At the time, it seemed like a great idea.

Perhaps you were involved in an auto accident. For whatever reason (taxes spring to mind), you chose to forgo a lump-sum payout from another driver’s insurer in favor of smaller periodic payments. Perhaps your child was born with a defect in his or her birth that Big Pharma was legally liable for. You could only think about making sure the money to support him would flow in for years.

Whatever the situation, you’ve made the decision that “structured settlement,”As it’s known, it no longer works.

Now, what?

“Sometimes cashing in is the only option,”Bankrate.com. “That $500 monthly payment from an accident in 2002 may have helped with the medical bills early on, but if the beneficiary has now lost his job and is on the verge of losing a home, a lump-sum payout of $50,000 may seem quite enticing.”

An estimated $6 billion worth of structured settlements is purchased or sold every year. There are many players out there, and you should not just call the 1-800 number that you saw on a TV commercial.

A new web-based entry into the field SellMyAnnuity.netThe care taken to make the process transparent for potential sellers stands out. It doesn’t just give you hundreds of examples from past sales (including six-figure sales) to give you an idea about what to expect when you contact an agent. You can actually find PDFs of the court documents that were signed on it.

Did you see that? PDFs. Of. Signed. Court. Documents.

“We’re committed to providing more information about structured settlement annuity sales than any other company in the industry,”Todd Albert, chief technology officer of SellMyAnnuity, said the following: “And we’ll help people determine whether they should sell, how many payments they want to sell, and of course make sure they get as much money as possible as fast as possible.”

This website also provides information about the various state and federal laws that protect you against making mistakes. One of the most important: After you accept an offer, a judge must review your reasons for trading future payment for an immediate lump amount. “best interest.”

“You can’t turn a structured settlement into cash just because you’d like a new car,”Albert. “But things like buying or repairing a home, starting a business, funding a college education and paying off debt can be acceptable.”