Escrow Agent
The otherwise unnamed protagonist of the 1970s TV show Agent of E.S.C.R.O.W. David Cassidy played the lead role. (Canceled after one season.)
The term also applies to a person involved in the escrow process.
You're buying antique salt shakers from your Aunt Millie. She lives across the country, so you can't pick up the salt shakers right away. But you don't want her to ship them, because you don't want to risk them getting broken. Meanwhile, Millie only works with cash. She doesn't use Paypal, doesn't trust your checks, won't touch a money order (don't get her started on banks), and certainly doesn't take credit cards. Only cash.
To untangle all the logistical problems, you use an ad hoc escrow system. You Paypal some money to your Cousin Arthur. Meanwhile, Aunt Millie lets him take the salt shakers for safe keeping. When everyone's satisfied, he drops off the cash to Aunt Millie. Next time you're in town, you stop by Cousin Arthur's house to pick up the salt shakers.
In this scenario, Cousin Arthur is the escrow agent. He acted as a third party (someone not involved in the transaction) who can hold an asset or property while the deal is being closed. Basically, it's someone everyone trusts to sit on valuable stuff while the deal is closing.
Escrow comes up a lot in real estate. When you're buying a house, you'll sign the deal. Then everything will sit in escrow for awhile. You make sure the house is up to snuff and all the legal mumbo-jumbo gets worked out. Meanwhile, you know the seller won't just skip town with the money, because they don't have it. It's in escrow, safely held by a trusted third party, our hero...David Cassidy, E.S.C.R.O.W. Agent.
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Finance: What is Escrow?7 Views
Finance a la shmoop what is escrow so leave it to the French they'll cook and [Man and woman cooking food]
eat anything horse hoof pig snout and yes finally snail but wait that's
different oh okay well escrow is a financial state
of being akin to the pearly gates where st. Peter is a you know checking you out [St Peter appears in the clouds]
there's a transaction a contract a whole bunch of signatures a commitment and
then a holding time our waiting period or cooling period will the transaction
be allowed through the gates or in Dante fashion will it be sent back to the pits
of hell to be renegotiated fixed or suffer eternal damnation yeah those are
the questions escrow is that special place where your dough hangs out until [Escrow definition appears on 100 dollar bill]
the grander powers that be decide whether or not that dough can be you
know shoveled along forward selling your home well it's likely the buyer first
puts their dough into an escrow account which only gets released to you once [money transfers into a piggy bank]
those pesky socialist termites have been eradicated by Clint Eastwood and if the
termites win well you won't be able to afford cooked snail any time soon and
we'll just put it that way so its escrow your money just kind of sits there until [Escrow piggy bank waiting at traffic lights]
gets a green light all the contracts are signed everything's good then the money
just wires into your bank account and then you can move on with life