Exam terms, explained plainly

The 45-calendar-day window, beginning on the date the relinquished property is sold, within which a taxpayer conducting a…

A tax-free exchange under the Internal Revenue Code allowing an owner to swap one life insurance policy or annuity for…

An annual fee charged against mutual fund assets to cover distribution and marketing costs.

An employer-sponsored retirement plan that lets employees defer part of their pay into investment accounts, frequently with…

A state-sponsored education savings account in which earnings grow tax deferred and withdrawals used for qualified education…

A tax-advantaged savings account for an individual whose qualifying disability began before the statutory age of onset.

A permanent transfer of all ownership rights in a life policy to another party, who becomes the new owner for every purpose…

The NSCC-operated system used to transfer a customer's account, including its securities and cash positions, from a…

A rider or built-in provision letting an insured who is terminally or, on some contracts, chronically ill collect part of the…

The SEC approach treating a broker-dealer's final prospectus delivery obligation as satisfied once the prospectus is filed…

The person or entity with legal control of an account and its assets, subject to the account type; ownership rights can…

A form of identity theft in which a fraudster gains unauthorized control of a customer's existing account, often to redirect…

An investor who meets defined income, net worth, or professional-credential tests and may therefore participate in certain…

The annual increase in a discount bond cost basis as the discount is written up toward par.

The effect of an acquisition on the acquirer's pro forma earnings per share relative to its standalone EPS.

Interest a bond has earned since its last payment date but has not yet paid out.

The accounting unit that measures an investor interest in a variable annuity separate account during the pay-in phase.

The fee-table line disclosing a shareholder pro rata share of the expenses charged inside the underlying funds that a fund of…

A fee paid to a program's sponsor for locating, evaluating, negotiating, and closing the purchase of a property or other…

A requirement that an employee be actively performing their job on the date group coverage would otherwise take effect…

The six basic self-care functions - eating, bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring and continence - used to determine…

A further payment of capital that a limited partner may be required or permitted to make to the partnership beyond her…

Preferred stock whose dividend resets periodically to a stated spread over a short-term benchmark rate.

A directive issued by a securities administrator or regulatory agency in an administrative proceeding, such as an order…

A penalty or restriction imposed through a regulatory administrative process for a violation, separate from criminal…

The state official or agency responsible for enforcing securities law within a single state.

The tendency of people who expect to have a loss to seek insurance more eagerly, and in larger amounts, than those who do…

The agreement governing an investment advisory relationship, including services, compensation, authority, and other terms…

Compensation charged for investment advisory services, commonly based on assets or another agreed method; the amount and…

A person who controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with an issuer, such as an officer, director, or major…

A real estate program whose return depends substantially on tax credits and passive losses rather than on cash distributions.

The investment return remaining after applicable taxes are considered, allowing comparison of taxable and tax-advantaged…

The yield remaining after income taxes on taxable investment income; for fully taxable income it is commonly calculated as…

A fail that has stayed open past the point where the firm may carry it at full value.

Debt issued by a federal agency or a government-sponsored enterprise.

A trade in which the firm acts purely as a middleman, finding the other side of the trade for the customer and charging a…

Under state securities law, an individual who represents a broker-dealer or an issuer in effecting securities transactions.

The total demand for goods and services in an economy at a given price level; fiscal and monetary policies can influence it…

The total dollar ceiling on securities that may be sold in a given exempt offering (for example, $10,000,000 in a…

The contract syndicate members sign with one another, appointing the manager, fixing each member's participation, allocating…

A contract in which the values exchanged by the parties are unequal and depend on an uncertain event.

A contingency offering in which none of the interests are sold unless all of them are sold.

The return a portfolio earned beyond what its beta exposure alone would justify.

An election to value an entire gross estate six months after death, with assets disposed of earlier valued at disposition.

A parallel federal tax calculation that adds back certain preference items, including interest on private activity municipal…

A certificate issued by a U.S.

The annual write down of a bond premium, reducing the owner cost basis toward par over the remaining life.

What is left of the offering proceeds after organization and offering expenses, and the figure from which the program…

The behavioral tendency to fix on an initial number, such as the price first seen or the price paid, and to judge everything…

The yearly meeting at which a member firm reviews compliance matters with each registered person, forming part of the…

The amendment to Form ADV that a registered investment adviser must file within 90 days after the end of its fiscal year…

The individual whose life the annuity payout is measured against.

Converting an annuity's accumulated value into a stream of income payments.

Termination of an annuity in exchange for its surrender value, potentially producing surrender charges and taxable gain; it…

The unit established when a variable annuity is annuitized.

The policies, controls, customer identification, monitoring, and reporting procedures designed to detect and deter use of…

The written program every broker-dealer must maintain, built on four pillars: internal policies and controls, a designated…

The rule voiding any clause that binds a buyer to give up rights under the state securities act.

A legal rule prohibiting material misstatements, omissions, schemes, or deceptive practices in securities activity; antifraud…

The roster of products a firm has cleared for sale after due diligence review.

A trade processed at a prior day price to correct an error, so the customer ends up where he should have been.

The division of a portfolio among asset classes such as stocks, bonds, and cash based on goals, time horizon, risk tolerance…

An M&A structure in which the buyer purchases specific assets of the target business (and typically assumes only specifically…

The total market value of client assets an adviser manages on a continuous and regular basis.

A transferee of a limited partnership interest who has acquired the economic right to distributions and allocations but has…

Notice to an option writer that a holder has exercised, obligating the writer to deliver or buy the stock.

The benchmark rate of return built into the payout calculation of a variable annuity.

A limitation confining a partner deductible loss to the amount she genuinely stands to lose, being her capital contribution…

A shelf takedown in which a company sells newly issued shares gradually into the existing trading market at whatever price…

A report an underwriter obtains directly from a physician who has treated the applicant, detailing diagnoses, treatment, and…

A market in which buy and sell orders compete directly and a trade occurs when the highest bid meets the lowest offer.

A large institution permitted to create and redeem ETF shares in blocks by exchanging a basket of portfolio securities in…

A nonforfeiture-linked provision letting the insurer pay an overdue premium from the policy's cash value, keeping a whole…

Features already embedded in the tax and transfer system that moderate the business cycle without new legislation, such as a…

A behavioral bias in which a person judges the probability of an event by how easily vivid examples come to mind, typically…

The average amount paid per unit or share across multiple purchases, calculated from total cost and units acquired; it…

A way of figuring the cost basis of mutual fund shares by pooling every share owned and dividing total cost by total shares.

A single trade confirmation reflecting the volume-weighted average price of multiple separate executions used to fill one…

A market maker's refusal to trade at its own published firm quotation for at least the displayed size.

Tax a payer must hold back from redemption proceeds and distributions when a customer has not certified a correct taxpayer…

A Regulation D provision (Rule 506(d)) disqualifying an offering from the Rule 506 exemptions if the issuer, its officers…

The residual risk that remains when a position is hedged with an instrument on a different underlying, because the two may…

The person or entity who receives the death benefit.

An underwriting in which the syndicate agrees only to use its best efforts to sell the issue, acting as agent.

The obligation to use reasonable diligence to obtain the most favorable terms reasonably available for a customer order under…

A review of a recommendation that weighs the client's profile, objectives, costs, alternatives, conflicts, and product…

A measure of how much a security tends to move relative to the overall market.

A development-stage company with no specific business plan, or one that has indicated its business plan is to engage in a…

A single contract covering a class of persons defined by a common activity or status rather than by name, where the…

A program that raises money before identifying the assets it will buy, so investors are underwriting the sponsor judgement…

A broker-dealer's daily record of original entry.

State-level securities laws, as opposed to federal ones.

A lender realising on securities genuinely pledged as loan collateral.

A guarantee of timely payment of principal and interest purchased from a third-party insurer, causing the issue to be rated…

The market value at which a bond trades, which generally moves inversely to market interest rates for an existing fixed-rate…

The process by which the underwriting syndicate solicits and records indications of interest (IOIs) from prospective…

The settlement of securities transactions by debiting and crediting participant accounts at a central securities depository…

Exchange Act Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4, which require broker-dealers to make and preserve specified categories of records —…

The SEC requirement governing which records a broker-dealer must create and how long it must keep them.

Any cash, debt relief, or non-like-kind property received by a taxpayer in a Section 1031 exchange in addition to qualifying…

A financial arrangement in which a securities professional borrows money or securities from a customer; it can create…

Any location where one or more associated persons regularly conducts a securities business.

The price at which a position produces neither profit nor loss at expiration.

A dollar level at which a mutual fund's sales charge drops.

The plain-English disclosure document an investment adviser must deliver to clients, drawn from Part 2 of Form ADV.

The part of Form ADV describing the individual who advises a client rather than the firm: five years of education and…

A person in the business of effecting securities trades for customers or for its own account.

The amount by which government spending exceeds government revenue over a period, generally requiring borrowing and…

The obligation to establish a fact or legal claim to the required standard in a proceeding; which party bears it depends on…

The rule that in any proceeding under the Uniform Securities Act, the burden of proving an exemption, or an exception from a…

The written plan a state-registered adviser must maintain covering backup and recovery of books and records, alternate ways…

The recurring pattern of economic expansion, peak, contraction, and recovery reflected in output, employment, income, and…

A closed-end investment company that lends to and invests in small and mid-sized private U.S.

The close-out remedy available to a party that has not received securities it is owed.

A contract setting how a departing or deceased owner interest in a closely held business is bought out, usually funded with…

A contract giving the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy the underlying security at a fixed price until the…

The risk that an issuer redeems a bond early — typically when rates have fallen — leaving the investor to reinvest at lower…

A bond the issuer may redeem before maturity, typically after a stated date and at a stated price.

A non-disciplinary order ending a registration when the registrant no longer exists, has ceased business, cannot be found…

A running record, maintained on the partnership's books for each partner, of that partner's capital contributions, plus…

A model that estimates the return an investor should expect from a security as the risk-free rate plus beta multiplied by the…

A demand by the general partner of a private fund that investors fund part of the capital they have contractually committed.

The profit realized when an asset is sold for more than its cost basis.

The risk that the entire amount invested may be lost and never recovered, as distinct from risks concerning a security's…

A mutual fund distribution of net realized long-term capital gains to shareholders, generally taxable to holders in taxable…

A share of program profits allocated to the sponsor or general partner that is not proportional to its capital contribution.

The contract allocating required functions between an introducing firm and the clearing firm that carries its customer…

The section of the statement of cash flows reporting the cash effects of the transactions that produce net income, such as…

Funding each known future obligation with a security that matures on the date the money is due and in the amount needed.

The savings component that builds inside a permanent life policy.

An additional elective deferral the Internal Revenue Code permits above the general limit for participants who attain age 50…

An order by an insurance commissioner directing a named person or company to stop a specified practice.

The annual certification under FINRA Rule 3130 in which a firm's chief executive officer attests to the processes used for…

The licence a state issues allowing an insurer to transact named lines of business there.

A framework under the Bankruptcy Code for a company to reorganize and continue operating, typically under a court-approved…

A donation of long-term capital gain property to a qualified public charity, deductible at fair market value with no…

An irrevocable trust paying an income stream to one or more individuals for a term or for life, with the remainder passing to…

Exploiting the interval between the deposit of a check and its collection in order to draw on money that is not there…

The fraudulent practice of delaying the allocation of executed trades until outcomes are known, then assigning profitable…

The individual an adviser must designate to administer its written compliance policies and procedures.

Trading a customer account excessively in size or frequency, mainly to generate commissions rather than to serve the…

Legal responsibility to provide a private remedy such as damages or rescission to an injured party, distinct from…

The private right of action the Uniform Securities Act gives a purchaser against a person who sells a security in violation…

Mutual fund shares that generally carry a front-end sales charge and lower ongoing distribution fees.

Mutual fund shares sold without a front-end charge but subject to a contingent deferred sales charge on early redemption and…

Mutual fund shares with little or no front-end charge and only a short-lived back-end charge, but with higher ongoing annual…

Routine administrative activity that does not involve solicitation, advice, discretionary judgment, or effecting securities…

A client's informed agreement to a transaction, conflict, disclosure, or form of authority when the applicable rule permits…

Money or securities belonging to a customer or advisory client, which must be handled under applicable custody, segregation…

The record of everything a recommendation must be built from: goals, current and expected financial situation, time horizon…

A Regulation SHO obligation requiring a participant with a fail-to-deliver position in an equity security, particularly one…

An investment company that issues a fixed number of shares in an IPO, after which they trade on an exchange at whatever price…

An investment company with a generally fixed number of shares that trade in the secondary market, allowing market price to be…

Requirements specified in a definitive merger agreement — such as required regulatory approvals and the shareholder vote —…

The written standard of conduct every registered adviser must adopt under Rule 204A-1.

A risk measure that divides a portfolio standard deviation by its expected return, showing how much total risk is taken per…

An economic statistic that moves in step with the overall economy, describing current conditions rather than predicting or…

Unsolicited outbound calls to prospective customers with whom the firm has no established business relationship.

A hedging structure in which the holder of a stock position buys a put below the current price and writes a call above it…

A temporary, limited transfer of a life policy's rights to a creditor as security for a debt, with the assignee entitled to…

A security representing a fractional interest in a pool of securities of other issuers deposited with an independent trustee…

A mortgage-backed security dividing the cash flows of a pool of mortgages into tranches with different maturity and…

Unsecured short-term corporate debt sold at a discount from face value, with the return coming from that discount rather than…

A producer's mixing of premium or other fiduciary funds with personal or general business funds instead of holding them in a…

A pooled vehicle trading futures and forward contracts, operated by a commodity pool operator with trading decisions made by…

An equity security representing ownership in a corporation.

A form of marital ownership in certain states under which property acquired during the marriage belongs equally to both…

A relative valuation method that derives valuation multiples (such as EV/EBITDA or P/E) from the current trading prices of…

A disproportionately large holding in a single security or sector relative to a customer's overall portfolio, which raises…

The increased potential for loss created by having a large portion of a portfolio exposed to one issuer, industry, asset…

A receipt given when the initial premium accompanies an application.

The tendency to seek out and believe information supporting a conclusion already held while dismissing anything that…

Communication of a material conflict of interest with enough specificity for a client to understand its nature and…

A circumstance in which a financial professional's, firm's, or related party's interests could influence or appear to…

The Regulation Best Interest component requiring a firm to maintain written procedures identifying and addressing its…

A final order of a securities Administrator entered by agreement, in which the respondent typically neither admits nor denies…

A document filed with a state Administrator that appoints the Administrator as the applicant agent for receiving legal papers…

The provision identifying what the applicant gives the insurer in exchange for its promise to pay — the completed application…

Delivery of a policy in law though not in fact, occurring when the insurer parts with control of the contract and intends it…

A transaction that eliminates substantially all of an investor's risk of loss and opportunity for gain in an appreciated…

The beneficiary who receives the death benefit only if the primary beneficiary has predeceased the insured or otherwise…

A sales charge paid only if the investor redeems shares within a stated number of years after purchase, with the percentage…

The two-part training obligation for registered persons.

The clearing process in which the clearing corporation becomes counterparty to both sides of every trade and nets each…

The rule of contract interpretation that a genuine ambiguity in policy language is resolved against the party that drafted it…

A contract drafted entirely by one party (the insurer) and offered to the other on a take-it-or-leave-it basis, with no…

A group insurance plan under which covered employees pay part of the premium, typically through payroll deduction, as opposed…

A person able to direct or influence an issuer's management and policies, whether through officer or director status…

The additional amount, above the unaffected public trading price, that an acquirer pays to obtain control of a target…

Securities held by an affiliate of the issuer, such as an officer, director or controlling shareholder, regardless of how…

Insurance a producer writes on their own life, family members, or business interests in which they hold a substantial…

The number of common shares into which a convertible security can be exchanged, used with the stock price to calculate the…

The current market value of the common shares obtainable by converting a convertible security, calculated as conversion ratio…

A bond the holder may exchange for a set number of the issuer common shares.

A short-term debt instrument issued by an early-stage company that converts into equity, typically at a future priced…

Preferred stock that gives the holder the right to exchange each share for a fixed number of common shares at a stated…

A term life policy the owner may exchange for a permanent policy without new evidence of insurability.

The curvature in a bond price-yield relationship that duration alone misses.

The period between filing a registration statement with the SEC and its effective date — a minimum of 20 days.

A portfolio structure indexing the bulk of assets in a low-cost core and confining active managers and niche strategies to a…

An event initiated by an issuer that affects its outstanding securities and the holders of record, such as a stock split…

The FINRA rule requiring members to file information about a proposed public offering before participating, so FINRA can…

A number from -1.0 to +1.0 describing how two investments move relative to each other.

In FINRA communication categories, correspondence is a written or electronic message sent to only a small number of retail…

The amount treated as your investment in a security for tax purposes, generally what you paid for it plus reinvested…

The monthly charge a universal life policy deducts for pure death protection.

The fixed annual interest a bond pays, stated as a percentage of par.

A statistic describing whether two assets move together and in which direction.

A tax-advantaged education account offering tax-free qualified distributions, but carrying a low annual contribution ceiling…

Selling a call option on stock the investor already owns.

Fund shares acquired on or after January 1, 2012, for which the firm must report cost basis to the IRS along with the sale…

The Consumer Price Index is a measure of changes over time in prices paid by consumers for a market basket of goods and…

The cash amount in a short margin account: the short sale proceeds plus the Regulation T deposit.

Decreasing term coverage tied to a specific installment loan, naming the lender as beneficiary and paying off the outstanding…

The risk that an issuer fails to make interest or principal payments.

A trust funded at the first spouse death with that spouse exclusion amount, keeping those assets and their future growth out…

Exposure to prosecution and criminal penalties for conduct defined as an offense, distinct from regulatory administrative…

The displacement of private investment by government borrowing, which competes for available savings and pushes interest…

A beneficiary temporary right to withdraw a contribution made to an irrevocable trust.

Preferred stock on which any skipped dividends accumulate in arrears and must be paid in full before common shareholders…

A corporate voting method giving a shareholder a pool of votes equal to shares owned multiplied by the number of…

The risk that exchange-rate changes will alter the home-currency value of foreign investment income, assets, liabilities, or…

A filing a firm makes with FinCEN when a customer moves more than $10,000 in currency in a single business day, counting…

An obligation due within one year (or one operating cycle), such as short-term debt, accounts payable, or the current portion…

A liquidity measure equal to current assets divided by current liabilities, showing how comfortably a company can cover its…

Annual interest divided by the bond's current market price.

Holding client cash or securities, or having any authority to obtain possession of them, such as the ability to withdraw…

A written statement from a customer, or someone acting for a customer, alleging a grievance involving the activities of a…

The requirement that a firm identify and verify the beneficial owners behind a legal entity customer, capturing both a…

The anti-money-laundering procedure a firm follows before opening an account.

The set of facts FINRA Rule 2111 requires a representative to obtain before recommending a security: the customer's age…

The books-and-records account that itemises, separately for each customer, every purchase, sale, receipt and delivery of…

An instruction from a customer to buy, sell, or otherwise transact in a security, creating duties concerning handling…

The computation under SEC Rule 15c3-3 that compares what a carrying broker-dealer owes its customers against what customers…

A transaction requested by the customer rather than recommended by the firm or professional; customer initiation can affect…

An incident in which customer nonpublic personal information is accessed or exposed without authorization.

Relief from state registration for a broker-dealer or investment adviser with no place of business in the state whose…

The consolidated record of a completed financing, including correspondence with underwriting and selling group members and…

The broker-dealer that manages the distribution of a direct participation program under an agreement with the sponsor.

The amount an insurer pays the beneficiary when the insured dies.

A corporate bond backed only by the general credit and promise to pay of the issuer, with no specific property pledged as…

The amount a customer owes the broker-dealer in a long margin account.

The principal and interest payments required on debt; municipal bond analysis focuses on the pledged source available to meet…

Property acquired or improved using borrowed money, income from which can generate unrelated debt-financed income -- a…

Total debt divided by total equity, a measure of how much leverage a company carries.

Term life insurance in which the death benefit declines over the policy period while the premium stays level.

An industry whose demand holds up through a contraction because customers buy its products in every phase of the cycle, such…

An annuity in which money accumulates on a tax-deferred basis for a period of time before income payments begin, as opposed…

A letter from the SEC staff identifying incomplete or inadequate disclosure in a registration statement.

A retirement plan in which the employer promises a specific monthly benefit, usually from a formula using years of service…

A retirement plan in which the employer obligation is a stated contribution rather than a stated benefit.

A trust structure used to hold real estate in fractional interests that can qualify for like-kind exchange treatment.

An institutional settlement instruction under which securities move only against simultaneous payment and payment moves only…

A deduction reflecting the exhaustion of a natural resource as it is extracted and sold.

Government-backed protection for eligible deposits at covered depository institutions subject to applicable rules and limits…

A security that meets a central depository's criteria and can therefore be held and transferred by book entry rather than by…

A non-cash deduction that recovers the cost of a tangible asset over time and so partially shelters the cash flow the asset…

The portion of gain on the sale of depreciated property that is taxed as ordinary income rather than capital gain, to the…

The person named to receive benefits or for whose benefit an account is maintained, such as a 529 beneficiary; designation…

The Roth sub-account inside a 401(k) or 403(b), funded with after-tax deferrals.

The account into which a firm must book securities differences that remain unresolved after a security count, so that a break…

The reduction in the proportional claim of existing shareholders that occurs when a company issues additional shares…

An investment, most often a limited partnership, that passes income, gains, losses, and deductions directly through to…

A book-entry arrangement in which a shareholder's position is registered directly on the issuer's records at the transfer…

An arrangement in which a client instructs the adviser to route trades to a specified broker-dealer.

Coverage that replaces part of an insured earnings when illness or injury stops him working.

A bond price below par.

The interest rate the Federal Reserve charges banks that borrow directly from it.

The interest rate the Federal Reserve charges depository institutions borrowing directly from it at the discount window, set…

An intrinsic valuation method that estimates a business's value as the present value of its projected future free cash flows…

An account in which the customer has given written authority for the representative to decide the security, the amount, or…

The tendency to sell positions showing a gain while holding those showing a loss.

A program arrangement under which the sponsor pays a lower percentage of costs in return for a higher percentage of revenues.

The measure that determines how much of a trust income is carried out to beneficiaries and taxed on their returns.

An ongoing charge used to pay certain distribution or shareholder-service expenses of an investment company share class…

A fund most recent distribution annualised and divided by the offering price.

A plan under which an investor cash distributions are automatically used to buy additional interests instead of being paid…

A partner's allocated portion of the partnership's items of income, gain, loss, deduction, and credit for the year, as…

Spreading investments across different securities, industries, and asset classes so that no single bad outcome dominates the…

A fund meeting the Investment Company Act's 75-5-10 test: as to 75 percent of total assets, no more than 5 percent in any one…

Annual dividends per share divided by the current share price, expressed as a percentage.

A trade the contra firm does not recognise.

The national list of consumers who have asked not to receive telemarketing calls.

Investing a fixed dollar amount at regular intervals regardless of price, which automatically buys more shares when prices…

A municipal bond payable from a project revenue stream and additionally secured by the full faith, credit and taxing power of…

A well that fails to produce commercial quantities of oil or gas.

The two statutory objectives Congress assigned the Federal Reserve: maximum employment and stable prices.

A firm or individual operating in more than one regulated capacity, such as brokerage and investment advisory roles…

An instrument by which a seller undertakes to pass on to the buyer a dividend, interest payment or other distribution that…

The investigation a broker-dealer must perform before offering a program, covering the material statements and risk factors…

A measure of a bond's price sensitivity to interest-rate changes.

A fiduciary obligation to place the client's interests ahead of the adviser's own, disclose material conflicts, and avoid…

Net income divided by the number of shares of common stock outstanding.

Earnings before interest and taxes, commonly used interchangeably with operating income.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

The upper-left boundary of the set of attainable portfolios plotted by expected return and standard deviation.

The theory that security prices already reflect available information.

The SEC Rule 17a-4(f) requirement that electronic records required to be preserved be stored in a non-rewriteable…

The four requirements every contract must satisfy: OFFER AND ACCEPTANCE, CONSIDERATION, COMPETENT PARTIES and LEGAL PURPOSE.

Under the NASAA model act on financial exploitation, a person aged 65 or older, or any adult the state adult protective…

A body that may properly be covered by group insurance.

An issuer qualifying under the JOBS Act for a scaled path to going public.

A qualified defined contribution plan that invests primarily in the sponsoring employer's own stock, allocating shares to…

The total value of a company's operating business, calculated as market capitalization plus total debt minus cash (and cash…

The provision stating that the policy and the attached application make up the whole agreement between insurer and owner, so…

A program that buys equipment and leases it to corporate users.

A security representing an ownership interest in an issuer, such as common or preferred stock, with returns tied to…

The value of a company's ownership claim available to shareholders, calculated as enterprise value minus total debt plus…

A fixed insurance product that credits interest tied to a stock index subject to a participation rate and a cap, while…

The federal law governing private employer retirement plans.

A firm account used to hold a position created by an operational or trading mistake until it is resolved.

The process by which unclaimed property - uncashed distribution checks, dormant accounts - passes to the state after the…

An equitable doctrine barring a party from asserting a right or defense because the other party reasonably and detrimentally…

A U.S.-dollar-denominated bond issued and sold outside the United States.

A valuation multiple equal to enterprise value divided by EBITDA, widely used in both comparable company and precedent…

Proof that a proposed insured is an acceptable risk, ranging from a short health questionnaire to a full paramedical…

The first day a stock trades without the right to the upcoming dividend.

An automated or manual report that flags trades or account activity meeting predefined criteria for supervisory review.

Margin account securities with a market value greater than 140% of the customer's debit balance.

The right to move money between portfolios within one fund family at net asset value, without paying a new sales charge.

The price of one currency expressed in another currency, affecting the home-currency value of foreign investments, income…

A pooled investment whose shares trade on an exchange throughout the day like a stock, so its market price can drift slightly…

The formula that divides each payment from a nonqualified annuity into a tax-free return of the money you originally put in…

An adviser that qualifies for the private fund or venture capital exemption and does not register, but still files portions…

A security that does not require registration — for example US government securities, municipal securities, and certain bank…

A transaction that does not require registration because of HOW or to WHOM it is sold, rather than what the security is.

A distribution by a regulated investment company that passes the federally tax-exempt character of municipal bond interest…

The most option contracts on the same side of the market that an investor, or a group acting together, may exercise within…

The annual cost of operating a fund, stated as a percentage of average net assets, covering the management fee…

An oil and gas program that drills where no reserves have been proven.

The narrow process by which information is removed from a registered person's central registration record.

The risk that rising interest rates slow mortgage prepayments, lengthening the average life of a mortgage-backed security and…

One of the three classifications of investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, alongside the unit…

A provision, most common in industrial and small-face policies, letting the insurer pay a modest death benefit to a relative…

The delivering firm's open obligation when it has not delivered securities by settlement date.

The buying firm's open position when securities it purchased have not arrived by settlement date.

A charge against a firm or an individual supervisor who did not establish and enforce reasonable procedures to detect and…

A communications standard requiring material benefits, risks, limitations, and context to be presented in a manner that does…

Valuing a holding in good faith under board-approved procedures when a market quotation is no longer reliable, as with a…

An independent, financial-analysis-based opinion, typically prepared by an investment bank for a company's board or a special…

The tendency to overweight what one knows and to read comfort as safety, producing concentration in an employer, an industry…

A rider paying a monthly income to the beneficiary from the insured's death until the end of a period measured from the…

An investment adviser that registers with the SEC rather than with individual states, generally because of the size of its…

A security federal law places beyond state registration and merit review: exchange-listed securities, securities of the same…

The interest rate at which depository institutions lend reserve balances to one another, usually overnight.

The Federal Reserve committee that directs open market operations, the purchase and sale of Treasury securities in the…

The U.S.

The withdrawal of advisory, contract, or other charges from an account or policy value, which affects net returns and can…

The table at the front of a fund prospectus.

A description reserved for advisers whose firm and associated persons take compensation solely from clients, with no…

A duty to act in the client's best interest, placing the client's interests ahead of your own and disclosing conflicts.

A small-face whole life policy, often sold with simplified or guaranteed issue underwriting, designed to cover funeral and…

The registered principal responsible for a broker-dealer's financial and operational compliance, including the accuracy of…

The illegal or improper use of a vulnerable adult's funds, property, or assets, often by a caregiver or new acquaintance.

The Treasury bureau that administers the Bank Secrecy Act, receives currency transaction reports and suspicious activity…

A person who introduces a prospective investor or a business opportunity to a program in exchange for a fee.

The self-regulatory organization (SRO) that oversees broker-dealers and registered representatives in the United States.

The forum in which most disputes involving member firms are resolved - mandatory between members and binding on customers who…

Governs payments of transaction-related compensation to unregistered persons, generally prohibiting a firm or its registered…

Governs research analysts and research reports, requiring structural and information separation of research from investment…

FINRA's core supervision rule requiring each member firm to establish and maintain a system to supervise the activities of…

Governs networking arrangements between a broker-dealer and a financial institution such as a bank, under which unregistered…

Requires each member firm to develop and implement a written anti-money laundering compliance program, including designation…

Regulatory notification and business curtailment rule requiring a firm to notify FINRA promptly when net capital falls below…

Governs private placements of securities issued by a member firm or a control entity of the firm, requiring disclosure to…

Governs allocations of new issues ("spinning"), prohibiting a firm from allocating a hot new issue based on past or…

FINRA's rule granting it authority to compel members, associated persons, and certain other persons to provide documents…

An underwriting in which the syndicate buys the entire issue from the issuer and resells it, taking on the risk of unsold…

A market maker's published bid or offer that the market maker is obligated to honor for at least the quoted size at the…

A policy covering two or more lives that pays its death benefit once, at the first insured's death, rather than at the last…

Government decisions about taxation and spending used to influence economic activity, aggregate demand, deficits, and…

An annuity paying a guaranteed rate set by the insurer, backed by its general account.

A portfolio whose holdings are relatively static rather than actively managed, a characteristic commonly associated with unit…

An additional charge of a stated dollar amount per thousand of face amount, added to price extra mortality that is roughly…

The rapid resale of shares received in a new issue allocation shortly after the offering begins trading.

The periodic financial and operational report a broker-dealer files with its regulator, presenting the firm's financial…

A subsequent issuance of shares by a company that is already publicly traded, as distinct from an initial public offering…

The uniform registration form investment advisers file with the SEC or the states.

A short relationship summary a firm gives retail investors.

The notice filing an issuer must submit to the SEC electronically within 15 days after the first sale of securities in a…

The uniform application an individual files to register as a broker-dealer agent or investment adviser representative.

The uniform termination notice a firm files when a registered person leaves.

The certification a nonresident alien beneficial owner files to establish foreign status with a United States firm.

A privately negotiated, customized agreement to buy or sell an asset at a set price on a future date.

The rule that a mutual fund order is filled at the next net asset value the fund calculates after the order is received, plus…

Direct trading of securities between institutional investors, typically over an electronic network, with no broker-dealer…

The cash a business generates from operations after funding the capital expenditures needed to sustain and grow the business…

Cash sitting in a customer's brokerage account that the firm owes on demand.

A window after policy delivery during which the owner may return the policy for a full premium refund.

A written offer used after a registration statement is filed, supplementing the statutory prospectus.

Entering an order for your own account or the firm account ahead of a customer block order you know is coming, in order to…

A sales charge deducted at the time of purchase, so only the remainder of the investment goes to work immediately.

Customer securities that have been paid for in full and, under SEC Rule 15c3-3, must be segregated in a good control location…

A program under which a broker-dealer borrows a customer's fully paid (non-margin) securities in exchange for collateral and…

The NSCC platform through which broker-dealers, banks and retirement plan recordkeepers send mutual fund purchases…

A standardised, exchange-traded agreement obligating one party to buy and the other to sell a stated quantity of an…

Gross domestic product is the market value of final goods and services produced within an economy during a period, widely…

The pool of assets an insurer holds to support the obligations it has guaranteed, including fixed annuity crediting rates…

A broker-dealer's primary accounting record, into which all transactions are ultimately posted and from which the trial…

A municipal bond backed by the full faith, credit, and taxing power of the issuer, rather than by revenue from a specific…

The partner that manages a direct participation program.

The obligation a general partner owes to the limited partnership and its limited partners to act in their best interests…

A partnership in which every partner has unlimited liability for the obligations of the business.

A power exercisable in favor of the holder, the holder's estate, the holder's creditors, or the creditors of the estate.

Advertising or soliciting prospective investors for a securities offering through means such as public advertisements…

A federal tax on transfers to a skip person more than one generation below the transferor, such as a grandchild whose parent…

The compound rate that actually turns a starting balance into an ending balance over several periods, found by multiplying…

An election letting a married couple treat a gift made by one spouse as made half by each, doubling the annual exclusions…

The amount one person may give another each year without a taxable gift arising.

Benefits offered to a representative or adviser by a product sponsor or other counterparty.

An instruction by which an executing broker directs that a trade be booked to, and settled by, a customer's prime broker or…

The schedule by which a target-date fund reduces equity exposure over time.

Certificates handed over in a form the receiving firm can accept: denominations that combine into round lots, signed by the…

The deposit a municipal official notice of sale requires each bidder to enclose with a competitive bid.

An order qualifier that keeps an unexecuted order working across trading sessions until it is filled or the customer cancels…

A method for calculating DCF terminal value that assumes cash flows grow at a constant rate forever, computed as final-year…

The issuance of debt by a government to finance spending that exceeds current revenues or to refinance obligations…

A deferred compensation plan for state and local government employees.

The time after a premium due date during which a policy stays in force and the premium may still be paid.

A feature of some guaranteed-issue or simplified-issue policies, typically final-expense products, under which the full face…

An option, commonly up to 15% of the base offering size, that lets underwriters sell additional shares beyond the base deal…

An arrangement in which an employer removes a selected class of employees, usually executives, from group term life coverage…

Life coverage issued to an employer or other organization under a single master contract, with individual participants…

A life insurance rider letting the owner buy additional stated coverage at set future dates or life events with no new…

A variable annuity living benefit rider that, for an extra annual charge, guarantees the owner may withdraw at least a stated…

A fixed payment made by a partnership to a partner for services rendered or for the use of capital, determined without regard…

A state body funded by assessments on licensed insurers that pays covered claims when a member insurer fails, up to limits…

The percentage deduction applied to the market value of a proprietary securities position in the net capital computation.

A condition that increases the likelihood or the size of a loss.

A privately offered pooled fund that can pursue strategies mutual funds generally cannot, including leverage, short selling…

Taking a position intended to offset or reduce exposure to another position or risk, often sacrificing some upside or…

The tendency to believe, after an outcome is known, that it was predictable beforehand.

A new equity offering that begins trading in the secondary market at a premium to its offering price.

The four-part test for an investment contract: money invested, in a common enterprise, with an expectation of profit, coming…

The present value of a person future earnings.

The pledge of a customer securities position as collateral for a margin loan.

A written program required under Regulation S-ID that a firm's board or senior management must approve, identifying relevant…

The SEC rule requiring firms holding covered accounts to maintain a written program, approved by senior management, that…

A holding a fund could not reasonably expect to convert to cash within seven calendar days without moving its price.

The condition of being difficult, costly, or slow to convert an investment into cash near fair value, making the asset less…

The tendency to read a short run of favourable outcomes as evidence of a repeatable ability, when a random process would…

An annuity purchased with a single lump sum that begins making income payments almost immediately.

A bond strategy that sets portfolio duration equal to the investor's time horizon, so price risk and reinvestment risk…

Investment advice that is not tailored to any client's individual circumstances, such as standardised model portfolios sold…

The level of future price movement the market is pricing into an option, inferred from its premium.

A condition the Administrator may attach to a state securities registration requiring that money raised be held until the…

The economic rights of owning a life policy: changing the beneficiary, borrowing, assigning, surrendering.

Income a decedent had earned or accrued but never recognized, which is taxed to the recipient rather than forgiven at death.

A program that buys wells already in production rather than drilling.

After a policy has been in force for a stated period, the insurer may no longer contest it for misstatements on the…

The principle that insurance restores the insured to their prior financial position but does not allow them to profit from a…

A property or asset valuation performed by a qualified, unaffiliated third party rather than by the sponsor itself, used to…

The formula a fixed indexed annuity or indexed universal life policy uses to turn index movement into interest.

A fund that seeks to match the performance of a stated market index rather than beat it.

A universal life policy whose credited interest is linked to the performance of a market index, subject to insurer-set limits…

A non-binding expression of a customer's potential interest in an upcoming offering, gathered during the cooling-off period.

A sustained increase in the general price level that reduces the purchasing power of money, making real return and inflation…

The physical, technological and procedural separation a firm maintains between its investment banking side, which holds…

The minimum amount of equity, expressed as a percentage of a security's purchase price, that Regulation T requires a customer…

The first sale of a company's shares to the public.

The partnership's own tax basis in the assets it holds, as distinguished from a partner's outside basis in her partnership…

Buying or selling a security, or tipping someone else to do so, while in possession of important information that has not…

The statute authorizing the SEC to seek a civil penalty of up to three times the profit gained or loss avoided in an insider…

A sale in which at least one payment is received after the year of sale, allowing gain to be recognized proportionately as…

A brokerage account held for a bank, insurance company, registered investment company or registered adviser, or for any other…

A bank, savings institution, trust company, insurance company, investment company, pension or profit-sharing trust or similar…

A genuine financial stake in the continued life or wellbeing of the insured.

The provision, usually on a policy's first page, stating the insurer's basic promise to pay a death benefit to the named…

The non-salvageable costs of drilling a well such as labour, fuel and site preparation.

The principle that two or more securities offerings made close in time may be treated as a single offering for purposes of…

An agreement between two counterparties to exchange interest payment streams calculated on a notional principal that is never…

The risk that changing market interest rates will alter the value of fixed-income securities, with prices of existing…

A whole life design that guarantees a minimum interest rate and cash value but credits current, insurer-declared rates above…

Under the Investment Company Act, a person affiliated with a fund adviser, underwriter or management.

Inserting a third party between a customer and the best available market when doing so provides no benefit to the customer.

An offering exempt from federal registration because the issuer and every purchaser are within a single state.

The amount by which an option would be profitable to exercise right now, ignoring the premium that was paid for it.

A broker-dealer that accepts customer orders and relationships but does not carry customer accounts, instead relying on a…

A regulator's fact-finding process to determine whether securities laws or rules may have been violated, potentially…

An underwriting report built partly from personal interviews about an applicant character, reputation and lifestyle.

Any person who, for compensation, engages in the business of advising others as to the value of securities or the…

The regulatory filing and qualification process required for an investment adviser unless an exemption or federal-state…

An individual associated with an investment adviser who gives advice, manages accounts, solicits clients, or supervises…

Federal law defining who is an investment adviser and requiring registration, disclosure (Form ADV), and a fiduciary standard…

Classifies and regulates investment companies.

An arrangement in which people invest money in a common enterprise expecting profits mainly from the efforts of a promoter or…

A credit rating category signaling relatively low default risk in the judgment of a rating agency.

Interest paid on money borrowed to buy or carry taxable investments, such as margin interest.

A written document recording the objectives of a portfolio and the constraints within which they must be pursued, including…

A subscription-package document in which a prospective purchaser in a private placement discloses information used to…

The minimum income, net worth and other investor qualifications a program imposes.

A beneficiary designation the owner cannot change, and whose consent the owner must obtain before exercising most other…

An irrevocable trust created to own a life insurance policy outside the grantor's taxable estate, with the trustee applying…

A limited, nonrecurring secondary securities transaction by a person other than the issuer that may qualify for a state…

Any person who issues or proposes to issue a security.

An account owned by two or more persons, with authority and disposition at death determined by the form of joint ownership…

Where several defendants are each answerable for the whole judgment, so a plaintiff may collect all of it from any one of…

A pension payout that keeps paying a surviving spouse for life.

A joint account in which, on the death of one owner, that owner interest passes automatically to the surviving owner rather…

A bookkeeping transfer of cash or securities between two accounts on the same firm's records, with nothing leaving the firm.

A policy purchased by an adult on the life of a child, usually the child's parent or grandparent as applicant and premium…

A policy a business buys, owns, and names itself beneficiary on the life of an owner, executive, or employee whose death…

The requirement to use reasonable diligence, in opening and maintaining every account, to know the essential facts about the…

An economic statistic that changes direction after the overall economy does, confirming a turning point only after the fact.

A real estate program that acquires undeveloped land for appreciation.

The trailing twelve months of actual reported financial results as of a given analysis or transaction date, as opposed to a…

Accepting a mutual fund order after the pricing cut-off and giving it that day net asset value.

The statistical principle that the larger the number of similar, independent exposure units observed, the more closely actual…

An economic statistic that changes direction before the overall economy does, used to anticipate turning points.

The interest rate a state fixes for use in judgments and statutory remedies.

The risk that a change in law or regulation alters the economics of an investment.

A signed customer instruction directing the firm to move funds or securities in a way the standing account paperwork does not…

A mutual fund provision letting an investor get a breakpoint discount now by committing to invest the required amount within…

The court document appointing an executor and evidencing authority to act for a decedent's estate.

Term life insurance in which both the death benefit and the premium remain the same throughout the stated term.

A projection of a policy future values.

The sale of an in-force life insurance policy to a third party for more than its cash surrender value.

An exchange of real property held for business or investment use for other such property, in which gain is deferred rather…

An instruction to buy at no more than a stated price, or to sell at no less than a stated price.

An entity with the pass-through tax treatment of a partnership but in which the manager, unlike a general partner, has…

The state private placement exemption for an offer directed to no more than ten non-institutional persons in twelve months…

A passive investor in a limited partnership whose liability is limited to the capital contributed plus any amount she has…

The rights, set out in a limited partnership agreement, that allow limited partners to vote on specified matters -- typically…

A distribution of a partnership's remaining assets or sale proceeds to its partners in connection with the partnership's…

A right of preferred stockholders in a private company to receive a stated amount from sale or liquidation proceeds before…

The order in which creditors and owners have claims on an issuer's assets in liquidation, with debt generally senior to…

The ability to convert an asset into cash quickly at or near fair value with limited transaction cost or price impact, an…

A client's expected requirement for accessible cash over a specified period, affecting how much can prudently be committed to…

The risk that an investment cannot be sold or redeemed promptly at a reasonable price, potentially forcing a large discount…

The Regulation SHO obligation to have reasonable grounds to believe a security can be borrowed and delivered before a short…

An options strategy consisting of a long call and long put on the same underlying with the same strike and expiration…

Coverage for extended custodial or nursing care.

The risk that an individual outlives the assets set aside to support them.

A federal tax credit available to investors in a qualifying affordable housing program that sets aside units for tenants…

A demand for additional equity when a margin account falls below the minimum maintenance level, generally 25 percent of long…

A redemption feature under which the issuer may call a bond at the greater of par or the present value of the remaining…

A brokerage account that lets the customer borrow part of the purchase price from the firm, using the securities in the…

A demand that a customer deposit additional funds or securities into a margin account, issued either because a new purchase…

The tax rate applied to the next dollar of taxable income, commonly used in after-tax yield and taxable-equivalent-yield…

The amount a dealer subtracts from the prevailing market price when buying a security from a customer into its own inventory.

A dealer that continuously quotes both a price at which it will buy and a price at which it will sell a security, standing…

Intentional conduct designed to create a false or artificial appearance of price, volume, or market activity, such as…

An instruction to buy or sell immediately at the best price currently available.

The price at which a security can currently trade in the secondary market, determined by supply and demand and potentially…

Rapid in-and-out trading of fund shares to exploit short-term pricing gaps.

Trading near the market close with manipulative intent to influence a security's closing price or create a misleading…

The amount a dealer adds to its own cost when selling a security to a customer from inventory.

The single contract issued to a group policyholder, such as an employer or association, that governs the entire group…

Liability imposed by the Uniform Securities Act on persons who did not themselves sell but who stand behind or assist the…

A significant change in a firm's ownership, control, or business lines, or in an approved product's structure, that triggers…

A false or concealed fact on an application that would have changed the insurer decision to issue, or the terms of issue.

An inaccurate statement concerning information significant enough to affect a reasonable investor, client, insurer, or…

Failure to state an important fact when necessary to keep other statements from being misleading, a form of deceptive conduct…

Involvement in an activity's operations that is regular, continuous, and substantial under one of several IRS tests (such as…

Government assistance whose eligibility depends on the resources the recipient owns or receives.

A certification, obtained from a financial institution participating in an approved medallion program, that guarantees the…

The document filed with FINRA describing the scope of business a member firm is approved to conduct.

A behavioral tendency to split wealth into separate mental buckets and apply different risk rules to each, instead of judging…

An investment adviser whose regulatory assets under management fall between $100 million and $110 million.

The ownership interest in the oil, gas, and other minerals beneath a tract of land, which may be owned separately from the…

A best efforts offering with both a floor and a ceiling: a minimum that must be sold for the deal to close and a maximum…

A basis for insider trading liability under which a person commits securities fraud by trading on confidential information in…

A communication that creates a false or deceptive impression because of what it says, omits, emphasizes, or presents without…

A standard provision addressing an application error about the insured's age or sex discovered after issue.

A life insurance policy funded so quickly that it fails a federal premium test and loses the usual favorable tax treatment…

Central-bank actions affecting interest rates, money, reserves, and credit conditions to influence inflation, employment, and…

The three phases by which criminal proceeds are made to look legitimate: placement, the introduction of funds into the…

A mutual fund that invests in very short-term, high-quality debt instruments and aims to maintain a stable share value.

A defined contribution plan in which the employer must contribute a fixed percentage of each participant's pay every year…

The total quantity of money and near-money in circulation.

A modeling technique that runs a financial plan through thousands of randomly varied return sequences and reports how often…

An annual charge against a variable annuity or variable life separate account compensating the insurer for guaranteeing…

The extra income a life annuity can pay beyond interest and return of principal.

A table showing the probability of death at each age for a defined population, used by actuaries to price premiums and set…

A real estate program that lends against property rather than owning it, sometimes taking a share of appreciation as well as…

The SRO that writes rules for municipal securities dealers.

A person who advises a municipal entity on the structure, timing, terms or similar matters of an issue of municipal…

A debt security issued by a state or local government.

A person at a municipal securities dealer who engages in or solicits municipal securities business, or who supervises those…

An insurer owned by its policyowners rather than by outside shareholders; policyowners may receive dividends from favorable…

The SEC rule requiring a registered fund whose name suggests a focus on a particular type of investment, industry or region…

The membership organization of state, provincial, and territorial securities Administrators.

A way of sizing life insurance that totals the specific obligations survivors would face, such as final expenses, the…

The gap between a permanent policy's death benefit and its cash value at a given time — the portion of the death benefit the…

A fund's total assets minus liabilities, divided by shares outstanding.

A broker-dealer's liquid capital as computed under SEC Rule 15c3-1, arrived at by deducting non-allowable assets from net…

A company's profit after all expenses, including interest and taxes, have been deducted from revenue.

An additional federal tax on investment income owed by higher-income taxpayers.

A real estate property's rental and other operating revenue minus operating expenses (such as property management…

Investment results shown after deduction of advisory fees.

A non-operating interest in an oil and gas property entitling its holder to a share of the well's profits -- gross revenue…

A universal life feature that keeps the death benefit in force even if the policys actual account value falls to zero…

A mutual fund sold without a sales charge, so the purchase price equals the net asset value.

An investment return measured before adjusting for inflation, contrasted with real return, which reflects changes in…

An account titled in a name other than that of the true beneficial owner.

A purchaser who does not meet Regulation D's income, net worth, or other accredited-investor thresholds; Rule 506(b) permits…

An asset deducted in full when a broker-dealer computes net capital, because it could not be turned into cash quickly enough…

Anything of value other than cash paid in connection with the sale of fund shares, such as travel to a sponsor training…

A deferred annuity owned by a corporation, partnership or other entity generally loses tax deferral, so its yearly growth is…

A customer holding securities in street name who has not instructed the broker-dealer to withhold his identity from the…

The choices a policyowner has for the accumulated cash value if a permanent policy lapses or is surrendered, typically taking…

A sale in which the proceeds go to the selling security holder rather than to the company that created the security.

A contractual promise to pay an executive later, outside the qualified plan rules.

Debt on which the lender may look only to the pledged property and not to the borrowers personally.

An order giving the trader discretion over the timing and price of execution so a large order can be worked without moving…

Procedural safeguards requiring regulatory notice of proposed action and an opportunity to be heard, helping ensure…

A submission of documents and a fee to a state by a federal covered adviser or by the issuer of a federal covered security.

The face amount of underlying exposure a derivative contract controls, as distinct from the cash committed to open the…

The substitution of a new contract, or a new party, for an existing one with the consent of every party involved and with the…

An account carried under a number or symbol rather than the customer's name, permitted only where the firm holds a written…

An order or transaction for fewer shares than a round lot, conventionally 100 shares.

The Treasury office that administers United States economic sanctions and publishes the Specially Designated Nationals and…

Business-related electronic communications conducted outside a firm's monitored and archived systems, such as personal text…

A firm location where specified supervisory functions occur, such as approving new accounts, endorsing advertising, or…

The advertisement an issuer publishes to invite bids on a competitive municipal offering.

The disclosure document a municipal issuer prepares for a new issue, describing the issuer, the security behind the bonds…

A single account an intermediary holds on a fund books covering many underlying customers, with the intermediary keeping the…

The total number of derivative contracts outstanding that have not been closed, exercised or expired, carried forward from…

The purchase and sale of government securities by a central bank to influence the level of bank reserves and short-term…

An investment company that continuously issues redeemable shares.

A mutual fund that continuously offers and redeems shares based on net asset value, with purchases and redemptions occurring…

The governing document of a limited liability company, which establishes whether the company is member-managed or…

A lease structured so that a single lease term does not recover substantially all of the lessor's cost of the equipment…

The price paid by an option buyer and received by an option writer for the contract, affecting breakeven, maximum gain…

The document in which a customer represents that she understands and will abide by options rules and position limits.

The issuer and guarantor of listed options in the United States.

The standardised booklet explaining how listed options work and the risks of each basic strategy, which must be delivered to…

The record SEC Rule 17a-3 requires for each brokerage order, whether or not executed.

Income taxed at the regular graduated income tax rates, such as wages, interest, short-term capital gains, and withdrawals…

The costs of forming the program and selling its interests, including underwriting compensation, due diligence fees, advisory…

The difference between a debt instrument's issue price and its redemption value, which accretes over the life of the…

A partner's tax basis in her partnership interest itself, equal to her capital contributions plus her share of partnership…

Work a registered person performs for compensation outside the employing firm.

A firm's use of a third party to perform an activity or function on the firm's behalf, such as branch inspections, locate…

A dealer market in which firms publish two-sided quotations and trade with customers as principal out of their own inventory…

A cost-free interest in the production revenues of a well or deposit, payable out of total production under an oil and gas…

A policy dividend option that uses dividends to purchase small amounts of additional permanent coverage.

A manipulative practice in which transactions are executed to create the false appearance of active trading or of a rising…

The stated value of a bond, repaid at maturity — conventionally $1,000 for corporate bonds.

A policy, typically issued by a mutual insurer, that is eligible to receive dividends reflecting favorable mortality…

The contract that governs a limited partnership.

A loss from an activity in which the taxpayer does not materially participate.

Income from a trade or business in which the taxpayer does not materially participate, which includes the income allocated by…

Historical investment results, useful as context but not a guarantee of future results and potentially misleading when…

SEC Rule 206(4)-5, which generally bars an investment adviser from receiving compensation for advisory services to a…

The point at which a program's investors have recovered an amount equal to their original investment (or another specified…

A syndicate arrangement reclaiming the selling concession from a member whose customers flip newly issued shares back into…

A low-priced, thinly traded equity security subject to special protective requirements.

A beneficiary designation that pays by branch of the family.

The Uniform Securities Act definition covering individuals, companies, partnerships, trusts, governments and political…

Taxable income allocated to a partner with no cash distribution accompanying it, so the partner owes tax on money she never…

The observed short-run inverse relationship between unemployment and inflation.

A private investment in public equity, in which a publicly reporting issuer sells newly issued (or, less commonly…

Any office where a firm or representative regularly provides securities or advisory services, plus any location held out to…

The contract between an issuer and a broker-dealer engaged as placement agent, setting out the scope of the agent's authority…

Under ERISA, the assets of an employee benefit plan and, in many cases, the underlying assets of an entity in which the plan…

Borrowing against the cash value of a permanent life policy, using the policy itself as collateral.

The liability a life insurer carries for benefits it will owe on policies already in force.

A supplemental benefit attached to a life policy that adds, limits or modifies coverage for an additional charge.

A rider on a survivorship policy permitting the contract to be exchanged for two individual policies, one on each insured…

The share of a fund holdings replaced during a year.

The maximum number of option contracts on the same side of the market that one investor, or a group acting together, may hold…

The requirement under the SEC customer protection rule that a carrying broker-dealer obtain and maintain physical possession…

A written authorisation letting someone act on an account owner's behalf.

A relative valuation method that derives valuation multiples from actual completed M&A deals for similar companies and…

A specified rate of return that must be distributed to investors before a sponsor or general partner begins receiving its…

An equity security with a fixed stated dividend and priority over common stock for dividends and in liquidation.

The background investigation a firm must conduct before registering an applicant, including a public records check and…

A bond price above par.

A bond trading above par value, often because its coupon rate exceeds current market yields; its premium tends to move toward…

An exempt transaction covering subscriptions taken before a corporation is formed.

The risk that borrowers behind a mortgage-backed or similar amortizing security repay principal earlier than expected…

The current worth of a future cash flow, calculated by discounting that cash flow back at an appropriate discount rate.

The risk that a security's market price will move adversely before sale or during the holding period because of market…

A valuation multiple equal to share price divided by earnings per share.

The market in which an issuer sells newly created securities and receives the proceeds, whether through a public offering, a…

An offering in which the company issues new shares and receives the sale proceeds, as distinguished from a secondary…

An arrangement under which a customer designates one firm, the prime broker, to clear and carry all of its positions and cash…

The interest rate commercial banks quote for their most creditworthy corporate borrowers, used as a reference for many…

A trade in which the firm takes the other side itself, selling to the customer out of its own inventory or buying into…

The order in which claimants are paid in a bankruptcy liquidation: senior secured creditors first, then junior secured…

A municipal bond issued to finance a facility used mainly by a private business, such as an airport terminal or an arena.

A pooled investment vehicle, such as a hedge fund or private equity fund, that would otherwise meet the definition of an…

An offering exempt from SEC registration under Regulation D, sold primarily to accredited investors.

The disclosure document used in an unregistered offering.

A representative's home or other private location that does not meet the definition of a branch office or OSJ because it is…

A securities transaction an associated person takes part in outside their firm's regular business.

The projected earnings per share of the combined company following an acquisition, calculated as combined net income…

The court process for retitling property that has no other way to pass at death.

A stretch of continuous employment a newly hired employee must complete before becoming eligible for group coverage.

The state-licensed individual who solicits, negotiates, or sells insurance on behalf of an insurer.

The group responsible for evaluating and approving new products for a firm's platform, including independently assessing…

The offering document for a municipal fund security such as a 529 plan, describing the investment options, fees, tax…

A dealing between a retirement account and a disqualified person that the tax code forbids, such as borrowing from the…

A product issued, sponsored, or managed by the firm or an affiliate.

The disclosure document delivered to purchasers in a registered offering.

Buying a put option on stock the investor already owns in order to set a floor under its value.

When an adviser votes client shares, the rules require written policies, disclosure of how a client can learn how her own…

The standard requiring a fiduciary to manage assets with the care, skill, and caution a prudent investor would use, judged at…

Unscripted participation in a seminar, forum, or broadcast interview.

The price an investor pays for a share of a mutual fund: net asset value plus any front-end sales charge.

The exclusion from the investment adviser definition for a bona fide newspaper, news magazine or financial publication of…

A person, meeting specified independence and sophistication qualifications, who evaluates the merits and risks of a Rule…

The idea that a currency whose home prices rise faster than another country prices must fall against that currency over time.

The risk that inflation will erode the real value of future cash flows, fixed payments, or investment returns even when…

A contract giving the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to sell the underlying security at a fixed price until the…

A bank, registered broker-dealer, futures commission merchant or foreign financial institution that holds client funds and…

The investment a retirement plan puts a participant's money into when that participant never makes a choice.

A dividend taxed at long-term capital gains rates.

A trust that preserves the federal estate tax marital deduction for property passing to a surviving spouse who is not a U.S.

An institution, such as a bank, insurance company, or investment company, that owns and invests on a discretionary basis at…

An independent third party who holds the proceeds from the sale of a taxpayer's relinquished property and uses them to…

Real property debt that is treated as an amount a partner has at risk even though no partner is personally liable on it.

An individual or entity meeting Investment Company Act thresholds substantially higher than the accredited-investor standard…

The FINRA Rule 2111 obligation to have a reasonable basis to believe that a series of recommended transactions, taken…

An irrevocable trust used to informally fund a nonqualified deferred compensation promise, often holding employer-owned life…

Unimproved real property with no structures, utilities, or development in place, purchased by a land development or raw land…

Land and property interests, including income-producing buildings and related assets, offering potential income and…

The return left after subtracting inflation from the nominal return.

The MSRB facility to which municipal securities dealers report transactions within 15 minutes of the time of trade, subject…

The slice of the selling concession paid to a broker-dealer that belongs to neither the underwriting syndicate nor the…

Trading a drifted portfolio back toward its target allocation.

Offering a client any part of the commission, or anything else of value not specified in the policy, as an inducement to buy…

The tendency to weight the most recent results too heavily and project them forward, so conviction flips with whatever the…

A significant, broad-based decline in economic activity.

An unincorporated association in which the members, called subscribers, exchange insurance contracts with one another, so…

A claim by the party that accepted a delivery to give the securities back and recover the money paid, because the delivery…

The date that fixes who is entitled to a declared distribution.

Debt for which a partner is personally liable.

A fact or pattern indicating elevated risk of fraud, money laundering, identity theft, or other misconduct and therefore…

The preliminary prospectus circulated during the cooling-off period to gather indications of interest.

The return of an investment company share or other redeemable interest to the issuer or fund in exchange for its calculated…

A charge some funds apply to shares sold within a short window after purchase, often 30 to 90 days.

Payment of a fund redemption in portfolio securities rather than cash, valued at net asset value.

A program feature, common in non-traded DPPs and non-traded REITs, under which the sponsor may (but is typically not…

An equitable remedy by which a court corrects a written contract that, because of mutual mistake or a scrivener's error…

The component of Regulation Best Interest requiring a broker-dealer to establish, maintain and enforce written policies and…

The component of Regulation Best Interest requiring a broker-dealer to give a retail customer full and fair written…

An annuity crediting index-linked returns subject to a cap, with partial downside protection.

A state registration method for an offering also registered with the SEC.

The lightest of the three state registration methods, open only to seasoned issuers that meet the statutory operating and…

The state registration method available for any offering and required where the others are not.

A statutory exception relieving a person, security, or transaction from an otherwise applicable registration requirement…

The document an issuer files with the SEC to register a public offering.

Whether a person, firm, security, or offering is registered, exempt, federally covered, excluded, pending, denied, suspended…

The fear of the pain that would follow a decision turning out badly, which pushes investors into costly inaction.

The default timetable for delivery and payment on a securities trade.

A fund that passes income through to shareholders untaxed at the fund level by meeting the tests of Subchapter M, including…

An exemption permitting a limited public offering on an abbreviated disclosure document rather than a full registration…

The SEC rule requiring a broker-dealer or registered representative to act in a retail customer's best interest when…

The Securities Act exemption (Regulation CF) permitting issuers to raise a limited amount of capital from the general public…

The SEC rule barring an issuer from selectively disclosing material nonpublic information to securities professionals and…

A Securities Act safe harbor exempting offers and sales of securities made outside the United States to non-U.S.

The SEC rule governing how broker-dealers handle customers' personal information.

The SEC regulation governing short sales, covering the locate that must precede a short sale, the marking of sell orders, and…

The Federal Reserve Board rule governing the credit a broker-dealer may extend to customers purchasing securities, and the…

A Federal Reserve rule limiting the credit banks and other non-broker lenders may extend to buy or carry margin stock.

The asset figure an adviser reports on Form ADV, covering securities portfolios it supervises continuously and regularly.

A fund family feature letting an investor who redeemed Class A shares put some or all of the proceeds back within a stated…

An arrangement in which one insurer (the ceding company) transfers part of the risk it has underwritten to another insurer…

The risk that interest or principal received must be reinvested at a lower rate than the original investment.

A company that pools investor money to own or finance income-producing real estate and must distribute most of its taxable…

A transaction between a program and its sponsor, general partner, or an affiliate of either, such as the sponsor selling…

The corrective steps a firm takes after identifying a supervisory deficiency, including fixing the underlying process…

A term life policy the owner may renew at the end of the term without proving insurability again.

Terminating, lapsing, or materially changing an existing life policy or annuity in connection with the purchase of a new one.

An issuer subject to the Securities Exchange Act's periodic reporting requirements (Forms 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K) because it has…

A statement an applicant makes on an application that is believed true to the best of the applicant's knowledge, as opposed…

A sale of securities coupled with a simultaneous agreement to buy them back at an agreed price on an agreed date, which in…

Mandatory disclosure language that must appear on specified documents, such as penny stock account statements or preliminary…

The amount that must be withdrawn each year from most tax-deferred retirement accounts once the owner reaches the age set by…

The rate of return a portfolio must earn for a client to reach a stated goal within the available time given the amount being…

A civil remedy that unwinds a transaction and seeks to restore the parties to their pre-transaction positions, often…

A written offer by a seller to buy back securities sold in violation of the Act, paying the price plus interest at the legal…

The portion of deposits a depository institution must hold rather than lend.

The common shareholder's claim on corporate assets and earnings after creditors and senior equity claims are satisfied…

What a leased or depreciated asset is actually worth when the program disposes of it.

Under FINRA Rule 5130, a category of persons and entities generally prohibited from purchasing new issues, including…

Securities acquired in an unregistered transaction such as a private placement.

Text carried on or coded against a certificate stating that the shares may not be transferred except in compliance with the…

A firm communication distributed or made available to more than a limited number of retail investors, such as advertising…

A rider, most often attached to term insurance, that refunds some or all of the premiums paid if the insured survives to the…

Net income divided by average stockholders' equity, measuring the profit generated on shareholders' book-value investment in…

A municipal bond paid only from the revenues of a specific project or facility — a toll road, airport, or utility.

Payments a fund's adviser or distributor makes out of its own resources to a selling firm, often for preferred-list…

An interest whose holder bears no share of program costs and begins to share in revenues only after the investors have…

A contractual right giving its holder the option to purchase specified securities, or to participate in a specified…

An ownership feature under which a deceased co-owner's interest passes directly to the surviving owner or owners, rather than…

A privilege that lets an investor count the current value of shares already owned in a fund family toward the breakpoint on a…

The objective ability to absorb loss, based on time horizon, income stability, other resources and how much a client depends…

The five responses to a loss exposure.

A client's willingness and emotional comfort with uncertainty, volatility, and potential loss, distinct from risk capacity…

Investment performance evaluated relative to the amount or type of risk taken, allowing comparison of returns that may look…

The return assumed to be available with essentially no default risk, usually represented by short-term U.S.

A series of marketing presentations made by company management and underwriters to prospective investors ahead of pricing an…

Moving retirement money from one qualified plan or IRA to another without it being treated as a taxable distribution.

Advice to move retirement assets from one plan or account to another, requiring analysis of costs, services, investment…

The process, required under FINRA's supervisory control rules, of identifying why a supervisory deficiency occurred rather…

A retirement account or plan feature generally funded with after-tax contributions and capable of producing tax-free…

An individual retirement account funded with after-tax dollars, in which qualified withdrawals of both contributions and…

The SEC rule governing the resale of restricted and control securities, setting holding periods, volume limits, and filing…

A Securities Act safe harbor permitting the immediate resale of restricted securities to qualified institutional buyers…

An Exchange Act tender offer rule requiring that the offer be open to all holders of the class of securities sought and that…

A Regulation D exemption allowing issuers to raise up to $10,000,000 in a twelve-month period, subject to state blue-sky law…

The Regulation D safe harbor allowing an issuer to sell an unlimited dollar amount of securities to an unlimited number of…

The Regulation D safe harbor permitting general solicitation and advertising, provided all purchasers are accredited…

The FINRA restriction under the Corporate Financing Rule barring a member from selling, transferring, assigning, pledging or…

A shortcut for compound growth: divide 72 by an annual return to estimate the years needed to double money, or divide 72 by…

A domestic corporation that elects pass-through taxation.

A rule provision that shields specified conduct from liability or violation findings when its conditions are met, such as the…

A 401(k) design that skips annual nondiscrimination testing by guaranteeing employees an employer contribution - either a…

Holding a customer's securities registered in the customer's own name as a service to that customer.

The Uniform Securities Act's definition of sale, which includes every contract of sale of, contract to sell, or disposition…

A transaction in which a program purchases property or equipment from an operating company and simultaneously leases it back…

The fee added to a mutual fund purchase or deducted on redemption that compensates the firm and representative selling the…

An internal incentive program that rewards representatives for selling particular products.

Completing the allocation, confirmation and affirmation of an institutional trade on trade date itself.

The statement a partnership issues to each partner reporting that partner distributive share of income, loss, deductions and…

The federal agency created by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that administers the federal securities laws and oversees…

The Advisers Act rule governing adviser advertising.

A fund's standardized 30-day yield, computed under a prescribed formula from net investment income after expenses and…

A registered offering in which existing shareholders sell shares they already own.

The market in which previously issued securities trade among investors.

An offering in which existing shareholders (such as founders, early investors, or sponsors) sell their own already-issued…

The Securities Act provision creating civil liability for material misstatements or omissions in a registration statement…

The Securities Act provision imposing strict civil liability on a seller who offers or sells a security in violation of the…

The Securities Act provision imposing civil liability on a seller who offers or sells a security by means of a prospectus or…

An Investment Company Act exclusion available to a pooled investment vehicle whose outstanding securities are beneficially…

An Investment Company Act exclusion available to a pooled investment vehicle whose outstanding securities are owned…

The Securities Act provision exempting from registration "transactions by an issuer not involving any public offering," the…

The federal definition of life insurance.

The Internal Revenue Code section governing the tax treatment of employer-provided group term life insurance.

The federal law governing the PRIMARY market — the original issue and sale of new securities.

The federal law governing the SECONDARY market — trading after issue.

The filing and qualification process required for securities offerings unless an exemption or federal preemption applies…

The Uniform Securities Act's definition of a security.

Setting aside fully paid and excess margin customer securities so that they are free of any lien and identifiable as customer…

The control principle that no one person should both initiate a transaction and approve or reconcile it, so that a mistake or…

The Social Security and Medicare tax imposed on net earnings from self-employment, including a general partner's distributive…

A trade in which the parties agree at the time of the trade that settlement will occur later than the regular-way cycle.

The agreement between the sponsor or dealer-manager and a participating broker-dealer that sets the terms on which that firm…

A registered person participating in a securities transaction outside the scope of their employment without giving the firm…

The portion of a mutual fund sales charge paid to the selling broker-dealer, quoted as a percentage of the public offering…

Urging a customer to buy shares before an ex-dividend date so as to collect the payment.

Firms that help distribute a new issue and earn the selling concession on what they place, without joining the syndicate or…

A credential suggesting expertise in advising older investors.

A current or former senior official of a foreign government, political party or state-owned enterprise, together with close…

Debt that has both a priority claim on specified collateral and a senior position in an issuer's capital structure relative…

An employer-funded retirement arrangement making contributions to traditional IRAs owned by employees.

The account holding variable-product assets, kept apart from the insurer's general account and invested per the contract…

The risk that poor returns arriving early in retirement do lasting damage, because withdrawals come out of a shrinking base…

The choices for how life insurance proceeds are paid to a beneficiary, such as a lump sum, interest only, a fixed amount per…

The requirement under Section 22(e) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 that a registered open-end fund pay redemption…

The federal test that decides whether a life policy is a modified endowment contract.

A category of shares in the same investment fund with a distinct combination of sales charges, ongoing fees, and distribution…

A sponsor-operated facility under which a non-traded program will buy back a limited number of interests each period.

A measure of how much return an investment earned above the risk-free rate for each unit of total risk taken, using standard…

A foreign bank with no physical presence in any country and no affiliation with a regulated financial group.

Selling borrowed shares in the expectation of buying them back later at a lower price.

A periodic report firms must file disclosing aggregate short positions across customer and proprietary accounts firm-wide…

A separate written agreement between an issuer or fund sponsor and a specific investor granting that investor rights or…

A warranty by an eligible financial institution that a signature on a securities transfer is genuine and that the signer had…

A payroll-deduction retirement plan for small employers.

Money an issuer must set aside on a schedule to retire bonds before maturity, either by calling them or buying them in the…

Protects customers of a FAILED broker-dealer by covering missing cash and securities up to defined limits.

A statutory or common-law rule under which a beneficiary who intentionally and feloniously causes the death of the insured…

Public or semi-public online platforms used for business communications, subject to the same content-approval and…

Paying more than the lowest commission and receiving research in return.

The test that keeps certain professionals outside the investment adviser definition.

A non-accredited investor who, alone or with a purchaser representative, has sufficient knowledge and experience in financial…

A risk-adjusted return measure dividing return above a minimum acceptable return by downside deviation, which uses only…

An allocation of a specific item of partnership income, gain, loss, or deduction to a partner in a proportion different from…

Any payment a firm receives specifically for advice, as opposed to commissions earned on trades.

A line of credit created when a margin account holds equity above the Regulation T requirement.

An irrevocable trust holding assets for a beneficiary with a disability in a way that supplements rather than replaces…

A cost basis method under which the seller designates, at the time of sale and with written confirmation, exactly which share…

A program whose assets are identified in the offering document before investors commit, so the assets themselves can be…

The factor by which a change in spending changes total output, equal to 1 divided by one minus the marginal propensity to…

A provision in a settlement option that shields policy proceeds still held by the insurer from the beneficiary's creditors…

An arrangement, typically between an employer and executive, in which two parties share the premium cost, cash value, or…

The party that organizes a direct participation program, assembles its assets and normally serves as or controls the general…

A situation in which a sponsor, general partner, or selling representative's own financial or other interests diverge from…

A manipulative trading practice of entering non-bona fide orders on one side of the market to create a false impression of…

An IRA funded for a spouse who has little or no compensation of his or her own.

A self-regulatory organization — an industry body with authority to write and enforce rules over its members, subject to SEC…

A bid an underwriter may place during a distribution to keep the price from falling below the offering price.

A subscription paid in scheduled instalments rather than in a single sum, so that capital is called as the program needs it.

The simultaneous occurrence of stagnant output and high unemployment with high inflation, typically following an adverse…

A statistical measure of how widely an investment returns spread out around their average.

An arrangement in which an underwriter commits to buy whatever shares shareholders do not subscribe for in a rights offering…

Instructions held on file specifying where a counterparty's securities and cash are to be delivered, so routine settlement…

Registration required under a state's securities law for persons, firms, securities, or offerings unless an exclusion…

A smaller advisory firm that registers with one or more state Administrators instead of with the SEC.

The document that expands on a fund's prospectus with detail most investors never ask for: the fund's history, its full…

A status barring a person from association with a member firm, triggered by events such as an SRO bar, certain…

The adjustment of an inherited asset cost basis to its value at the owner death, erasing the built-in gain.

A separate written assignment that transfers registered securities and appoints an attorney with power of substitution to…

A broker-dealer double-entry inventory of every security position it handles and the location of each - customer accounts…

An M&A structure in which the buyer acquires the target company's shares, thereby acquiring the entire legal entity…

A change in the number of shares outstanding accompanied by a proportional change in the price per share, so the total value…

The residual claim on a company's assets after subtracting total liabilities, equal to total assets minus total liabilities.

A dormant order that is activated only when the security trades at or through a stated trigger price, at which point it…

An option position combining a call and a put on the same underlying with the same expiration but different strike prices…

Registration of a customer securities in the broker-dealer name on the issuer books while the customer remains the beneficial…

The fixed price at which an option holder may buy the underlying security with a call, or sell it with a put.

A debt security whose payoff is tied to an index, basket or other reference, often with barriers, caps or an issuer call…

Breaking a transaction into smaller pieces, or conducting them through multiple people or days, for the purpose of staying…

The migration of a fund's actual holdings away from the investment style it was selected to provide, even when its stated…

The document an investor signs to buy an interest in a direct participation program.

The separate account in which investor payments in a contingency offering are held until the stated minimum is reached.

A short-term privilege letting existing shareholders buy new shares below market price, protecting them from dilution.

A schedule of withdrawals that lets someone tap a retirement account before age 59 1/2 without the 10 percent penalty.

A transferee of a limited partnership interest who has been formally admitted, typically requiring the general partner's…

A legal doctrine under which a buyer in an asset purchase can, in certain circumstances (varying by jurisdiction and fact…

A registered broker-dealer or investment adviser may apply to register a successor firm, even one not yet in existence.

A provision limiting the insurer's liability if the insured dies by suicide during a stated early period after issue, usually…

The requirement that a recommendation actually fit the individual customer, based on their financial situation, objectives…

An order a state Administrator may enter immediately, without a prior hearing, to postpone or suspend a registration pending…

Any partner, officer, director or employee of an investment adviser, plus anyone else who gives advice on the adviser behalf…

Security the Administrator may require from a registrant that has custody of or discretion over client money.

A fee the insurer deducts if the owner withdraws more than a permitted amount from an annuity or a cash value life policy…

Automated or manual monitoring tools used to detect potentially violative trading or account activity.

The provision that every cause of action under the civil liability sections of the Uniform Securities Act survives the death…

A policy insuring two lives that pays a death benefit only at the second death.

A passive activity loss that a taxpayer cannot deduct in the current year because it exceeds passive income, and which…

A transaction or pattern inconsistent with expected lawful activity and raising possible fraud, money-laundering, or other…

A confidential filing a firm makes with FinCEN when it spots activity that may involve illegal funds or an attempt to evade…

Moving a customer from one fund family into another, triggering a fresh sales charge each time.

The internal desk that provides information about deals currently in the marketplace — including current market demand…

The incremental value (through cost savings, cross-selling or other combination benefits) that an acquirer expects to realize…

Risk that affects the entire market and therefore cannot be diversified away, such as recessions, broad interest rate moves…

A standing instruction to liquidate fund shares on a schedule.

The cost of tangible equipment and materials, such as casing, wellhead equipment, and tanks, needed to bring a successfully…

The costs of salvageable physical equipment such as casing, wellheads and storage tanks.

The premium level a universal life insurer illustrates as sufficient, under current assumptions, to keep the policy in force…

A fund holding a mix of assets that shifts gradually toward a stated retirement year.

An amount subtracted directly from tax liability, as distinct from a deduction, which is subtracted from income.

Postponing tax on investment earnings until the money is withdrawn, so the full pre-tax amount stays invested and compounds…

What a taxable investment would have to pay to leave an investor with the same after-tax income as a tax-exempt one.

Interest that is not subject to federal income tax, most commonly from municipal bonds.

Selling investments with realized losses to offset taxable capital gains or otherwise use losses under tax rules, while…

An investment account without a special retirement or education tax shelter, so interest, dividends, distributions, and…

The portion of proceeds or distributions exceeding applicable tax basis or otherwise included in taxable income under the…

Income subject to tax after applying applicable inclusion, exclusion, deduction, and other tax rules; marginal tax rate on…

Outbound sales calling activity subject to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and FINRA/SEC telemarketing rules, including…

A pause a firm may place on a disbursement or transaction when it reasonably believes an older or vulnerable customer is…

A joint account in which each owner holds a stated fractional share that passes to that owner own estate at death rather than…

A public offer made directly to shareholders to purchase their shares, usually at a premium to the market price, which must…

A bond issue in which the entire principal falls due on a single date, typically paired with a sinking fund into which the…

Life insurance providing a death benefit for a stated period with NO cash value.

A summary document setting out the proposed key terms of a private placement or investment, such as price, amount, and…

The estimated value of all cash flows a business will generate beyond the explicit projection period of a DCF, commonly…

A form of electronic business communication subject to the same content-approval, retention, and recordkeeping rules as…

Trading in exchange-listed securities that takes place over the counter, away from the exchange on which they are listed…

A transfer of customer funds to an account belonging to someone other than the customer, as distinct from a first-party…

A ranking or award produced by someone other than the adviser.

An equity security that appears on a self-regulatory organization's published list because it has experienced a persistent…

A customer instruction that leaves only when and at what price to execute an order whose security, quantity and side the…

The period before a client expects to need invested funds or achieve a goal, affecting appropriate volatility, liquidity…

The part of an option premium that exceeds intrinsic value.

Earnings before interest and taxes divided by annual interest expense, measuring how many times operating earnings cover the…

Communicating material nonpublic information to another person in circumstances that can create insider-trading liability…

A plain announcement of an offering that may be published during the cooling-off period.

The complete return on an investment, counting both the income it produced, such as interest or dividends, and any change in…

The volatility of the differences between a portfolio returns and its benchmark returns.

An adviser's written procedure governing how executions, especially of block trades and scarce opportunities such as…

A post-trade document reporting material transaction details such as security, quantity, price, capacity, and charges; it…

A firm trading for its own account at a price that would have satisfied a customer order it is holding.

Written or documented permission a customer gives allowing another person to enter orders in the customer's account.

An individual retirement account in which contributions may be tax deductible depending on income and workplace plan…

The firm that keeps a fund's shareholder register.

A registration that passes an individual account directly to a named beneficiary at death, outside probate.

A tax rule cutting back the income tax exclusion for life insurance death benefits when a policy is transferred for valuable…

A short-term debt security issued by the U.S.

A debt obligation of the U.S.

Zero-coupon securities created when an eligible Treasury note or bond is separated through the book-entry system so each…

Excess return per unit of market risk: portfolio return minus the risk-free rate, divided by beta.

A measure of a municipal issuer's borrowing cost that discounts every future debt service payment back to the sale date, so…

Requires most corporate bond issues sold interstate to be issued under an indenture that appoints an independent trustee to…

Someone a customer names at account opening whom the firm may contact about the customer's health, whereabouts or possible…

Persuading a policyowner to lapse, surrender, or change a policy by using misleading or incomplete comparisons, so that the…

Effecting a securities transaction without the customer's prior authorization or valid discretionary authority, except as…

A call written without owning the underlying stock or holding an offsetting long call.

A broker-dealer that helps an issuer bring securities to market — either buying the issue for resale (firm commitment) or…

In insurance, the insurer's process of evaluating an applicant's risk and deciding whether and on what terms to issue a…

The difference between the public offering price and the amount the issuer receives, divided among the manager's fee, the…

A group of broker-dealers formed to purchase and distribute a new issue, sharing the risk and the underwriting fee under a…

The use of a position of dominance, trust or dependency to overcome another person's free will, so that an act appears…

Conduct prohibited by professional or regulatory standards because it is unfair, deceptive, conflicted, abusive, or…

Charging different rates, or offering different terms or benefits, to individuals of the same class who present essentially…

The category of prohibited conduct in insurance sales and claims: misrepresentation, false advertising, defamation, boycott…

The model state securities law that individual state "blue-sky" statutes are drawn from.

An investment company holding a fixed, unmanaged portfolio for a set term.

Permanent insurance with flexible premiums and an adjustable death benefit.

Income from an active trade or business that is taxable to an otherwise tax-exempt investor such as an IRA or pension plan…

A financial obligation of a registered person that remains outstanding, disclosable on the uniform registration forms whether…

An order the customer initiates with no recommendation from the firm.

Risk unique to one company or industry, such as a lawsuit, a management failure, or a product recall.

A custodial account holding assets for a minor, managed by an adult custodian until the minor reaches the age of majority…

The heightened duty of honesty and full disclosure that both parties owe an insurance contract, reflecting the insurer's…