问题：
List the Basic Features of a Corporate Bond Issue
答案：
The essential features of a corporate bond are relatively simple. The corporate issuer promises to pay a specified percentage of par values (known as the coupon payments) on designated dates, and to repay par or principal value of the bond at maturity. Failure to pay either principal or interest when due constitutes legal default, and court proceedings can be instituted to enforce the contract. Bondholders, as creditors, have a prior legal claim over common and preferred stockholders as to both income and assets of the corporation for the principal and interest. The promises of corporate bond issuers and the rights of investors who buy them are set forth in great detail in contracts called bond indentures. If bondholders were handed the complete indenture, they would have trouble in understanding its language, and even greater difficulty in determining at a particular time whether or not the corporate issuer were keeping all its promises. These problems are solved for the most part by bringing in a corporate trustee as a third part to the contract. The indenture is made out to the corporate trustee as a representative of the interests of bondholders; that is, the trustee acts in a fiduciary capacity for investors who own the bond issue. A corporate trustee is a bond or trust company with a corporate trust department and officers who are experts in performing the functions of a trustee. A bond’s indenture clearly outlines three important aspects; its maturity, its security, and its provisions for retirement.