Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A person or entity designated to hold bare legal title to property or shares for the benefit of another, often with limited authority to act on the owner's behalf.
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Noreen Nguyen owns shares in Neptune Energy through a brokerage firm that appears as record holder. She files a beneficial ownership certificate with the corporation under its established procedure. The corporation then treats Noreen as the record shareholder for purposes of receiving notices and voting at the annual meeting.
A trustee directs a custodian bank to register trust securities in the name of a nominee. Title passes by delivery without disclosure of the trust. The arrangement allows the trustee to retain full management authority over the assets.
A seller ships goods under a non-negotiable bill of lading made out to the seller's nominee. The nominee arrangement reserves possession of the goods as security for the seller. The buyer receives no security interest in the goods.
A bailor entrusts goods to a warehouse and later has the warehouse issue documents to the bailor's nominee. The warehouse lien remains effective against the nominee because the bailor had authority to procure the documents. The prior interest holder who acquiesced loses protection.
Goods are delivered to a bailee who issues a document of title in the name of the bailor's nominee. The nominee holds the document while the bailor retains the underlying interest. A later purchaser from the nominee obtains no greater rights than the nominee possessed.
A creditor conducts a foreclosure by appraisal and directs the appraiser to convey the property to the creditor's nominee. The nominee takes title solely to facilitate the transfer. The underlying economic interests remain with the creditor.
Under procedures established by the board, a beneficial owner may file a beneficial ownership certificate to be treated as the record shareholder for specified purposes. The procedure determines the scope of rights transferred and the corresponding loss of those rights by the record nominee.
…Senators go through a list of their constituents' most favored and most disfavored alleged constitutional rights, and seek the nominee's commitment to support or oppose them. Value judgments, after all, should be voted on, not dictated; and if our Constitution has somehow accidently committed them to the Supreme Court, at…