Year-End Feature

The Complete ELNY Saga

21 years of Mismanagement, Corruption, Broken Promises and Shattered Lives

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Interactive Timeline

Mismanagement of Epic Proportions

Infographics

Making Sense of it All

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    3 months in the life of an ELNY annuitant

    It's early December 2011, and amidst the holiday rush, a letter arrives. It's in an unfamiliar envelope and looks suspiciously like junk mail, but for an alarming return address in the upper lefthand corner: ELNY Restructuring Support Center.

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    How do structured settlement annuities work?

    Structured settlement annuities are complex products, paid out to injured parties in lieu of one large lump sum. They are unique in that the the payee never owns the annuity; the defendant's insurance company does.

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    Letter to an ELNY payee

    On Dec. 7, 2011 the New York Liquidation Bureau sent letters to 10,000 recipients of ELNY structured settlement annuities, informing them that ELNY was insolvent and would be liquidated in the spring of 2012, following a hearing scheduled for March 15.

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    Nesting dolls

    The ELNY saga begins not with ELNY itself, but with First Executive Corporation (FEC), which owned Executive Life of California (ELIC), which in turn owned Executive Life of New York (ELNY). Like a Russian nesting doll, the many different corporations that played a role in ELNY's ultimate failure can be stacked one atop the next.

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Investigation

The Cost of Reform

Is the structured settlement process in need of reform?

The financial debacle that has denied hundreds of former Executive Life of New York (ELNY) policyholders much of the income payments once promised them has shone a light on a corner of the industry little understood by many life insurance and financial service professionals: annuity-funded structured settlements.

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The aborted New York Liquidation Bureau investigation

According to sources interviewed by National Underwriter Life & Health for our Complete ELNY Saga, there was an investigation into the shadowy mechanics of the New York Liquidation Bureau (the Bureau) albeit one with no conclusion. Indeed, the investigation results are now are under seal, according to a source. More than one person confirmed the investigation.

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Structured Settlement Profiles

Going From Bad to Worse

Reggie Kelly

On September 13, 1983, while living in southern California, welder Reggie Kelly hopped on his motorcycle to go cash his paycheck over a lunch break. Stopped at an intersection, he waited for a green light and then headed forward, but an oncoming car took a left turn across the intersection and hit Reggie directly.

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Sandra and Lawrence Foreman Kenik

Just south of Great Falls, Montana, Sandy and Lawrence Foreman-Kenik are grappling with the reality that very soon, their retirement plans are going to fall apart, thanks to a sharp decrease in payments to Sandy’s structured settlement annuity.

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Timothy Culhane

In 1980, contractor Timothy Culhane was working on a seven-story worksite when he tripped on some unsecured cabling laid down by electrical subcontractors. Those subcontractors were supposed to have the cables secured. They were also supposed to have perimeter cables on the roof to prevent accidental falls.

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Annuity Calculator

How Would You Have Been Affected?

What would you do if your monthly income was suddenly cut by 40%, 50% or more? Input your monthly income and hit the button to find out. Our ELNY Haircut Simulator will arbitrarily reduce your monthly take-home by somewhere between 40% and 60% to simulate the financial shock ELNY payees received when they learned that their own payments would be severely reduced. Give it a try and see if you would be in as much financial distress as the payees in our story.

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Additional Resources

More Information About the ELNY Liquidation

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