Browse Terms Alphabetically

Education IRA's are different from retirement IRAs in that they are set up for someone other than the investor-namely, the child that the investor plans to send to college. Any number of people may contribute to a child's education IRA, but the maximum that may be received from all sources per year is $500 per child under the age of 18. No tax deduction is allowed for these contributions, but the money is allowed to grow in the education IRA tax free, just like any other type of IRA.

U.S. government savings bonds which were designed for the small saver. Denominations run from $50 up to $10,000 and sell at a discount of 50% of their face value. They can be redeemed at face value at maturity or cashed in earlier if the holder is willing to forego their full rate of interest. See also: HH bonds

Acronym for Employee Retirement Income Security Act passed in 1974, that gives governmental jurisdiction over the establishment, operation, and funding of most nongovernmental pension and benefit plans.

A tax imposed by the federal government and some states on the value of an estate of a person who has died.

The right offered by mutual funds to transfer an investment from one fund to any other fund sponsored by the company without paying an additional sales charge.

An amount that can be excluded from adjusted gross income for income tax purposes. Examples include workers compensation benefits, certain social security benefits, and a certain amount of foreign income.

The amount of money which an employer may withhold from an employee for the purchase of a taxdeferred annuity (TDA).

Ratio usually expressed in cents per $100 of investment, that compares mutual fund expenses for management fee and other overhead expenses to average net asset value of outstanding shares. Normally given in annual report of fund. For example, an expense ratio of 43 cents means that an investor pays 43 cents per year per $100 dollars of investment in the fund for the services of the fund. Expenses are withheld by fund from current income and are not an out-of-pocket cost to investor.