financial events

Commonly called an RMD, the minimum amount that a person must take out of their Individual Retirement Account (IRA) starting at either age 70 and a half or the year of the person retires, whichever is later.

See: Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009

A consumer protection law also called the Credit CARD Act. Among its provisions is a prohibition against retroactive rate increases, a requirement that terms be clearly spelled out, and an extension of time before late fees can be imposed. The law also increases protections for students and young people when it comes to new credit card offers.

The Louisiana term for what other states call a holographic will. This is a will that is entirely handwritten, signed, and dated by the person making it. It does not need to be notarized or witnessed.

U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that a woman who was named as the beneficiary of her former husband's 401(k) plan was entitled to inherit the money in the plan, even though state law said that the divorce had automatically revoked her right to inherit. Because a 401(k) plan is ruled by federal law (ERISA), it overruled the state law.

An arrangement negotiated between a debtor and creditor as a way to take care of a debt, by paying it off or through loan forgiveness. Workouts are often created to avoid bankruptcy or foreclosure proceedings.

Language in a will or deed, used to transfer property to a person and that person's descendants only. Typically, the words take the form "to A, and the heirs of his body," where A is the person inheriting the property.

A lawsuit challenging the validity of a will or some of its terms after the person who made the will has died. Will contests are quite rare. There are just a few legal grounds for challenging a will. The most common are undue influence by someone close to the deceased person, the deceased person's lack of capacity (understanding) when the will was signed, improper execution (signing and witnessing) of the will, or fraud (forgery, for example). (See also: no-contest clause)

A standard set of laws, enacted by some U.S. states, to deal with inheritance in the case that two people die simultaneously. The Act says that if two (or more) people die within 120 hours of each other, each is considered to have predeceased the other unless a will or other document specifies otherwise.

A federal law that requires lenders to disclose the true cost of credit transactions by providing certain information to borrowers, including the terms of a loan, interest rates, and the number, amount, and due dates of all payments necessary to pay off the loan.