What Is a Surrender Fee? A surrender fee is a penalty charged to an investor for withdrawing funds from an insurance or annuity contract early or canceling the contract. Surrender fees act as an incentive for investors to maintain their contracts and reduce the frequency of early withdrawals. Investors may run into surrender fees for
What Is a Surrender Period? The surrender period is the amount of time an investor must wait until they can withdraw funds from an annuity without facing a penalty. Surrender periods can be many years long, and withdrawing money before the end of the surrender period can result in a surrender charge, which is essentially
What Is Suggestive Selling (Upselling)? Suggestive selling (also known as add-on selling or upselling) is a sales technique where an employee asks a customer if they would like to include an additional purchase or recommends a product which might suit the client. Suggestive selling is used to increase the purchase amount of the client and the
What Is a Suicide Pill? A suicide pill is an aggressive defensive strategy utilized by a target company to prevent attempts at a hostile takeover. The prey, as a last resort, engages in self-destructive measures to put off its suitor, favoring potential bankruptcy over the prospect of a merger occurring. A suicide pill can also be referred
What Is Suitable (Suitability)? Suitability refers to an ethical, enforceable standard regarding investments that financial professionals are held to when dealing with clients. Before making a recommendation, brokers, money managers, and other financial advisors have a duty to take steps that ensure the asset or product is suitable—that is, appropriate for—that investor’s goals, needs, and
What Is a Sukuk? A sukuk is an Islamic financial certificate, similar to a bond in Western finance, that complies with Islamic religious law commonly known as Sharia. Since the traditional Western interest-paying bond structure is not permissible, the issuer of a sukuk essentially sells an investor group a certificate, and then uses the proceeds
What Is Summa Cum Laude? Summa cum laude is an honorary title used by educational institutions to signify a degree that was earned “with the highest distinction.” Summa cum laude indicates the greatest distinction of three commonly used types of academic honors recognized in the United States, expressed in Latin. The other two are called magna cum laude
What Is a Summary Plan Description? A Summary Plan Description (SPD) is a document that employers must give free to employees who participate in Employee Retirement Income Security Act-covered retirement plans or health benefit plans. The SPD is a detailed guide to the benefits the program provides and how the plan works. It must describe when employees become
What Is the Sum-of-the-Parts Valuation – SOTP? The sum-of-the-parts valuation (SOTP) is a process of valuing a company by determining what its aggregate divisions would be worth if they were spun off or acquired by another company. The valuation provides a range of values for a company’s equity by aggregating the standalone value of each
What Is the Sum of Squares? The term sum of squares refers to a statistical technique used in regression analysis to determine the dispersion of data points. The sum of squares can be used to find the function that best fits by varying the least from the data. In a regression analysis, the goal is
