§ 15-50-30 — Transfer agreements; disclosure statements.

Not less than ten days before the date on which a payee signs a transfer agreement, the transferee shall provide to the payee a separate disclosure statement, in bold type no smaller than fourteen points, including: (1) amounts and due dates of the structured settlement payments being transferred; (2) aggregate amount of the payments; (3) discounted present value of the payments being transferred, which must be identified as the "calculation of current value of the transferred structured settlement payments under federal standards for valuing annuities", and the amount of the applicable federal rate used in calculating the discounted present value; (4) gross advance amount; (5) itemized listing of all applicable transfer expenses, other than attorney's fees and related disbursements payable in connection with the transferee's application for approval of the transfer, and the transferee's best estimate of the amount of the fees and disbursements; (6) the effective annual interest rate, which must be disclosed in a statement in the following form: "On the basis of the net amount that you will receive from us and the amounts and timing of the structured settlement payments that you are transferring to us, you will, in effect be paying interest to us at a rate of ___ percent per year."; (7) net advance amount; (8) amount of penalties or liquidated damages payable by the payee if the payee breaches the transfer agreement; (9) a statement that the payee has the right to cancel the transfer agreement, without penalty or further obligation, not later than the third business day after the date the agreement is signed by the payee; (10) that the payee has the right to seek and receive independent professional advice regarding the proposed transfer and should consider doing so before agreeing to the transfer of any structured settlement payment rights. The notice must also contain: "It is prohibited for us to refer you to a specific independent professional adviser. We may refer you to a state or local referral service, bar association, legal aid, or any other entity unrelated to us which assists people with locating independent professional advice, if requested"; and (11) that the payee has the right to seek out and consider additional offers for transferring the structured settlement payment rights and should do so.

Legislative History

HISTORY: 2002 Act No. 252, SECTION 1; 2023 Act No. 22 (S.259), SECTION 3, eff July 1, 2023. Editor's Note 2023 Act No. 22, SECTION 20, provides as follows: "SECTION 20. SECTION 9 through SECTION 16 take effect on January 1, 2024. All other SECTIONS take effect on July 1, 2023, and apply to applications filed on or after the effective date." Effect of Amendment 2023 Act No. 22, SECTION 3, in the first undesignated paragraph, substituted "ten days" for "three days", inserted (6) and redesignated former (6) to (8) as (7) to (9), respectively, added (10) and (11), and made nonsubstantive changes.