Archive for February 24, 2012

24 Feb 2012
Finance

Selling Your Annuity Payments

An annuity can be a wonderful thing. They often consist of settlements that pay out of a lengthy period of time, creating a sort of income for individuals that may not otherwise be able to pursue such a path. If you need money more quickly, though, it can be frustrating to know that the money you need is out there but is unable to be reached. If you find yourself in such a situation, you might want to seek out a buyer of structured settlement annuity payments.

Why Sell an Annuity?

There are many reasons to sell a structured settlement annuity. The most common is when an individual needs money immediately. The payments made out of a settlement may be too small to cover medical expenses or other damages, making the settlement all but useless. Others tend to sell the annuities because they will simply take too long to pay out – an individual with a terminal health issue, for example, might not want to make use of a settlement that takes decades to pay out. Regardless of the circumstances, the selling of annuities is an incredibly common process. More individuals than you might think choose to quickly get a lump-sum payment rather than wait for a settlement to pay out.

Who Buys Annuities?

There are many companies that might qualify as buyers of structured settlements. These companies buy the settlements at a profit, taking the short term loss of paying clients to make a long term gain. These companies are often quite reputable, and their businesses are often backed up by many years of service. Working with these companies is often a very easy process, as years of experience has led to service processes that are simply faster than attempting to sell an annuity to another individual.

The Process

The process of selling a structured settlement is remarkably easy. One simply has to find a buyer of structured settlement annuity payments, and then the individual must allow that service to make an offer on the annuity. Different companies offer different rates, which may be related to many different factors. The offer will be made for the annuity, which the seller may accept or refuse at his or her leisure. If you choose to accept, the annuity will be transferred over to the company that has purchased it, and you will receive a lump-sum payment.

Whether you need money now to pay the bills or simply do not want to wait out a settlement, there are individuals that are willing to buy your structured settlement. So long as you are willing to work with a company with a good reputation, you should find that you can get the money you need in a timely manner.

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21 Feb 2012
Finance

Remembering Junius W. Peake, Pioneer In Electronic Securities Trading

Junius W. Peake, former Professor of Finance at the University of Northern Colorado, and a pioneer in electronic securities trading systems, passed away on January 27, 2012 in Greeley, Colorado. Mr. Peake was 80 years old and had been ill for some time following a series of strokes.

Born on Feb. 12, 1931, in New York City, Junius Peake, known as “Jay”, attended Syracuse University but dropped out after only one year to start a career on Wall Street. His first job, begun in 1950, was at Garvin Bantel & Co.  Jay enjoyed recounting that one of his responsibilities there was changing the ink on the old TransLux tickertape machine.

Peake later joined Shields and Co., a Manhattan brokerage firm, where he became an early advocate of electronic securities trading. Before computers, every stock trade was initiated on the floor of a stock exchange using the “outcry” method.  Men shouted out bid and sell orders in the middle of a trading pit in the exchanges.  Then, once trades were made, settlement of the trades required the physical transfer of stock certificates and financial instruments by hand.  By the late 1960s, the volume of stock transactions had grown so large that the system of public outcry trading and paper settlement had become known as “the back office crisis”.

In 1975, the Securities and Exchange Commission called for an overhaul of the stock exchanges, and created the National Market Advisory Board to come up with a plan for modernizing them. Peake and two colleagues, Morris Mendelson, and R.T. Williams Jr., were invited to present a plan they had developed for a fully-computerized stock trading system called “The National Book System: An Electronically Assisted Auction Market”.  Their plan proposed a number of innovations familiar to modern traders, including universal access to trading systems, screen-based trading, and replacement of the old 1/8 share price system, with shares priced in decimals.

In 1981, Peake and a colleague from Merrill Lynch, Eugene M. Grummer, began work on the International Futures Exchange (Intex), the world’s first automated futures exchange. Launched in Bermuda in 1984, Intex was one of the first trading systems to make computerized trades instead of live floor trades.  Unfortunately, Intex was short-lived as a business, and Peake expressed disappointment in his memoirs that the system had not caught on. He was, however, proud of his role in demonstrating the concept of modern electronic trading systems.

In 1990, despite having no degree, Peake was appointed Professor of Finance at the Monfort College of Business at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado. He continued to teach there until his retirement in 2006.

Junius W. Peake is remembered as an innovator and pioneer in electronic trading systems, and will be greatly missed by his family, friends and colleagues. He is survived by his wife, Diane Ryerson Peake, and his two sons, Andrew and James.

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