Business

A blanket limit is the most money an insurance company will pay out in a specific place. Insurance companies set blanket limits. They do it when they sell insurance policies. Blanket limits are important. They keep insurance companies from losing too much money. Insurance companies don’t want to go broke! Blanket limits change how much…

Blank check preferred stock means special shares a company can give out whenever it wants to stop someone else from taking over the company. The company’s board of directors gets to decide when to do this on their own. How Blank Check Preferred Stock Works When a company gives out these special preferred shares, two…

A binary-barrier option is a special kind of option. It is a mix between two other types of options: barrier options and binary options. Binary-barrier options are also called American binary options or one-touch options. When you buy a binary-barrier option, you can get a set amount of cash or assets if the price of…

A bill of lading is a legal document between the shipper of goods and the carrier. The carrier is the company responsible for transporting the goods, such as a shipping line, airline, trucking company or railroad. The bill of lading serves as: The bill of lading has all the important details about the shipment. This…

A bill of exchange is a special kind of document. It is used to order someone to make a payment to another person at a later date. The Drawer Writes the Bill The person who writes the bill of exchange is called the drawer. They write the bill to tell another person, called the drawee,…

The bid-offer spread is how much it costs to buy and sell stuff. This stuff could be anything that people trade, like stocks, bonds, gold, Pokémon cards, you name it. But let’s focus on stocks to keep it simple. The “bid” is how much someone will pay to buy the stock from you. The “offer”…

Best efforts underwriting is a way for companies to sell new stocks or bonds. The company hires one or more banks or brokerage firms to help them. These firms are called the underwriting syndicate. The Underwriting Syndicate’s Job The underwriting syndicate tries very hard to sell as much of the new securities as they can…

A besloten vennootschap, or BV for short, is a special type of company used in the Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, and Belgium. A BV provides limited liability protection to its owners, which means the owners’ personal assets are protected if the company has financial troubles or legal issues. BVs are often set up in the Netherlands…

A Bermuda transformer is a special kind of company in Bermuda. It does business with insurance. Insurance is when you pay money to a company. If something bad happens, the insurance company pays you. Bermuda transformers work with a special type of insurance called reinsurance. Reinsurance is insurance for insurance companies. Insurance companies buy reinsurance…

A beneficial owner is the real owner of something valuable, like stocks or bonds. This person gets the good parts of owning that thing. But their name might not be on the official papers. Not always the same as the legal owner The beneficial owner is not always listed as the “legal owner”. The legal…