Terms Used In Arizona Laws > Title 12 > Chapter 20 > Article 1 - General Provisions

• Action: includes any matter or proceeding in a court, civil or criminal. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• Annuity issuer: means an insurer that has issued a contract that is used to fund periodic payments under a structured settlement. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Dependents: includes a payee's spouse and minor children and all other family members and other persons for whom the payee is legally obligated to provide support, including alimony. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• Discounted present value: means the present value of future payments, as determined by discounting the payments to the present using the most recently published applicable federal rate for determining the present value of an annuity, as issued by the United States internal revenue service. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Gross advance amount: means the sum payable to the payee or for the payee's account as consideration for a transfer of structured settlement payment rights before any reductions for transfer expenses or other deductions to be made from the consideration. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Independent professional advice: means the advice of an attorney, certified public accountant, actuary or other licensed professional adviser. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• Interested parties: means , with respect to any structured settlement, the payee, any beneficiary irrevocably designated under the annuity contract to receive payments following the payee's death, the annuity issuer, the structured settlement obligor and any other party that has continuing rights or obligations under the structured settlement. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• 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.
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Minor: means a person under eighteen years of age. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Net advance amount: means the gross advance amount less the aggregate amount of the actual and estimated transfer expenses required to be disclosed under this chapter. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• 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.
• Payee: means an individual who receives tax-free damage payments under a structured settlement and who proposes to make a transfer of payment rights under the structured settlement. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• Periodic payments: includes both recurring payments and scheduled future lump sum payments. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• Person: includes a corporation, company, partnership, firm, association or society, as well as a natural person. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Qualified assignment agreement: means an agreement that provides for a qualified assignment within the meaning of section 130 of the internal revenue code as defined by section 42-1001. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• Responsible administrative authority: means , with respect to a structured settlement, any government authority that is vested by law with exclusive jurisdiction over the settled claim that is resolved by the structured settlement. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• Settled claim: means the original tort claim or workers' compensation claim that is resolved by a structured settlement. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Structured settlement: means an arrangement for periodic payment of damages for personal injuries or sickness that is established by settlement or judgment in resolution of a tort claim or for periodic payments in settlement of a workers' compensation claim. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• Structured settlement agreement: means the agreement, judgment, stipulation or release that embodies the terms of a structured settlement. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• Structured settlement obligor: means , with respect to any structured settlement, the party that has the continuing periodic payment obligation to the payee under a structured settlement agreement or a qualified assignment agreement. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• Structured settlement payment rights: means the right to receive periodic payments under a structured settlement, whether from the settlement obligor or the annuity issuer, if any of the following apply:

  (a) The payee, the structured settlement obligor, the annuity issuer or any other interested party is domiciled in this state. See Arizona Laws 12-2901

• Terms of the structured settlement: include , with respect to any structured settlement, the terms of the structured settlement agreement, the annuity contract, any qualified assignment agreement and any order or other approval of any court or responsible administrative authority or other government authority that authorized or approved the structured settlement. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• Transfer: means any sale, assignment, pledge, hypothecation or other form of alienation or encumbrance of structured settlement payment rights. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• Transfer agreement: means the agreement that provides for transfer of structured settlement payment rights from a payee to a transferee. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• Transfer expenses: means all expenses of a transfer required under the transfer agreement to be paid by the payee or deducted from the gross advance amount, including court filing fees, attorney fees, escrow fees, lien recordation fees, judgment and lien search fees, finders' fees, commissions and other payments to a broker or other intermediary. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• Transferee: means a party acquiring or proposing to acquire structured settlement payment rights through a transfer. See Arizona Laws 12-2901
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Writing: includes printing. See Arizona Laws 1-215