Joint Account
A savings or checking account in the name of two or more people.

Joint Annuity
An annuity that is paid out to two or more people.

Joint Custody
When authorization is required by two or more people to undertake an action. For example, the customer and bank have joint custody of a safe deposit box. Opening a box requires authorization of the customer and a bank officer.

Joint Endorsement
A check requiring the endorsement of two or more signers.

Joint Return
A US income tax filing status that can be used by a married couple. The married couple must be married as of the last day of their tax year in order to qualify for this filing status. A married couple can also elect to file as married, filing separate returns.

Joint Tenancy
When two or more people inherit an estate, and each has equal interests. When one of the joint tenants dies, the estate passes automatically to the survivor or survivors.

Joint Tenants With Right of Survivorship
The usual arrangement between a married couple, in which each has the right to shared property, and the property passes to the other in the event that one dies.




 

Joint Venture
A business initiative undertaken by two different businesses, each working toward a common goal. Companies engage in joint ventures to pool their resources and help overcome the high cost of entering new markets.

Jointly and Severally
A legal term meaning that, when two or more people take out a loan together, all are liable. If they default, the lender can take legal action against all of them or specific individuals.

Journal Entry
A separate entry in the journal that is used to record a single transaction.

Junk Bond
A bond with a speculative credit rating of BB or lower. Such bonds offer investors higher yields than bonds of financially sound companies. Two agencies, Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investor Services, provide the rating systems for companies' credit.

Kaizen Budgeting 
A budgeting approach that projects costs on the basis of future improvements, rather than current practices and methods. The key point is that the budget cannot be achieved unless improvements are made.

Kaizen Costing
Means "improvements in small steps" (i.e., continuous improvement). It was developed in Japan by Yashuhiro Monden. Kaizen Costing is applied to product that it already under production.

Keogh Plan
Retirement plan that allows you to set aside some of your wages or salary for retirement. Keogh plans are more complex to set up and to administer than SEP/IRA (Simplified Employee Pension Plan/individual retirement account) plans, but they may allow larger contributions.

Kiting
When used in the context of banking, refers to the practice of depositing and drawing checks at two or more banks and taking advantage of the time it takes for the second bank to collect funds from the first bank. Can also refer to illegally increasing the face value of a check by changing the printed amount of the check. When used in the context of securities, it refers to the manipulation and inflation of stock prices.
See check kiting.