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The specified data are reported incorrectly and must be corrected. The most common example is incorrect census tracts. The letter 'V' precedes the error numbers.
- 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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Valuation is the process of estimating the value, or worth, of an asset or investment.
Sometimes it means determining a fixed amount, such as establishing the value of your estate after your death. Other times, valuation means estimating future worth.
For example, fundamental stock analysts estimate the outlook for a company's stock by looking at data such as the stock's price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales, and price-to-book, or net asset value, ratios.
In general, a company with a high P/E is considered overvalued, and a company with a low P/E is considered undervalued.
- Browse Related Terms: Alpha, Book value, Dividend yield, Earnings estimate, Earnings momentum, Earnings surprise, Forward price-to-earnings ratio, Multiple, Outstanding shares, Price-to-book ratio, Price-to-earnings ratio (P/E), Price-to-sales ratio, Quarter, risk ratio, Special situation, Undervaluation, valuation, Value stock, Whisper number, Zacks Investment Research
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In determining the monetary equivalent for assets and gifts, value is a good faith estimate of the fair market value if the exact value is neither known nor easily obtainable by the reporting individual without undue hardship or expense. In the case of any interest in property, see the alternative valuation options in 5 C.F.R. 2634.301(e). For gifts and reimbursements, see 5 C.F.R. § 2634.304(e) & 5 CFR 2634.904(g)(4).
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When a mutual fund manager buys primarily undervalued stocks for the fund's portfolio with the expectation that these stocks will increase in price, that fund is described as a value fund.
A value fund may be limited to stocks of a certain size, such as those included in a small-cap value fund, or it may include undervalued stocks with different levels of capitalization.
- Browse Related Terms: Contrarian, equity fund, Global fund, Growth and income fund, income fund, International fund, Investment objective, Portfolio turnover, Prospectus, Real estate investment trust (REIT), Tax-efficient funds, Transparency, Turnover ratio, Value fund, Vulture fund, World fund
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Value Line, an independent investment research service, tracks the performance of approximately 1,700 common stocks in its composite index. The index, which is equally weighted, is considered a reliable indicator of overall market trends.
- Browse Related Terms: Average, Breakout, Dogs of the Dow, Dow Jones 65 Composite Average, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones Transportation Average, Dow Jones Utility Average, Dow theory, Efficient market theory, Logarithmic scale, NASDAQ Composite Index, New York Stock Exchange Composite Index, Qubes, Value Line Composite Index, volume, Weighted stock index
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Value Line is an investment research company that provides detailed analysis on a range of stocks, mutual funds, and convertible investments.
Their publications include The Value Line Investment Survey and The Value Line Mutual Fund Survey, which contain regularly updated rankings of specific investments that the company covers.
The company uses a dual ranking system in its evaluations. For example, Value Line ranks stocks for their safety and timeliness, and mutual funds both for their overall performance and for their risk-adjusted performance.
- Browse Related Terms: American Association of Individual Investors (AAII), Excepted Investment Fund (EIF), Investment Club, Lipper, Inc, Morningstar, Inc., Separate account, Separate account fund, Subaccount, Underlying Assets, Value Line, Inc., Widely Diversified
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Value stocks, also known as undervalued stocks, trade at a lower price than the company's reputation, earnings outlook, or financial situation would seem to merit.
Investors who seek them out expect the company's fortunes to turn around, and the price of the stock to increase accordingly.
- Browse Related Terms: Alpha, Book value, Dividend yield, Earnings estimate, Earnings momentum, Earnings surprise, Forward price-to-earnings ratio, Multiple, Outstanding shares, Price-to-book ratio, Price-to-earnings ratio (P/E), Price-to-sales ratio, Quarter, risk ratio, Special situation, Undervaluation, valuation, Value stock, Whisper number, Zacks Investment Research
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A variable annuity is an insurance company product designed to allow you to accumulate retirement savings.
When you purchase a variable annuity, either with a lump sum or over time, you allocate the premiums you pay among the various separate account funds offered in your annuity contract.
The tax-deferred return on your variable annuity fluctuates with the performance of the underlying investments in your separate account funds, sometimes called investment portfolios or subaccounts.
You may purchase qualified variable annuities, which are offered as options within an employer sponsored retirement savings plan, or nonqualified variable annuities. Nonqualified annuities are those you purchase on your own, often to supplement other retirement savings.
You can also choose an individual retirement annuity, which resembles an individual retirement account except that the underlying investments are separate account funds.
Among the appeals of both qualified and nonqualified variable annuities is the promise of a stream of income for life if you annuitize the assets in your account and the right to make tax-exempt transfers among separate account funds.
If you purchase a nonqualified annuity, there are no federal limits on the annual amounts you can invest, no requirement that you purchase the annuity with earned income, and no minimum required withdrawals beginning at 70 1/2.
However, with both types of variable annuities, withdrawals before you reach age 59 1/2 may be subject to a 10% early withdrawal tax penalty.
- 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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Variable life insurance policies are cash-value policies that allow you to choose how your premium is invested from among a package of alternatives offered by the insurer.
In many variable life policies, the face value of your policy depends on how well the investments you've chosen are performing.
- Browse Related Terms: Annual renewable term insurance, Cash value, Convertible term, Council of Economic Advisors (CEA), Elimination period, Guaranteed renewable policy, Lapse, Level term insurance, Life insurance, Nonforfeiture clause, Own-occupation policy, Paid-up policy, Premium, Renewable term, Term insurance, Variable Life Insurance, Waiver of premium
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Any interest rate or dividend that changes on a periodic basis.
- Browse Related Terms: Level yield curve, Leveraged buyout, Negative yield curve, Positive yield curve, Variable rate, Yield Curve
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- An APR that may change depending on other factors, such as the prime rate or Treasury bill rate.
- Browse Related Terms: Bill, Billing period, Due date, Fixed-rate APR, Grace Period, index, Late payment, Minimum interest charge, Minimum Payment, Variable-rate APR
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- See Adjustable Rate Loans 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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Venture capital is financing provided by wealthy independent investors, banks, and partnerships to help new businesses get started, reach the next level of growth, or go public.
In return for the money they put up, also called risk capital, the investors may play a role in the company's management as well as receive some combination of equity, profits, or royalties.
Some venture capital also goes into bankrupt companies to help them turn around, or to companies that the management wants to take private by buying up all of the outstanding shares.
- Browse Related Terms: Blind pool, Hard assets, Hedge fund, Limited partner, Limited partnership, Passive income, Passive losses, Private equity, Real Estate, Venture capital (VC)
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The concept that people in different income groups should pay different rates of taxes or different percentages of their incomes as taxes. "Unequals should be taxed unequally."
- 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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The concept of a vested interest is extremely important--if an interest is not vested, a filer need not report it and will not have a financial interest under the conflict statute. For example, merely being named as an heir in a will by someone who is still living does not create a financial interest in the estate, because the will can be changed. Similarly, persons do not have a vested beneficial interest in a trust when their legal right is conditioned on some uncertain future event. A person has a vested interest in a trust or estate if he has a present legal right to its property or income (including the authority to dispose of the property or income), even if that right is defeasible (subject to being revoked or voided). Uncertainty as to when property will be received does not establish that it is non-vested. Rather, uncertainty as to whether the person is presently entitled to the property indicates that it is non-vested.
- Browse Related Terms: Annual Post-Employment Certification and Notification, Category of Amount, Excepted Trust, FDM, Flags, Relative, SF 278 of Record, trust, Vested Interest
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If you are part of an employer pension plan or participate in an employer sponsored retirement plan, such as a 401(k), you become fully vested - or entitled to the contributions your employer has made to the plan, including matching and discretionary contributions - after a certain period of service with the employer.
Qualified plans must use one of the standards set by the federal government to determine that period.
If you become entitled to full benefits gradually over several years, the process is called graded vesting. But if you have a right only when the full waiting period is up, the process is called cliff vesting. If you leave your job before becoming fully vested, you forfeit all or part of your employer-paid benefits.
However, you are always entitled to all the contributions you make to retirement plan yourself through salary reduction or additional payments.
- Browse Related Terms: Cafeteria plan, Cash balance plan, Defined Benefit Pension Plan, Defined benefit plan, Defined Contribution Pension Plan, Defined Contribution Plan, Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), Employer sponsored retirement plan, Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA), Flexible spending account, Integrated pension plan, Nondiscrimination rule, Pension, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), Plan participant, Portable benefits, Qualified retirement plan, Retirement Accounts, Self-directed retirement plan, Social Security, Vesting, Withholding
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Technically speaking, a viatical settlement occurs when the holder of a life insurance policy sells the policy to a third party before the original owner dies.
Most viatical settlements involve terminally ill people with life expectancies of less than two years who choose to sell their life insurance policies to raise money for their medical care.
In a viatical settlement, the third party pays the former policy owner an amount that is typically more than the surrender value of the policy, but less than the death benefit. When the insured person dies, the new policy owner collects the death benefit and makes a profit on the difference between the amount paid to the insured and the amount paid on the claim.
Some businesses specialize in viatical settlements, and may resell them as investments, arrangements that are regulated by the state in which the policies are sold.
Because viaticals are controversial, more complex than they seem, and have been aggressively and sometimes misleadingly marketed, both people considering selling viaticals and people considering investing in them are advised to proceed with caution.
- 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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A virtual bank offers some or all of the same types of accounts and services that traditional bricks-and-mortar banks do, but virtual banks exist only online. They typically charge lower fees and pay higher interest because of low overhead.
Virtual bank transactions can be checked in real time, as they happen, rather than at the end of the banking day or the end of the month - though those services may also be available through the online branches of traditional banks.
Virtual banks don't have branches or own ATM machines, so you make deposits electronically or by mail. Your virtual bank may reimburse your ATM fees for using other banks' machines. However, there may be a limit to the number of transactions a virtual bank will cover each month.
- Browse Related Terms: Electronic banking, Foreign Transaction Fee, Free Checks, Online Banking, Service Charge, Virtual bank
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The term volatility indicates how much and how quickly the value of an investment, market, or market sector changes.
For example, because the stock prices of small, newer companies tend to rise and fall more sharply over short periods of time than stock of established, blue-chip companies, small caps are described as more volatile.
The volatility of a stock relative to the overall market is known as its beta, and the volatility triggered by internal factors, regardless of the market, is known as a stock's alpha.
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The relative rate at which the price of a security moves up and down.
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Volume is the number of shares traded in a company's stock or in an entire market over a specified period, typically a day.
Unusual market activity, either higher or lower than average, is typically the result of some external event. But unusual activity in an individual stock reflects new information about that stock or the stock's sector.
- Browse Related Terms: Average, Breakout, Dogs of the Dow, Dow Jones 65 Composite Average, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones Transportation Average, Dow Jones Utility Average, Dow theory, Efficient market theory, Logarithmic scale, NASDAQ Composite Index, New York Stock Exchange Composite Index, Qubes, Value Line Composite Index, volume, Weighted stock index
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