Intro B&H101 Under the Oak The Mom Chronicles Wall Street History Week in Review Glossary Financial Planning Understand Taxes   "BUYandHOLD" Tax FAQ   The 13 Steps to Investing Foolishly   Carlson on Taxes Past Questions Main Question: I was reading a newspaper article about dividends and I didn't understand some of the terms. Can you explain: declaration date, record date, ex-date and payable date? Answer: Good question! These various "dates" are all related to who receives stock dividends and when. If you think about them in their chronological order, they make more sense and are a bit easier to understand. First, there's the ... Declaration date: The date when a company's board of directors meet and announce the date and amount of the next dividend. Once they make this declaration, dividends become a legal liability of the firm. Next, comes the ... Record date: This date determines which shareholders officially own the stock and thus are eligible to receive the dividend announced on the declaration date. In other words, as of the official date of record, only stockholders listed as owners will receive the dividend that has been declared. This is followed by the ... Ex-dividend date: This term literally means "without a dividend." A stock purchased during the ex-dividend period will not pay a previously declared dividend to its new owner. You'll know when a stock is trading ex dividend because it has the symbol "x" next to its listing in the newspaper. Finally, there's the ... Payment date: The date on which the dividend is paid to stockholders of record. Good luck! Write in again.

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