Personal Finance Glossary

A credit score is a three-digit number, most commonly on the FICO® Score scale of 300 to 850, that summarizes how reliably you've handled borrowed money.

A debt-to-income ratio is your required monthly debt payments divided by your gross monthly income.

A down payment is the share of a purchase price you pay from your own funds instead of borrowing.

First-time homebuyer programs are the assorted federal, state and local measures aimed at people buying their first home.

A mortgage preapproval is a letter from a lender saying it is generally willing to lend up to a stated amount on stated assumptions.

A fixed-rate mortgage is a home loan whose interest rate cannot change for the life of the loan.

An adjustable-rate mortgage is a home loan whose interest rate is fixed for an introductory period and then resets periodically against a market index.

A conventional loan is a mortgage that carries no federal guaranty or insurance, which makes it the residual category rather than a program with rules of its own.

An FHA loan is a mortgage made by an ordinary lender and insured by the Federal Housing Administration, which lets the lender accept a smaller down payment and a weaker credit profile than it otherwise would.

Private mortgage insurance is a policy a conventional mortgage lender requires when the borrower puts down less than 20 percent.

Earnest money is the deposit a buyer puts up when a purchase contract is signed to show the offer is serious.

A home inspection is a paid, non-invasive assessment of a property's physical condition, arranged by the buyer for the buyer.

A home appraisal is an independent written opinion of what a property is worth, obtained by the lender to test the collateral behind a mortgage.

A mortgage rate lock is a lender's commitment to hold a quoted interest rate, and the points that go with it, for a stated period ending at a stated date and time.

Mortgage points are charges a borrower pays a lender at closing, most often to buy the interest rate down.

A Closing Disclosure is the five-page form stating a mortgage's final terms and costs, which you must receive at least three business days before you sign.

Closing costs are the fees and prepaid items you pay to complete a mortgage, beyond the down payment.

An escrow account is the account a mortgage servicer controls to collect property taxes and insurance premiums with the monthly payment and pay those bills when they fall due.

Title insurance is a policy that pays if someone turns up with a claim against a property arising from before you bought it.

Homeowners insurance bundles four separate coverages into one policy: the dwelling, your belongings, your personal liability, and the extra costs of living elsewhere while the home is unlivable.

A property tax is an annual charge based on the value of property, imposed by local government.

An emergency fund is cash set aside to cover genuine surprises, a job loss, a medical bill, a failed transmission, so they don't land on a credit card or force you to sell investments at a bad time.

Compound interest is growth earned on both your original money and on all the growth it has already produced, interest on interest, which makes balances accelerate over time rather than grow in a straight line.

Risk tolerance is your emotional and psychological willingness to accept investment losses and uncertainty in exchange for the chance of higher returns.

Asset allocation is how you divide a portfolio among asset classes (mainly stocks, bonds, and cash), and it is the decision that most shapes how much your portfolio grows and how violently it swings along the way.

Diversification is spreading your investments across many securities and asset classes so that no single company, industry, or country can sink your portfolio: it removes single-holding risk, though not market risk.

A stock is a security representing part ownership of a company.

A bond is a debt security: a loan you make to a government or a company, which promises to pay you interest for a set period and to return the principal at maturity.

A mutual fund is an SEC-registered investment company that pools money from many investors and buys a portfolio of securities with it.

An index fund is a mutual fund or ETF that holds the same securities as a market index, such as the S&P 500 or a total-market index, and aims to match the index's return at very low cost rather than beat it.

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is an investment fund that holds a basket of securities and trades on a stock exchange like an individual stock, so you can buy or sell shares any time the market is open.

An expense ratio is the annual cost of owning a fund, expressed as a percentage of your investment: a 0.50% expense ratio costs $50 per year on a $10,000 balance, deducted automatically from the fund's returns.

A target-date fund is a single diversified fund named for a year (2045, 2060) that automatically becomes more conservative as that year approaches.

A brokerage account is an account at a broker-dealer used to buy, hold and sell securities.

A Roth IRA is an individual retirement arrangement funded with money you've already paid tax on.

A traditional IRA is the pre-tax flavor of the individual retirement arrangement: contributions may be tax-deductible in the year you make them, investments grow tax-deferred, and every withdrawal in retirement is taxed as ordinary income.

Dollar-cost averaging (DCA) is investing a fixed dollar amount on a regular schedule regardless of market conditions, so you automatically buy more shares when prices are low and fewer when they are high.

Rebalancing is periodically restoring a portfolio to its target asset allocation, selling what has grown beyond its target and buying what has shrunk, so market moves don't gradually change how much risk you hold.

Capital gains tax is the tax on profit from selling an asset for more than you paid.

Base salary is the fixed cash pay an employee receives for their work, before any bonus, commission, overtime, or equity.

Salary negotiation is the process of discussing and agreeing on pay and related terms with an employer, most often when accepting a job offer or during a review, treating the whole compensation package rather than the base salary alone as the thing being negotiated.

Form W-4 is the IRS form an employee gives their employer to set how much federal income tax is withheld from each paycheck.

Gross pay is the total amount an employer owes you for the work done in a pay period, measured before any taxes or other deductions are taken out.

Net pay is the amount of a paycheck that actually reaches you: gross pay minus taxes and every other deduction.

A 401(k) is an employer-sponsored retirement account funded straight from your paycheck, often with matching money from your employer.

An employer match is money your employer contributes to your workplace retirement plan, like a 401(k), based on how much you contribute yourself, typically up to a stated percentage of your pay.

Vesting is the process by which promised benefits (employer 401(k) contributions, stock grants, options) become irrevocably yours over time, usually either all at once after a waiting period (cliff), or gradually (graded).

A Roth 401(k) is the after-tax version of a 401(k): contributions get no upfront deduction, but qualified withdrawals in retirement are entirely tax-free.

A health savings account (HSA) is a tax-advantaged account for people with high-deductible health plans that offers a triple tax break: deductible contributions, tax-free growth, and tax-free withdrawals for qualified medical expenses.

Open enrollment is a defined period in which you can sign up for or change coverage without needing a qualifying reason.

Group life insurance is life insurance an employer buys for its workforce under a single policy, usually term coverage set as a multiple of salary.

Disability insurance replaces part of your income if illness or injury keeps you from working.

Restricted stock units (RSUs) are a promise from an employer to deliver company shares on a vesting schedule; their full value is taxed as ordinary income the moment they vest, exactly like a cash bonus paid in stock.

An employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) lets employees buy company stock through payroll deductions at a discount, often 15% off the lower of two prices, a return that is dependable when the shares are sold promptly after purchase.

A severance package is what an employer offers an employee on termination, usually cash plus some combination of continued health coverage, equity terms and outplacement help, almost always in exchange for a release of legal claims.

COBRA continuation coverage is the federal right to keep the employer group health plan you were already on, at your own expense, after an event that would otherwise end it.

A 401(k) rollover is the process of moving money out of a 401(k) plan, typically after leaving a job, into another retirement account, such as a new employer's plan or an IRA, without triggering current income tax.

A Rollover IRA is a Traditional IRA set up specifically to receive money moved from an employer retirement plan, like a 401(k) or 403(b), when you leave a job or the plan is discontinued.

Marriage and money is the set of financial dimensions that marriage changes and that money changes about marriage: filing status and tax treatment, spousal rights that exist nowhere else in law, joint versus separate accounts, and the ongoing conversation about how the two of you will actually run one household budget.

A wedding budget is a plan for what a couple will spend to marry and how they will pay for it.

Combining finances is the account-structure decision a couple makes when they start running one household: fully joint accounts, fully separate accounts, or a hybrid with one joint household account plus each partner's own.

A joint account is a deposit account owned by two or more people, each of whom can use it.

A prenuptial agreement is a contract two people sign before marrying that settles how property and support will be handled if the marriage ends by divorce or by death.

Community property is a marital property system, in force in nine states, under which most income and assets acquired during a marriage belong equally to both spouses by operation of law rather than according to whose name is on the account.

Filing status is the category you check at the top of Form 1040, one of five, that decides which rate schedule applies to you, how large a standard deduction you get, and which credits and deductions you are eligible for.

Married filing jointly is the status for spouses who elect to report their combined income, deductions, and credits on one tax return.

Married filing separately is the status of a married person who does not join their spouse in a joint return.

A marriage penalty is the extra federal income tax a couple owes by filing a joint return compared with what the two of them would owe unmarried.

A marriage bonus is the reduction in federal income tax a couple gets by filing a joint return compared with what the two of them would owe unmarried.

A Spousal IRA is an individual retirement arrangement opened in the name of a spouse who has little or no earned income, funded using the working spouse's compensation, so both spouses can save in their own IRA even though only one of them is employed.

A spousal Social Security benefit lets a husband or wife collect up to 50% of the other spouse's full retirement age benefit, based on that spouse's earnings record rather than their own.

A beneficiary designation is the form on file with your retirement account, life insurance policy, or bank account naming who receives the money at your death.

Term life insurance is pure death-benefit coverage: you pay a level premium for a set period (commonly 10, 20, or 30 years), and if you die during that term, the insurer pays your beneficiaries a tax-free lump sum.

A will is a legal document stating who receives your property at your death, who is responsible for carrying that out, and who you nominate to raise your minor children.

A baby budget is a plan for the money a new child requires in the first year and the setup around it: one-time gear, recurring costs like childcare and diapers, the income disruption of parental leave, and the protections a new parent should put in place, life insurance, a will naming a guardian, and an emergency fund.

The cost of raising a child is the accumulated outlay of parents from birth through the child's dependent years, spanning housing, food, childcare, healthcare, transportation, clothing and everything in between.

Paid family and medical leave (PFML) refers to state programs that replace part of a worker's wages during time off for a new child, a serious family or personal health condition, or other covered reasons.

Parental leave is time away from work to bond with a new child after birth, adoption, or foster placement.

Childcare costs are the fees parents pay for someone else to care for their child during work hours, ranging from in-home nannies through center-based daycare to family child care homes.

A dependent care FSA lets an employee set aside pay before tax to reimburse the cost of care that lets them work.

The child and dependent care credit offsets part of what you pay for care that lets you work.

The child tax credit is a per-child credit against federal income tax, worth up to $2,200 for each qualifying child under 17.

The adoption credit is a federal credit for the reasonable and necessary costs of legally adopting a child.

Term life insurance is pure death-benefit coverage: you pay a level premium for a set period (commonly 10, 20, or 30 years), and if you die during that term, the insurer pays your beneficiaries a tax-free lump sum.

A will is a legal document stating who receives your property at your death, who is responsible for carrying that out, and who you nominate to raise your minor children.

Guardianship is a court proceeding that transfers decision-making authority over a person to someone else after a judge finds that the person cannot make those decisions themselves.

A beneficiary designation is the form on file with your retirement account, life insurance policy, or bank account naming who receives the money at your death.

A 529 plan is a state-sponsored investment account for education savings where money grows tax-deferred and comes out federally tax-free for qualified education expenses, from college tuition to K-12 costs and, as of recent law changes, professional credentials.

"Custodial account" names at least three unrelated arrangements: an account an adult holds for a minor under a state transfers-to-minors act, a retirement or education account the tax code deems to be a trust, and, loosely, any account an institutional custodian holds.

A 529 plan is a state-sponsored investment account for education savings where money grows tax-deferred and comes out federally tax-free for qualified education expenses, from college tuition to K-12 costs and, as of recent law changes, professional credentials.

A Coverdell education savings account is a trust or custodial account under Internal Revenue Code section 530 that grows tax free and pays education expenses tax free, including a broad list of elementary and secondary school costs.

Cost of attendance is a college's official estimate of what one year there costs a particular student, covering far more than tuition.

A net price calculator is the estimator that federal law requires every college receiving federal student aid to publish on its own website, so a prospective student can estimate what a year there would cost their household after grant aid.

The FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the single federal form that determines eligibility for Pell Grants, work-study and federal student loans.

The Student Aid Index is the number the FAFSA produces to measure a student's financial strength, and it is the figure colleges subtract from the cost of attendance to calculate financial need.

The CSS Profile is the College Board's financial aid application, used by the colleges and scholarship programs that award their own non-federal money.

Need-based aid is financial aid awarded because a student's cost of attendance exceeds what the aid formula says the family can contribute.

Merit aid is money a college or a private organization awards for something other than financial need, most often academic record, test scores, talent or leadership.

A Federal Pell Grant is federal money for an undergraduate with financial need that does not have to be repaid.

Federal Work-Study is a federal program that subsidizes part-time jobs for students with financial need, paid as an hourly wage for hours actually worked.

A scholarship is money awarded to a student for education that does not have to be repaid.

A Direct Subsidized Loan is a federal student loan for undergraduates with demonstrated financial need on which the government pays the interest while the student is enrolled at least half-time, during the six-month grace period, and during qualifying deferments.

A Direct Unsubsidized Loan is a federal student loan on which the borrower owes the interest from the day it is disbursed, including while enrolled.

A parent PLUS loan is a federal Direct PLUS Loan made to a parent to pay for a dependent undergraduate's education.

The American Opportunity Tax Credit is worth up to $2,500 per student for each of the first four years of an undergraduate degree, and 40 percent of it is refundable.

The Lifetime Learning Credit is worth 20 percent of up to $10,000 of tuition and required fees, so a maximum of $2,000 per tax return rather than per student.

A federal student loan is a loan made directly by the United States government under the William D.

A private student loan is a consumer credit contract made by a bank, credit union or other lender to pay for education, underwritten on the borrower's or a cosigner's credit.

A student loan servicer is the company that bills a borrower, collects payments and administers a federal student loan on the Department of Education's behalf.

A student loan grace period is the six months after a borrower stops attending at least half-time before repayment on a Direct Subsidized or Direct Unsubsidized Loan begins.

A standard repayment plan is a federal student loan plan that charges a fixed monthly payment large enough to clear the balance by the end of a set term.

Income-driven repayment is the family of federal student loan plans that set the monthly payment from the borrower's income and family size rather than from the balance, and cancel whatever is left at the end of a fixed term.

The Repayment Assistance Plan is the federal student loan repayment plan created by Public Law 119-21 and available since July 1, 2026.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness cancels the remaining balance on federal Direct Loans after a borrower makes 120 qualifying monthly payments while working full time for a government or 501(c)(3) employer.

Student loan forgiveness is the umbrella term for the federal programs that cancel a remaining student loan balance.

Capitalization is the moment unpaid interest that has built up on a student loan is added to the principal balance, after which interest is charged on the larger figure.

A student loan deferment is a formal postponement of payments on a federal student loan, granted for one of the specific circumstances Congress listed in the statute.

A student loan forbearance is a temporary pause or reduction in payments on a federal student loan that a servicer grants when a borrower does not qualify for a deferment.

Federal student loan consolidation combines one or more federal student loans into a single new Direct Consolidation Loan, with a fixed interest rate that is the weighted average of the underlying loans rounded up to the nearest one-eighth of a percent.

Student loan refinancing is taking out a new private loan to pay off existing student loans, usually to get a lower interest rate.

A federal student loan enters default when a borrower has been at least 270 days delinquent on the required payments.

The student loan interest deduction lets a taxpayer deduct up to $2,500 of interest paid during the year on a qualified education loan, without itemizing.

Student loan payoff versus investing is the decision about whether to send extra money toward student debt or into investments.

A student loan forgiveness scam charges a borrower for access to federal repayment or forgiveness programs that are free, or takes payments that never reach the loans.

The annual percentage rate is the regulated measure of what credit costs, expressed as a yearly rate that relates what the borrower receives to what the borrower pays.

A minimum payment is the smallest amount a lender will accept in a given period to keep an account current.

A credit report is the file a consumer reporting agency keeps on how you have handled borrowed money.

A credit score is a three-digit number, most commonly on the FICO® Score scale of 300 to 850, that summarizes how reliably you've handled borrowed money.

Credit utilization is the share of your available revolving credit that you are currently using, calculated as reported balances divided by credit limits.

The debt avalanche is a payoff method that orders debts by interest rate, highest first, and directs every spare dollar at one of them while paying only the minimum on the rest.

The debt snowball is a payoff method that orders debts by balance, smallest first, and directs every spare dollar at one of them while paying only the minimum on the rest.

A balance transfer moves what you owe on one credit card onto another, usually to take advantage of a temporary low or zero promotional rate.

A debt consolidation loan is an unsecured installment loan taken out for one purpose, paying off existing balances.

Credit counseling is a service in which a counselor reviews a household's income, expenses and debts and sets out the options, one of which may be a debt management plan.

A debt management plan is an arrangement administered by a credit counseling agency in which you make one monthly payment to the agency and it distributes the money to your creditors on concessions they have agreed to.

Debt settlement is an arrangement in which a creditor accepts less than the full balance to close an account.

Debt collection is the business of pursuing payment on a debt that is already past due, usually by a company that is not the original creditor.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is the 1977 federal statute that regulates how debt collectors may pursue consumer debts.

The statute of limitations on a debt is the period, set by state law, within which a creditor may sue to collect it.

A charge-off is a creditor's own accounting decision to reclassify a debt as a loss on its books.

Bankruptcy is a federal court process that reorders or erases what you owe, under title 11 of the United States Code.

Chapter 7 bankruptcy is the liquidation chapter of the Bankruptcy Code.

Chapter 13 bankruptcy is the reorganization chapter available to an individual with regular income.

Self-employment means working for yourself rather than for an employer.

An independent contractor is a worker who is in business for themselves rather than employed by whoever pays them.

A sole proprietorship is an unincorporated business owned by one person, with no legal existence separate from that person.

A limited liability company is a business entity created under a state statute that separates the owners from the business's debts.

Form 1099-NEC is the return a business files to report what it paid for services performed by someone who is not its employee.

Schedule C is the form that turns a business's receipts and expenses into one number, its net profit or loss, and carries that number onto the owner's personal tax return.

Self-employment tax is the Social Security and Medicare tax paid by people who work for themselves, covering both the employee and the employer share.

Estimated taxes are the payments you make directly to the IRS on income nobody withholds tax from, in four installments during the year.

Business expenses are the costs of running a business, and the deductible ones are those the tax code treats as "ordinary and necessary" for that trade or business.

The home office deduction lets a self-employed person deduct part of the cost of their home when a specific area of it is used exclusively and regularly for business.

The qualified business income deduction lets the owner of a sole proprietorship, partnership, S corporation or rental business deduct up to 20 percent of that business's profit from taxable income.

A business bank account is a deposit account held in a business's name and used only for business money, kept separate from the owner's personal accounts.

Bookkeeping is the ongoing recording of a business's income and expenses.

Irregular income budgeting is a set of techniques for managing money when your pay varies month to month (freelancing, commissions, seasonal work, or self-employment) usually by paying yourself a steady "salary" from a buffer account.

The self-employed health insurance deduction lets self-employed people deduct the premiums they pay for medical, dental, and qualifying long-term care coverage directly against income, without having to itemize.

A SEP IRA is a retirement arrangement funded entirely by employer contributions into a traditional IRA opened for each eligible employee.

A solo 401(k) is an ordinary 401(k) plan covering a business owner who has no employees other than a spouse.

An S corporation is a federal tax classification, not a type of business entity.

Retirement income planning is the process of turning savings and benefits into a reliable paycheck that lasts as long as you do.

Social Security retirement benefits are monthly, inflation-adjusted payments from the federal government, earned through payroll taxes over your working life.

Full retirement age is the age at which you can collect 100% of the Social Security retirement benefit your earnings record has produced, 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later.

Delayed retirement credits are the permanent increases Social Security adds to your benefit for each month you postpone claiming past your full retirement age: two-thirds of one percent per month, accruing until age 70 and then stopping.

Social Security break-even analysis compares the total benefits you would collect by claiming early against the total you would collect by claiming later, and identifies the age at which the later, larger benefit catches up.

Medicare is the federal health insurance program for people aged 65 and over, for people under 65 who have received Social Security disability benefits for two years, and for people with end-stage renal disease.

Medicare enrollment periods are the fixed windows in which you can first sign up for Medicare: the seven-month Initial Enrollment Period around your 65th birthday and, if you miss it, the January 1 to March 31 General Enrollment Period.

A Medicare late enrollment penalty is a permanent surcharge added to your premium for signing up for Part A, Part B, or Part D later than you were supposed to.

The Medicare Part B premium is the monthly amount you pay to keep Part B, the outpatient half of Medicare.

A safe withdrawal rate is the percentage of a retirement portfolio you can spend in the first year, adjusting for inflation afterward, with a high probability that the money outlasts you.

Sequence of returns risk is the danger that the order of investment returns, not just their average, damages a portfolio you're withdrawing from.

A bucket strategy divides a retirement portfolio into segments by time horizon (near-term cash, medium-term bonds, long-term stocks), so that spending in a falling market comes out of the cash segment instead of forcing a sale of stocks at a loss.

A required minimum distribution (RMD) is the amount the IRS makes you withdraw from pre-tax retirement accounts each year once you reach a set age, currently 73, rising to 75 for people born in 1960 or later.

A Roth conversion moves money from a pre-tax retirement account, such as a traditional IRA or 401(k), into a Roth account.

A pension election is the choice a participant in a traditional pension makes about how their benefit is paid out: a single-life annuity, a joint-and-survivor annuity that continues to a spouse, or, where offered, a lump sum.

An annuity is a contract with an insurance company: you pay a premium, and the insurer promises a stream of payments, often for life.

Longevity risk is the risk of living longer than your money lasts.

Long-term care insurance pays for extended help with daily living (home aides, assisted living, nursing care) that health insurance and Medicare largely do not cover.

A survivor financial checklist is the action list a surviving spouse or family member works through in the weeks and months after a death: obtain death certificates, notify the key parties, locate and secure documents, claim benefits, and, importantly, do not make irreversible large decisions in the first year unless a deadline forces it.

A death certificate is the official record of a death, issued by a state or local registrar rather than by any federal agency.

An executor is the person a will nominates to wind up someone's estate: gathering the property, paying the debts and taxes, and distributing what is left.

Probate is the court-supervised process of proving a will, appointing someone to administer the estate, giving creditors a window to make claims, and authorizing distribution of what is left.

A small estate affidavit is a sworn statement that lets someone entitled to a modest estate collect its personal property directly from banks and other holders, without opening a probate administration.

A beneficiary is a person or organization entitled to receive something under an instrument: a will, a trust, an insurance policy, a retirement account, or a payable-on-death registration.

A payable-on-death account is an ordinary deposit account with one or more beneficiaries named on the bank's records, so the balance passes directly to them at the owner's death without going through probate.

A transfer on death registration is a beneficiary named on the records of a brokerage or securities account, so that ownership passes directly to that person when the owner dies, without probate.

A life insurance beneficiary is the person, trust or organization a policy names to receive the death benefit.

Social Security survivor benefits are monthly payments to the surviving spouse, children, or certain other family members of a worker who has died, based on the deceased worker's earnings record.

The lump-sum death payment is a one-time Social Security payment of up to $255 made after an insured worker dies, to a surviving spouse who was living in the same household or, if there is none, to a spouse or children already eligible on the record.

An inheritance is property that passes to someone because its owner died.

An Inherited IRA is an individual retirement arrangement you receive as a beneficiary after the original owner dies, and how quickly you must withdraw the money depends on your relationship to that person and when they died.

The 10-year rule requires most beneficiaries of an inherited retirement account to empty it by December 31 of the tenth year after the triggering event.

Step-up in basis resets the cost basis of inherited assets to their fair market value on the owner's date of death.

A qualified disclaimer is a refusal to accept an inheritance or a gift that meets the conditions of Internal Revenue Code section 2518, so the person refusing is not treated as having made a gift of it.

A decedent's final income tax return is the Form 1040 covering the part of the year the person was alive, from 1 January to the date of death.

Form 1041 is the federal income tax return an estate or a non-grantor trust files on its own income.

The federal estate tax is a tax on the transfer of property at death, paid by the estate rather than by the people who inherit.

An inheritance tax is a state tax on the person who receives property from someone who died, with the rate and exemption set by how closely that person was related to the decedent.

A financial advisor is a professional who helps people manage money: planning, investing, insurance, taxes, retirement.

A fiduciary is a person or firm legally obligated to act in someone else's best interest.

Assets under management (AUM) is the total market value of investments a firm manages on behalf of clients.

A commission is compensation paid to a financial salesperson or firm when a customer buys a product or executes a transaction: a sales load on a mutual fund, a payout on an annuity or insurance policy, a fee per trade.

A fee-only financial advisor is paid exclusively by clients (hourly rates, flat fees, retainers, or a percentage of assets under management) and accepts no commissions, sales loads, referral fees, or any other payment from financial product companies.

A fee-based advisor charges clients fees (hourly, flat, or a percentage of assets) and can also earn commissions from selling financial products, usually because the advisor or their firm is dually registered as both an investment adviser and a broker-dealer representative or insurance agent.

Flat-fee financial planning is a model where a planner charges a fixed dollar amount (for a project, a plan, or a year of service) stated up front, instead of commissions or a percentage of your investment accounts.

Hourly financial planning is a fee model where you pay a financial planner a stated hourly rate for exactly the time you use, like hiring an attorney or CPA, with no products sold and no percentage taken from your accounts.

Advice-only financial planning is a model where you pay a financial planner purely for their advice (an hourly rate, a flat project fee, or a retainer), and they never manage your investments, sell financial products, or earn commissions.

A Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) is a firm registered with the SEC or a state securities regulator to provide investment advice for compensation.

An investment adviser representative (IAR) is an individual licensed to give investment advice on behalf of a registered investment adviser (RIA).

A broker-dealer is a firm licensed to buy and sell securities: for customers (acting as broker), and for its own account (acting as dealer).

The suitability standard was the longtime conduct rule for brokers, and it required that a recommended investment be suitable for the customer's situation, though not necessarily the best or cheapest available option.

Regulation Best Interest is the SEC conduct rule, in force since June 30, 2020, requiring broker-dealers to act in a retail customer's best interest when recommending securities: a standard above the old suitability rule, but still short of the fiduciary duty investment advisers owe.

The CFP® certification is a professional credential for financial planners granted by CFP Board, requiring specific education, a comprehensive exam, years of experience, and an ethics commitment that includes acting as a fiduciary when providing financial advice.

An enrolled agent (EA) is a tax professional licensed directly by the U.S. Treasury with unlimited rights to represent taxpayers before the IRS.

Form ADV is the registration and disclosure document every registered investment adviser files with the SEC or state regulators.

Form CRS (client relationship summary) is a short, plain-English disclosure that SEC-registered investment advisers and broker-dealers must give retail investors.

Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) is the SEC's free public database at adviserinfo.sec.gov where anyone can look up an investment adviser firm or individual advisor: registrations, Form ADV filings, fees, conflicts, and disciplinary history.

BrokerCheck is FINRA's free public database at brokercheck.finra.org where anyone can look up a broker or brokerage firm: licenses, exams passed, employment history, and disclosure events like customer complaints and regulatory actions.