Beneficial owner is a legal term where specific property rights ("use and title") in equity belong to a person even though legal title of the property belongs to another person. Beneficial owner is subject to a state's statutory laws regulating interest or title transfer. This often relates where the legal title owner has implied trustee duties to the beneficial owner. A common example of a beneficial owner is the real or true owner of funds held by a nominee bank or for stocks held in the name of a brokerage firm.