We at Bentzen Financial hope you’re staying healthy and safe during this trying time. We are fortunate that our business can still be run fairly effectively while practicing social distancing. Many are not so lucky. The next few months will likely prove to be very challenging for many sectors, resulting in layoffs, financially strained businesses and depleted personal savings.

Trying times like these can bring out the best in us, but it can also bring out the worst. The grifters, opportunists, and hucksters will be out in full force to capitalize on this crisis. This includes the “cash now” pushers in the factoring industry. We’ve already noticed an uptick in TV ads. In this time of confusion and uncertainty, aggressive telemarketers will be working overtime scraping court records and clients lists to coerce unsuspecting annuitants into questionable transactions. 

Calls from your clients looking for liquidity will be inevitable as this crisis worsens. We urge you to engage with your clients to help them find sensible solutions. We all agree that preserving their guaranteed payments is the best outcome, however, factoring is sometimes the only option for liquidity. In that case, the goal should be to preserve as much of the payments as possible. Factoring should never be the universal solution that “cash now” firms push. 

Experience tells that no matter the warnings you give annuitants about factoring, otherwise sensible people will still answer those “cash now” ads in times of desperation. Trust us that nothing good will come of those calls. Now, more than ever, your clients need facts and options to make informed decisions about their finances; not sales pressure and coercion. They won’t find that on their own without your help.
For those of you personally affected by the COVID-19 health crisis, know that our thoughts and best wishes are with you.
 
Stay safe and healthy.