Pay day loan operations and structured settlement financial companies like this are nothing but legalized loan sharking outfits. These guys are in one of the few growth sectors out there, which really speaks badly of the structure of our economy.
JG Wentworth gets massive cuts out of the settlements that they pay out. Say you have someone with a structured settlement or annuity that pays out over time. Wentworth floats you the cash, and you sign over to them your rights to the settlement. You get pennies on the dollar in return because they have more than enough recourse to wait for the money. This is similar to what state lottery systems have with a "cash-value" option. If you win the lotto, you get an annuity that pays out over 20 or 25 years. If you take the cash option, you get the lump-sum up front, but it is probably only going to be about 35-40 pct. of what you would have gotten had you waited.
Basically, these guys prey on people's desperate financial circumstances, and many times, make their problems even worse.