Posted by John Merchant,JD on April 25, 2002 at 21:28:24:
In Reply to: Can Social Security Survivor Payments be bought? posted by Teresa K. Baty on April 22, 2002 at 13:28:47:
Yes, but the sale could be legally voided at any time by the seller, so there's no way you can get a legally enforceable contract on it. She might assign it to you on Monday, take your money, change the arrangements on Tuesday, and you'd be out the money. And probably no court, or judge, anywhere, would side with you on trying to get your money back. I can't imagine the lawyer who'd bother representing you or the buyer in that case; he/she'd be laughed out of court in my opinion.
And don't bother trying to tell the Social Security Admin. that she's assigning it to you; they will NOT, in any way, honor that deal or work with anyone except the SS recipient herself. And any instructions by her, about where the monthly benefits are to be mailed, would be instantly honored, no matter what kind of agreement you might have.
Currently, in fact, there's a move on in Congress to totally eliminate any possibility of any assignment or sale of any kind of pension benefits...to protect the elderly from the unscrupulous who would prey on them.
So don't expect the situation to improve from the note buyer's viewpoint.