Accretive Terms of Service
Last Updated October 01, 2011
This Terms of Service Agreement sets out the terms and conditions that apply to your access and use of the Internet website located on this website (the “Accretive website” or “website”) and all other websites which are owned and operated by Accretive 360 Inc., and its affiliated companies, including but not limited to Advisor Impact Inc., (collectively, "Accretive"). This is a legal Agreement between you and Accretive. By using this Accretive website, you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Agreement. If you do not agree to be bound by this Agreement, do not use the site or the services provided by Accretive through the website.
Accretive may revise this Agreement from time to time and notice of any such updates will be posted on the website. It is your obligation to review the website regularly to be aware of any updates. By continuing to use the website, you will be deemed to have agreed to be bound by all posted updates. You should also review Accretive’s Privacy Policy so that you understand how your privacy is protected. By agreeing to these Terms of Service, you are also agreeing to be bound by the terms of Accretive's Privacy Policy.
Description of Accretive Services
Accretive provides a variety of tools and services (referred to herein collectively as the "Services") which are intended to assist investors who are registered with Accretive ("Investors") to find, evaluate, and effectively partner with professional financial advisors who are also registered with Accretive ("Advisors"). Consistent with Accretive's mission of helping Investors to become more informed and helping advisors develop their practices, this website contains relevant educational content developed by Accretive, some of our clients and/or other content providers. This content is provided strictly for informational purposes. The Accretive Services are not intended to provide or replace financial, legal or tax advice that web users, including investors, may otherwise obtain, and you are encouraged to retain and consult your own professional advisors, as needed.
Description of the Accretive Elite Advisor Program
Among the Services provided by Accretive is its Accretive Elite Advisor Program. The Accretive Elite Advisor Program is an objective program that evaluates, distinguishes and promotes the best financial advisors for investors. The Program recognizes those advisors who have applied for registration and have met certain standardized criteria for determining practice discipline and client satisfaction. Accretive seeks to identify and recognize the best financial advisors in the industry – the elite who qualify for and uphold the highest standard of service. In order to be registered under the Accretive Elite Advisor Program, an Advisor must be nominated by two individuals with industry experience (from a list of approved categories) and then must satisfy a rigorous set of industry qualifications and standards. Recognition on our website as an Elite Advisor provides confirmation that these standards have been met and independently verified. In short, we validate the distinction of those who deserve it, while enhancing Investors’ overall confidence in the Advisors they choose. Accretive does not independently test or determine the abilities of an Advisor. Rather, through the Elite Advisor nomination and application process, Accretive verifies the qualifications and standards which an Advisor has met. Once a determination has been made and an Advisor has qualified, that qualification will be subsequently subject to review on an annual basis or when material changes to that Advisor's status occur.
Description of the Client Audit Program
Among the Services provided by Accretive (through its affiliated subsidiary, Advisor Impact), is its Client Audit Program, which helps Advisors by gathering ongoing feedback through surveying of clients, including the ability to choose the questions you would like to include from a defined question bank, programming of your survey, development of client invitations and analysis of client data, archiving of reports, and trending analysis (if applicable). Accretive does not warrant the accuracy of any information which is obtained through the surveying nor its suitability for any specific purpose other than the stated objectives of the Client Audit Program.
The Accretive Promise
Accretive will not accept or charge any fee for referral from any Advisor, participating financial services firm or member of the public and Accretive will always maintain impartiality among its client firms, Investors and Advisors.
Access to Site
You must be at least 18 years old to register for Accretive Services and to access our websites. By using this website or any of the Accretive Services, you represent and warrant to us that you are at least 18 years old.
Use of the Site(s) and the Accretive Services
As a user of the website(s), you are deemed to have agreed to the following:
The website(s) are operated and managed in Canada. The Services offered through this website may be offered by Accretive in Canada as well as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, however, information received by Accretive will be stored and protected in Canada. We recognize that users outside of Canada may access this website, however, it is subject to the laws of Canada in addition to the laws of the jurisdiction in which the user resides. Investors and advisors may only use the website in a manner consistent with those laws as well as any applicable laws and/or regulations of the jurisdiction in which they reside.
You are solely responsible for and assume all liability regarding the information and content you provide to the website, the content you post or publish or otherwise make available and your interactions with other users of the website.
You assume all risk when using Accretive Services, including but not limited to all of the risks associated with any online or offline interactions or transactions. You acknowledge and understand that Accretive is not able to guarantee and makes no representation as to the accuracy of information provided to you by other users, whether Investors or Advisors, and that Accretive is not able to confirm that any user is in fact who he or she claims to be. You understand that Accretive makes no representations, warranties or conditions, whether express or implied, regarding the ultimate relationship between investors and financial advisors. Accretive assumes no liability whatsoever in respect of an Investor's choice to retain an Advisor registered with Accretive. Similarly, Accretive assumes no liability in respect of the information which an Investor may provide to an Advisor, and vice versa. You further understand that Accretive makes no representations, warranties or covenants, whether express or implied, about the number or frequency of investor/advisor matches made through any of the Accretive Services.
You acknowledge the scope of Elite Advisor status. If you are an Investor, you understand that Accretive is not expressly endorsing any advisor with the Elite Advisor status but rather distinguishing them based on a set of qualification requirements which have been verified. You further understand that advisors with the Accretive Elite Advisor status met the qualification requirements at the time of evaluation, which is done on an annual basis, and Accretive makes no representation or warranty as to the continued accuracy of any such information and can give no assurance that such information remains accurate until the next annual evaluation is conducted.
You are responsible for your Profile content. You will not provide inaccurate, misleading or false information to the Accretive website or to any other user of this website. You are permitted to have only one active Profile and the Profile you create must be unique, accurate and created solely for the purposes of the Accretive Services. Failure to comply may result in the revocation of your access to this website. If information that you have provided to Accretive or another user changes and becomes inaccurate, misleading or false, you will promptly correct this information to reflect the changes.
You consent to the monitoring of your Profile content. Accretive may monitor the information or material you submit to the website or post in any public areas of the website. Accretive reserves the right to remove any information or material that in its sole discretion violates or may violate any law, regulation, standard of quality, or professionalism or the mission of the website. Accretive may also choose to remove any content at the request of a third party. If you are a financial advisor, you understand that your firm must approve all of the information in your Profile before it will be made visible to the public on this website.
You acknowledge some information is sensitive. Some of the optional questions that Accretive asks you as part of the registration for Accretive Services or in the creation of your Profile and/or in the use of other tools and services may be considered sensitive in nature (for example, your investable assets). Disclosure of this information is not mandatory but has been determined by Accretive to have relevance to the effectiveness of those tools and services. By providing this optional information to Accretive, you agree that the asking of these questions is not a violation of your rights, that you are providing this information voluntarily and that you waive any rights under any applicable legislation. The use of any information you provide to the website, including sensitive information, is subject to, and explained in detail in, Accretive’s Privacy Policy.
You acknowledge the terms on which information may be disclosed. While an Investor's profile containing personal information is not publicly viewable on our website, if an investor contacts an Advisor who has registered with Accretive, the Investor must decide whether he/she wants to give that Advisor his/her personal contact information. If a connection is accepted, an Investor's personal information may then be accessed by that Advisor only, however, if a connection is declined that Advisor cannot contact you or access any information about you through Accretive. The terms governing contact by Advisors and access to information are set out in detail in the Privacy Policy of Accretive.
You are not permitted advertising or commercial solicitation other than the publication of your Profile within the scope of the Accretive Services. Whether you are an Investor or an Advisor, you will not advertise or solicit any user to buy or sell any products or services through the website. You may not transmit any chain letters, junk or spam email to others through this website or any other Accretive program or service. Further, you will not use any information obtained from this website in order to contact, advertise, solicit or sell to any user without their prior explicit consent. If you breach the terms of this section and send or post unsolicited communications of any kind, your right of access to our website may be revoked and you acknowledge and accept that you will have caused substantial harm to Accretive.
Use of Content
Accretive authorizes you to view and download the material on this website solely for your own personal use. However, if you are a participating Advisor, we invite you to share the material with your clients or prospective clients.
The contents of this website, such as text, graphics, images, logos, button icons, software and other material, its collection and arrangement (the “Content”) are protected under both Canadian and foreign copyright, trademark and other laws protecting intellectual property rights. All of the Content is the property of Accretive or its Content suppliers or clients. Unauthorized use of the Content may violate copyright, trademark, and other laws. You must retain all copyright, trademark, service mark and other proprietary notices contained in the original Content on any copy you make of the Content. You may not sell or modify the Content or reproduce, display, publicly perform, distribute, or otherwise use the Content in any way for any public or commercial purpose except as specifically authorized by these Terms of Service. You shall not copy or adapt the HTML code that Accretive creates to generate its pages. The code is protected by Accretive's copyright.
Rights You Grant Accretive
By submitting a Profile, information, data, passwords, usernames, PINs, other log-in information, and other content to Accretive in conjunction with the Accretive Services you are licensing that content to Accretive solely for purpose of providing the Accretive Services. Accretive may use and store the Content in order to provide these Services to you. By submitting this Content to Accretive, you represent that you are entitled to submit it to Accretive for use for this purpose. In addition to the terms set out in Accretive's Privacy Policy , you understand and agree that Accretive may disclose to third parties certain aggregate data that may include some of your Profile information. This will always be disclosed on an anonymous basis and will not include contact information or other personal login information. Accretive will not disclose to any third party your name or contact information without your consent except to the extent necessary to comply with or as permitted under applicable laws or legal proceedings. Accretive reserves the right to offer third party services and products to you based on some of the information you provide us. These offers may be made by Accretive or by third parties. The Accretive Privacy Policy explains this in more detail.
Accretive's Liability
Accretive acts as a service for Investors to understand their financial requirements and for Advisors to profile their areas of personal experience and professional expertise. This website uses matching algorithms to provide the Accretive Services. Other than its role as website host, Accretive is not involved in and assumes no responsibility for the ultimate transactions or the communications between Investors and Advisors. Accretive is not a financial advisor, financial planner, tax advisor or a provider of any form of financial advice. The Accretive Services are not intended to provide financial, legal or tax advice, and Accretive is not responsible for any advice or other communication provided to an Investor by any Advisor. The Services are intended only to assist in enhancing the relationship between Investors registered with Accretive and licensed professionals who are Advisors registered with Accretive. As a result, Accretive has no control over the quality, the suitability or the profitability of any transactions and make no representations or warranties as to the suitability of any particular Advisor for a specific Investor.
In no event shall Accretive, its suppliers, subcontractors or any third parties mentioned on any Accretive site be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, incidental and consequential damages, lost profits, or damages resulting from lost data) resulting from the use or inability to use any Accretive site and the Accretive Content, whether based on warranty, contract, tort or any other legal theory and whether or not Accretive is advised of the possibility of such damages.
Links to Third Party Websites
Some parts of this website may be supported by sponsored links from advertisers, clients, and other content providers and may display products that are of general interest to our users or may be custom matched to you based on your information. The Accretive Privacy Policy explains how this information is collected and stored and in using such links you are obliged to comply with the terms of that Privacy Policy, as well as these Terms of Service.
Accretive assumes no responsibility for and makes no representation as to the accuracy or completeness of any information contained in any third party sponsored links. Accretive does not endorse, warrant or guarantee the products or services available through third parties, whether or not sponsored, and Accretive is not an agent or broker or otherwise responsible for the activities or policies of those websites.
Limitation of Liability
The aggregate liability for Accretive to you for all claims arising from the use of the website or Accretive Services shall not exceed the price paid by you for your Account, or if you have not paid Accretive for the use of any Services, the amount of $25(CAD) or its equivalent.
Indemnity
By using any Accretive Services or this website, you agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Accretive, their affiliates, respective officers, directors, employees and agents, from and against any claims, actions or demands, including without limitation reasonable legal and accounting fees, alleging or resulting from your use of the website or its Content or your breach, intentional or otherwise, of these Terms of Service. Accretive shall provide notice to you of any such claim, suit or proceeding and may assist you, at your expense in defending any such claim, suit or proceeding.
Warranties
The Content, the Accretive Services and all other services and products associated with this website or provided through the Services whether or not sponsored are provided to you on an “as-is” and “as available” basis. Accretive makes no representation or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the Content or operation of this website or of the Services. You expressly agree that your use of the website is at your sole risk.
Any delay or failure by Accretive in providing the Services described herein shall not be a breach of its obligations to a user if such delay or failure is due to circumstances beyond the reasonable control of Accretive.
Accretive makes no representations, warranties or guarantees, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, reliability or completeness of the Content on this website or of the Accretive Services, whether or not sponsored, and expressly disclaims any warranties of non-infringement or fitness for a particular purpose. Accretive makes no representation, warranty or guarantee for the delivery of any messages or the posting of information. Accretive does not have any obligation to verify the identity of the Investors subscribing to its Services, nor does it have any obligation to monitor the use of its Services by other users of the community; therefore, Accretive disclaims all liability for identity theft or any other misuse of your identity or information. Accretive does not guarantee that the Services it provides will function without interruption or errors in function. In particular, the operation of the services may be interrupted due to maintenance, updates, or system or network failures. Accretive disclaims all liability for damages caused by any such interruption or errors in functioning.
If you are dissatisfied by Accretive or anything related to this website or the Services, you may close your Account and terminate this Agreement and such termination shall be your sole and exclusive remedy.
Communication and Privacy
We may use your email address to send you messages notifying you of important changes to any Accretive Services or special offers. Further, we may contact you in order to communicate with you regarding the Services.
To Unsubscribe
In order for Accretive to effectively provide its Services, we will need to communicate with you from time to time, including by email. If, at any time, you do not wish to receive any further communications, including email messages, from Accretive, you may elect to unsubscribe, opt out or cancel the Services. Please refer to our Privacy Policy to review your options for opting out where applicable.
Term and Termination
For users who are registered with us as Investors: You may cancel your registration or subscription to Accretive Services at any time during the term of such registration or any renewal period by closing your Account through your Account Settings page and clicking on the “Close my Account” link on the top of the page. In such case, your notice of cancellation will be effective upon Accretive processing your notice.
For users who are registered with us as Financial Advisors: You may cancel your registration at any time without any penalty or obligation. If you cancel your subscription at any point prior to the end of your subscription period, you will not receive any refund for any unused days of your subscription term. To cancel your subscription, access the Account Settings page and click on the “Close my Account” link or communicate your intention to terminate your Account to your employer’s designated Accretive administrator. Accretive may cancel your subscription at any time, for any reason, including but not limited to the failure to pay the subscription fee. Any other person or entity, including your employer, who is responsible for the payment of your subscription fee, may also terminate your Account at any time. In all cases, your notice of cancellation will be effective upon Accretive processing your notice.
For all users generally: Accretive shall have the right to immediately restrict, suspend or terminate the Account of any user or access to our website in the event that a user fails to comply with these Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy of Accretive or otherwise abuses or misuses the website or the Accretive Advisor services. You will be notified of such action by email or any other medium of communication, however, Accretive reserves the right to immediately suspend or terminate access to any Account or to our website without prior notice where it deems such action as necessary to protect the rights of other users or to comply with applicable laws. Misuse of the services includes a breach by you of these Terms of Service, creating multiple or false Profiles, using the website commercially contrary to these Terms of Service, infringing any intellectual property rights, any action that may affect the operation or functionality of the website, or any other behavior that Accretive, at its sole discretion, deems contrary to the purpose of this website.
Renewals
In order to provide continuous service, Accretive automatically renews all paid subscriptions before such subscriptions expire. The renewal periods are for the same duration as the original subscription term. By entering into this Agreement, you acknowledge that your Account will be subject to automatic renewals unless you take the steps outlined above to cancel or close your Account. It is your obligation to ensure that automatic renewal payments are made, and any failure or refusal to do so does not mitigate your obligation to pay for Services that are provided upon automatic renewal.
General Provisions
Severability. If any provision of these Terms of Service is found by a court of competent jurisdiction or arbitrator to be invalid or unenforceable, the unenforceable provision will be modified so as to render it enforceable and effective in order to effect the intention of the provision. Any provision found to be unenforceable shall not affect the validity, legality or enforceability of the remaining provisions in any way.
Language. Where Accretive has provided you with a translation of the English language version of these Terms of Service, the Privacy Policy, and or other documentation, you agree that the translation is provided for your convenience only and that the English language versions of this Agreement, the Privacy Policy and any other documentation will govern your relationship with Accretive.
Governing Law. The agreement constituted by your acceptance of these Terms of Service is governed by the provincial laws of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada where each are applicable.
Contact Us
You may contact Accretive at Accretive 360 Inc., Suite 212, 1540 Cornwall Road, Oakville, Ontario, Canada, L6J 7W5 or by email at legal@accretiveadvisor.com.