Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 64.2 > Subtitle II > Chapter 4 > Article 3 - Construction and Effect

• 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.
• 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: 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
• 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}
• Bequeath: To gift property by will.
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Bond with surety: includes the payment in cash of the full amount of the required bond and, in such case, no surety shall be required. See Virginia Code 1-205
• 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
• Codicil: An addition, change, or supplement to a will executed with the same formalities required for the will itself.
• 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
• Converted company: means a stock insurance company incorporated and organized under the laws of this Commonwealth that continues in existence after a reorganization under this article in connection with the formation of a mutual holding company. See Virginia Code 38.2-1005.1:1
• Converted mutual holding company: means the stock corporation into which a mutual holding company has been converted pursuant to § 38. See Virginia Code 38.2-1005.1:1
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Eligible member: means a member as of the date the board of directors of a mutual company adopts a plan of MHC conversion under this article. See Virginia Code 38.2-1005.1:1
• 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 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.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Gross estate: The total fair market value of all property and property interests, real and personal, tangible and intangible, of which a decedent had beneficial ownership at the time of death before subtractions for deductions, debts, administrative expenses, and casualty losses suffered during estate administration.
• 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.
• 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
• Insurance company: means any company engaged in the business of making contracts of insurance. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Insurer: means an insurance company. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
• Intermediate holding company: means a corporation authorized to issue one or more classes of capital stock, the corporate purposes of which include holding, directly or indirectly, the voting stock of a converted company. See Virginia Code 38.2-1005.1:1
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• 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.
• Legacy: A gift of property made by will.
• Legatee: A beneficiary of a decedent
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Marital deduction: The deduction(s) that can be taken in the determination of gift and estate tax liabilities because of the existence of a marriage or marital relationship.
• Member: means a person who, on the records of a mutual company and pursuant to the articles of incorporation or bylaws of a mutual company, is deemed to be the holder of a membership interest in a mutual company. See Virginia Code 38.2-1005.1:1
• MHC: means a corporation organized under the provisions of the Virginia Nonstock Corporation Act (§ 13. See Virginia Code 38.2-1005.1:1
• Month: means a calendar month and "year" means a calendar year. See Virginia Code 1-223
• Mutual company: means a mutual insurance company incorporated and organized under the laws of this Commonwealth and licensed pursuant to Chapter 10 (§ 38. See Virginia Code 38.2-1005.1:1
• Per stirpes: The legal means by which the children of a decedent, upon the death of an ancestor at a level above that of the decedent, receive by right of representation the share of the ancestor
• 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: includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture, government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality thereof. See Virginia Code 1-230
• Personal estate: includes chattels real and such other estate as, upon the death of the owner intestate, would devolve upon his personal representative. See Virginia Code 1-233
• 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
• plan: means a plan adopted pursuant to this article by the board of directors of a mutual company for the conversion of a mutual company into a direct or indirect stock subsidiary of a mutual holding company. See Virginia Code 38.2-1005.1:1
• Policyholder: means the holder of a policy other than a reinsurance contract. See Virginia Code 38.2-1005.1:1
• 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}
• 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
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• 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 a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
• State: means any commonwealth, state, territory, district or insular possession of the United States. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• 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
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• Trustee: means a trustee under a probated will or an inter vivos trust instrument. See Virginia Code 64.2-100
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.