Terms Used In Vermont Statutes > Title 8 > Chapter 128 > Subchapter 1 - Insurance Rates and Statistics

• Advisory or service organization: means any person or organization that assists insurers as authorized by section 4690 of this title, but such an organization shall not include joint underwriting organizations, actuarial or legal consultants, a single insurer, any employees of an insurer, or insurers under common control or management or their employees or managers. See
• Annual percentage rate: The cost of credit at a yearly rate. It is calculated in a standard way, taking the average compound interest rate over the term of the loan so borrowers can compare loans. Lenders are required by law to disclose a card account's APR. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attorney-at-law: A person who is legally qualified and licensed to practice law, and to represent and act for clients in legal proceedings.
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Charges: means the amount a consumer owes to a company in addition to the funded amount and includes an administrative fee, origination fee, underwriting fee, processing fee, and any other fee regardless of how the fee is denominated, including amounts denominated as interest or rate. See
• classification: means a plan, system, or arrangement for recognizing differences in exposure to hazard among risks. See
• Commercial risk insurance: means insurance within the scope of this chapter that is not:

• company: means a person that provides consumer litigation funding to a consumer. See
• Company: means corporation or limited liability company. See
• Competitive market: means a market that has not been found to be noncompetitive pursuant to section 4684 of this title. See
• Consumer: means a natural person who is seeking or has obtained consumer litigation funding for a pending legal claim, provided:

• contract: means a contract between a company and a consumer for the provision of consumer litigation funding. See
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Expenses: means that portion of any rate attributable to acquisition, field supervision and collection expenses, general expenses, and taxes, licenses, and fees. See
• Experience rating: means a rating procedure utilizing past insurance experience of the individual policyholder to forecast future losses by measuring the policyholder's loss experience to produce a prospective premium credit, debit, or unity modification. See
• Fees: shall mean earnings due for official services, aside from salaries or per diem compensation. See
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• following: when used by way of reference to a section of the law shall mean the next preceding or following section. See
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Funded amount: means the amount of monies provided to, or on behalf of, the consumer pursuant to a litigation funding contract. See
• funding: means a nonrecourse transaction in which a company purchases and a consumer assigns to the company a contingent right to receive an amount of the potential net proceeds of a settlement or judgment obtained from the consumer's legal claim. See
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Independent trust company: means a company formed in this or any other state, that is chartered to act as a fiduciary or engages in a trust business, but is neither a depository institution nor a foreign bank as defined in Section 1(b)(7) of the International Banking Act of 1978. See
• Joint underwriting: means a voluntary arrangement established on an ad hoc basis to provide insurance coverage pursuant to which two or more insurers separately contract with the insured at a price and under policy terms agreed upon between the insurers. See
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Loan solicitation: means , for compensation or gain or with the expectation of compensation or gain, to:

• Loss cost: means the actuarially developed portion of the rate needed to cover future losses and claims. See
• Loss trending: means any procedure for projecting developed losses to the average date of loss for the period during which the policies are to be effective. See
• Market: means the statewide interaction between buyers and sellers of a particular line of insurance or product market component. See
• Month: shall mean a calendar month and "year" shall mean a calendar year and be equivalent to the expression "year of our Lord. See
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgage broker: means any person who for compensation or gain, or in the expectation of compensation or gain, directly or indirectly negotiates, places, assists in placement, or finds, or offers to negotiate, place, assist in placement, or find mortgage loans, other than commercial loans, on real property for others. See
• Mortgage loan: A loan made by a lender to a borrower for the financing of real property. ^{Source: OCC}
• Net proceeds: means the amount recovered by a consumer as a result of a legal claim less costs associated with the legal claim or the underlying events giving rise to the legal claim, including:

• Noncompetitive market: means a market for which there is a ruling in effect pursuant to section 4684 of this title that a reasonable degree of competition does not exist. See
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Person: shall include any natural person, corporation, municipality, the State of Vermont or any department, agency, or subdivision of the State, and any partnership, unincorporated association, or other legal entity. See
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Pool: means a voluntary arrangement other than a residual market mechanism, established on an ongoing basis, pursuant to which two or more insurers participate in the sharing of risks on a predetermined basis. See
• Pure premium rate: means that portion of the rate that represents the loss cost per unit of exposure or loss cost per unit of insurance. See
• Rate: means the cost of insurance per exposure base unit, or cost per unit of insurance, prior to the application of individual risk variations based upon loss or expense considerations, and does not include minimum premiums. See
• real estate: shall include lands, tenements, and hereditaments and all rights thereto and interests therein, and pews or slips in places of public worship shall be treated as real estate. See
• Rescission: The cancellation of budget authority previously provided by Congress. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 specifies that the President may propose to Congress that funds be rescinded. If both Houses have not approved a rescission proposal (by passing legislation) within 45 days of continuous session, any funds being withheld must be made available for obligation.
• Residential mortgage loan application: means a request, in any form, for an offer, or a response to a solicitation of an offer, of residential mortgage loan terms, and information about the borrower or prospective borrower that is customary or necessary in a decision on whether to make such an offer. See
• Residual market mechanism: means an arrangement, either voluntary or mandated by law or regulation of the Commissioner, involving participation by insurers in the equitable apportionment among them of insurance that may be afforded applicants who are unable to obtain insurance through ordinary methods. See
• Right of rescission: Right to cancel, within three business days, a contract that uses the home of a person as collateral, except in the case of a first mortgage loan. There is no fee to the borrower, who receives a full refund of all fees paid. The right of rescission is guaranteed by the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). ^{Source: OCC}
• said: when used by way of reference to a person or thing shall apply to the same person or thing last mentioned. See
• Sales finance company: means any person who has purchased one or more retail installment contracts, as defined in 9 V. See
• seal: shall include an impression of the official seal made upon paper alone or by means of a wafer or wax affixed thereto. See
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States may apply to the District of Columbia and any territory and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See
• Statistical plan: means a plan, system, or arrangement used in collecting insurance or related data. See
• Supplementary rate information: includes any manual, schedule, or plan of rates, classification system, rating schedule, minimum premium, policy fee, rating rule, rating plan, or any other similar information needed or used to determine the applicable premium in effect or to be in effect for an insured. See
• Supporting information: means :

• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trust business: means the holding out by a person to the public by advertising, solicitation or other means that the person is available to act as a fiduciary in this or another state for hire or compensation. See
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.