This Terms of Service (this “Agreement”) is made by and between HighTower Holding, LLC, an Illinois based corporation (“HighTower”), and the consumer customer of this web site (“Consumer”). This Agreement sets forth the general terms and conditions of Consumer’s access to and use of this web site (the “Service”). By clicking “I Accept” on the Consumer Site (as defined below), Consumer agrees to all of the terms and conditions of this Agreement.
Consumer acknowledges that, as the Service changes, Consumer may be required to agree to additional terms and conditions as a condition to continued use of the Service. Consumer further acknowledges that HighTower may change the terms and conditions applicable to use of the Service, but HighTower will obtain Consumer’s agreement to such changed terms and conditions by presenting a revised Terms of Service to Consumer for acceptance. If Consumer refuses to accept the revised Terms of Service, HighTower has the right to immediately terminate Consumer’s access to and use of the Service.

Privilege to Access and Use the Service

During the term of and subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, Consumer may access and use those aspects of the Service intended for access and use by consumers (the “Consumer Site”). Consumer shall not: (1) access or use any aspect of the Service other than the Consumer Site; (2) access or use the Service for any purposes other than personal use; or (3) access or use the Service in any unlawful manner or in violation of this Agreement.

Consumer understands, acknowledges and agrees that:

• The financial advisor of HighTower (the “Advisor”) has authorized Consumer to access and use the Consumer Site. The Advisor or HighTower may at any time, in their respective sole discretion, terminate such authorization and Consumer’s continued use of the Service.
• The Consumer Site is provided solely as a convenience to Consumer.
• Neither the Consumer Site nor HighTower’s technology vendor, who has developed this Consumer Site for use by the Consumer (“Technology Vendor”), provide any advice, an offer to sell and/or a solicitation of an offer to purchase any security, investment product or service.
• HighTower’s Technology Vendor is not responsible for and shall not be held liable for any advice given or recommendations made by the Advisor with respect to any financial, insurance, planning or other matter, regardless of whether Consumer relied on such advice or the Service.
• HighTower does not guarantee or warrant that any part of the Service is free of viruses or other harmful code. Consumer must take appropriate precautions, such as use of an anti-virus software package, to protect his or her computer hardware and software.
• Consumer is responsible for obtaining his or her own hardware, software and services (such as computers, web browsers and Internet access service) necessary to access and use the Service and for payment of all fees involved in obtaining such hardware, software and services.
• Consumer shall be solely responsible for safeguarding his or her login credentials such as User Name and Password. Consumer must immediately notify the Advisor if his or her login credentials are compromised. Neither HighTower nor its Technology Vendor shall have any liability for any loss, claim, or other damages that result from unauthorized use of Consumer’s log on credentials, due to negligence or willful misconduct on the part of the Consumer.

Account Aggregation Service (referred to as "Connections")

The Service currently provides an account aggregation function called “Connections” that allows Consumer to view, in a single location on the Consumer Site, consolidated financial information from such accounts that Consumer maintains at various financial institutions as Consumer may designate from time to time (“Outside Accounts”).

To use the account aggregate function, Consumer understands and agrees that:

• The function is not available for all types of accounts and/or for all financial institutions.
• Financial institutions change their web sites from time to time. As a result an Outside Account that was available may cease to be available to the Service. Neither HighTower nor its Technology Vendor have any control over this situation and have no obligation to restore the availability of the Outside Account on the Consumer Site.
• Consumer is responsible for designating the Outside Account information which Consumer desires to aggregate.
• For each available Outside Account that Consumer desires to aggregate on the Consumer Site, the Consumer must enter the necessary login credentials (such as their username and password), to permit access to the Outside Account. Consumer will provide this information through such function and process as our technology vendors may determine from time to time.
• The account aggregation function will access the web site maintained by each third-party financial institution for each Outside Account designated for aggregation in order to retrieve and store the account information within the Outside Account.
• Consumer grants HighTower and its Technology Vendor authority, with respect to each Outside Account designated for aggregation, permission to: (1) utilize Connections to access any such Outside Account, for which the Consumer’s login credentials are entered and authenticated; (2) retrieve the account information contained within the Outside Account; and (3) store the account information in order to retrieve and display such information, for the Consumer and the Advisor.
• For each Outside Account designated for aggregation, Consumer represents and warrants that (1) Consumer is the legal owner of the account; (2) Consumer has the right to disclose his or her login credentials for such Outside Account; and (3) Consumer has the right to grant the foregoing authorization.
• Neither HighTower nor its Technology Vendor are responsible for any acts, errors, or omissions by the financial institutions at which Consumer maintains an Outside Account, or for the accuracy of the information provided by such institutions.
• HighTower may terminate the account aggregation function at any time without notice to Consumer.

The Vault

The Service currently provides a service known as the Vault which allows Consumer to store and retrieve documents on the Consumer Site. To add a document to the Vault, Consumer must provide a copy of the document to the Advisor if that document is to be added to a folder contained in the Vault other than a private folder to which the Consumer may have access. The Advisor is responsible for uploading the document to the Vault and organizing Consumer’s documents in the Vault into separate electronic “folders.” Consumer understands and agrees that Consumer will have “view only” access to materials in the Vault that the Advisor has added and that any addition, deletion, modification or organization of Consumer’s documents in the Vault must be processed through the Advisor.

Consumer understands and agrees that:

• For each document stored in the Vault, Consumer represents and warrants that Consumer lawfully possesses such document and has the authority to have the document uploaded, stored and made retrievable to and from the Vault.
• Consumer is solely responsible for the content of any document that Consumer provides for inclusion in the Vault. Consumer agrees not to use the Vault to store any document or information that is unlawful, offensive, indecent, or otherwise actionable by any third party.
• Neither HighTower nor its Technology Vendor is responsible for any use or dissemination of Consumer’s documents by any third parties to whom Consumer or the Advisor grants authorization to view his or her documents.
• The document storage function is provided to Consumer as a convenience and may be terminated at any time.
• The documents retained in the document storage service should not be Consumer’s sole copy of such documents.
• Consumer is responsible for retaining originals of the documents he or she chooses to store in the Vault.

Alliance Partners

In addition to the user roles of Advisor and Consumer, the Service also provides a user role that allows other service providers to Consumer, such as Consumer’s banker, accountant or attorney (known as "Alliance Partners"), to access and view all of the information stored by the Service in relation to Consumer. For example, the Alliance Partner role allows Consumer to direct the Advisor to permit Consumer’s family lawyer access to Consumer’s information in the Service to assist with estate planning and other needs.

Consumer understands and agrees that:

• Alliance Partner usage is arranged solely through the Advisor including the creation and assignment of the Alliance Partner’s login credentials. Therefore, it is the responsibility of Consumer and the Advisor to determine whether and for how long to allow any Alliance Partner to access Consumer’s information.
• Unless and until the Advisor revokes the access privileges of an Alliance Partner, Consumer hereby consents to allowing such Alliance Partner to access and view any and all of Consumer’s information stored in the Service.
• Neither HighTower nor its Technology Vendor shall be liable for any act or omission on the part of the Advisor in relation to Alliance Partners or any act or omission of the Alliance Partner.
• The Alliance Partner function is provided to Consumer as a convenience and may be terminated at any time.

Other Terms and Conditions

Consumer may terminate use of the Service at any time by contacting the Advisor. Once Consumer has terminated use of the Service, Consumer will have no further access to the Services and all documents retained in the document storage service will be deleted.
HighTower may modify or discontinue offering the Services at any time, with or without notice, for any reason or no reason.
The Service may provide links to web sites and include embedded videos that are not operated or hosted by HighTower or its Technology Vendor. HighTower provides these links and/or videos for Consumer’s convenience and may be removed at any time. HighTower does not investigate the quality, accuracy or completeness of any content on third party web sites. Consumer acknowledges and agrees that HighTower is not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products or other materials on or available from third party web sites or embedded videos. Consumer is responsible for familiarizing his or herself with the content of such third party websites and /or embedded videos, including the applicable privacy policies related thereto. For more information on HighTower privacy policies, please see the HighTower Privacy Policy.
THE SERVICE IS FURNISHED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AVAILABILITY OF ALL OR ANY PART OF THE SERVICE, AND FREEDOM FROM ERRORS, VIRUSES, BUGS OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS.

HighTower SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF THE SAME.

IF THE FOREGOING DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY IS HELD TO BE UNENFORCEABLE, CONSUMER AGREES THAT HIGHTOWER’S LIABILITY TO CONSUMER, WHETHER IN TORT, CONTRACT OR OTHERWISE, FOR ALL CAUSES SHALL NOT EXCEED IN AGGREGATE OF $500.

If any clause or provision set forth in this Agreement is determined to be illegal, invalid or unenforceable under present or future law, then the clause or provision so determined to be illegal, invalid or unenforceable shall be severable without affecting the enforceability of all remaining clauses or provisions.

This Agreement and Consumer’s access to and use of the Service shall be governed by the laws of the United States of America and the State of Illinois applicable to contracts entered into by residents of Illinois and wholly performed in Illinois . The state courts with jurisdiction over Cook County, Illinois shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any and all claims, disputes or other controversies relating to or arising from this Agreement or Consumer’s access to or use of the Services. Consumer hereby expressly consents to the exercise of jurisdiction over Consumer by such courts. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, each party to this Agreement waives its or his right to a jury trial with respect to any action brought under or in connection with this Agreement. The headings used in these Terms of Service are for convenience only and such headings are not to be used in determining the meaning or interpretation of these terms of use. This Agreement, together with any other terms, conditions and agreements that may be entered into by Consumer and HighTower in connection with the Service constitute the entire agreement between Consumer and HighTower and supersedes any and all other agreements, representations and understandings, whether written or oral, in connection with the Service. This Agreement may not be modified or amended by Consumer without the prior written consent of HighTower.