ORIGINATOR PROFILE
Prime Case Funding
Founded in 2010, Prime Case Funding is a New York based full-service legal finance firm. The Originator has funded plaintiffs in all 50 states and considers itself active in 33 states. The Originator’s origination strategy focuses on developing and maintaining personal relationships with attorneys and offers competitive industry rates with underwriting turnaround time of 24 hours from receipt of case documentation. Furthermore, the Originator’s philosophy emphasizes customer service, with a team of account executives serving as dedicated points of contact for each case and active involvement by the Principals. As of April 2019, the Originator has funded over 14,000 plaintiff advances for a total of $80.5M.
Lending Methodology
The Originator has designed and developed policies and procedures to review and analyze prospective funding requests involving outstanding personal injury claims or other lawsuits that have not yet settled. The Originator’s underwriting process includes a review of case documentation and an interview with the handling attorney to evaluate the case across four key attributes:
- Liable Party: The Originator identifies the liable party and assesses the extent of liability.
- Ability to Pay: The Originator identifies the obligor, which may be an insurance company. The Originator then assess the obligor’s requirement and financial ability to pay the expected settlement amount.
- Injury: The Originator reviews and verifies the damages experienced by the plaintiff.
- Causation: The Originator determines whether a chain of causality can be established between the incident and the damages.
Upon review of all information gathered, the lead underwriter renders a decision to approve or decline the funding request based on an opinion of the case’s likelihood to settle, the estimated settlement amount and the time to settle. Any funding request over $15k is escalated to the Chief Operating Officer, who renders the final decision.
If approved for funding, the Originator verifies that the case remains unencumbered, and a funding agreement is drawn alongside a suite of security documentation to ensure plaintiff and attorney’s acknowledgement of the advance and payment procedures.
Portfolio Management
The Originator has developed a proprietary enterprise software which processes each case from initial intake to closing. All case information and documentation are entered into the system which allows for efficient inter-department collaboration and tracking of funding at each stage of the funding’s lifecycle. Post-funding, the Originator services its active advances internally. It is responsible for the case management, risk management and cash management functions:
- Case Management – The Originator monitors the underlying cases associated with the Originator’s active advances real-time through digital filings via the electronic courts systems and through direct contact with the handling attorney (approximately every 90 days). Advances related to a case which is at a high risk of loss are placed on a watchlist for enhanced monitoring. The decision to categorize an advance as defaulted or the approval of any reduction in repayment amount is escalated to the Chief Operating Officer.
- Risk Management – The Originator’s risk management process occurs in conjunction with the case management process as the Originator ensures the advance remains otherwise unencumbered over its life. In particular, if a new attorney is engaged by the Plaintiff, the Originator contacts the new attorney to confirm representation and sends the new attorney a Notice of Lien letter and the executed funding agreement both electronically and via certified mail. The Notice of Lien Letter ensures the Originator’s claim to the settlement proceeds is known by the law firm so that the Originator is properly remitted its portion at settlement.
- Cash Management – The Originator’s cash management process consists of ensuring the proper amount of funds is received in relation to a case settlement. The Originator coordinates directly with the attorney when a settlement is considered imminent to confirm the amount outstanding on the advance. The Originator is responsible for the physical processing of payments and the proper application of funds, including the depositing of monies due to collection accounts. The entire cash management process is documented on the Originator’s system which allows for efficient process control and verification.
Portfolio Metrics & Performance
An analysis of the Originator’s closed advances was performed as of April 2019. The Originator has had 10,039 advances close, which represents $51.4M of funding and $71.7M of collections. As such, the multiple of invested capital (referred to as MOIC and calculated as Amount Collected divided by Amount Funded) for closed advances was 1.40x which means that if an advance closed, for every $1.00 funded, the Originator received $1.40 in return. The time to settlement for the Originator’s closed advances was on average 12.7 months, which in consideration of the MOIC, represents a closed advance internal rate of return (IRR) of 37.6%. It is important to note that the discussed metrics only consider closed advances and do not consider advances that are currently considered active and ongoing.
Historical Performance
- Settled Advances: 10,039
- Amount Funded: $51,422,267
- Amount Collected: $72,158,964
- Multiple of Invested Capital (MOIC): 1.40x
- Time to Settlement (Months): 12.7
- IRR: 37.6%
Management
Leo Goldenberg
Co-Founder & Chief Executive OfficerMr. Goldenberg has served as Chief Executive Officer of the Originator since inception. Prior to founding the Originator, he had over 10 years of experience in capital markets investing, risk management, corporate finance and technology. He leads the Originator’s financial and controller functions and directly oversees investor reporting and accounting. In addition, Mr. Goldenberg was instrumental in the development of the Originator’s proprietary enterprise software and continues to manage the company’s technology infrastructure.
Eduard Shleyger
Co-Founder & Chief Operating OfficerMr. Shleyger has served as Chief Operating Office of the Originator since inception. He leads the Originator’s sales and marketing, operations and human resources functions. Prior to founding the Originator, he had 15 years of experience in investments, sales and marketing. In 2004, he founded I&E Imperial Realty, a real estate brokerage firm where he managed 20 real estate agents, and prior to founding I&E Imperial Realty, he served as an Account Executive at Gruntal & Co, a NY-based retail brokerage firm, where he managed $28.5M in investments.
2 Represents an average net realized internal rate of return (IRR) with respect to all matured investments in your portfolio, utilizing the effective dates and amounts to and from the investments and net of management fees and all other expenses charged to the investments. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results and should not be relied upon as the basis for making an investment decision. All securities involve risk and may result in significant losses, including the loss of principal invested.[read more]