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A concept of tax fairness that states that people with different amounts of wealth or different amounts of income should pay tax at different rates. Wealth includes assets such as houses, cars, stocks, bonds, and savings accounts. Income includes wages, interest and dividends, and other payments.
- Browse Related Terms: ability to pay, benefits received, Earned Income Credit (EIC), financial records, Gross Income, horizontal equity, underground economy, vertical equity
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If your life insurance policy has an accelerated death benefit (ADB), you may qualify to use a portion of the death benefit to pay for certain healthcare expenses, such as the costs of a terminal illness or long-term care, while you're still alive.
Using the ADB, you take cash advances from the policy, reducing the death benefit by up to a fixed percentage. The balance is paid to your beneficiaries on your death.
While an accelerated death benefit can help ease current financial burdens, including this option in your policy increases the cost of coverage. And, if you do take money out, it reduces what your beneficiaries receive.
- Browse Related Terms: Accelerated death benefit, Asset, Cash surrender value, Cash value account, Credit Life Insurance (CLI), Death benefit, Decreasing term insurance, Depreciation, Face value, Insurance trust, Life settlement, Lump sum, Pension maximization, Permanent insurance, Straight life, Survivorship life, Universal life insurance, Viatical settlement, Whole life insurance
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An agreement that defines membership eligibility and conditions of your share accounts. It also defines many other important banking operations such as how to order a stop payment on share drafts, transaction limitations on your accounts, overdrafts fees, and what happens if your account becomes dormant. The agreement may disclose if the credit union has a security interest if your loan becomes delinquent or your share account becomes negative. The agreement also discloses if the credit union has a cross collateralization clause for your automobile, for example, it can hold the automobile for security for other loans you have with the credit union.
- Browse Related Terms: Account Agreement, Checking Account (Share Draft Account), Credit card issuer, Credit Union, Credit Union Statement, Dividends, Drawee, Drawee Institution, Financial Performance Report (FPR), Furnisher, Index-linked Share Certificate (SC), Peer Average Ratio, Percentile Rankings, Personal Savings Account, Share Account, Share Certificate, Share Draft Account, Wire transfer
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Your account balance is the amount of money you have in one of your financial accounts. For example, your bank account balance refers to the amount of money in your bank accounts.
Your account balance can also be the amount of money outstanding on one of your financial accounts. Your credit card balance, for example, refers to the amount of money you owe a credit card company.
With your 401(k), your account balance, also called your accrued benefit, is the amount your 401(k) account is worth on a date that it's valued. For example, if the value of your account on December 31 is $250,000, that's your account balance.
You use your 401(k) account balance to figure how much you must withdraw from your plan each year, once you start taking required distributions after you turn 70 1/2. Specifically, you divide the account balance at the end of your plan's fiscal year by a divisor based on your life expectancy to determine the amount you must take during the next fiscal year.
- Browse Related Terms: Account balance, Accumulation period, Accumulation unit, Annuitant, Annuitization, Annuitize, Annuity, Annuity principal, Deferred annuity, Fixed annuity, Hybrid annuity, Immediate annuity, Income annuity, Life expectancy, Lump-Sum Distribution, Minimum required distribution (MRD), Nonqualified annuity, Split-funded annuity, Systematic withdrawal, Variable annuity, Withdrawal
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The history of an account over a specific period of time for either shares or loans.
- Browse Related Terms: Account History, Appraisal, Average daily balance, Billing Date, Cash basis accounting, Cash Flow, Credit History, Credit Repair Organization, Grace Period, Minimum finance charge, Periodic rate
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All persons designated and authorized to transact business on behalf of an account. Each account holder's signature needs to be on file with the credit union. The signature authorizes that person to conduct business on behalf of the account without the other account holders consent.
- Browse Related Terms: Account holder, ATM surcharge, Canceled Check (Share Draft), Check Deposit Return, Early Withdrawal Penalty, fee, Fee Charged for Use of Other ATM, Fee Charged for Use of Your Own ATM, Minimum Balance Required, Money Order Fee, Monthly or Annual Fee, Overdraft Fee, Overdraft Protection, Per Check Fee (If Minimum Balance is Not Maintained), Per Check Fee (If Minimum Balance Maintained), Service Fee Per Month
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An accredited investor is a person or institution that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) defines as being qualified to invest in unregistered securities, such as privately held corporations, private equity investments, and hedge funds.
The qualification is based on the value of the investor's assets, or in the case of an individual, annual income.
Specifically, to be an accredited investor you must have a net worth of at least $1 million or a current annual income of at least $200,000 with the anticipation you'll earn at least that much next year. If you're married, that amount is increased to $300,000.
Institutions are required to have assets worth $5 million to qualify as accredited investors. The underlying principal is that investors with these assets have the sophistication to understand the risks involved in the investment and can afford to lose the money should the investment fail.
- Browse Related Terms: Accredited investor, Appreciation, Boiler room, Capital preservation, churning, Collectible, Financial pyramid, Formula investing, Haircut, Indexed annuity, Inflation-adjusted return, opportunity cost, Real interest rate, Risk, Risk Tolerance, Time value of money
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Interest that has been earned, but not yet paid, to the account holder for a share account; or interest due, but not yet paid by a borrower on a loan.
Accrued interest is the interest that accumulates on a fixed-income security between one interest payment and the next.
The amount is calculated by multiplying the coupon rate, also called the nominal interest rate, times the number of days since the previous interest payment.
Interest on most bonds and fixed-income securities is paid twice a year. On corporate and municipal bonds, interest is calculated on 30-day months and a 360-day year. For government bonds, interest is calculated on actual days and a 365-day year.
When you buy a bond or other fixed-income security, you pay the bond's price plus the accrued interest and receive the full amount of the next interest payment, which reimburses you for the accrued interest payment you made when you purchased the bond. Similarly, when you sell a bond, you receive the price of the bond, plus the amount of interest that has accrued since you received the last interest payment.
On a zero-coupon bond, interest accrues over the term of the bond but is paid in a lump sum when you redeem the bond for face value. However, unless you hold the bond in a tax-deferred or tax-exempt account, you owe income tax each year on the amount of interest that the government calculates you would have received, had it been paid.
- Browse Related Terms: accrued interest, Bonds (Corporate), Coupon Rate, Debt, Full faith and credit, General obligation (GO) bond, Insured bond, Senior bond, Treasuries
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The accumulation period refers to the time during which your retirement savings accumulate in a deferred annuity.
Because annuities are federal income tax deferred, all earnings are reinvested to increase the base on which future earnings accumulate, so you have the benefit of compounding.
When you buy a deferred fixed annuity contract, the company issuing the contract promises a fixed rate of return during the accumulation period regardless of whether market interest rates move up or down.
With a deferred variable annuity, the amount you accumulate depends on the performance of the investment alternatives, known as subaccounts or separate account funds, which you select from among those offered in the contract.
At the end of the accumulation period, you can choose to annuitize, agree to some other method of receiving income, or roll over your account value into an immediate annuity. The years in which you receive annuity income are sometimes called the distribution period.
- Browse Related Terms: Account balance, Accumulation period, Accumulation unit, Annuitant, Annuitization, Annuitize, Annuity, Annuity principal, Deferred annuity, Fixed annuity, Hybrid annuity, Immediate annuity, Income annuity, Life expectancy, Lump-Sum Distribution, Minimum required distribution (MRD), Nonqualified annuity, Split-funded annuity, Systematic withdrawal, Variable annuity, Withdrawal
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Accumulation units are the shares you own in the separate account funds of a variable annuity during the period you're putting money into your annuity.
If you own the annuity in a 401(k) plan, each time you make a contribution, that amount is added to one or more of the separate account funds to buy additional accumulation units.
The value of your annuity is figured by multiplying the number of units you own by the dollar value of each unit. During the accumulation phase, that value changes to reflect the changing performance of the underlying investments in the separate account funds.
- Browse Related Terms: Account balance, Accumulation period, Accumulation unit, Annuitant, Annuitization, Annuitize, Annuity, Annuity principal, Deferred annuity, Fixed annuity, Hybrid annuity, Immediate annuity, Income annuity, Life expectancy, Lump-Sum Distribution, Minimum required distribution (MRD), Nonqualified annuity, Split-funded annuity, Systematic withdrawal, Variable annuity, Withdrawal
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If a company buys another company outright, or accumulates enough shares to take a controlling interest, the deal is described as an acquisition.
The acquiring company's motive may be to expand the scope of its products and services, to make itself a major player in its sector, or to fend off being taken over itself.
To complete the deal, the acquirer may be willing to pay a higher price per share than the price at which the stock is currently trading. That means shareholders of the target company may realize a substantial gain, so some investors are always on the lookout for companies that seem ripe for acquisition.
Sometimes acquisitions are described, more bluntly, as takeovers and other times, more diplomatically, as mergers. Collectively, these activities are referred to as mergers and acquisitions, or M&A, to those in the business.
- Browse Related Terms: 10-k, 8-k, Acquisition, Audit committee, Closely held, Conglomerate, Depositary bank, Diluted earnings per share, Insider trading, Merger, Privatization, Retained earnings, Reverse stock split, Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, Spin-off, Stock split
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The settlement or closing date for originations. For applications that did not result in an origination, the date when the action was taken or when the notice was sent to the applicant is entered. For an application that was expressly withdrawn by the applicant, either the date shown on the applicant's letter or the date you received the letter or notice is reported. For loans that an institution purchased, the date of purchase is entered.
- Browse Related Terms: Action Taken Date, Action Taken Type, Applicant Ethnicity, Applicant Race, Applicant Sex, Application Received Date, Co-applicant Ethnicity, Co-applicant Race, Co-applicant Sex, Good Faith Estimate (GFE), Gross Annual Income, Lien Status, Loan Application Number, Loan Application Register (LAR), Panel - HMDA Reporter Panel Listing, Reasons for Denial, Respondent Name, Transmittal Sheet (TS), Type of Purchaser
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The disposition of the loan/application.
- Browse Related Terms: Action Taken Date, Action Taken Type, Applicant Ethnicity, Applicant Race, Applicant Sex, Application Received Date, Co-applicant Ethnicity, Co-applicant Race, Co-applicant Sex, Good Faith Estimate (GFE), Gross Annual Income, Lien Status, Loan Application Number, Loan Application Register (LAR), Panel - HMDA Reporter Panel Listing, Reasons for Denial, Respondent Name, Transmittal Sheet (TS), Type of Purchaser
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Managers of actively managed mutual funds buy and sell investments to achieve a particular goal, such as providing a certain level of return or beating a relevant benchmark.
As a result, they generally trade much more frequently than managers of passively managed funds whose goal is to mirror the performance of the index the fund tracks.
While actively managed funds may provide stronger returns than index funds, they often have higher management fees and provide more taxable income.
- Browse Related Terms: Actively managed fund, Buy side, Closed-end fund, Economy, Enhanced index fund, index fund, Institutional investor, Managed account, Management fee, Money manager, Passively managed, Portfolio manager, Prudent man rule, Public company, Wrap account
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To live independently, you must be able to handle certain essential functions, called activities of daily living (ADLs). These standard activities include eating, dressing, bathing, moving from a sitting to a standing position, taking medication, and using the bathroom.
If you are unable to perform two or more these ADLs, you generally qualify to begin receiving benefits from your long-term care insurance policy. Each insurer's list of ADLs may vary slightly, but should always include bathing, as that is often the first activity that a person struggles with.
Cognitive impairments, such as those that result from Alzheimer's disease, are not considered ADLs. A comprehensive long-term care policy will use a different test to determine when policyholders suffering from these impairments qualify to collect benefits.
- Browse Related Terms: activities of daily living, Approved charge, Coinsurance, Copayment, Fee-for-Service, Health Insurance, Long-term care insurance, Medicare, Preferred Provider Organization (PPO)
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The year for which the HMDA data are being collected.
- Browse Related Terms: Activity Year, Census Tract, County Code, Geocode, Metropolitan Division (MD), Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) / Metropolitan Division (MD), Quality Edits, State Code, Syntactical Edits, Validity Edits
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Your address on file is the address that you provided on your application to open this credit card account, unless (1) we have received and processed your written notice of a change of address provided in accordance with the terms disclosed on the back of your bill, in which case that new address is the address of record; or (2) in the event that your address changes before we have sent out your first bill, we have received and processed your written notice of a change of address sent to us at the address for mailing payments.
- Browse Related Terms: Address on file, Assign, Credit bureau, Credit History, Credit limit, Credit Report, Credit reporting agency, Credit score, Debt cancellation coverage, Debt suspension coverage, Default, Foreign currency transaction, Retail credit card, Treasury bill rate, Workout agreement
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(also known as variable-rate loans), usually offer a lower initial interest rate than fixed-rate loans. The interest rate fluctuates over the life of the loan based on market conditions, but the loan agreement generally sets maximum and minimum rates. When interest rates rise, generally so do your loan payments; when interest rates fall, your monthly payments may be lowered.
State of Maine, Department of Professional and Financial Regulation - Cite This Source - This Definition- Browse Related Terms: Adjustable Rate Loans, Buy Down, CAP, Commitment, Credit Life & Disability Insurance, fixed-rate mortgage, Hazard Insurance/Homeowners Insurance, index, Margin, Prepayment Penalty (Mortgages), Principal, Interest, Taxes and Insurance (PITI), Variable-Rate Loans
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An adjustable rate mortgage is a long-term loan you use to finance a real estate purchase, typically a home.
Unlike a fixed-rate mortgage, where the interest rate remains the same for the term of the loan, the interest rate on an ARM is adjusted, or changed, during its term.
The initial rate on an ARM is usually lower than the rate on a fixed-rate mortgage for the same term, which means it may be easier to qualify for an ARM. You take the risk, however, that interest rates may rise, increasing the cost of your mortgage. Of course, it's also possible that the rates may drop, decreasing your payments.
The rate adjustments, which are based on changes in one of the publicly reported indexes that reflect market rates, occur at preset times, usually once a year but sometimes less often. Typically, rate changes on ARMs are capped both annually and over the term of the loan, which helps protect you in the case of a rapid or sustained increase in market rates.
However, certain ARMs allow negative amortization, which means additional interest could accumulate on the outstanding balance if market rates rose higher than the cap. That interest would be due when the loan matured or if you want to prepay.
A mortgage that does not have a fixed interest rate. The rate changes during the life of the loan based on movements in an index rate, such as the rate for Treasury securities or the Cost of Funds Index. ARMs usually offer a lower initial interest rate than fixed-rate loans. The interest rate fluctuates over the life of the loan based on market conditions, but the loan agreement generally sets maximum and minimum rates. When interest rates increase, generally your loan payments increase; when interest rates decrease, your monthly payments may decrease.
- Browse Related Terms: Adjustable-Rate Mortgage (ARM), balloon mortgage, Ceiling, Co-maker, Fixed Rate Loan, fixed-rate mortgage, Home Equity Loan, Hybrid mortgage, Interest-only mortgage, Loan note, Negative amortization, Payoff, Payoff statement, Prepayment penalty, Principal balance, Refinancing, Rule of 78, Usury
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a mortgage loan with an interest rate that is subject to change and is not fixed at the same level for the life of the loan. These types of loans usually start off with a lower interest rate but can subject the homeowner to payment uncertainty when the rate adjusts.
Departments of the Treasury & Housing and Urban Development, Making Home Affordable Program - Cite This Source - This DefinitionA mortgage that does not have a fixed interest rate. The rate changes during the life of the loan based on movements in an index rate, such as the rate for Treasury securities or the Cost of Funds Index. ARMs usually offer a lower initial interest rate than fixed-rate loans. The interest rate fluctuates over the life of the loan based on market conditions, but the loan agreement generally sets maximum and minimum rates. When interest rates increase, generally your loan payments increase; and when interest rates decrease, your monthly payments may decrease.
- Browse Related Terms: Adjustable-Rate Mortgage (ARM), amortization, balloon mortgage, Convertible ARM, Debarment, Fixed-Rate Mortgage (FRM), Interest-only mortgage, Lock-In, Lock-in agreement, Mortgage life insurance, Negative amortization, Payment Cap, Right of rescission, Self-Amortizing Loans, Swap, term, Weighted Average Life (WAL)
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Your AGI is your gross, or total, income from taxable sources minus certain deductions.
Income includes salary and other employment income, interest and dividends, and long- and short-term capital gains and losses. Deductions include unreimbursed business and medical expenses, contributions to a deductible individual retirement account (IRA), and alimony you pay.
You figure your AGI on page one of your federal tax return, and it serves as the basis for calculating the income tax you owe. Your modified AGI is used to establish your eligibility for certain tax or financial benefits, such as deducting your IRA contribution or qualifying for certain tax credits.
- Browse Related Terms: adjusted gross income (AGI), Alternative minimum tax (AMT), Deduction, Earned Income Credit (EIC), Exemption, Head of household, Modified adjusted gross income (MAGI), Real property tax, Tax credit
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Gross income reduced by certain amounts, such as a deductible IRA contribution or student loan interest
- Browse Related Terms: adjusted gross income (AGI), Citizen or Resident Test, dependency exemption, dependent, exemptions, filing status, foster child, Head of Household filing status, Married Filing Joint filing status, Married Filing Separate filing status, personal exemption, qualifying child, qualifying relative, Qualifying Widow(er) filing status, single filing status, standard deduction, tax deduction, tax-exempt interest income