Terms Used In South Carolina Code > Title 40 > Chapter 24 - Eye Care Consumer Protection

• Accident and health insurer: means a licensed life or health insurer or health service corporation whose insurance premiums and required statutory reserves for accident and health insurance are at least ninety-five percent of total premium consideration or total statutory required reserves, respectively. See South Carolina Code 38-12-30
• Admitted assets: means assets of an insurer considered admitted on the most recent statutory financial statement of the insurer filed with the department pursuant to § 38-13-80. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Affiliate: means , in respect to a person, another person that, directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries, controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with the person. See South Carolina Code 38-12-30
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• directly: when used in connection with an obligation, means that the designated obligor is primarily liable on the instrument representing the obligation. See South Carolina Code 38-12-30
• Director: means the person who is appointed by the Governor upon the advice and consent of the Senate and who is responsible for the operation and management of the department. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Domestic jurisdiction: means the United States, Canada, or a state, province, or political subdivision of them. See South Carolina Code 38-12-30
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• insurance: includes annuities. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Insurer: includes a corporation, fraternal organization, burial association, other association, partnership, society, order, individual, or aggregation of individuals engaging or proposing or attempting to engage as principals in any kind of insurance or surety business, including the exchanging of reciprocal or interinsurance contracts between individuals, partnerships, and corporations. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Investment affiliate: means a subsidiary of an insurer or a direct or indirect subsidiary of the insurer's parent company (parent) that is engaged or organized to engage exclusively in the ownership and management of assets authorized as investments for the insurer, if the affiliate agrees to limit its investment in any asset so that its investments will not cause the amount of the total investment of the insurer to exceed the investment limitations or avoid other provisions of this chapter applicable to the insurer. See South Carolina Code 38-12-30
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Limited liability company: means a business organization, excluding partnerships and ordinary business corporations, organized or operating pursuant to the laws of the United States or a state of the United States that limits the personal liability of investors to the equity investment of the investor in the business entity. See South Carolina Code 38-12-30
• Market value: means :
  
  (a) the amount of cash or a letter of credit; or
  
  (b) the price of a security or derivative instrument on any date obtained from a generally recognized source or the most recent quotation from the source or, to the extent no generally recognized source exists, the price for the security or derivative instrument as determined pursuant to the terms of the instrument or in good faith by the parties to a transaction, plus accrued but unpaid income on the security or derivative instrument to the extent that income is not included in the price as of the date that market value is determined. See South Carolina Code 38-12-30
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgage loan: A loan made by a lender to a borrower for the financing of real property. ^{Source: OCC}
• Mortgage loan: means an obligation secured by a mortgage, deed of trust, trust deed, or other consensual lien on real estate. See South Carolina Code 38-12-30
• NAIC: means the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. See South Carolina Code 38-12-30
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Obligation: means a bond, note, debenture, trust certificate including an equipment trust certificate, production payment, negotiable bank certificate of deposit, bankers' acceptance, asset-backed security, credit tenant loan, loan secured by financing a net lease or net leases, and other evidence of indebtedness for the payment of money, or participations, certificates, or other evidences of an interest in any of them, whether constituting a general obligation of the issuer or payable only out of certain revenues or certain funds pledged or otherwise dedicated for payment. See South Carolina Code 38-12-30
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: means an individual, a business entity, a multilateral development bank, or a government or quasi-governmental body, such as a political subdivision or a government sponsored enterprise. See South Carolina Code 38-12-30
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• real estate: includes the leasehold estate only if it has an unexpired term, including renewal options exercisable at the option of the lessee, extending beyond the scheduled maturity date of the obligation that is secured by a mortgage on the leasehold estate by a period equal to at least twenty percent of the original term of the obligation or ten years, whichever is greater. See South Carolina Code 38-12-30
• Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Residential mortgage loan: means a loan primarily secured by a mortgage on real estate improved with a one-to-four family residence. See South Carolina Code 38-12-30
• Secured location: means the contiguous real estate owned by one person. See South Carolina Code 38-12-30
• SVO: means the Securities Valuation Office of the NAIC or any successor office established by the NAIC. See South Carolina Code 38-12-30