Our Services
Heights Annuity Consultants provides settlement annuity and related services to individuals, financial consultants, and attorneys.
Annuity Factoring Services
Bentzen Financial is the only structured settlement factoring company whose principals, Rhonda Bentzen and I, are former primary market professionals.
Structured settlements are the best way to provide guaranteed tax-free income to injury victims and their families. However, an individual's situation may change after the settlement in ways that even the best-planned structure could never anticipate, and structured settlement payments are locked in and cannot be changed. This is what factoring is meant to address.
Rhonda and I work with structured settlement recipients (including trusts) whose needs have changed after the settlement. We help clients analyze their situations and understand the benefits, costs, and implications of selling future payment rights to address their needs. If it does make sense, we work with the client to structure a transaction that balances current and future needs, at the lowest possible rate and with the least possible impact on the structure. When factoring doesn’t make sense, we advise the client of the reasons why.
At Bentzen Financial, we work exclusively with clients referred by structured settlement professionals, attorneys, and other settlement advisors. We ensure that our factoring transactions always reflect positively on the work that was done to put the structure in place.
In addition to structured settlement annuitants, we also help recipients of other future payments such as structured legal fees, taxable annuities, lottery prizes, and casino winnings.
Expert Witness Testimony
As an expert witness in personal injury lawsuits, I provide information and opinions on structured settlements in the form of written reports, verbal and written consultation, depositions, and court testimony.
My analysis centers on the cost of using structured settlement annuities to fund life care plans and other settlement costs. Structured settlements are regulated by state insurance commissions and may only be placed by specialized consultants who must hold life, accident, and health insurance agent licenses and must be appointed by the life insurance companies who issue the annuities. As an independent expert, I review the case and then work with licensed structured settlement consultants who run my numbers through actual quoting software to provide realistic cost estimates. I also provide background on the factors that generally underlie structured settlements and annuity pricing.
My opinions are provided from the standpoint of an independent expert with over 35 years of professional experience in structured settlements, finance, and accounting. My experience with and knowledge of structured settlements, annuity pricing, and litigation finance allow me to provide a detailed insider’s view of the structured settlement marketplace. I am a CPA and hold the designation of Certified Structured Settlement Consultant from the National Structured Settlement Trade Association’s program at the University of Notre Dame. I have held leadership positions in structured settlement brokerage, structured settlement technology, casualty/life insurance structured settlement operations, Medicare compliance, and annuity valuation and purchasing. I am a past member and committee chair of the National Structured Settlement Trade Association.
Independent Professional Advice, Legal Funding and Life Settlement
State structured settlement factoring laws either recommend or require individuals to obtain independent professional advice (IPA) on all structured settlement factoring transactions. As a CPA, I provide this service to individuals engaged in transactions with other factoring companies. I function as an independent and disinterested advisor, drawing on my insider’s knowledge of structured settlements and factoring to provide the best possible advice.
I regularly assist individuals and their advisors in the areas of lawsuit funding, law firm funding, and the sale of life insurance policies. I do NOT provide these services directly. I will connect you with proven and vetted providers of these and other related services, and will help you navigate their processes.
Contact us
For more information or to refer a case, please fill out the form below.