Amancio Ortega, the Founding Chair of retail giant Inditex, the parent company of Zara, the largest global fashion retailer, is the wealthiest person in Spain and one of the wealthiest people in the world. Ortega built a retail empire as one of the earliest and most successful pioneers of fast fashion—a retail concept based on
What Is AM Best? AM Best is a credit rating agency focused exclusively on the worldwide insurance industry. AM Best assigns credit ratings that assess an insurance company’s creditworthiness, which refers to the likelihood the company will default on its obligations. Consumers, financial professionals, and investors all use AM Best’s credit ratings to help them
What Is an Amended Return? An amended return is a form filed in order to make corrections to a tax return from a previous year. An amended return can correct errors and claim a more advantageous tax status, such as a refund. For example, one might choose to file an amended return in instances of
What Is the American Agency System? The American agency system is a method of selling insurance policies. The system involves independent insurance agents who locate the best insurance policies for their customers and receive a commission for each policy they sell. The American agency system uses independent agents who sell policies from a wide variety
What is American Association Of Insurance Services (AAIS) The American Association of Insurance Services (AAIS) was founded in 1936 and develops insurance policy forms and loss experience rating information that property and casualty insurance companies use. AAIS provides information to more than 700 insurance companies of all sizes that helps them with policy development, actuarial analysis
What Is an American Callable Bond? An American callable bond, also known as continuously callable, is a bond that an issuer can redeem at any time prior to its maturity. Usually, a premium is paid to the bondholder when the bond is called. A callable bond is also called a redeemable bond since the issuer can redeem it
What Is the American Code for Information Interchange (ASCII)? The American Code for Information Interchange, commonly called ASCII, is a computer language for text that became the standard for transmitting information between computers in 1963. The ASCII system translates alphanumeric characters and symbols into a computer-readable code. The original ASCII was English-only. There are now
What Is the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI)? The American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) is an association of American life insurance providers. The ACLI is based in Washington D.C. but its members span the entire nation. The organization deals with legislation on all levels of government that pertains to the treatment of life
What Is the American Dream? The American dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society in which upward mobility is possible for everyone. The American dream is believed to be achieved through sacrifice, risk-taking
What Is an Alligator Spread? An alligator spread is a trading position that is destined to be unprofitable from the start because of the onerous fees and transaction costs associated with it. The term is often used in relation to the options market, where investors sometimes combine various put and call options to form complicated
