If you are wondering whether or not you should consider a Structured or a Periodic Payment plan for your settlement, you should consider the following three major advantages that would not be available to you should you decide to go the lump sum payment route in stead.

Here are four major advantages that a periodic payment settlement offers over a lump sum settlement:

• Tax-Free Revenue Stream: Congress has enacted a special rule (I.R.C. 104 (a) (2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended) to make all such periodic payments exempt from taxation. The aforementioned tax code allows for the interest to be accrued tax-free and be used to pay for the periodic payments you would be receiving under your structured payments periodic plan. Had you chosen to first receive your settlement award in a lump sum amount, and if you were to invest it thereafter on your own, any interest so generated would not be tax-exempt. Therefore, the net result of using a structured settlement would be more money in your pocket.
  
  

• Your Payments Are Guaranteed: A periodic payment settlement plan guarantees you pre-determined payments on pre-specified payment dates. The money that funds all such payments comes from the interest generated from the most reliable annuities that one can possibly buy. Therefore, your payments are guaranteed.
  
  

• Terms of Settlement Designed For Your Individual Needs and Desires: With the help of your own structured settlements consultant (you have one, don't you?) and your attorney, you should be able to have a structured settlements periodic payments plan crafted specifically for you -a plan the is designed around your ongoing needs and your desires. Your plan would allow you to specify details like: the lump sum amount (if any) you would prefer to receive up front, the date periodic payments are to start, and provisions that provide you with additional funds at certain times -for example to cover for educational expenses anticipated on a future date, supplemental payments when you retire, etc. Structured settlements are almost always tailor-made to meet the injured person's support needs and personal preferences.
  
  

• Inherently Immune to Financial Market Changes:
  Considering that investments that fund your periodic payments are made in highest rated life insurance companies, and often in government-backed investment products, your benefits are inherently more immune to any ups and downs in the economy or the financial marketplace.

Considering the above unique and unparalleled advantages that periodic payment plans offer over lump sum payments, opting for structured payments is probably the best way to secure the financial security for the victim.