Structured Settlement Calculator
Structured Settlement Calculator answers a few common questions about structured settlements. It is not intended to replace personal knowledge or experience. You must still rely on your own research, common sense and trust in your broker. The answers from the structured settlement calculator give an approximate estimate for the potential payout.
Answers from the structured settlement calculator give a rough idea to future payments. So, multiply the initial payments by twelve to get a rough idea of how much each structured settlement payment could be. Change some of the values to see what they impact the “amount of payments” answer in the mathematical portion of the calculator. Some common inputs to the calculator include the initial rate of interest, number of years to maturity, amount of time between payments, annuity payments and indexed annuity payments. Enter “other values” if you would like to include settlement premium and lifetime payouts. The calculator assumes that the total settlement amount will be paid over time.
Annuity payments are lump sums paid to the beneficiary. The lump sum can be used to buy another structured settlement payment or fund a personal loan. Once the lump sum is received by the beneficiary receives the payments. Any other payments the owner made to the insured, like interest or payment guarantee should be entered so that it can also be compared with the lump sum.
A lump sum amount should be decided before looking into the values entered in the Structured Settlement Calculator. The lump sum amount should be large enough to cover the total expected future payments. It is possible the owner will have needs that are not covered in the current payments.
You can enter the value of future streams of income into the Structured Settlement Calculator. These include future bonuses or stock options, interests from stock options or mutual funds and future property sales. The future stream of income may be affected by tax laws, health problems or death. You should also know if the total amount of future payments will change over time.
How much money will the owner receive during the lifetime of the policy? This question is important. Total lifetime settlement payments can be found by using the Structured Settlement Calculator. If you do not have all of this information it may take a visit to a web site that will make it easy for you. In some cases it can be found by contacting an independent broker who will put you in touch with those that will give you the best information.