already have, and that the gap between a good deal and a bad one in this market is larger than in almost any other consumer transaction.
The discount is the price
The gap between the face value of the payments you sell and the money you receive is the discount, and it is the whole price of the transaction. The trade body's reported range is between 9% and 18%, and a few points over a long stream is a very large sum. Florida's statute names the yardstick a court measures it against: discounted present value is the fair present value of future payments, determined by discounting them using the most recently published applicable federal rate.
The two numbers to ask for, by name
Ask any buyer for the gross advance amount and the net advance amount, and for the discount rate used to get from one to the other. Those are not invented terms: they are the words New York's statute uses when it tells a court to consider whether the discount rate used to determine the gross advance amount and the fees and expenses used to determine the net advance amount are fair and reasonable. A buyer that will not break its offer into those parts is asking you to compare offers you cannot compare.
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 your structured settlement
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, and the order must find the transfer 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 you are selling 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.