Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 38.2 > Chapter 6 - Insurance Information and Privacy Protection

• Accident and sickness insurance: means insurance against loss resulting from sickness, or from bodily injury or death by accident or accidental means, or from a combination of any or all of these perils. See Virginia Code 38.2-109
• Account: means an arrangement under a terms-of-service agreement in which a custodian carries, maintains, processes, receives, or stores a digital asset of the user or provides goods or services to the user. See Virginia Code 64.2-116
• Adverse underwriting decision: means :

  1. See Virginia Code 38.2-602

• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• affiliated: means a person that directly, or indirectly through one or more intermediaries, controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with another person. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Annuities: means all agreements to make periodic payments in specified or calculable sums pursuant to the terms of a contract for a stated period of time or for the life of the person or persons specified in the contract. See Virginia Code 38.2-106
• 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.
• annuity: shall be deemed to include "variable annuity" and "modified guaranteed annuity" and shall be deemed to include a contract under which a lump sum cash settlement is an alternative to the option of periodic payments. See Virginia Code 38.2-106
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Applicant: means any person who seeks to contract for insurance coverage other than a person seeking group insurance that is not individually underwritten. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Attorney: means the person designated and authorized by subscribers as the attorney-in-fact having authority to obligate them on reciprocal insurance contracts. See Virginia Code 38.2-1201
• Authorized person: means a person known to and authorized by the licensee and determined to be necessary and appropriate to have access to the nonpublic information held by the licensee and its information systems. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• 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}
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Bona fide purchaser: means a purchaser of property for value who has acted in the transaction in good faith. See Virginia Code 64.2-100
• business of insurance: include solicitation, negotiations preliminary to execution, execution of an insurance contract, and the transaction of matters subsequent to execution of the contract and arising out of it. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Catalog of electronic communications: means information that identifies each person with which a user has had an electronic communication, the time and date of the communication, and the electronic address of the person. See Virginia Code 64.2-116
• Clear and conspicuous notice: means a notice that is reasonably understandable and designed to call attention to the nature and significance of the information in the notice. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Commission: means the State Corporation Commission. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Company: means any association, aggregate of individuals, business, corporation, individual, joint-stock company, Lloyds type of organization, organization, partnership, receiver, reciprocal or interinsurance exchange, trustee or society. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Conservator: includes a limited conservator. See Virginia Code 64.2-116
• Consumer: means an individual, including applicants, policyholders, insureds, beneficiaries, claimants, and certificate holders, who is a resident of the Commonwealth and whose nonpublic information is in the possession, custody, or control of a licensee or an authorized person. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• Consumer report: means any written, oral, or other communication of information bearing on a natural person's credit worthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character, general reputation, personal characteristics or mode of living that is used or expected to be used in connection with an insurance transaction. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Consumer reporting agency: means any person who:

  1. See Virginia Code 38.2-602

• 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.
• County: means any existing county or such unit hereafter created. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Court: means the circuit court for the county or city having jurisdiction over the fiduciary in matters relating to the content of this article. See Virginia Code 64.2-116
• Custodian: means a person who carries, maintains, processes, receives, or stores a digital asset of a user. See Virginia Code 64.2-116
• Cybersecurity event: means an event resulting in unauthorized access to, disruption of, or misuse of an information system or nonpublic information in the possession, custody, or control of a licensee or an authorized person. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Declination of insurance coverage: means a denial, in whole or in part, by an insurance institution or agent of requested insurance coverage. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Designated recipient: means a person chosen by a user using an online tool to administer digital assets of the user. See Virginia Code 64.2-116
• Digital asset: means an electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest. See Virginia Code 64.2-116
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Donee: The recipient of a gift.
• Dower: A widow
• Electronic: means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities. See Virginia Code 64.2-116
• Encrypted: means the transformation of data into a form that results in a low probability of assigning meaning without the use of a protective process or key. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• 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.
• Fair Credit Reporting Act: A federal law, established in 1971 and revised in 1997, that gives consumers the right to see their credit records and correct any mistakes. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fair Debt Collection Practices Act: The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is a set of United States statutes added as Title VIII of the Consumer Credit Protection Act. Its purpose is to ensure ethical practices in the collection of consumer debts and to provide consumers with an avenue for disputing and obtaining validation of debt information in order to ensure the information's accuracy. It is often used in conjunction with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fiduciary: includes a guardian, committee, trustee, executor, conservator, or personal representative. See Virginia Code 64.2-100
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiduciary: means an original, additional, or successor personal representative, conservator, guardian, agent, or trustee. See Virginia Code 64.2-116
• Financial information: means personal information other than medical record information or records of payment for the provision of health care to an individual. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Financial institution: means any institution the business of which is engaging in financial activities as described in Section 4(k) of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (12 U. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Financial product or service: means any product or service that a financial holding company could offer by engaging in an activity that is financial in nature or incidental to such a financial activity under Section 4(k) of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (12 U. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Governing body: means the board of supervisors of a county, council of a city, or council of a town, as the context may require. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• 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.
• Guardian: includes a limited guardian. See Virginia Code 64.2-116
• Health services plan: means any arrangement for offering or administering health services or similar or related services by a corporation licensed under Chapter 42 of Title 59. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• HIPAA: means the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (42 U. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• in writing: include any representation of words, letters, symbols, numbers, or figures, whether (i) printed or inscribed on a tangible medium or (ii) stored in an electronic or other medium and retrievable in a perceivable form and whether an electronic signature authorized by Chapter 42. See Virginia Code 1-257
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• Individual: means any natural person who:

  1. See Virginia Code 38.2-602

• Information: means data, text, images, videos, sounds, codes, computer programs, software, databases, or something that is substantially similar. See Virginia Code 64.2-116
• Information security program: means the administrative, technical, and physical safeguards that a licensee uses to access, collect, distribute, process, protect, store, use, transmit, dispose of, or otherwise handle nonpublic information. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• Information system: means a discrete set of electronic information resources organized for the collection, processing, maintenance, use, sharing, dissemination, or disposition of electronic information, as well as any specialized system such as industrial or process control systems, telephone switching and private branch exchange systems, and environmental control systems. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• Institutional source: means any person or governmental entity that provides information about an individual to an agent, insurance institution or insurance-support organization, other than:

  1. See Virginia Code 38.2-602

• Insurance institution: means any corporation, association, partnership, reciprocal exchange, inter-insurer, Lloyd's type of organization, fraternal benefit society, or other person engaged in the business of insurance, including health maintenance organizations, and health, legal, dental, and optometric service plans. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• insurance policies: shall include contracts of fidelity, indemnity, guaranty and suretyship. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Insurance transaction: means any transaction involving insurance primarily for personal, family, or household needs rather than business or professional needs that entails:

  1. See Virginia Code 38.2-602

• Insurance-support organization: means any person who regularly engages, in whole or in part, in the practice of assembling or collecting information about natural persons for the primary purpose of providing the information to an insurance institution or agent for insurance transactions, including (i) the furnishing of consumer reports or investigative consumer reports to an insurance institution or agent for use in connection with an insurance transaction or (ii) the collection of personal information from insurance institutions, agents or other insurance-support organizations for the purpose of detecting or preventing fraud, material misrepresentation or material nondisclosure in connection with insurance underwriting or insurance claim activity. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Insurer: means an insurance company. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Investigative consumer report: means a consumer report or a portion thereof in which information about a natural person's character, general reputation, personal characteristics, or mode of living is obtained through personal interviews with the person's neighbors, friends, associates, acquaintances, or others who may have knowledge concerning such items of information. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Joint marketing agreement: means a formal written contract pursuant to which an insurance institution jointly offers, endorses, or sponsors a financial product or service with another financial institution. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Joint tenancy: A form of property ownership in which two or more parties hold an undivided interest in the same property that was conveyed under the same instrument at the same time. A joint tenant can sell his (her) interest but not dispose of it by will. Upon the death of a joint tenant, his (her) undivided interest is distributed among the surviving joint tenants.
• 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.
• Licensee: means any person licensed, authorized to operate, or registered, or required to be licensed, authorized, or registered pursuant to the insurance laws of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• Life insurance: includes annuities. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Medical professional: means any person licensed or certified to provide health care services to natural persons, including but not limited to, a physician, dentist, nurse, chiropractor, optometrist, physical or occupational therapist, social worker, clinical dietitian, clinical psychologist, licensed professional counselor, licensed marriage and family therapist, pharmacist, or speech therapist. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Medical-care institution: means any facility or institution that is licensed to provide health care services to natural persons, including but not limited to, hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, home-health agencies, medical clinics, rehabilitation agencies, and public-health agencies or health-maintenance organizations. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Medical-record information: means personal information that:

  1. See Virginia Code 38.2-602

• Month: means a calendar month and "year" means a calendar year. See Virginia Code 1-223
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Mortgagor: The person who pledges property to a creditor as collateral for a loan and who receives the money.
• Non-adverse party: means a person who does not have a substantial beneficial interest in the trust or other property arrangement that would be adversely affected by the exercise or non-exercise of the power that he possesses respecting the trust or other property arrangement. See Virginia Code 64.2-308.1
• Nonaffiliated third party: means any person who is not an affiliate of an insurance institution but does not mean (i) an agent who is selling or servicing a product on behalf of the insurance institution or (ii) a person who is employed jointly by the insurance institution and the company that is not an affiliate. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Nonpublic information: means information that is not publicly available information and is:

  1. See Virginia Code 38.2-621

• 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.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: means an individual; estate; business or nonprofit entity; public corporation; government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality; or other legal entity. See Virginia Code 64.2-116
• Person: means any association, aggregate of individuals, business, company, corporation, individual, joint-stock company, Lloyds type of organization, organization, partnership, receiver, reciprocal or interinsurance exchange, trustee or society. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Person: means any individual or any nongovernmental entity, including any nongovernmental partnership, corporation, branch, agency, or association. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• Personal information: includes an individual's name and address and medical-record information, but does not include (i) privileged information or (ii) any information that is publicly available. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal representative: includes the executor of a will or the administrator of the estate of a decedent, the administrator of such estate with the will annexed, the administrator of such estate unadministered by a former representative, whether there is a will or not, any person who is under the order of a circuit court to take into his possession the estate of a decedent for administration, and every other curator of a decedent's estate, for or against whom suits may be brought for causes of action that accrued to or against the decedent. See Virginia Code 1-234
• Policyholder: means any person who:

  1. See Virginia Code 38.2-602

• power of appointment: includes a power to designate the beneficiary of a beneficiary designation. See Virginia Code 64.2-308.1
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Presently exercisable general power of appointment: means a power of appointment under which, at the time in question, the decedent, whether or not he then had the capacity to exercise the power, held a power to create a present or future interest in himself, his creditors, his estate, or creditors of his estate, and includes a power to revoke or invade the principal of a trust or other property arrangement. See Virginia Code 64.2-308.1
• Pretext interview: means an interview whereby a person, in an attempt to obtain information about a natural person, performs one or more of the following acts:

  1. See Virginia Code 38.2-602

• Principal: means an individual who grants authority to an agent in a power of attorney. See Virginia Code 64.2-116
• Privileged information: means any individually identifiable information that (i) relates to a claim for insurance benefits or a civil or criminal proceeding involving an individual, and (ii) is collected in connection with or in reasonable anticipation of a claim for insurance benefits or civil or criminal proceeding involving an individual. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Probate: Proving a will
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• property: shall include insurance policies, retirement benefits exclusive of federal social security benefits, annuities, pension plans, deferred compensation arrangements, and employee benefit plans to the extent owned by, vested in, or subject to the control of the decedent on the date of his death or the date of an irrevocable transfer by him during his lifetime. See Virginia Code 64.2-300
• Property: includes values subject to a beneficiary designation. See Virginia Code 64.2-308.1
• Protected person: includes an individual for whom an application for the appointment of a conservator or guardian is pending. See Virginia Code 64.2-116
• Publicly available information: means any information that a licensee has a reasonable basis to believe is lawfully made available to the general public from federal, state, or local government records; widely distributed media; or disclosures to the general public that are required to be made by federal, state, or local law. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• rates: means any rate of premium, policy fee, membership fee or any other charge made by an insurer for or in connection with a contract or policy of insurance. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Reciprocal: means the aggregation of subscribers under a common name. See Virginia Code 38.2-1201
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• 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.
• Residual market mechanism: means an association, organization, or other entity defined, described, or provided for in the Virginia Automobile Insurance Plan as set forth in § 38. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
• 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: means any commonwealth, state, territory, district or insular possession of the United States. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• state agency: means the same as that term is defined in § 2. See Virginia Code 1-206
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Terms-of-service agreement: means an agreement that controls the relationship between a user and a custodian. See Virginia Code 64.2-116
• Testate: To die leaving a will.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Third-party service provider: means (i) a person, not otherwise defined as a licensee, that contracts with a licensee to maintain, process, or store nonpublic information, or otherwise is permitted access to nonpublic information through its provision of services to the licensee or (ii) an insurance-support organization. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trustee: means a trustee under a probated will or an inter vivos trust instrument. See Virginia Code 64.2-100
• Trustee: includes a successor trustee. See Virginia Code 64.2-116
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• under common control with: means the possession, direct or indirect, of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of a person, whether through the ownership of voting securities, by contract other than a commercial contract for goods or nonmanagement services, or otherwise, unless the power is the result of an official position with or corporate office held by the person. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• User: means a person that has an account with a custodian. See Virginia Code 64.2-116