There are many reasons why you may want to sell your structured settlement. Perhaps you need to raise cash for a down payment on a house or to fund a child’s education. Perhaps you are the heir to an estate that includes payments on a structured settlement and you and the other heirs would prefer a lump sum of cash to pay for expenses rather than a monthly check.

Whatever your personal reason for wanting to sell your annuities, the transference of your structured settlement, and thus the ability to sell your structured settlement, is governed by law. This isn’t just a case of transferring a deed to a car to a new buyer or of transferring your property, a judge actually has to look over the document and approve the sale of your structured settlement.

Because of the entanglements with the judicial system, you can expect the sale of your structured settlement to take 2-3 months. If you expect you will need the cash soon, then you should get started on it immediately. Many companies buy and sell structured settlements, but any who claim that they can have it done in just a few weeks is probably lying.