M

See separately managed account.

In feudal times: An estate or unit of lordship, varying in size. • “The manor was an agricultural, governmental, and fiscal unit, usually co-extensive in territory with the ancient village, composed of lands held by the lord and by tenants of different classes.” Cornelius J. Moynihan & Sheldon F. Kurtz, Introduction to the Law of Real Property 13 (7th ed. 2020). • See lord.

In feudal times, a court presided over by a lord (or the lord’s bailiff) that adjudicated disputes among tenants. • The lord presided over two manorial courts: The Court Baron for free tenants, and the Court Customary for villein tenants. • Villein tenants had recourse only in the manorial courts, not the royal courts.

“A marginal tax rate is a tax rate based on the last dollar of taxable income. . . . The U.S. and many countries use such a tax bracket system in which a different tax rate is applied to different levels of taxable income. As a person’s income increases, so does the marginal tax rate. . . . Marginal tax rates do not take into account payments for Social Security and Medicare. Those are deducted separately.” TheStreet Staff, What Is a Marginal Tax Rate? Definition & Example, TheStreet, May 24, 2023 (Apple News link).

Risk that “is common to all securities; it reflects general economic and political conditions, interest rates, and so forth.” John H. Langbein, The Uniform Prudent Investor Act and the Future of Trust Investing, 81 Iowa L. Rev. 641, 647 (1996). C.f. firm risk and industry risk. Risk that is “unavoidable in investing” and is “compensated by expectations of increased return. [There is a] direct relationship between market risk and portfolio return expectations.” Restatement 3d Trusts: Prudent Investor Rule.

The amount at which a bond is currently trading. • A bond’s market value falls when interest rates rise. See Jonathan Weil, Risking Interest Rates Hit Banks’ Bond Holdings, WSJ, Nov. 11, 2022 (Apple News link). • C.f. book value of a bond.

Title that has no defects. C.f. insurable title.

“[M]iddle-class households with between $100,000 and $1 million in investible assets.” Lori Ioannou, Brokerage Firms Are Pitching Separately Managed Accounts. Here’s What to Know., WSJ, Jan. 7, 2024 (Apple News link).

For a bond: The date on which a bond investor is repaid the original principal • “When the bond reaches maturity, the loan amount, or principal, is returned to you, the investor.” Penelope Wang, 8 Things You Need to Know About Bonds, AARP Bulletin, Aug. 2023 (Apple News link).

In a statute or a contract, a term that indicates that performance is discretionary (not mandatory). • NY SCPA 103(38) gives this definition for “may”: “When used in this act, in relation to an act to be performed by the court, means in the discretion of the court.”

For purposes of the rule against perpetuities: An identifiable person who is alive at the time that an interest in trust is created.

A mediator is a professional, neutral person who is trained to help litigants come to an agreement about their dispute without the need for a judge to decide it.

An irrevocable trust that allows individuals to protect their assets from Medicaid after any applicable look-back period, ensuring they can receive assistance with long-term care without depleting their hard-earned resources.

“covers doctor visits and other forms of outpatient care . . . . Next year, the standard Part B premium is slated to rise by $9.90 to $174.80 a month, according to estimates Medicare’s trustees released in March.” Anne Tergesen, Social Security Benefits Will Go Up Next Year, but Not by a Lot, WSJ, Aug. 10, 2023 (Apple News link).

“It is a universal rule that when the purpose of a trust has been fully accomplished, the title or estate of the trustee is at an end, and if he is also entitled to the beneficial estate, the two estates meeting in the same person are merged, and he becomes vested in his own right with the entire interest in the property.” Blood v. Kane, 130 N.Y. 514 (1892). • Merger can occur in the context of trusts. New York allows a settlor to be both the sole trustee and a beneficiary provided there is at least one other beneficiary, EPTL 7-1.1; but when the settlor is both the sole trustee and the sole beneficiary, merger occurs–the trust is defeated and title to the trust estate vests in the settlor’s personal name. The ability for the settlor to name even just one remainder beneficiary that takes after the settlor dies facilitates the creation of revocable lifetime trusts. EPTL 7-1.1 (when trusts interest not to merge) provides: “A trust is not merged or invalid because a person, including but not limited to the creator of the trust, is or may become the sole trustee and the sole holder of the present beneficial interest therein, whether such interest be vested or contingent, present or future, and whether created by express provision of the instrument or as a result of reversion to the creator’s estate.” • Merger can also occur in the context of wills with respect to personal property passing under the will after a sole executor, who is also sole devisee and legatee, pays the estate’s creditors, or after the such executor assents to the executor’s own legacy. Blood v. Kane informs: “The trust estate of a sole executor, who is also the sole devisee and legatee, is solely for the benefit of the testator’s creditors, and when they are paid the trust estate sinks into and is merged with the beneficial interest, and the sole devisee and legatee becomes vested with the legal title of all of the testator’s estate.”

Profits from real property received by someone who is in wrongful possession. • A real property owner who succeeds in a common-law action of ejectment can bring a lawsuit seeking the profits from the use of the land while it was wrongfully occupied and the costs of ejectment. This action is known as an “action for mesne profits,” “action of trespass for mesne profits,” or “action for the recovery of mesne profits.” See, e.g., Combs v. Jackson, 2 Wend. 153 (N.Y. 1828).

A category of high-net-worth individuals “with $5 million to $30 million” in investible assets. Quentin Fottrell, ‘We’ve never seen this before’: Millionaires are doing something unusal to preserve their wealth–and you can do the same, MarketWatch, June 28, 2023 (Apple News link). • C.f. “millionaires next door” and ultra-high-net-worth individuals.

In feudal times, land holding from a lord in exchange for a military service to that lord, which was an obligation of a tenant to supply a specified quota of knights to the lord or to make a monetary payment to hire knights. • Also termed, “tenure by knight service.” • See tenure. C.f. serjeanty tenure.

A category of high-net-worth individuals “with $1 million to $5 million in investible assets . . . .” Quentin Fottrell, ‘We’ve never seen this before’: Millionaires are doing something unusal to preserve their wealth–and you can do the same, MarketWatch, June 28, 2023 (Apple News link). • C.f. midtier millionaires and ultra-high-net-worth individuals.

A logical fallacy that confuses sufficient and necessary conditions and occurs when someone “flips” the two sides. Example: The original statement is “A+ --> Study.” Incorrect inference: “Study --> A+.”

States that higher risk investments must offer a higher return to compensate the buyer for assuming the additional risk. It emphasizes diversification to offset risks and maximize returns. In an efficient market, the tradeoff of risk and return is already reflected in a tradable security’s price. • “By modern portfolio theory I mean the loose amalgam of academic theories that focuses investors on risk, diversification, transaction costs, and the total return of a portfolio rather than individual investments.” Joel C. Dobris, Probate World at the End of the Century: Is a New Principal and Income Act in Your Future, 48 Rec. Ass’n B. City N.Y. 280 (1993).

See money market mutual fund.

A type of mutual fund that tries to keep its net asset value at a stable $1.00 per share (using special pricing and valuation conventions) and generates interest income, but it is not FDIC-insured. • “Unlike a ‘money market deposit account’ at a bank, money market funds are not federally insured,” but they have “relatively low risks compared to other mutual funds and most other investments and historically has had lower returns. Money market funds invest in high quality, short-term debt securities and pay dividends that generally reflect short-term interest rates. Many investors use money market funds to store cash or as an alternative to investing in the stock market.” Money Market Fund, investor.gov.

A typeface where “each letter occupies the same amount of space on a horizontal line of text. . . . Courier . . . is a monospaced typeface.” Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division: Second Judicial Department, A Glossary of Terms for Formatting Computer-Generated Briefs, with Examples. C.f. proportionally spaced typeface.

A recurring monthly payment that borrowers must pay when obtaining a Federal Housing Administration mortgage. “Because FHA mortgages allow for down payments as low as 3.5% for borrowers with a credit score as low as 580, mortgage insurance is required for all FHA home loans.” Victoria Araj, What Is A Mortgage Insurance Premium (MIP)?, Quick Loans, Aug. 5, 2020. C.f. private mortgage insurance.

Insurance to pay a mortgage or any remaining debts after the insured dies. It “is simply a small term life insurance policy,” explains Kelly Maxwell in Mortgage Protection Insurance For Seniors (2022 Update), Seniors Mutual, Aug. 23, 2022. The age limit for mortgage protection insurance is age 80.

A way to prepay a portion of a qualifying mortgage by getting a bank to accept a lump-sum payment that reduces the loan’s principal, which reduces monthly loan payments and interest payments over the remaining life of the loan, but keeps the loan’s interest rate, duration, and other terms.

“Mothers in the workforce experience additional disadvantage compared to women who are not mothers, including a per-child wage penalty. The ‘motherhood penalty’ may account for a significant proportion of the gender gap in pay, as the pay gap between mothers and non-mothers could in fact be larger than the pay gap between men and women. Mothers also face additional disadvantages compared to childless women and men.” Gender Action Portal, Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?, Harvard Kennedy School: Women and Public Policy Program; see Mary Beth Ferrante, What Your Working Parents Aren’t Telling You–And Why Not Knowing Is Costing You, Forbes, Feb. 2, 2023 (Apple News link) (“Society has normalized the belief that when it comes to being a good employee, having a child or being a caregiver is more of a mark against us than proof of our abilities. This perception is often disproportionately placed on women as evidenced by the ‘motherhood penalty’ and its series of disadvantages.”).

A request by a party to end a lawsuit before it goes to trial, usually based on some legal defect or deficiency in the case.

A bond that is issued by city or state governments.

NY MDL § 4(7) defines a “multiple dwelling” as “a dwelling which is either rented, leased, let or hired out, to be occupied, or is occupied as the residence or home of three or more families living independently of each other. On and after July first, nineteen hundred fifty-five, a ‘multiple dwelling’ shall also include residential quarters for members of personnel of any hospital staff which are not located in any building used primarily for hospital use provided, however, that any building which was erected, altered or converted prior to July first, nineteen hundred fifty-five, to be occupied by such members or personnel is so occupied on such date shall not be subject to the requirements of this chapter only so long as it continues to be so occupied provided there are local laws applicable to such building and such building is in compliance with such local laws. A ‘multiple dwelling’ shall not be deemed to include a hospital, convent, monastery, asylum or public institution, or a fireproof building used wholly for commercial purposes except for not more than one janitor’s apartment and not more than one penthouse occupied by not more than two families. For the purposes of this chapter “multiple dwellings” are divided into two classes: ‘class A’ and ‘class B.’” • See dwelling.