Finance

Assessment Roll: Public Record of Assessed Property Value
The assessment roll is a comprehensive public record listing the assessed value of properties within a specific taxing jurisdiction. It is essential for tax computations and public transparency.
Asset Demand for Money: Holding Money as a Store of Value
Understanding the concept of asset demand for money, which refers to holding money instead of other investment assets, for its function as a store of value.
Asset-Backed Securities: Bonds or Notes Backed by Financial Assets
Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) are financial instruments backed by loan paper or accounts receivable originated by banks, credit card companies, or other providers of credit, often enhanced by a bank letter of credit or by insurance coverage provided by an external institution.
Assignee: Person to Whom an Agreement or Contract Is Sold or Transferred
An in-depth exploration of the term 'Assignee,' detailing its definition, legal implications, types, and relevance in various contexts such as contracts, real estate, and finance.
Assignment of Income: Legal and Tax Implications
A comprehensive guide to the concept of Assignment of Income, including its legal and tax implications, special considerations, and examples.
Assignor: Party who Assigns or Transfers an Agreement
An assignor is the party who assigns or transfers an agreement or contract to another party. This legal concept is integral in fields such as contract law, real estate, and business transactions.
Assimilation: Absorption of New Stock Issue
Detailed explanation of the process where the investing public absorbs a new issue of stock once sold by the issue's underwriters.
Assumable Loan: A Detailed Overview
An assumable loan is a mortgage that allows a new home purchaser to undertake the obligations of the existing loan without changing the loan terms. Commonly, FHA and VA mortgages are assumable if they lack due-on-sale clauses.
Assumption Fee: A Comprehensive Overview
Assumption Fee: A charge levied by a lender to a buyer who assumes the existing loan on the subject property.
Assumption of Mortgage: Taking on Mortgage Responsibilities
The Assumption of Mortgage involves a buyer taking over the seller's mortgage, becoming personally liable for the debt. This is typically part of a real estate transaction and distinguishes itself by making the purchaser directly responsible to the lender, unlike a 'subject to' mortgage.
AT PAR: Understanding Securities Valuation
An in-depth look at the concept of 'AT PAR' in securities valuation, including its significance, historical context, and related terms.
At Risk: Definition and Application in Investment
Detailed examination of 'At Risk' including its definition, types, historical context, examples, and applicability in investment scenarios.
At The Market: Immediate Execution at Current Prices
An 'At The Market' order, also known as a market order, is an instruction to buy or sell a security immediately at the best available current price.
Auction Exchanges: Centralized Securities Trading Markets
A comprehensive guide on Auction Exchanges, centralized securities trading markets where securities such as equities, bonds, and options are traded in an orderly manner through security brokers.
Audit: Inspection of Accounting Records and Procedures
A comprehensive overview of auditing practices, types of audits, historical context, and their essential role in financial accuracy and organizational integrity.
Audit Limited: A Narrow Scope Examination
An Audit Limited is an examination with a restricted focus, such as being confined to specific accounts, a shorter time span, or restricted access to records.
Audit Program: Essential Steps for Financial Statement Analysis
An Audit Program is a detailed listing of the steps to be taken by an auditor, such as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), when analyzing transactions to determine the acceptability of financial statements. Major accounting firms may prepare an audit program for each client and require the person who does the work to sign or initial each step performed.
Auditor: Definitions, Roles, and Functions
An auditor is a professional entrusted with examining, verifying, and ensuring the accuracy of financial records for public and private entities. Delve into different types, functions, historical significance, and applicability in the modern context.
Authentication: Definition and Legal Verification
Comprehensive overview of Authentication, including details on bond certificates and legal document verification processes.
Automatic (Fiscal) Stabilizers: Built-In Changes in Government Spending and Taxation
An in-depth exploration of automatic fiscal stabilizers, mechanisms in government spending and taxation designed to stabilize economic cycles by naturally increasing or decreasing fiscal input based on the business cycle.
Automatic Stay: Bankruptcy Protection Mechanism
A comprehensive explanation of automatic stay, its functioning, types, examples, historical context, applicability, comparisons, and related terms in the context of bankruptcy law.
Automatic Withdrawal: Mutual Fund Program
A comprehensive overview of Automatic Withdrawal mutual fund programs, including mechanics, benefits, types of payment, and considerations for investors.
Automobile Liability Insurance: Essential Coverage Explained
Automobile liability insurance provides coverage in the event an insured is legally liable for bodily injury or property damage caused by an automobile.
Automobile Policy, Personal: Comprehensive Coverage Overview
An in-depth exploration of the Personal Automobile Policy, detailing the nine essential coverages: Liability, Medical Payments, Uninsured Motorist Coverage, Comprehensive, Collision, Car Rental Expense, Death, Dismemberment, and Loss of Sight, Total Disability, and Loss of Earnings.
Average: Definition and Applications Across Fields
The concept of average, often understood as the arithmetic mean, is pivotal in mathematics, statistics, finance, and various other disciplines. It is used to represent central tendencies and summarize data or market behaviors.
Avoidance of Tax: Legal Methods to Reduce Tax Liability
An in-depth look at the principle of avoidance of tax, including legal strategies employed to minimize tax obligations as opposed to tax evasion.
Avoiding Probate: Techniques and Benefits
Comprehensive guide to avoiding probate, including techniques such as jointly held property, living trusts, and lifetime giving. Explains how these methods can help streamline the estate settlement process without bypassing federal estate or gift taxes.
Away From Home: Definition and Deductibility of Travel Expenses
Understanding the IRS rules and regulations regarding the deductibility of 'ordinary and necessary' travel expenses incurred away from home while on business trips.
B/L: Bill of Lading
A comprehensive overview of the Bill of Lading, a crucial document in the shipping and logistics industry.
Back Pay: Salaries and Wages from a Prior Pay Period
An in-depth exploration of back pay, encompassing definitions, calculations, legal considerations, and practical applications in various professional contexts.
Backdating: Manipulating Dates for Financial Gain
A comprehensive exploration of backdating involves the manipulation of dates on financial instruments and its implications in various fields, including finance, accounting, and legal contexts.
Backlog: An Indicator of Future Sales and Earnings
A comprehensive analysis of the backlog value of unfilled orders placed with a manufacturing company; an essential metric for predicting future sales and earnings.
Backup Withholding: Ensuring Federal Income Tax Compliance
Understanding the process and importance of Backup Withholding in ensuring federal income tax is paid on earnings when the recipient cannot be identified by a Social Security number.
Backward-Bending Supply Curve: Understanding Labor Market Anomalies
Graph illustrating the thesis that as wages increase, people will substitute leisure for working. Eventually, wages can get so high that if they increase, less labor will be offered in the market.
Bad Check: Definition and Context
A comprehensive explanation of what constitutes a bad check, how it impacts financial transactions, and related terms such as NSF and rubber check.
Bad-Debt Recovery: Receipt of a Previously Uncollectible Amount
Comprehensive explanation of bad-debt recovery, its processes, examples, historical context, and implications in various financial and business contexts.
Bad-Debt Reserve: Definition and Overview
A comprehensive guide on Bad-Debt Reserve, its application, historical context, and impact of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 on its usage.
Bail Bond: A Monetary Guarantee for Court Appearance
A Bail Bond is a monetary guarantee ensuring that an individual released from jail appears in court at the appointed time. If the individual fails to appear, the bond amount is forfeited to the court.
Bailout: A Financial Rescue Effort by the Government
An in-depth look at bailouts, where the government provides financial assistance to prevent the failure of private or quasi-private entities, including loans, grants, or government equity.
Balance of Payments: System of Recording All of a Country's Economic Transactions
A detailed examination of the Balance of Payments (BOP) system of recording all economic transactions between residents of a country and the rest of the world within a given time period, encompassing the current, capital, and official reserves accounts.
Balance of Trade: Understanding International Trade Dynamics
Comprehensive guide to the Balance of Trade, explaining the difference over a period between the value of a country's imports and exports of merchandise, implications, types, examples, historical context, and related terms.
Balance Sheet Reserves: Definition and Importance
Balance Sheet Reserves refer to the amounts in pension plans expressed as a liability on the insurance company's balance sheet for benefits owed to policyowners. These reserves must be maintained according to strict actuarial formulas.
Balanced Budget: Financial Equilibrium in Budgeting
A comprehensive overview of a balanced budget, its significance, and its comparison to deficits and surpluses, with references to the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Amendment.
Balloon Payment: Definition and Implications
A comprehensive guide to understanding balloon payments, including types, examples, historical context, and related financial terms.
Balloon Payment: Final Payment on a Loan
A comprehensive guide to understanding balloon payments in finance, their structure, benefits, drawbacks, and implications.
Band of Investment: A Weighted Average of Debt and Equity Rates
The Band of Investment serves as a method to estimate a company's cost of capital by weighing the cost of debt and equity. This concept is fundamental in corporate finance and is closely related to Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC).
Bank Draft: A Comprehensive Overview
In-depth definition and explanation of a Bank Draft, its key features, and comparison with a Bill of Exchange. Includes historical context, examples, and FAQs.
Bank Holding Company: Definition and Overview
A Bank Holding Company is a corporate entity that owns or controls two or more banks or other bank holding companies. They must register with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Bank Line: Overview of Bank's Moral Commitment
A detailed look at a bank's moral commitment to provide credit up to a specified maximum to a particular borrower, including definitions, historical context, examples, and FAQs.
Bank Money: Money Created by Commercial Banks
Bank Money refers to the money that is 'created' by commercial banks in a fractional reserve system through the process of making loans using deposited funds.
Bank Trust Department: Comprehensive Overview
A Bank Trust Department is engaged in settling estates, administering trusts and guardianships, performing agency services, managing investments for large accounts with a conservative investment philosophy, and acting as trustees for corporate bonds. They also administer pension and profit-sharing plans, and function as transfer agents.
Banker's Acceptance: Time Drafts in International Trade
Comprehensive Guide to Banker's Acceptance - A key financial instrument in international trade, acting as a time draft drawn on and accepted by a bank.
Banker's Year: Convention for Standardizing the Length of a Month and a Year
The Banker's Year is a financial convention that standardizes the length of a month at 30 days and a year at 360 days, facilitating easier calculation of interest rates and other financial metrics.
Bankruptcy Court: Specialized Judicial Body for Bankruptcy Matters
An in-depth look at the Bankruptcy Court, a specialized judicial body established by Congress under Article I of the U.S. Constitution to handle bankruptcy cases.
Bankruptcy Petition: Initiating Bankruptcy Processes
A Bankruptcy Petition is a formal document filed to initiate bankruptcy proceedings, detailing the debtor's financial status and specific chapter under which they are filing.
Bargain Hunter: Savvy Searchers of Value
A comprehensive look at Bargain Hunters, consumers and investors adept at seeking the best value for products and undervalued stocks.
Bargaining: Negotiating for Better Price, Terms, Working Conditions, etc.
The process of negotiations between two or more parties to reach an agreement, often involving pricing, purchasing terms, and working conditions. See also Collective Bargaining and Pattern Bargaining.
Barometer: A Key Indicator of Economic and Market Trends
A barometer is a selective compilation of economic and market data designed to represent larger trends. This entry covers its use in economic forecasting, types, prominent examples, and applications.
Base Period: Benchmark for Economic Measurement
A particular time in the past used as the yardstick or starting point when measuring economic data. It is typically a year or an average of years, but can also be a month or other time period.
Base Rent: Foundational Lease Payment
Understanding Base Rent: The minimum rent due under a lease that may include percentage or participation requirements.
Base-Year Analysis: Measuring Economic Trends with Constant Dollars
Base-year analysis is a method for analyzing economic data by using parameters from a specified year to eliminate the effect of inflation, allowing for an accurate comparison over time.
Basel Capital Accords: Evolution of Banking Regulations
The Basel Capital Accords are a series of banking regulations (Basel I, Basel II, and Basel III) aimed at standardizing global banking regulations to enhance financial stability.
Basic Industry Multiplier: An Insight
In economic base analysis, the Basic Industry Multiplier is the ratio of total population in a local area to employment in the basic industry. It signifies the economic impact of industries that attract external income.
Bear Hug: Corporate Takeover Strategy
An in-depth exploration of the Bear Hug strategy in corporate takeovers, where a suitor offers a premium price significantly higher than a target company's current market value to compel management to accept.
Bear Market: Comprehensive Overview
A detailed examination of Bear Markets in the context of stock market performance, characteristics, causes, and historical contexts.
Bear Raid: Manipulating Stock Prices Downward
A Bear Raid is an attempt by investors to manipulate the price of a stock downward by selling large numbers of shares short. Bear raids are illegal under Securities and Exchange Commission rules.
Bearer Bond: Unregistered Negotiable Security
A comprehensive guide on bearer bonds, a type of unregistered negotiable security that is payable to the person possessing it, including history, applicability, comparisons and related terms.
Belly Up: Slang for Bankrupt
A comprehensive exploration of the slang term 'Belly Up,' signifying bankruptcy.
Below Par: Price Below Face Value of a Security
Understanding the concept of Below Par pricing, especially in the context of bonds, and its implications for investors.
Benchmark: Standard for Comparison
A detailed analysis of benchmarks, their role in comparing performance, and their importance in various fields.
Beneficial Owner: Who Enjoys the Benefits of Ownership
A comprehensive guide to beneficial ownership, defining who enjoys the benefits of ownership even when the title is in another name. Explore types, legal context, historical background, examples, and related terms.
Best Efforts Arrangement: Investment Bankers Selling Securities
A detailed overview of the Best Efforts Arrangement where investment bankers act as agents with the authority to sell securities without the obligation to buy them outright.

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