Posted by jnew on 8/28/09 12:33pm
Msg #302117

Company buying annuities

I have a signing today with a company out of Maryland called Stone Street LLC which is buying an annuity from a mother on behalf of a 7 year old child receiving an annuity from an insurance company. All of the documents are being signed as legal guardian of the child and I proposed to notatize these documents signed by the legal guardian. Does anyone think this is a signing to avoid. I have my doubts now because of some of the posts on these non-mortgage firms. I already told the customer that I would not direct the mother on the completion of the documents but merely notarize signatures. Anybody have any experience dealing with these?

Reply by John_NorCal on 8/28/09 12:39pm
Msg #302121

I believe that if you are acting strictly in your notary public capacity then you are ok. Structured settlement companies are nothing new. You are not responsible for the content of any documents that you notarize, your only responsibility is to properly identify and execute the duties of your commission.

Reply by MonicaFL on 8/28/09 1:02pm
Msg #302137

I did one for them but did not give any instructions, advise or do anything but id the signer, watched him sign the docs, notarize his signature and sent them back. It was also with Stone Creek or whatever their name is. Got paid in a real timely manner also.

Reply by MonicaFL on 8/28/09 1:02pm
Msg #302138

OOPS

Stone Street - not Stone Creek. Sorry.

Reply by CH2inCA on 8/28/09 2:18pm
Msg #302160

I seem to think that here in CA, after the signing the still goes before a judge and they will determine if the settlement deal will be funded. Is it that way in other states?

Reply by John/CT on 8/28/09 6:19pm
Msg #302184

Yes, but it should have no effect on payment to us. n/m

Reply by CopperheadVA on 8/29/09 8:52am
Msg #302252

Yes, I believe that's true about the annuity buy-out requiring approval by a judge. The very first one I did, I ended up going back out to the same guy about a year later, but for a different company. The guy told me that the judge rejected the first deal - judge said it was not a fair offer from the buy-out company.

Reply by MW/VA on 8/28/09 6:37pm
Msg #302190

These are structured settlements & the transaction is fairly common. There is usually only about 20 pages, and a few notarizations. I've done a few for Stone Street, and they paid quickly on the last one. This has nothing to do with loan mod applications, which is what there has been so many warning posts about.

Reply by jnew on 8/31/09 10:32am
Msg #302360

I rejected this order, only because it was signed by the mother of the annuitant 7 year old child as a legal guardian. I know that as a notary I am not supposed to make legal judgments about the nature of the transaction, but I felt I needed to err on the side of caution against the mother's possibility of not being authorized by the original agreement to sell the annuity. I have decided to do these in the future, as long as the annuitant selling the annuity is the actual signer of the documents and not in a representative capacity.