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Escrow is a legal arrangement in which an asset (often money, but sometimes other property such as art, a deed of title, website, or software source code) is delivered to a third party (called an escrow agent) to be held in trust pending a contingency or the fulfillment of a condition or conditions in a contract such as payment of a purchase price. Upon that event occurring, the escrow agent will deliver the asset to the proper recipient, otherwise the escrow agent is bound by his or her fiduciary duty to maintain the escrow account. Image File history File links Wikitext. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Key escrow is an arrangement in which the keys needed to decrypt encrypted data are held in escrow by a third party, so that someone else (typically government agencies) can obtain them to decrypt messages which they suspect to be relevant to national security. ... For other uses, see Money (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... This article is about the philosophical concept of Art. ... An English deed written on fine parchment or vellum with seal tag dated 1638. ... Title is a legal term for an owners interest in a piece of property. ... A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos and other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... Source code (commonly just source or code) is any series of statements written in some human-readable computer programming language. ... Agency is an area of commercial law dealing with a contractual or quasi-contractual tripartite set of relationships when an Agent is authorized to act on behalf of another <No it is not. ... This law-related article does not cite its references or sources. ... A contract is a legally binding exchange of promises or agreement between parties that the law will enforce. ... The court of chancery, which governed fiduciary relations prior to the Judicature Acts The fiduciary duty is a legal relationship between two or more parties, most commonly a fiduciary or trustee and a principal or beneficiary, that in English common law is arguably the most important concept within the portion...

Not all escrow agreements impose the duties of a legal trustee on the escrow agent, and, in fact, in many such agreements, escrow agents are held to a mere gross negligence standard and benefit from indemnity and hold harmless provisions. Manufacturers are reponsible for adequately warning consumers of possibly dangerous products. ... Look up Indemnity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Indemnification is a promise, usually as a contract provision, protecting one party from financial loss. ...

While escrow is best known in the United States in the context of real estate (specifically in mortgages where the mortgage company establishes an escrow account to pay property tax and insurance during the term of the mortgage), escrow companies are also commonly used in the transfer of high value personal and business property, like websites and businesses, and in the completion of person-to-person remote auctions (such as eBay).. Introduction A mortgage is a device used to create a lien on real estate by contract. ... A website, Web site or WWW site (often shortened to just site) is a collection of webpages, that is, HTML/XHTML documents accessible via HTTP on the Internet; all publicly accessible websites in existence comprise the World Wide Web. ... This article is about the online auction center. ...

Escrow is also known in the judicial context. So-called escrow funds are commonly used to distribute money from a cash settlement in a class action or environmental enforcement action. This way the defendant is not responsible for distribution of judgment monies to the individual plaintiffs or the court-determined use (such as environmental remediation or mitigation). The defendant pays the total amount of the judgment (or settlement) to the court-administered or appointed escrow fund, and the fund distributes the money (often reimbursing its expenses from the judgment funds). In law, a class action is an equitable procedural device used in litigation for determining the rights of and remedies, if any, for large numbers of people whose cases involve common questions of law and fact. ... Generally, remediation means giving a remedy. ... Mitigation consists of the activities designed to reduce or eliminate risks to persons or property or to lessen the actual or potential effects or consequences of an incident. ...

In some jurisdictions, real estate brokers are considered to act as escrow agents when they accept deposits or earnest money for the purchase of real property. In many jurisdictions, the duties of such agents are codified. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A real estate broker is a party who acts as an intermediary between sellers and buyers of real estate and attempts to find sellers who wish to sell and buyers who wish to buy. ... Earnest money is a deposit attached to an offer to purchase real estate. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... In law, codification is the process of collecting and restating the law of a jurisdiction in certain areas, usually by subject. ...

Source code escrow agents hold source code of software in escrow just as other escrow companies hold cash. The highly valuable (and often secret) source code is only released by the agent to either party upon specific terms of the escrow agreement (such as failure to maintain the application, transfer of ownership of the intellectual property rights, or the liquidation of the owner of the source code). Source code escrow means deposit of the source code of the software into an account held by a third party escrow agent. ... Source code (commonly just source or code) is any series of statements written in some human-readable computer programming language. ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ...

Escrow is also used in the field of automated banking and vending equipment. One example is automated teller machines (ATMs), and is the function which allows the machine to hold the money deposited by the customer separately, and in case he or she challenges the counting result, the money is returned. Another example is a vending machine, where the customer's money is held in a separate escrow area pending successful completion of the transaction. If a problem occurs and the customer presses the refund button, the coins are returned from escrow; if no problem occurs, they fall into the coin vault.

Types of escrow services

The workflow of escrow services may vary according to the nature of specific industry. For instance, in electronic components industry, according to Hong Kong Inventory Limited, the escrow services are sub-divided by two types: normal Escrow Service and Escrow Service with Inspection (Escrow/i). The latter consists of a pre-shipment inspection process which has to be carried out before sending the goods to buyers. This is important in electronic components trading since there is not any unified naming system in electronic components. Dispute always come from the difference in understanding with respect to a specific part number.

Escrow/i services are subdivided into two different levels. The standard Escrow/i service includes a visual inspection, known as Inspection Level 1. Inspection Level 2 involves intermediate physical inspection, including visual inspection along with decapsulation, radiography and solderability.

See also

• Closing
• Escrow instructions
• Power of attorney
• Real estate
• Stewardship

Closing (or settlement as it known in some parts of the US) is the final step in executing a real estate transaction. ... Escrow instructions are written documents, signed by the parties giving them, which direct the escrow officer in the specific steps to be completed so the escrow can be closed. ... A power of attorney or letter of attorney in common law systems or mandate in civil law systems is an authorization to act on someone elses behalf in a legal or business matter. ... Real estate is a legal term that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings. ... Look up stewardship in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

External links

• Mortgage escrow description with tips and scams
• Escrow Process Elements & Tips

Look up escrow in
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