Month: March 2020

An immediate payment annuity is a contract between an individual and an insurance company that pays the owner, or annuitant, a guaranteed income starting almost immediately. It differs from a deferred annuity, which begins payments at a future date chosen by the annuity owner. An immediate payment annuity is also known as a single-premium immediate annuity (SPIA), an income annuity, or simply an immediate annuity.

A stakeholder is a party that has an interest in a company and can either affect or be affected by the business. The primary stakeholders in a typical corporation are its investors, employees, customers and suppliers. However, the modern theory of the idea goes beyond this original notion to include additional stakeholders such as a community, government or trade association.

Variable universal life (VUL) is a type of permanent life insurance policy with a built-in savings component that allows for the investment of the cash value. Like standard universal life insurance, the premium is flexible. VUL policies typically have both a maximum cap and minimum floor on the investment return associated with the savings component.

Accountant responsibility is the ethical responsibility an accountant has to those who rely on his or her work. According to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), accountants have a duty to serve the public interest and uphold the public trust in the profession. An accountant has a responsibility to his clients, his company’s managers, investors, and creditors, as well as to outside regulatory bodies. Accountants are responsible for the validity of the financial statements they work on, and they must perform their duties following all applicable principles, standards, and laws.

A subscription agreement is an investor’s application to join a limited partnership. It is also a two-way guarantee between a company and a subscriber. The company agrees to sell a certain number of shares at a specific price, and in return, the subscriber promises to buy the shares at the predetermined price.

A clearing house acts as an intermediary between a buyer and seller and seeks to ensure that the process from trade inception to settlement is smooth. Its main role is to make certain that the buyer and seller honor their contract obligations. Responsibilities include settling trading accounts, clearing trades, collecting and maintaining margin monies, regulating delivery of the bought/sold instrument, and reporting trading data. Clearing houses act as third parties to all futures and options contracts, as buyers to every clearing member seller, and as sellers to every clearing member buyer.

A taxpayer identification number (TIN) is a unique nine-digit number used to identify an individual, business, or other entity in tax returns and other documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

A variable interest rate (sometimes called an “adjustable” or a “floating” rate) is an interest rate on a loan or security that fluctuates over time because it is based on an underlying benchmark interest rate or index that changes periodically.

A loan committee is the lending or management committee of a bank or other lending institution. It generally consists of upper-level officers with management authority. The loan committee analyzes and subsequently approves or rejects any loan that the initial loan officer does not have the authority to approve. The committee ensures that the loan meets the institution’s standard lending policy. If it does, the committee can agree to fund and disburse the loan with a binding commitment.