Ask a CPA

A Discretionary trust refers to a personal trust in which a trustee has the power of decision as to how much income or principal each beneficiary receives.

The Discount rate is the interest rate that the Federal Reserve charges a bank to borrow funds when a bank is temporarily short of funds. Collateral is necessary to borrow, and such borrowing is quite limited because the Federal reserve views it as a privilege to be used to meet short term liquidity needs, and not a device to increase earnings.

The Spot price is the current market price of the actual physical commodity. It is also called the cash price. It is the current delivery price of a commodity traded in the spot market, in which goods are sold for cash and delivered immediately.

Death-backed bonds are bonds backed by loans of a policyholder against a life insurance policy. The policyholder will repay the loans while he or she is alive or with the benefits from the insurance policy upon death.

The Goldman Sachs index of the one hundred convertibles of greatest institutional importance. It is weighted by issue size.
It measures the performance of its components against that of their underlying common stock and against other broad market index's as well.

Compounding is the process of accumulating the time value of money forward in time. Interest earned in one period earns additional interest during each subsequent time period causing a compounding effect.

The COMEX is a division of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). It was formerly known as the Commodity Exchange. The COMEX is the leading United States market for metals futures and options trading.

A Charitable Remainder Trust is an irrevocable trust that pays income to a designated person or persons until the grantor's death, when the income is passed on to a designated charity. A Charitable Lead Trust by contrast allows the charity to receive income during the grantor's life, and the remaining income to pass to designated family members upon the grantor's death.

The Federal Reserve System is the monetary authority of the United States. It was established in 1913, and governed by the Federal Reserve Board which is located in Washington, D.C. The system includes twelve Federal Reserve Banks and is authorized to regulate monetary policy in the United States as well as to supervise Federal Reserve member banks, bank holding companies, international operations of United States banks, and United States operations of foreign banks.