Legislative intent behind Structured Settlements (and the tax subsidy thereof) has been to ensure that the victim (the Injured Party) receives the needed support reliably. The investment vehicles used to generate the interest that pays for the periodic payments are required to be in the form of some of the safest investments one can possibly have. The interest (and hence those periodic payments) comes from investments made in highly rated life insurance companies and/or government backed investment products.

Therefore, a structured settlement is one of the most reliable ways to ensure that you will not lose your money over time, that you will earn the highest interest rates that any such (highly reliable) investment programs can possibly generate, and that you will not have to pay any taxes on the interest so earned.

The specifics (periodic payment schedule, and the amounts) can be tailored to your specific needs and they can be made very flexible. For example, if would be up to you to decide whether or not you wish to spread those monthly payments for the rest of your life time, or only over a pre-designated span of time. Similarly, you would also be able to specify whether or not your payments need to start immediately, or only after a certain time when you would need them the most. For example, in case of most minors, payments are often delayed to help pay for college when they turn 18 years of age.

Considering all the flexibility that structured settlement provide, and also the facts that they are not only a tax-free revenue stream, but that they are created using extremely reliable investment products; it is no wonder that they are such a safe bet when it comes to securing and providing support for an injured person's long term support needs and desires.

It is in the injured persons' best interest, therefore, to designate some of the settlement money (if not a major portion thereof) to a structured settlement. In order to do so, one must bear in mind, however, that all such periodic plans have to be set up a priori -i.e. before you receive your settlement money, and before you sign-off on the final settlement papers, thereby concluding your lawsuit.