Founded 2007 | Parent organization Emergent Capital Inc | |
Imperial Finance and Trading, LLC is a financial services company that purchases structured settlement and annuities from individuals. Imperial primarily deals with structured settlements, life insurance for seniors, wholesale premium finance, and life settlements. The company's national headquarters are located in Boca Raton, Florida.
Contents
History
Imperial is a portfolio company of the Tavistock Group, an international private investment company. Imperial was founded in 2007 by Jonathan Neuman, the company's owner and COO. Antony Mitchell joined the company's ranks in August 2007 as a partner and CEO, followed by Deborah Benaim as Senior Vice President, and Drew McMullen as Vice President.
Structured Settlement
Imperial's structured settlement department is a member of the National Association of Settlement Purchasers. Run by Deborah Benaim, the senior management team has been involved in structured settlements since the inception of the industry, although Imperial has only been around since 2007. Imperial asserts that it pioneered the revolution of the industry by minimizing payment time to approximately 40 days time. This has been reported to be more advertising hype than substance. On April 22, 2010, Imperial's structured settlements department secured a $250 million deal in financing for both Life Contingent and Guaranteed Payments. Their advertisements include television commercials, radio ads, and monthly mailers, resulting in marketing costs of $14,000 imbeded in each customer transaction. http://www.pressreleasepoint.com/imperial-funding039s-high-interest-rates-criticized-court Knowing that discount rates were falling dramatically for structured settlement payments, Imperial's stockholders rushed through a public offering in early 2011. Investment banking firm FBR is rumored to have looked the other way.
Imperial charges among the highest interest rates to its customers in the industry often above 20 percent a year. Courts have denied Imperial's requested transfers because its offered price was not "fair and reasonable". See In the Matter of the Petition of Imperial Structured Settlements, Petitioner, SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, QUEENS COUNTY, 2009 NY Slip Op 51625U; 24 Misc. 3d 1226A; 899 N.Y.S.2d 60; 2009 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1981, July 23, 2009, where the court criticized Imperial for paying only one third (1/3) of the discounted present value and denied the transfer. http://www.nycourts.gov/library/queens/PDF_files/8_09/IMPERIAL.pdf
Reuters has reported that sometimes Imperial said it was unable to access traditional sources of capital to finance the acquisition and sale of structured settlements after the global economic downturn. Imperial said in its recent government filing that "at certain points, we were unable to get any debt financing".
See http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSGE67B0NZ20100812 .
Similar issues have plagued the nations two biggest cash now pushers JG Wentworth which had to file Chapter 11 in May 2009 and Peach Holdings (Peachtree Settlement Funding) which suffered a significant credit downgrade at one point.
The bigger company problems have also led to a greater appetite for in force structured settlement payment rights from individual investors. Many individual investors are willing to accept lower discount rates than the institutions thus squeezing those bigger players that must operate at larger spreads to support their overhead.