Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 54.1 > Subtitle VI - Professions Regulated by Other Entities

• 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
• 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
• Articles of incorporation: means all documents constituting, at any particular time, the charter of a corporation. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Articles of organization: means all documents constituting, at any particular time, the articles of organization of a limited liability company. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• Assurance: means any form of expressed or implied opinion or conclusion about the conformity of a financial statement with any recognition, measurement, presentation, or disclosure principles for financial statements. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Attest services: means audit, review, or other attest services for which standards have been established by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, by the Auditing Standards Board or the Accounting and Review Services Committee of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, or by any successor standard-setting authorities. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• 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
• Attorney-at-law: A person who is legally qualified and licensed to practice law, and to represent and act for clients in legal proceedings.
• Attorney-in-fact: A person who, acting as an agent, is given written authorization by another person to transact business for him (her) out of court.
• Authority: means the respective political subdivisions of the Commonwealth created in this subpart. See Virginia Code 2.2-2200
• Balanced budget: A budget in which receipts equal outlays.
• 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}
• Board: means the Virginia Board of Accountancy. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• Board of directors: means the group of persons vested with the management of the business of the corporation irrespective of the name by which such group is designated, and "director" means a member of the board of directors. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Board of supervisors: means the governing body of a county. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Bonds: means any bonds, refunding bonds, notes, debentures, interim certificates, or any bond, grant, revenue anticipation notes or any other evidences of indebtedness or obligation of an authority, whether in temporary or definitive form and whether the interest thereon is exempt from federal income taxation. See Virginia Code 2.2-2200
• Bureau of Insurance: means the division of the Commission established to administer the insurance laws of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• 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
• Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
• City: means an independent incorporated community which became a city as provided by law before noon on July 1, 1971, or which has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more and which has become a city as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-208
• Commission: means the governing body of the local district. See Virginia Code 15.2-4602
• Commission: means the State Corporation Commission of Virginia. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Commission: means the State Corporation Commission of Virginia. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• Commission: means the State Corporation Commission. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Commissioner of Insurance: means the administrative or executive officer of the Bureau. 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
• Compilation services: means compiling financial statements in accordance with standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants or by any successor standard-setting authorities. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Constitutional officer: means an officer provided for pursuant to Article VII, § 4 of the Constitution. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Continuing professional education: means the education that a person obtains after passing the CPA examination and that relates to services provided to or on behalf of an employer in academia, government, or industry or to services provided to the public. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Cost: means all or any part of the cost of acquisition, construction, reconstruction, alteration, landscaping, or enlargement of a public mass transit system or highway that is located in counties that are authorized by this chapter to create a transportation improvement district, including the cost of the acquisition of land, rights-of-way, property rights, easements and interests acquired for such construction, alteration or expansion, the cost of demolishing or removing any structure on land so acquired, including the cost of acquiring any lands to which such structures may be removed, the cost of all labor, materials, machinery and equipment, financing charges, insurance, interest on all bonds prior to and during construction and, if deemed advisable by the commission, for a reasonable period after completion of such construction, reserves for principal and interest and for extensions, enlargements, additions, replacements, renovations, and improvements, provisions for working capital, the cost of surveys, engineering and architectural expenses, borings, plans and specifications and other engineering and architectural services, legal expenses, studies, estimates of costs and revenues, administrative expenses, and such other expenses as may be necessary, or incident to, the construction of the project or, solely as to districts created pursuant to this chapter after July 1, 1990, the creation of the district (the costs of which creation shall not exceed $150,000), and of such subsequent additions thereto or expansion thereof, and to determining the feasibility or practicability of such construction, the cost of financing such construction, additions, or expansion and placing the project and such additions or expansion in operation. See Virginia Code 15.2-4602
• Council: means the governing body of a city or town. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• County: means any existing county or such unit hereafter created. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Courts of record: means the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Court of Appeals of Virginia, and the circuit courts. See Virginia Code 1-212
• CPA: means certified public accountant. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• CPA examination: means the national uniform CPA examination approved and administered by the board of accountancy of a state or by the board's designee. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• CPA wall certificate: means the symbolic document suitable for wall display that is issued by the board of accountancy of a state to a person meeting the requirements to use the CPA title in that state. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• domestic corporation: means a corporation not authorized by law to issue shares, irrespective of the nature of the business to be transacted, organized under this chapter or existing pursuant to the laws of the Commonwealth on January 1, 1986, or that, by virtue of articles of incorporation, amendment, or merger, has become a domestic corporation of the Commonwealth, even though also being a corporation organized under laws other than the laws of the Commonwealth or that has become a domestic corporation of the Commonwealth pursuant to Article 11. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• domestic limited liability company: means an entity that is an unincorporated organization organized and existing under this chapter, or that has become a domestic limited liability company of the Commonwealth pursuant to § 13. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• Electronic: means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• Entity: includes any domestic or foreign corporation; any domestic or foreign stock corporation; any domestic or foreign unincorporated entity; any estate or trust; and any state, the United States, and any foreign government. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Entity: includes any domestic or foreign limited liability company, any domestic or foreign other business entity, any estate or trust, and any state, the United States, and any foreign government. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• Entity conversion: means conversion. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Entity conversion: means conversion. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• 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}
• Executive Director: means the Executive Director of the Board. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• Experience: means employment in academia, a firm, government, or industry in any capacity involving the substantial use of accounting, financial, tax, or other skills that are relevant, as determined by the Board, to provide services to or on behalf of an employer or to the public, as verified by an active, licensed CPA. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• 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.
• Federal Reserve System: The central bank of the United States. The Fed, as it is commonly called, regulates the U.S. monetary and financial system. The Federal Reserve System is composed of a central governmental agency in Washington, D.C. (the Board of Governors) and twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks in major cities throughout the United States. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Financial statement: means a presentation of historical or prospective financial information about one or more persons or entities. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• Financial statement preparation services: means financial statement preparation services for which standards have been established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants or by any successor standard-setting authorities. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• Firm: means an entity formed by one or more licensees as a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a corporation, a limited liability company, or any other type of entity permitted by law. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Foreign corporation: means a corporation not authorized by law to issue shares, organized under laws other than the laws of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Foreign limited liability company: means an entity, excluding a foreign business trust, that is an unincorporated organization that is organized under laws other than the laws of the Commonwealth and that is denominated by that law as a limited liability company, and that affords to each of its members, pursuant to the laws under which it is organized, limited liability with respect to the liabilities of the entity. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• Foreign partnership: means an association of two or more persons to carry on as co-owners a business for profit formed under the laws of any state or jurisdiction other than the Commonwealth, and includes, for all purposes of the laws of the Commonwealth, a foreign registered limited liability partnership. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• Foreign protected series: means a protected series established by a foreign series limited liability company and having attributes comparable to a protected series established under Article 16 (§ 13. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• Foreign series limited liability company: means a foreign limited liability company having at least one foreign protected series. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• Germane: On the subject of the pending bill or other business; a strict standard of relevance.
• 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
• Guarantor: A party who agrees to be responsible for the payment of another party's debts should that party default. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• incorporated towns: as used in this article means only those incorporated towns which have held municipal elections in the ten years preceding the date of the filing of a petition for a referendum pursuant to § 15. See Virginia Code 15.2-3520
• Insurance company: means any company engaged in the business of making contracts of insurance. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• insurance policies: shall include contracts of fidelity, indemnity, guaranty and suretyship. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Insurer: means an insurance company. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Interest: means either or both of the following rights under the organic law of a foreign or domestic unincorporated entity:

  1. See Virginia Code 13.1-803

• interest: means a member's share of the profits and the losses of the limited liability company and the right to receive distributions of the limited liability company's assets. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• Jurisdiction: when used to refer to a political entity, means the United States, a state, a foreign country, or a political subdivision of a foreign country. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• 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}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• License of another state: means the license that is issued by the board of accountancy of a state other than Virginia that gives a person the privilege of using the CPA title in that state or that gives a firm the privilege of providing attest services, compilation services, and financial statement preparation services to persons and entities located in that state. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• Licensed: means holding a Virginia license or the license of another state. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• Licensee: means a person or firm holding a Virginia license or the license of another state. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• Life insurance: includes policies that also provide (i) endowment benefits; (ii) additional benefits incidental to a loss in the event of death, dismemberment, or loss by accident or accidental means; (iii) additional benefits to safeguard the contract from lapse or to provide a special surrender value, a special benefit or an annuity, in the event of total and permanent disability of the insured; and (iv) optional modes of settlement of proceeds. See Virginia Code 38.2-102
• local government: shall be construed to mean a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
• Manager-managed limited liability company: means a limited liability company that is managed by a manager or managers as provided for in its articles of organization or an operating agreement. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• managers: means a person or persons designated by the members of a limited liability company to manage the limited liability company as provided in the articles of organization or an operating agreement. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• Member: means one having a membership interest in a corporation in accordance with the provisions of its articles of incorporation or bylaws. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Member: means a person that has been admitted to membership in a limited liability company as provided in § 13. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• 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.
• Notary: means notary public. See Virginia Code 1-226
• 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.
• Operating agreement: means an agreement of the members as to the affairs of a limited liability company and the conduct of its business, or a writing or agreement of a limited liability company with one member that satisfies the requirements of subdivision A 2 of § 13. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• Organic law: means the statute governing the internal affairs of a domestic or foreign limited liability company or other business entity. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• Other business entity: means a domestic or foreign partnership, limited partnership, business trust, stock corporation, or nonstock corporation. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• 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.
• Peer review: means a review of a firm's attest services, compilation services, and financial statements preparation services that is conducted in accordance with the applicable monitoring program of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants or its successor, or with another monitoring program approved by the Board. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• Person: includes an individual and an entity. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Person: includes a protected series. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• 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
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• Practice of public accounting: means the giving of an assurance other than (i) by the person or persons about whom the financial information is presented or (ii) by one or more owners, officers, employees, or members of the governing body of the entity or entities about whom the financial information is presented. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Principal office: means the office, in or out of the Commonwealth, where the principal executive offices of a domestic or foreign limited liability company are located or, if there are no such offices, the office, in or out of the Commonwealth, so designated by the limited liability company. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Proceeding: includes civil suit and criminal, administrative and investigatory action conducted by a governmental agency. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• Project: means any structure, facility, personal property or undertaking that the Authority is authorized to finance, refinance, construct, improve, furnish, equip, maintain, acquire, or operate under the provisions of this article. See Virginia Code 2.2-2260
• Property: means all property, whether real, personal, or mixed or tangible or intangible, or any right or interest therein. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Providing services to the public: means providing services that are subject to the guidance of the standard-setting authorities listed in the standards of conduct and practice in subdivisions 5 and 6 of § 54. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• 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
• Record: when used as a noun, means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• 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.
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• 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.
• Sign: means , with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record, to execute or adopt a tangible symbol or to attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic symbol, sound, or process. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• Sponsoring organization: means a Board-approved professional society or other organization responsible for the facilitation and administration of peer reviews through use of its peer review program and applicable peer review standards. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• State: means any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, or any territory of the United States that is a recognized jurisdiction by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy or its successor. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• 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
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Surplus to policyholders: means the excess of total admitted assets over the liabilities of an insurer, and shall be the sum of all capital and surplus accounts, including any voluntary reserves, minus any impairment of all capital and surplus accounts. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• sworn: means "affirm" or "affirmed. See Virginia Code 1-250
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Tier-city: means an incorporated community within a consolidated county that (i) has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more, (ii) has been designated as a tier-city by the General Assembly, and (iii) has both the powers of a town and such additional powers as may be granted tier-cities by the General Assembly. See Virginia Code 1-252
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July one, nineteen hundred seventy-one, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Transact business: includes the conduct of affairs by any corporation that is not organized for profit. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Transfer: includes an assignment, a conveyance, a sale, a lease, an encumbrance including a mortgage or security interest, a gift, and a transfer by operation of law. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• Trust account: A general term that covers all types of accounts in a trust department, such as estates, guardianships, and agencies. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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}
• United States: includes a district, authority, bureau, commission, department, and any other agency of the United States. See Virginia Code 13.1-1002
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Virginia license: means a license that is issued by the Board giving a person the privilege of using the CPA title in Virginia or a firm the privilege of providing attest services, compilation services, and financial statement preparation services to persons and entities located in Virginia. See Virginia Code 54.1-4400
• Voter: means a qualified voter as defined in § 24. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Voting group: means all members of one or more classes that under the articles of incorporation or this chapter are entitled to vote and be counted together collectively on a matter at a meeting of members. See Virginia Code 13.1-803