Litigation

Aviva Exits Structured Settlements, Industry in Shock

By John Darer

The structured settlement industry is buzzing today with the abrupt decision of Aviva to cease writing NEW structured settlement business effective December 15, 2008. The company is NOT going out of business , it is simply stopping writing structured settlements. Aviva Life and Annuity Company (and its New York subsidiary), rated A+ by AM Best, part of one the largest insurance groups in the world, is one of the fastest growing life insurance companies in the United States.

Who could have predicted this? Aviva's structured settlement operation had rapidly expanded in the last year. Less than 7 weeks ago, at the San Francisco NSSTA Regional meeting , where I had the pleasure of dining with a number of Aviva and Platinum representatives, I was left with the impression that business was going gangbusters as they benefited from some of the uncertainty created by the financial press about some of their competition.

The company's structured settlement growth was notable because it had no related PC company to feed it business. Aviva, and its predecessors CGU LIfe and Commercial Union Life were known for competitive underwriting and pricing, particularly on the older ages and was a great market for the small cases. In addition the company had a periodic payment reinsurance product for workers comp. In addition the company was one of the few to accept qualified assignments from single claimant qualified settlement funds (also known as single claimant 468B or single claimant QSF). How this will affect certain elements in the plaintiff settlement planning market remains to be seen.

Aviva is a structured settlement annuity market that will be missed. This author's thoughts are with those in the structured settlement marketing departments of Aviva and Platinum for whom this unfortunate reality has occurred during the holiday season.

As a result of the Aviva decision, the structured settlement market has the following remaining underwriters include American General Life Insurance Company, American International Life Assurance Company of New York, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, New York Life Insurance Company, John Hancock Life Insurance Company, Allstate Life Insurance Company and its New York company, Liberty Life Assurance of Boston, Prudential Insurance Company of America, Hartford Life Insurance Company, Pacific Life and Annuity Company and Symetra Life Insurance Company.

Full post as published by Structured Settlements 4Real on December 16, 2008 (boomark / email).