Glossary

Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, passed in 2012, is intended to facilitate "emerging growth companies" (EGCs), defined as firms with $1 billion or less in annual revenues, to raise capital and conduct initial public offerings (IPOs). The key provision of the Act authorizes crowdfunding, which uses the Internet and related social media to offer and sell a company's stock to investors. The Act limits companies to raising money by these methods to (1) $1 million a year or (2) $2 million, if the company provides investors with audited financial statements. Opponents of the JOBS Act assert that it guts much-needed investor protections by legalizing what are essentially "boiler room" operations (i.e., operations that sell questionable investments by telephone, often using dishonest sales tactics, and at times committing outright fraud).

A jump process refers to pricing motivations underlying catastrophe (cat) bonds. Instead of a gradual supply of information slowly affecting a high-yield bond's pricing (Brownian motion), cat bond pricing is subject to large, sudden jumps, such as the appearance of a pending hurricane bearing down on property covered by the bond's reinsurance.

Jurisdiction is a term used to describe which courts have the power or authority to decide a particular matter. Jurisdiction might also pertain to the geographical subdivision with respect to which an individual insurance regulatory body (such as a state insurance department) has authority.

A jury waiver provision is a contractual provision by which one or both of the parties agree to waive the right to have a jury trial, replacing it with a bench trial as the default process to resolve disputes under the contract. Jury waiver provisions are frequently included in contracts because jury trials can be time-consuming and expensive. Furthermore, juries are perceived as more likely than judges to make extremely large damages awards.

Juvenile life insurance refers to life insurance on children.